Archive - Jan 2014 - Story

Bitcoin has a future here in Singapore, but it is a future that inevitably will be co-opted by central planning and control. The majority of locals who did not have the best sentiments regarding Bitcoin cited the lack of central control, ironically the reason in other countries why Bitcoin enjoyed its meteoric rise. Bitcoin is expected to be pilloried with payment gateways and other payment process implementation mechanisms to streamline the Bitcoin protocol into a fashion that the locals are familiarized to and prefer- a robust payment method with savings applications that is guaranteed by an actual organization against loss. Look no further than this lagging indicator, taken around the Promenade of the central business district overlooking the Marina Bay Sands casino, that Bitcoin's future in Singapore is a co-opted system run on the familiar rails of global multinational corporations.

Despite the best efforts of 330RAMP CAPITAL, US equity indices ended the first trading day of the year with the biggest loss (on that day) since 2008. Led by weakness in the high-beta indices as Trannies tumbled their most in 4 months and the S&P's biggest daily downswing in over 3 weeks. On a side-note, gas prices have never been this high on the first day of the year. VIX closed higher once again as stocks began to catch down to it's recent warnings. Bonds rallied from the open this morning (with 10Y 6bps lower in yield from its opening print) with 10Y back under 3%. EUR weakness drove the USD higher (but JPY strength weighed on stocks). The biggest moves appeared in commodities with gold and silver up nicely and WTI crude down hard.

Statewide state of emergency declared --> stay off the roads if you can #blizzard #StormWatch #NYS

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 2, 2014

The combination of impulsive gains and corrective weakness from the late October lows at 78.99, repeated failure to hold a break of 79.95/79.82 area support and now bullish seasonals (January is the strongest month of the year for the US $ Index) all tell BofAML's Macneil Curry that the US Dollar Index is headed higher. While he remains a long-term Treasury bear, Curry warns bond bears to take a wait-and-see approach and fears a "defensive posture" may correct bond yields and stock prices lower.

2013 already saw violent unrest in some of the most stable countries in the world like Singapore and Sweden, all underpinned by absolute disgust for the status quo. Whether today or tomorrow, this year or next, there will be a reckoning. The system is far too broken to repair, it must be reset. It’s simply absurd to look at the situation objectively and presume this status quo can continue indefinitely... that this time is different… that we’re somehow special and immune to universal principles.

WTI crude is back below $95.50 - its lowest in a month - as the price of the front-month has dropped over 3% today - its biggest single-day drop since November 2012. USD strength (+0.3%) is being ignored for now by gold and silver which are jumping handily (back over $1230 and $20 respectively). US equities are suffering for the first day of the year for the first time since 2008 (which ended -38.5%) led by Russell 2000 and the Dow Transports - which is seeing its worst day in 4 months.

We leave it to everyone's supreme amusement to enjoy the Maestro's full non-mea culpa essay, but we will highlight Greenspan's two most amusing incosistencies contained in the span of a few hundred words. On one hand the former Chairman admits that "The financial crisis [...] represented an existential crisis for economic forecasting. The conventional method of predicting macroeconomic developments -- econometric modeling, the roots of which lie in the work of John Maynard Keynes -- had failed when it was needed most, much to the chagrin of economists." On the other, his solution is to do... more of the same: "if economists better integrate animal spirits into our models, we can improve our forecasting accuracy. Economic models should, when possible, measure and forecast systematic human behavior and the tendencies of corporate culture.... Forecasters may never approach the fantasy success of the Oracle of Delphi or Nostradamus, but we can surely improve on the discouraging performance of the past." So, Greenspan's solution to the failure of linear models is to... model animal spirits, or said otherwise human irrationality. Brilliant.

With tensions remaining high, the brouhaha over the 'probe' of government corruption daring to find actual corruption rolls on and now the military is complaining of bent judges in their own 'coup' trial:

*TURKISH ARMY SAYS EVIDENCE FABRICATED IN COUP TRIAL: HURRIYET
*TURKEY ARMED FORCES FILES CASE CITING PLOT AGAINST IT: HURRIYET

Add to this the hike in consumption taxes and fears over inflationary surges and the Lira has re-collapsed back to record lows against the USD and Istanbul stocks are re-tumbling.

A Reuters report this week noted that nearly 3.33 million hectares (eight million acres) of Chinese farmland are too polluted to grow crops. The article, which was re-posted by the state-run China Daily news site, quoted Wang Shiyuan, China’s vice minister of land and resources. Wang says that the government is determined to address the issue of polluted farmland, and will commit “tens of billions of yuan” each year to help return the land to a usable state. Food security is a major concern for Chinese leaders, and worries over this issue already had the potential to severely slow down other planned reforms such as urbanization.

With over 60% of those surveyed by Investors Intelligence now bullish, positive sentiment (or crowding, depending on your perspective) has risen once again and now to levels that are practically the highest ever. Perhaps even more crucial is the absolute dearth of bears leaving the Bull-Bear ratio at a record-busting level over 4x. The simple question, as we asked before, is - what happens when there's no one left to buy from?

All the pundits who preach an economic recovery in the US always fall strangely silent when asked to share their thoughts on the following chart (taken from the St. Louis Fed), showing the annual change in real disposable income per capita in the US. What seems to stump them most is that aside from the 2012 year end aberration (due to accelerated distribution of dividends ahead of the 2013 tax hikes) is that in November the series finally posted its first Y/Y decline (-0.1%) since the Lehman collapse. But as the chart notes, the data is "per capita" and as everyone knows, under the New Normal, some "per capitas" are more equal than other "per capitas." Enter the billionaires. As Bloomberg summarizes, "The richest people on the planet got even richer in 2013, adding $524 billion to their collective net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 300 wealthiest individuals. The aggregate net worth of the world’s top billionaires stood at $3.7 trillion at the market close on Dec. 31, according to the ranking. "The rich will keep getting richer in 2014," John Catsimatidis, the billionaire founder of real estate and energy conglomerate Red Apple Group Inc., said in a telephone interview from his New York office.

As we have discussed in depth previously (2 years ago here as "muddle through has failed" and most recently here as the IMF discussed a "one-off" wealth tax), a confiscation (akin to Cyprus overnight debacle) is coming and Martin Armstrong believes sooner than most think. Anyone who thinks it is a fantasy that government will simply just confiscate 10% of everyone’s accounts in Europe better have another look at the fool they see in the mirror staring back at them.

Forget "the 1%-ers", meet the 3%-ers. As US Treasuries sell-off and European bonds continues to surge, the 3% handle on government debt is becoming a crowded trade with the following six nations now yielding between 3 and 4%... US, UK, Ireland, Israel, and drum roll please... Italy and Spain!

As 2013 comes to a close, efforts to revive growth in the world’s most influential economies – with the exception of the eurozone – are having a beneficial effect worldwide. However, All of the looming problems for the global economy are political in character; and there are some eerie resemblances with the financial conditions that prevailed in the US in the years preceding the crash of 2008.