Archive - Jun 20, 2014 - Story

Petro Poroshenko's 14-point peace-plan is not going well (before it's even unleashed). First, Russia blasted back that they were "surprised" by comments on their support and that "this does not represent reality," and is more an ultimatum than a peace-plan:

• *RUSSIA SAYS UKRAINE CEASE-FIRE ISN'T OFFER OF PEACE: IFX
• *RUSSIA SAYS UKRAINE CEASE-FIRE LACKS KEY TALKS OFFER: IFX
• *POROSHENKO GIVING ULTIMATUM TO REBELS TO DISARM: IFX

Then things escalated further as Interfax reports, the 'severe injury' of a Russian border guard and ITAR-TASS reports "Moscow awaits explanations from the authorities in Kiev for the shelling of the Russian territory, which took place on the background of President Petro Proroshenko’s claims about a ceasefire."

On the day after Chairman Yellen’s press conference, investors aggressively bid up inflation trades across numerous asset classes. Gold and silver rallied sharply, TIPS implied inflation breakevens widened (despite a new slug of 30-year supply), Treasury yields rose, and the yield curve steepened. Based on investor positioning and market sentiment (CFTC’s Commitment of Traders data show record net short positions exceeding $1.5 trillion in notional rates exposure among speculators in the eurodollar futures markets), there’s decent potential for additional gains in these inflation expressions in the days and weeks ahead.

With 23 games behind us in the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, we stop to reflect on the success (or failure) of forecasts so far. As we showed here, Brazil began the tournament as more than 3 times more likely winners than any other team, and, according to Goldman's new estimations, remains the strong favorite with a 49.5% chance of raising the Jules Rimet trophy. England's disappointment leaves them a 3% chance of getting to the knockout phase (and USA a 0.7% chance of winning it all). Goldman, however, have severely over-estimated Brazil and Spain's performances (and under-estimated Holland and Spain) as their track-record so far is Stolper-esque at 34% win rate (8 right, 15 wrong).

According to the latest CapGemini wealth report the number of high net worth individuals increased by nearly 1.8 million in the past year, the second biggest surge since 2000, which also happened to be the crazy days of the first tech bubble (not to be confused with the current tech bubble). In other words, the epic, unprecedented stock bubble reflated by the world's coordinated central banks, has succeeded. Succeeded, that is, if its goal was to make the world's richest people wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. As for everyone else, just over 7 billion people, better luck next time.

UPDATE: Not going well... UKRAINE REBELS SAY WON'T DISARM UNTIL KIEV WITHDRAWS TROOPS:AFP

Petro Poroshenko earlier called Russia's Vladmimir Putin to explain his 14-point plan (to be unveiled to the public later today) to curb the pro-Russia insurgency in the east. As AFP reports:

UKRAINE PRESIDENT SAYS UNILATERAL CEASEFIRE TO BEGIN TODAY TO JUNE 27
Ukraine peace plan to call for 10-km buffer zone on Russia border

As Reuters notes, it was not clear if the whole of the proposed demilitarized no-man's land would be on Ukraine's side of the border or part of it on the Russian side. It was also not clear what the status of people living in border areas would be. Putin's initial response is to demand the "immediate end to military operations" against pro-Russian separatists.

While President Obama proclaimed "it is not the place for the United States to choose Iraq’s leaders," it appears that Iraq's current prime minister Maliki's days are numbered. At least three people, who like Mr. Maliki are all members of the Shiite majority, have emerged as possible candidates to take over, but as NY Times makes clear, they face an uphill battle as any prospective successor must convince Iraq’s Sunni Muslims and its ethnic Kurds that he can hold Iraq together, as well as vanquish a Sunni-led insurgency. The Sunnis are adamant that change is needed, "we will not allow a third term for the prime minister; they must change him if they want things to calm down," but it is the statement from the top Shiite cleric that it is time for a new government that likely put the final nail in Maliki's coffin. The only problem... his replacements are far from angelic reformers.

