Archive - Nov 2013 - Story

It is no secret that the bulk of "very rich people" in recent years has been created in Asia (where some $15 trillion in liquidity has entered broad circulation in just the past five years). As the FT reports, "Asia is producing more new wealth than any other part of the world at any point in history. Over the past five years, the assets of rich individuals have grown at triple the rate of the wealthy elsewhere, while the number of rich people has increased by twice that of other regions. Their number grew by almost 10 per cent to reach 3.7m last year, according to the survey, while their wealth expanded by 12 per cent to $12tn." However, to find the truly ultra-high-net-worthy (UHNW), those with over $30 million in net assets, one has to go to the US and Europe - the places where Ben's print baby print policy has most aggressively inflated the latest asset bubble, making the richest richester. "More people from the US and Europe entered this club in the past year than from anywhere else – the population in China and Brazil actually declined slightly." So how many ultra-high-net-worth individuals are there? The answer: 199,235.

Despite a ratings 'upgrade' Spain's youth unemployment rate has re-surged to a record 57.4% (just below that of Greece which still tops the scary chart list at 58%). Italy and Portugal also saw notable rises (despite the former's record low short-dated bond yields) at 41.2% and 36.5% respectively. Ireland and France saw modest improvements but overall the Euro-zone's youth unemployment just keeps rising. In spite of all the rhetoric from Merkel, Van Rompuy, and Barroso, 24.4% of Europe's under-25 population is unemployed...

Yesterday, it was fast-food workers explaining that a 100% minimum wage rise "would do just fine" and today it is Wal-Mart employees pressing for a 50% rise. As McClatchy reports, Wal-Mart employees plan to disrupt operations at 1,500 of the company's stores on Black Friday. "Wal-Mart raked in $15.7 billion in profits last year alone, but apparently they don't feel any need to share that wealth with their millions of workers," rages one union campaign organizer as they hope the protests will also put pressure on Congress to increase the minimum wage. The reality of raising the minimum wage remains lost on most who never stop to think of where the 'money' comes from. But the protest lines and "unprecedented" disruption is unlikely to encourage Wal-Mart executives to soften their stance.

China's escalation and re-escalation described in detail yesterday, has just been met with a corresponding re-re-escalation by Japan.

• China's Ministry of Defense reports that the nation identified Japanese military planes that entered into Chinese air defense identification zone today.
• 7 batches of 10 Japanese planes consisting of E-767, P-3 and F-15 entered into the zone
• China has also identified 2 batches of 2 U.S. surveillance planes consisting of P-3 and EP-3, without specifying whether the planes entered into the zone
• China scrambled Su-30, J-11 and other aircraft in response.

And now it's China's turn to, once again, respond. And then Japan and the US again, and so on, until someone gets hurt.

• So much for the euphoria: Stores open early on Thanksgiving but shoppers in no rush (Reuters)
• Get to work Mr. Chairwoman: Do-Nothing Congress Dithers on Budget as Deadline Nears (BBG)
• FX to Libor Probes Leave U.K. Traders Looking for Lawyers (BBG)
• Protesters Briefly Storm Thai Army Headquarters (WSJ)
• Berlusconi accused of bribing witnesses in prostitution trial (Reuters)
• Japan Price Gauge Rises Most Since ’98 in Boost to Abe (BBG)
• S&P downgrades Netherlands’ AAA credit rating (FT)
• GrainCorp Verdict Clouds Australia Open-For-Business Pledge (BBG)
• Hertz Fix in Dollar Thrifty Deal Fails as Insider Warned (BBG)
• Narrow Budget Agreement Comes Into View (WSJ)

A hungover America slowly wakes up from a day of society-mandated consumption and purchasing excess to engage in even more Fed-mandated excess in the equity markets. The only difference is that while the "90%" was engaged in the former and depleting their equity, and savings, accounts in the process, far less than 10% will be doing the latter. Overnight attention was drawn to the rapidly escalating territorial dispute between China and Japan, now in the air, Bitcoin's brief surge above the price of an ounce of gold, and the ejection of the Holland from the AAA Eurozone club (where only Germany and Finland remain), following an S&P downgrade of the Netherlands from AAA to AA+, which however had been largely priced in long ago (and was coupled with an upgrade of Spain from negative to stable outlook, as well as an upgrade of Spain from CCC+ to B-). Europe surprised pleasantly on both the inflation (better than expected) and unemployment rate (dropped from an all time high of 12.2% to 12.1%), even if youth unemployment rose to fresh record highs.

