Archive - Mar 2013 - Story

Depression for Cyprus: Our Cypriot GDP forecast entails a drop of just over 20% in real GDP by 2017. This forecast had already factored in much what was agreed, but did not account for the additional uncertainty shock generated by the past week’s appalling political mess. Risks are clearly on the downside and Cyprus will in all likelihood require additional financial assistance further down the road. Accounting for less than 0.3% of euro area GDP, any downward revision to Cyprus will be barely visible on the euro area aggregate.

While the news flow is dominated by Cyprus, it will be important to not lose sight of the developments in Italy, where we will watch the steps taken towards forming a government.  The key release this week is likely to be US consumer confidence. Keep a watchful eye on the health of the consumer in the US after the tax rises in January. So far, household optimism and demand has held up better than expected. The IP data from Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Japan will provide a useful gauge on activity in the region and what it reflects about global activity, however Chinese New Year effects will need to be accounted for in the process.

First, it is Merkel's turn, which last week was furious at Cyprus for daring to reject the first flawed Eurogroup plan impairing insured depositors, only to praise it for now... rejecting said plan. To wit: Chancellor Angela Merkel, "as well as the government, is very happy that the troika, the euro group and Cyprus were able to reach an agreement," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert says in Berlin. He added that difficulties will arise in the short term because of measures aimed to scale back Cyprus’s banking sector, "but in the long run it will lead to a healthier” industry. That remains to be seen, especially when factoring in the Russian response. Which wont be pleasant.

• Cyprus Salvaged After EU Deal Shuts Bank to Get $13B (BBG)
• Last-minute Cyprus deal to close bank, force losses (Reuters)
• Anxious, angry Cypriots face uncertain future (Reuters)
• Spain Brings the Pain to Bank Investors (WSJ)
• First Switzerland now... U.S. Seeks Answers in Liechtenstein on Tax Cheats (BBG)
• Rebel Free Syrian Army founder loses leg in Syria blast (Reuters)
• European Stocks Rise on Cyprus Deal as Italian Bonds, Crude Gain (BBG)
• Michael Dell Likely to Sweeten Buyout Bid to Save Legacy (BBG)
• Bankers’ pay premium is narrowing (FT)
• Surgery Restoring Penis After Prostate Cancer Increasing (BBG)
• Silent or supportive, conservatives give gay marriage momentum (Reuters)

As before, the Eurogroup will contribute, via the ESM, up to EUR 10bn (roughly 60% of Cyprus’ GDP), the bulk of which is to be used to cover debt roll-overs and the primary deficit now that the country has all but lost market access. The restructuring of the two banks will be conducted under the new and extensive bank resolution authority conferred to the Central Bank of Cyprus last week, and will not require parliamentary approval. The operation will involve losses being inflicted on the (few) junior and senior bank bondholders of the two institutions and, more crucially, on deposits above the EUR 100K threshold (a communiqué by the Eurogroup talks about a deposit-to-equity conversion, but no details are provided)....  Reaching a deal has raised awareness that inter-country fiscal transfers in the Euro area remain a messy business, leaving public opinion damaged. Until more clarity emerges on how Cyprus will settle after the banks re-open, however, and with an attempt under way to form a new government and find a new President, we prefer to stay on the sidelines until the dust settles.

All eyes should remain focused on Cyprus today, especially since there is no data being reported elsewhere. Financial markets closed Friday on a positive note, as an agreement on Cyprus appeared to be taking shape and a minor relief rally across most asset classes overnight vindicated hopes of a positive outcome as details of the detail were announced overnight. More clarity is still required on some aspects of the agreement (deposit and bondholders) but the fact that the national parliament does not need to vote again should stop the deal from unravelling as it did last week. Whether this is enough to restore confidence and prevent a possible cautionary deposit flight from Cyprus remains to be seen.

Following the Eurogroup press conference, the Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris is currently explaining how:

• *SARRIS SAYS TONIGHT IS GOOD NIGHT FOR CYPRUS, EURO ZONE and
• *SARRIS SAYS UNCERTAINTY ON CYPRUS ECONOMY HAS ENDED    :BOCY CY

Having avoided the "disastrous exit" from the Euro. Should we believe him? Earlier in the week he exclaimed:

• *SARRIS SAYS NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO SAVINGS IN CYPRUS

And tonight we are told Bank of Cyprus uninsured 'savers' will face 40% haircuts and Laiki uninsured 'savers' as much as 100% (or total wipeout). It seems the lessons of Juncker are well studied in all the European Nations.

