Archive - Jul 2015 - Story

• Only update software on down days: NYSE, SEC Suspect Software Update Triggered Trading Halt (BBG)
• Trade halts add to China’s Potemkin market problem (Reuters)
• Why Beijing’s Efforts Have Failed to Tame China’s Stock Market (WSJ)
• Irrational Exuberance Triggers Chaos as China Watchdog Sidelined (BBG)
• China bounce ends five-day losing streak for stocks (Reuters)
• Fear Grows in Greece as Decisive Hour Nears (WSJ)
• Once Swarming with Greek Visitors, a Bulgarian Town Reels as Business Languishes (WSJ)
• Greece Shuts Markets Through July 13 as Officials Debate Bailout (BBG)
• Germany calls for European defence sector consolidation (Reuters)

After a series of cyber failures involving first UAL, then this website, then the NYSE which is still halted, then the WSJ, some have suggested that this could be a concerted cyber attack (perhaps by retaliatory China unhappy its stocks are plunging) focusing on the US. So we decided to look at a real-time cyber attack map courtesy of Norsecorp which provides real time visibility into global cyber attacks.

"I Shorted..."

The world is entering a kind of no man’s land, in between the realms of insane denial and utterly obvious crisis. Europe is now destabilizing amid the Greek soap opera (an event that we predicted in January would occur in 2015); China’s stock market bubble is bursting; and the U.S. dollar’s world reserve status is about to be decimated by the global shift toward the International Monetary Fund’s basket currency reserve system. We're afraid we're going to have to say this because we don’t know if anyone else will admit it: Alternative economic analysts were right, and the mainstream choir was either terribly wrong or disgustingly dishonest. However, as most in the liberty movement are well aware, being right is not necessarily a solution to disaster.

What began as a glitch in pre-market trading turned into the NYSE's longest trading halt since Hurrican Sandy battered the East Coast. The ever-increasing complexity of US equity markets combined with an ever-decreasing pool of greater fools leaves windows open on down days (for it appears these 'glitches' only ever occur on down days) for markets to break. While NYSE traders defended the very market structure they have abhorred in the past as evidence that today was "not a failure," we can't help but find CNBC's Scott Wapner's ignorant remarks that "if retail investors want low cost liquid trading they are going to have learn to live with it," the perfect post-mortem for a rigged system brimming with confident insiders ever excited to take mom-and-pop's money.

Did the narrative just change? With the world's investors having entirely lost faith in China's ability to control its markets, it appears the omnipotence of global central banks is under scrutiny. First the so-called "contained" risks from Greek contagion are non-existent as despite the best efforts of The SNB (and ECB), European stocks and peripheral bonds have tumbled; and now Japanese investors have dumped over JPY 4 trillion foreign bonds in June - the most ever.

1. Greece is already in default to the IMF
2. Greece and the rest of the Eurozone are further apart than ever
3. Capital controls are notoriously hard to unwind
4. The “no” vote protects the Eurozone’s politicians from looking like they pushed Greece out

The long-awaited BRICS bank has officially launched, marking yet another milestone on the road to global de-dollarization and lending further credence to the notion that the sun is finally setting on the US-dominated multilateral institutions that have defined the post-war world and served to underwrite six decades of dollar dominance.  

No bubble can remain aloft without a heavy dose of monetary inflation. The fact that China’s authorities, including its central bank, have been unable to stem the decline stands as a stark warning to the many Western investors who seemingly believe that central banks are nigh omnipotent entities run by magicians. This is not the case. Once an asset bubble begins to burst, there there is nothing central bankers can do to stop it – and we have plenty of bubbles awaiting their turn in the barrel.

Having corralled selling by the National Social Security fund earlier this week and after discouraging local reporters from mentioning selling in the press, China has now made it illegal for major shareholders to dump stock over the next six months.

With all eyes firmly focused on pensioners at the gate and ATM lines, there is another - just as cruel and unusual - crisis occurring in Greece. Europe's immigration 'problem' is front-and-center on the island of Lesvos, as KeepTalkingGreece reports, unbelievable scenes as refugees try to raid a food truck. No, this is not Somalia...

With equity markets jumping vertically on every possible 'hope' of a deal - no matter what the consequence - we look to the asset class that is a) not driven by headline-reading algos and HFT, and b) is by far the most sensitive to reality - Greek Bank Bonds... and they are carnaging!!

We all know one thing that Greece, Cyprus, and Puerto Rico have in common – severe financial problems. There is something else that they have in common – a high proportion of their energy use is from oil. Most people don’t understand that our world economy runs on cheap energy.

History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. This could not be truer for crisis investing. Between China’s stock market and the debt troubles of Greece and Puerto Rico, it is clear that we could be entering a time of potential financial crisis. Every situation is unique, but generally the types of asset classes that protect investors in times of crisis are not necessarily the same as those during a bull run. Therefore, it’s worth taking a look at five previous periods of distress to see the returns of conventional and alternative asset classes.

You might be tempted to suspect that the inevitable unwind of a completely unsustainable margin mania is to blame for the brutal selling that has cost Chinese shares some $3.5 trillion in market value over the last three weeks. But you’d be wrong, according to several Chinese newspapers.