Archive - Jul 2013 - Story

Spain, as you know, and no matter how the story is fabricated, was bailed out by the European Union. The money was lent to the banks so that Spain does not have to count it as sovereign debt even though the country guaranteed the loans. Madrid, however, tells the truth in the same manner as a sardine naturally climbs mountains. Spain has set up a "bad bank" known as Sareb (Sociedad de Gestión de Activos procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria). This operation has $66 billion of Real Estate loans and property as their assets we are told. So far they have sold 700 properties and they claim they can achieve an annual return on equity of 13%-14% over its fifteen year tenure. The truth - so far - is unbelievably worse than expected.

• Summers Said to Show Interest in Fed Chairmanship After Bernanke (BBG)
• Obama Tells Chinese He’s Disappointed Over Snowden Case (BBG)
• Texas Threat to Abortion Clinics Dodged at Flea Markets (BBG)
• A Peek at Trucking Data, and Then the Stock Surged (WSJ)
• China cuts growth target… or does it? (FT) - yes, it does, net of goal seeked Random () of course
• China Official Suggests Tolerance for Lower Growth (WSJ)
• Disney Says Wristband Boosts Sales in Disney World Test (BBG) - next up: implanted RFID chips
• Spain Prepares Cuts in Renewable-Energy Subsidies (WSJ)
• Bernanke Departure With Duke Heralds Cascade of Fed Appointments (BBG)

Cutting through the noise of JPM's earnings, here are the salient facts: the company beat the bottom line expectation of $1.45 with an $1.60 ex-DVA print. However, this number included the now traditional "puffery" benefit from loan loss reserve releases, specifically $950MM pretax ($0.15 EPS) from mortgage loan loss reserves and $550MM pretax ($0.09) from credit cards. Additionally, the company reserved a whopping $600 million for litigation, or about $0.09, and according to the firm this should be backed out from the bottom line. Of course, that assumes the litigation against JPM will not be an ongoing, non-onetime event. In other words, ex-releases, JPM misses, however it was right in line if one assumes the litigation reserve was indeed one-time. In summary, the firm had a total of $19.4 billion in loan loss reserves and the release of $1.4 billion was the biggest since Q3 2012. What is worse going forward was the slide in Mortgage Production pretax income which was $582mm, down a whopping $349mm YoY, "reflecting lower margins and higher expense, partially offset by higher volumes and lower repurchase losses." For those curious how the rate spike has impacted JPM, here it is: mortgage originations down 7% Q/Q, and firmwide it dropped to $52 billion. But perhaps the worst news is that despite the dramatic spike up in yields at the end of the quarter, JPM reported a Net Interest Margin that in Q2 was the lowest ever, dropping to just 1.05% on a market-based basis, the firm's defined NIM slid to 2.20%.

When Bloomberg blasts headlines like this: S&P FUTURES UP 1PT, AT SESSION HIGH, ERASE EARLIER 3.4PT DROP,  you know Bernanke hasn't spoken in over 24 hours if a 4 point swing is headline worthy. That said, the exhausted S&P ramp is now going for the 6th consecutive session as all the losses since the June FOMC meeting have now been erased, the S&P is making constant all time highs, and seemingly the Fed's message on tapering and communication has been clarified. The message being that the Fed is tapering its monthly purchases but short-term rates aren't being lifted. Sadly, the market's first reaction was the right one but the herd of cats has once again been herded by the trading desk at Liberty 33.

The German President, Joachim Gauck, concluded in a recent interview, that the NSA was not to be compared with the Stasi, because, [paraphrasing] "it is not like it was with the Stasi, where there exist big filing cabinets in which all our conversations are written down." No, indeed, nothing like that. As OpenDataCity notes, at the NSA, conversation contents are neither written down nor filed - but digitally recorded, saved and can be searched and found within seconds. In contrast to the Stasi, the NSA can count on new technologies and can therefore collect information in gigantic quantities - in fact, according to their data, 1 billion times more data than the Stasi!

Chinese gold demand, from both individuals and central banks, garnered increasing attention as the gold price rose consistently in the last twelve years. When the gold price declined, many in the West declared the end of gold, but China (along with many other Asian nations) defiantly continued to buy gold and increase their imports. Questions over the legitimacy and transparency of COMEX and the London Gold markets are now becoming louder, especially as increasing numbers of institutions are keen to know what actually backs those contracts. ‘Paper gold’ is on everyone’s lips. As The Real Asset Company notes, Physical gold demand in the most populated country on earth does not seem to be subsiding, yet neither do COMEX and futures volumes generally.

No, last week’s jobs report was not “strong”. It was just another edition of the “born again” jobs scam that has been fueling the illusion of recovery during the entire post-crisis Bernanke Bubble. In short, the US economy is failing and the welfare state safety net is exploding. And that means that the true headwind in front of the allegedly “cheap” stock market is an insuperable fiscal crisis that will bring steadily higher taxes, lower spending and a gale-force of permanent anti-Keynesian austerity in the GDP accounts. And for that reason, the Fed’s strategy of printing money until the jobs market has returned to effective “full employment” is completely lunatic. The bottom-line is that Bernanke is printing money so that Uncle Sam can keep massively borrowing, and thereby fund a simulacrum of job growth in the HES Complex. Call it the Bed Pan Economy. When it finally crashes, Ben Bernanke will be more reviled than Herbert Hoover. And deservedly so.

Nothing says 'wealth' like a luxury Swiss watch (or two), and despite the equity markets of developed 'wealthy' nations resurgent in their inflated-asset-based selves, it seems the demand for luxury watches remains subdued at best. While Asia appears to be a big drag (as we noted here), Europe and the US are also plunging; but have no fear as African sales are up 25% (there's the real wealth effect?). The 'wealth effect' plan appeared to be working until the beginning of 2013 when, in spite of the almost unprecedented and inexorable rise in equities, Swiss watch exports collapsed to their worst levels since the great recession. Transitory blip? Doesn't seem that way as the most recent YoY change is the worst in six months.

With the revelation that the federal government, through the National Security Agency, has been collecting phone and Internet records of U.S. citizens in the name of preventing terrorism, Americans are wondering whether private communication exists. In the infograohic below, we explore how this surveillance works and the history of domestic spying programs (because, let’s face it, they’re not new) and how, even with broader knowledge of the government’s activities, a minority of Americans oppose such programs.

The family is one of the fundamental building blocks of society.  If you do not have strong families, you are not going to have a strong society.  Unfortunately, the state of the family in America continues to deteriorate...

While we are told that history doesn't repeat, it seems Baupost's Seth Klarman is oddly prophetic in his rhyming reality vision of the markets from over 20 years ago. This brief 'warning' from one of the most independent-thinking asset managers of our time (and least sheep-like) sum it up perfectly: "Caution has not been a profitable investment tactic for a long time now. I strongly believe it is about to make a comeback."

So much for the lessons of Fukushima. Never mind oil spills, the Russian Federation is preparing an energy initiative that, if it has problems, will inject nuclear material into the maritime environment.

Luckily nobody in the New Abnormal cares about actual cash flow.

With a national debt approaching $17 trillion, Uncle Sam is tightening his belt and looking under the cushions for extra change. But a closer look at his pocket book reveals just how little he knows about where your money is going. The following infographic provides a few examples that will make you think twice about Uncle Sam's accounting skills.

Over the past week there has been some speculation whether the number of Americans who receive food assistance and/or are on disability, outnumber full-time employed workers in the US. Here is the answer.