Archive - Jan 13, 2014 - Story

In a country in which the lack of economic "growth" and prosperity are attributed to the occasional sequester, and a stingy congress that refuses to unleash the spending floodgates, the money is perfectly sufficient - the problem is that quite often it ends up in the hands of people who one may call criminals, if one were so inclined. Take the case of public school PS 106, located in Far Rockaway, Queens - the school is allocated $2.9 million to serve a low-income population with 98 percent of its students eligible for free lunches. As a Title 1 school, it gets extra federal funds. There is one problem: none of that state money actually makes its way to the students, and with no class, or books, and a rat infestation, PS 106 has officially earned the title of New York's worst school.

Medical marijuana is already legal in 20 states plus the District of Columbia. It is also completely legal for recreational use in two states; Colorado and Washington State. Nevertheless, big daddy government still thinks it knows best and continues to classify the substance as a schedule one drug under federal law. As such, the banking system, (including state banks) is simply to afraid to get involved. Legal marijuana merchants business is conducted almost entirely in cash because it is exceedingly difficult for them to open and maintain bank accounts, and thus accept credit cards. “Banking is the most urgent issue facing the legal cannabis industry today,” said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association in Washington, D.C. Enter Bitcoin - At least one marijuana dispensary in Colorado has reportedly begun accepting bitcoin.

While Amazon's online business is booming (in revenues - but decidedly not profits), its somewhat sunning inactions at CES this past week raised more than a few eyebrows. Quietly and with no grandiose Michael-Bay-style presentation, Wired reports the 'we-can-make-a-profit-any-time-we-like-if-we-really-wanted' company placed an Amazon Vending Machine at the Las Vegas Airport. As Wired continues, any foray by Amazon into the world of offline retail is a big deal... when Amazon ventures into the physical world - whether with in-store delivery lockers or grocery trucks or vending machines - the company’s sheer scale and ambition demand that you think in terms of world domination. Hhmmm...

Hyperinflation leads to the complete breakdown in the demand for a currency, which means simply that no one wishes to hold it. Everyone wants to get rid of that kind of money as fast as possible. Prices, denominated in the hyper-inflated currency, suddenly and dramatically go through the roof. The most famous examples, although there are many others, are Germany in the early 1920s and Zimbabwe just a few years ago. German Reichsmarks and Zim dollars were printed in million and even trillion unit denominations. We may scoff at such insanity and assume that America could never suffer from such an event. We are modern. We know too much. Our monetary leaders are wise and have unprecedented power to prevent such an awful outcome. Think again. Like previous hyperinflations throughout time, the actions that produce an American hyperinflation will be seen as necessary, proper, patriotic, and ethical; just as they were seen by the monetary authorities in Weimar Germany and modern Zimbabwe.

Presented with no comment...

Any day, month, quarter, year, decade now; Goldman Sachs' mythical J-Curve will arise from the cinder-strewn ashes of Japan's current account. Japanese bond markets are rallying and JPY is weakening modestly after Abe's increasingly disapproved-of government announced the worst balance of payments current account deficit on record. At JPY -592bn vs expectations of JPY -36bbn and its 5th miss in the last 7 months as economists and analysts and pretend portfolio managers just keep getting it wrong. The trade deficit plunged once again, missed expectations once again and printed at the 3rd worst deficit ever with the 16th monthly trade deficit in a row. But apart from that, the Nikkei is -1000 points from the 2013 close highs and apart from rumors of a big bank selling JPY to defend 103, the trend ain't Abe's friend for now...

Russia is spending $51 billion on the Sochi Games; far exceeding the lavish-at-the-time $40 billion spent on China's 2008 Summer Olympics - which, as BusinessWeek notes, had more than three time the events. However, it is Sochi Organizing Committee President Dmitry Chernyshenko's promise that it will be "the safest games ever" that is really starting to add up in the face of suicide bombings and explosive device discoveries. As Al Jazeera shows, securing Sochi is costing twice the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and involves double the security forces of the London Olympics...

