Archive - Sep 18, 2015 - Story

"In the west, it is common knowledge to walk out of a room wearing the same pair of shoes that you wore while entering the room. Nay, it is common sense. However here in Sh?m, our Syrian brothers have a very peculiar philosophy whereby they believe that everyone can share each other’s footwear, irrespective of foot size."

The first is that by keeping rates lower for even longer, the EM imbalances the Fed is worrying about will grow even larger, making it harder to exit stimulus; The second is a question on the value of forward guidance, after the Fed has repeatedly called for a hike and then backed out; The third is that the Fed may have limited, or no ammunition to react to the next potential shock, and that financial booms and busts may grow even larger over time.

Europeans are caught between being compelled to help - on what is truly a humanitarian catastrophe - and dealing with the uncertain consequences of bringing in such a large number of people. Part of that anxiety relates to the fact that the majority of those migrants adhere to Islam, where its relationship with Europe has been uneasy for many centuries. However, framing the debate in religious terms is too simplistic and overlooks some important facts. Whatever your view is, one thing is clear: Europe will never be the same again.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem says Syria may officially request the support of Russian combat troops in the fight to take back the country, a move that would pave the way for the Kremlin to overtly declare that Russia has joined the war in support of Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Putin on Monday to discuss concerns that Russia's involvement could end up strengthening the military capabilities of Hezbollah. Lurking in the background: the man one CIA officer once called "the most powerful operative in the Middle East today"...

In 1927, the Fed lowered US rates to try to help Europe which was then in the middle of an economic debt crisis the same as today. It is very curious how history repeats and we have just witnessed the Fed yield to international pressure once again. In doing so, they are condemning US pension funds as well as the elderly to financial doom setting in motion the next financial crisis.

Growth hope, production cuts, and geopolitical premia were so Wednesday...

While the U.S. has never had a truly free economy, the new study makes it evident that Americans have far less economic freedom and opportunity than they did in the year 2000. Now that economic conditions are even worse in the U.S. than they were before, a culture of extreme economic control has taken over and exacerbated the growing recession - one that history may end up redesignating a depression.

"The one thing I do worry a little bit about, by the way, is Treasuries. So I wouldn’t be shocked to see 10-year Treasuries, when rates are going up, people change their mind, they change direction, that they will be violently volatile and go up much faster than people think."

Recently released data from the Census Bureau is nothing short of devastating to anyone who has been pushing the absurd meme of a strong U.S. economy.

Following 2 weeks of notable rig count declines (to its lowest in 2 months), Baker Hughes reports another decline (the first 3 week decline in 3 months). Total rig count fell to 842 from 848 but oil rigs declined 8 to 644. Crude prices were weak heading into the data (post Fed) and popped after...

Having blamed the entire financial crisis on one reporter (despite the implicit government encourage of people to "invest in stocks"), detained "malicious sellers" (which killed the entire futures market), and now cracking down on overly-aggressive stock-pumping by "sinister stock squads," we thought we had seen it all from China. Until now... CHINA OFFICIAL: LUCKY THAT STOCK BUBBLE BURST BEFORE TOO LATE...

After so many years of the “new normal,” we have to be reminded just how extraordinary — and unprecedented — the Fed’s actions since 2008 have been. But does it not occur to bankers, much less the media breathlessly covering stock and bond markets, that these actions have set America on a hopelessly dangerous and unsustainable path? Or that placing so much economic power in the hands of a select few might not end well?

Just three short years ago, Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane appeared a lone voice of sanity in a world fanatically-religious Keynesian-esque worshippers. Admissions in 2013 (on blowing bubbles) and 2014 (on Too Big To Fail "problems from hell") also gave us pause that maybe someone in charge of central planning might actually do something to return the world to some semblance of rational 'free' markets. We were wrong! Haldane appears to have fully transitioned to the dark side, as The Telegraph reports, he made the case for the "radical" option of supporting the economy with negative interest rates, and even suggested that cash could have to be abolished.

The Fed remains in a box of its own making. We are beginning to doubt whether central bank will ever be hike rates again voluntarily. What is however eventually highly likely to happen is that the markets will force the Fed to act – or as Bill Fleckenstein puts it, “the bond market may take the printing press away from them”.