We suspect this is not exactly the great news that GE was expecting... but it looks like a win. French minister Montebourg believes none of the current offers fulfill their demands and will use a decree to block the deal:

• *MONTEBOURG SAYS FRENCH STATE TO TAKE 20% STAKE IN ALSTOM
• *MONTEBOURG SAYS FRANCE WILL BUY ALSTOM STAKE OR BLOCK GE OFFER
• *MONTEBOURG SAYS FRANCE WILL USE DECREE IN ALSTOM CASE
• *MONTEBOURG SAYS FRANCE WILL ENTER IN ALLIANCE WITH GE
• *MONTEBOURG SAYS FRANCE SEEKING ALSTOM STAKE AT MARKET PRICE

So GE forced to partner with French or no deal. Nothing like partnering with the (almost) most socialist government on the planet to make money.

US officials are "readying targeted sanctions on finance, defense, and tech sectors," as they tell Bloomberg that 10 Russian tanks crossed the border into Ukraine in the last 24 hours. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official noted that EU-US discussions on Ukraine are intensifying. Russia has responded, "we are surprised by statements of alleged deployment of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine. In this case, there is no military buildup, there are only measures to strengthen the border security of the Russian Federation, measures taken on direct instructions from Russian president." This is all occurring with the background of Poroshenko's cease-fire plan.

The small, impoverished country of Bulgaria may not be in the Eurozone (even though its currency is pegged to the Euro), but it is in the European Union. Which is why we find it surprising that there has been relatively little mention that overnight the fourth largest Bulgarian bank, Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) and which in recent weeks has made headlines due to the political exposure of one of its largest shareholders, was seized by the Bulgarian central bank following what Reuters reports was a run on the bank.

Despite the utter deluge of "this won't last" explanations of why yesterday's surge in gold and silver is transitory (and nothing to worry about), the sell-side is staring agog this morning as the precious metals markets are breaking out to new cycle highs. While the CCFD unwinds appear the clearest driver, Yellen's aggressive inflationist bias, and unintended consequence of increasing supply destruction (as prices were manipulated below production costs) appear to be trumping any short-covering, opex-related reasons for the push higher.

With a nod to the absurd, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen freely admitted earlier this week that the Fed really has no idea what’s going to happen to the economy.

Back in 2011 Goldman, when the FDIC-insured bank holding company with no deposits, was slapped with the biggest at the time SEC penalty for shorting CDOs it had sold to clients, it started a trend of scapegoating all its evils on a lone, then 20-something individual, Fabrice Tourre, who seemingly had "worked alone" and whose actions were not supervised by anyone: the chain of responsibility started and ended with him. Naturally, nobody went to jail. A few years later, stuck in the biggest scandal of its post-bankruppcy existence involving over 20 million recalls in just the first 6 months of 2014 alone, GM has decided that what worked for Goldman should work for it too, and as the WSJ reports, is "pinning of a decadelong failure to recall defective cars on a lone engineer." Meet Raymond DeGiorgio, said lone engineer.

"Balance-sheet wealth is sustainable only when it comes from earned success, not government fiat," is the ugly truth that former Fed governor Kevin Warsh (amazing what truths come out after their terms are up) and hedge fund billionaire Stan Druckenmiller deliver in the following WSJ Op-Ed. The aggregate wealth of U.S. households, including stocks and real-estate holdings, just hit a new high of $81.8 trillion. No wonder most on Wall Street applaud the Fed's unrelenting balance-sheet recovery strategy.The Fed's extraordinary tools are far more potent in goosing balance-sheet wealth than spurring real income growth. Corporate chieftains rationally choose financial engineering - debt-financed share buybacks, for example - over capital investment in property, plants and equipment. The country needs an exit from the 2% growth trap. There are no short-cuts through Fed-engineered balance-sheet wealth creation. The sooner and more predictably the Fed exits its extraordinary monetary accommodation, the sooner businesses can get back to business and labor can get back to work.

It’s no surprise to anyone that Americans have zero faith in their so-called “Representatives.” The vast majority of these folks are lying, thieving, white-collar criminals, and we all know it. The real question is what, if anything, are we going to do about it?