By now the distinction that "enrollment" in Obamacare does not actually mean coverage should be painfully clear: one still has to pay, and according to a recent analysis up to 50% of "enrollees" in any given state have not paid, which means the White House's number of 2.1 million sign ups through December 28 is vastly overstating the reality (especially if one ignores the 5+ million of torn up, lost insurance policies as a result of Obamacare). But even if one clearly delineates what is meant by "enrollment" in the most epic failure of a ponzi scheme to ever emerge from a developed nation (with a recently disclosed penchant for Big Brother-yness), what conclusions can one draw about the current participants in obligatory, socialized insurance as most recently disclosed by the administration? Here is the summary: only 24% of all new insured are in the targeted 28-34 age group; only 21% of participants will get no subsidy (which means 79% will be subsidized), and finally more women (54%) than men have signed up.

While McDonalds "coffee is hot" warning labels and litigation was a farce of lowest-common-denominator American exceptionalism; SirGriorgio Clardy, a Portland pimp, is suing Nike for not specifying that his trainers could be used as a dangerous weapon. As NBC News reports, Clardy is seeking $100 million from the Oregon sportswear company after he was sentenced to 100 years in prison for brutally beating a 'john' with his sneaker (apparently unaware of their potential for danger when one stomps on the face of another human being).

In January 2009, the number of "officially unemployed" workers plus the number of Americans "not in the labor force" was sitting at a grand total of 92.6 million.  Today, that number has risen to 102.2 million.  That means that the number of working age Americans that are not working has grown by close to 10 million since Barack Obama first took office.  The cold, hard reality of the matter is that there has not been an economic recovery in this nation. Anyone that tries to tell you that is lying to you.  If we were going to have a recovery, it would have happened by this point.  In fact, this is all the "recovery" that we are going to experience. From here on out, this is about as good as things are going to get. 

While the Fed pays lip-service to its increased transparency, the volumes of caveats and wordsmithing we exposed last week continue to surge. The problem is becoming worse for the Fed and is showing up in the oddest correlation to the Fed Balance Sheet we have found yet. As Deutsche Bank's Thorsten Slok shows, as the 'unemployment rate' approaches the 6.5% 'threshold', FOMC statements have surged in their verbiosity. Simply put, as Slok quantifies, it is becoming more and more difficult for the Fed to explain (away) what it is doing (and more and more expensive). And another thing we can look forward to: when the Fed's balance sheet hits $1 quadrillion in a few short years, at the current pace of expansion the FOMC statement will be 25,000 words, or the equivalent of a 100 page book.

As 11.3 million Americans spend more than half their income on rent, a record increase of 28% in four years, increasingly more are faced with the core "New normal recovery" choice: “We either eat, or we pay rent.”  Welcome to the Blackstone recovery...

For most of the major US equity indices today's plunge was the worst day since August 27th. All indices are now negative year-to-date once again as the outperforming Dow Transports were smacked over 1.8% from its intraday highs. NASDAQ once again touched green year-to-date early on in the day, then tumbled aggressively. Some of the best post-Taper performing sectors were slammed hard today with builders, financials, and discretionary spanked.  USDJPY 103 was defended heavily but stocks had already lost any connection as correlations broke rather notably. As we noted earlier, short-term bills were in heavy demand (and yields turned negative); Treasury notes and bonds rallied 3-4bps. Early weakness in gold and silver were rapidly dismissed with as PMs surged to fresh one-month highs ($1255 gold) and 2-month highs ($20.47 silver). VIX, after dropping below 12% early on smashed higher to close at 13.6% (following Friday's extreme steep close).

The Taxpayer Advocate Service, which is an independent office within the IRS, has just released a two-volume report describing the tactics that are being employed by the tax collectors in the Land of the Free. It’s not exactly Emperor Caracalla pointing to his sword... but IRS’s policies and tactics are not so far off from a police agency. They disregard the law and the advice of their own counsel. They disproportionately burden honest individuals. They flout due process. And they push people to abandon their citizenship. These are mafia tactics, plain and simple.

With today's biggest drop in stocks in over 4 months, we are reminded of three recent charts that raise considerable questions as to the path forward. From Mclellan's 1928 analog to Hussman's bubble trajectory and the extremes of bullish sentiment, this week marks a 'line in the sand' for bulls to take this to the Hendry moon or for it not to be different this time...