If October's stunning(ly low) inflation print of 0.7% is what conventional wisdom believes is the reason for the surprising ECB rate cut (it isn't - the culprit was the record low increase in private loan creation), then the just released modest increase in Eurozone November CPI, which was expected to print at 0.8%, instead rising just above that, or 0.9%, will likely mean less surprises out of the ECB in the future. Core CPI (excluding food, energy, alcohol and tobacco) rose 1.0%, following a 0.8% increase in October and 0.9% expected, while the biggest headline bounce was in energy prices which rose from -1.7% to -1.1%, if still rather negative. Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol & tobacco is expected to have the highest annual rate in November (1.6%, compared with 1.9% in October), followed by services (1.5%, compared with 1.2% in October), non-energy industrial goods (0.3%, stable compared with October) and energy (-1.1%, compared with -1.7% in October).

UPDATE: ... And then Bitcoin collapses 13% minutes later...

It seems the growing tensions in Asia (Japan-China sabre-rattling and Indian capital controls) have prompted more great rotation out of fiat and into digital currency as China/India markets open. For the first time ever, the price of one unit of Bitcoin exceeds the price of an ounce of gold...

Following the to-ing and fro-ing of the last 2 days with US and Japan "testing" China's new Air Defense Zone (ADIZ), China has not only escalated (as we noted earlier) but as the day begins in Asia is stepping up the rhetoric significantly. Official media said that Japan is the "prime target" and it is an "urgent task for China to further train its air force to make full preparation for potential conflicts." Japanese lawmakers, meanwhile, are pushing for a bill "demanding an immediate withdrawal of China's ADIZ." While the Western world goes on its merry way buying S&P futures, China's concluding message rings its most defint so far, "We are willing to engage in a protracted confrontation with Japan. Our ultimate goal is to beat its willpower and ambition to instigate strategic confrontation against China."

In Collins’s fictional world known as Panem, a despotic government rules over all with a violent iron fist. There is a strict separation between the political class and the rest of the populace, with the latter working in slave-like conditions to support the former. Throughout Catching Fire, the subject of revolution is paramount. Stories such as the Hunger Games are wonderful things because they spark what conservative statesman Edmund Burke called the “moral imagination.” Whether viewers know it or not, the basic plot of the Hunger Games series is an appeal to the moral imagination that men should be free from working as servants to others. We may not be living hand-to-mouth while being forced to labor for thuggish overlords but the modern trend is clear: the political class is consuming more and more wealth-generating capital for themselves.

When the US government said the sequester would cripple its ability to single-handedly rule over the world, it wasn't kidding. Either that, or Joe Biden's Joint Strategic Plan to "curb" copyright infringement was just a case of very confused humor by the vice president gone badly wrong, and he meant to "encourage." Whatever the reason, the fact that the Obama administration was just busted with a $50 million case of software piracy involving none other than the US Army, is indicative that while the Bureau of Labor Statistics was adopting all the best features of the Chinese Department of Truth, the US government was busy copycatting China's respectful approach toward intellectual property. Yet what is even worse, is that the software that was pirated managed the US army's troop and supply movements: in other words, the US government relied on pirated software to prepare for and engage in eventual war.

While moderate recovery in growth and inflation is BofAML's rates team's base case, there are numerous risks to that forecast. The risk of tapering is already quite well known and they suspect it may not result in the significant market-moving event many expect when it actually happens; however, the following downside and upside risks threaten BofAML's central scenarios for 2014 as well.

With Thanksgiving comes Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the biggest days for retail stocks each year. Thanksgiving isn't just an opportunity to gorge on turkey; it's also one of the most important weekends of the year for the retail sector. As much as 40% of American shopping occurs on the now infamous Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the first two business days that fall after Thanksgiving. But to complicate the matter, meteorologists are tracking an epic super-storm that is slowly working its way east, threatening to bring even more chaos to the holiday season. So who will win?

On America's day most famous for over-consumption, we thought a few minutes of quiet 'tryptophan-induced' contemplation of the state of our world would be useful. Infamous for his correct predictions of the great recession, Europe's demise, and the collapse of the US financial system (as well as profiting handsomely from being right), Dr. Michael Burry's infamous UCLA commencement speech has much to offer (especially considering Burry is making a come-back - Bill Fleckenstein style - at Scion Asset Management). In this "age of infinite distraction", the painful 'truthiness' of this brief speech stunningly summarizes the ominous truth facing most of the developed (and much of the emerging) world today: "when the entitled elect themselves, the party accelerates, and the brutal hangover is inevitable." A quarter-of-an-hour well spent from a self-described 'chicken-little' who was "just trying to figure it all out".