It's 2:30am, do you know where your deposits are? Tune in to see the Eurogroup explain how this is in the best interest of the Cypriot people, how the 'deal' illustrates the solidarity of the European people, and how the worst of the crisis is now behind us.

*EU COMMISSION SAYS NO CYPRUS PARLIAMENT VOTE NEEDED: SCHAEUBLE
*SCHAEUBLE SAYS TROIKA TO CONTACT RUSSIAN GOVT ON DEAL :BOCY CY

The European Union finance ministers have just agreed to the terms of the Cyprus-Troika deal (which we fear could mean 100% haircts for the uninsured Laiki depositors as unsecured claims in a Chapter-7-style liquidation). With democracy now a complete farce since not even Parliament will be allowed to vote on deposit confiscation as part of a financial sector bankruptcy deal, here is the island nation's president explaining what just happened:

*ANASTASIADES SAYS AID DEAL IN BEST INTEREST OF CYPRIOT PEOPLE

Three months ago, Yanis Varoufakis explained Europe's bogus growth pact and the papering over the cracks that was being done by the IMF and ECB, "The idea here is that, yet again, the Eurogroup-ECB-IMF alliance is not ready, politically, to reveal the truth to its various constituencies." He was, obviously, correct. This weekend, in a brief BBC Radio interview (below), as Cyprus erupts and brings the European circus back into town, Varoufakis exclaims, "every bailout agreement, beginning with Greece’s in May 2010, seems less logical and more toxic than the previous one." In three minutes, the Greek economist illustrates how the leaders are laying waste to the supposed pillars upon which the European Union was founded.

UPDATE: It appears the 'deal' to default/restructure the banks has been designed to bypass the need for parliamentary votes, since it is theoretically not a tax.

While we have little color on what kind of carnage the President of Cyprus had to accept to his fellow countrymen, the news is that :

*CYPRUS, TROIKA REACH AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE, EU OFFICIAL SAYS

The terms, unsurprisingly what zee Germans wanted, are i) Laiki to be wound down; ii) Bank of Cyprus to survive but with deposit haircuts, and iii) deal would see secured deposits in Laiki moved to Bank of Cyprus. In other words, a deal far worse then the original on proposed by the Eurogroup last week - when the banks still existed. The key appears to be the 'saving' of the insured depositors (crucial to avoid a pan-European bank run) and the crushing of the 'whale' depositors. S&P 500 futures and EUR are surging, Gold is dropping modestly. We await final confirmation of the final terms of the final deal once the Cypriot people wake up (and don't forget the ECB 'standard of living' rules). The Cypriot Parliament still has to vote for this - and not one of them voted for it last week.

As liquidity started to come back into FX markets this evening, it is very clear that humans and algos are reacting to every headline, rumor, and bloviation from Europe. In the last two hours, as this chart of EURUSD shows, while the range is small, the reactions are telling. It does appear from the EUR ramps that no-news-is-good-news for now - though evidently, the facts behind that 'no news' paint a different picture. As S&P 500 futures just opened, so EURJPY was ramped 70 pips to hold the only policy tool the Fed has left at unch (for now).

When Cyprus put its banks into lockdown last weekend until... well indefinitely, now that capital controls are established, the main reason was to halt all capital outflows from the henceforth liquidity starved island whose banks will only exist as long as the ECB provides an ever greater dose of liquidity to account for the collapse in deposit funding. Which is why it is surprising, make that shocking, that as Germany FAZ reports, in the past week there has been a surge in cash outflows from Cyprus, even as its financial system has been supposedly ringfenced from the world, which by the way is the only thing preventing the EUR17 billion bailout from soaring by orders of magnitude because should a liquidity leak be discovered, it is all over for the country's financial system.

Since the 1990s, priced in Real GDP the Dow Jones Industrial Average (as well as the S&P500) has been far above their 20th-century norm. There is an unsurprising coincidence - as stock prices (and corporate profits) have soared above their historical norm, wage growth has been very stagnant. The economy has come to be tilted toward bankers, financiers, insurance brokers and away from wage-earners, manufacturers and artisans. Does that mean that as Hassett and Glassman projected in Dow 36,000, stock prices have climbed to a new plateau? Well, while it is impossible to say exactly what prices will do in future (nominal, or otherwise) the “new plateau” has been very much supported by the Federal Reserve, first by lowering rates and keeping them low. Some might take that as a sign that stocks aren’t going to get much cheaper, because the Fed won’t let them get much cheaper; but gravity is against the Fed. Will it be third-time unlucky for the Fed, hell-bent on wealth-effecting and financialising the US economy to prosperity?