Australia

A conversation with a mining entrepreneur who succesfully built and sold a Mongolia Coal explorer.

The Vietnamese Central Bank sold another 25,700 taels (37.5 grams, 1.2 troy ounces) at a gold bar auction on Friday in order to try and satiate the massive public demand for gold in Vietnam.

The Central Bank hopes that the sale of gold into the market will reduce the very high premiums paid by gold buyers in Vietnam, the largest buyer of gold in Southeast Asia after Thailand and one of the largest physical buyers of gold per capita in the world.

Vietnamese people hold gold as a store of wealth for protection against war, inflation and currency depreciation. In recent months, the bursting of bubbles in the stock market (see chart) and property market and the continuing devaluation of the dong has led to record demand in Vietnam and a surging premium over the spot price of gold.

Today, the premium was close to 5.5 million dong which is the equivalent of a very high premium of $217 per ounce over spot. 

My revelations in European banks have resulted in two top level "unexpected" resignations (Irish Central Bank head, RBS CEO). Here I'm shooting for a 3rd at Bank of Ireland!

Overview of these week's key developments

With the world seemingly of the belief that the US is the cleanest dirty (it is not), we thought it might be useful - should you have money burning a hole in your sidelines pocket that 'needs' to be invested in stocks - to at least comprehend how rich or cheap the rest of the world is. UBS global equity strategy heat-map below identifies the most expensive (red) and cheapest (blue) sectors across 20 regions (and the aggregate) in one easy pocket-size cocktail-party-usable cheat-sheet. The US currently is most expensive and intriguingly Australia the cheapest relative to their own historical valuations.

Tryingto make sense of the price action in the foreign exchange market.  The dollar was heavier than we anticipated and there is no compelling sign of a turnaround, but the key is the FOMC meeting.  

"While we are not likely to see a repeat of that type of [30Y bond] bull market any time soon, we also do not believe we are at the beginning of a bear market for bonds."

 

"We are concerned by the growing downside of zero-based money and QE policies – among them a worrisome distortion in asset pricing, the misallocation of capital and ultimately a dis-incentivizing of risk taking by corporations and investors."

 

"We believe caution is warranted not just for fixed income investors, but for investors in all risk assets; avoiding long durations, reducing credit risk away from economically vulnerable companies and sectors"

The answer is no as higher rates on developed world debt would crush their economies. And it would hurt less indebted emerging markets too.

By 2025 the drone industry will employ 100,000 people and be worth $82 billion globally, as it is not just about spying anymore...

• Global shares pummeled, dollar slumps as rout gathers pace (Reuters)
• Hong Kong to Handle NSA Leaker Extradition Based on Law (BBG)
• Lululemon chairman sold $50 million in stock before CEO's surprise departure (Reuters)
• Companies scramble for consumer data (FT)
• Traders Pay for an Early Peek at Key Data (WSJ)
• When innovation dies: Apple looking at bigger iPhone screens, multiple colors (Reuters)
• Washington pushed EU to dilute data protection (FT)
• Japan-U.S. drill to retake remote island kicks off (Japan Times)
• EM economies in danger of overheating, World Bank says (FT)
• Don't forget the Indian crisis: Chidambaram seeks to quell concerns over rupee (FT)

"The opposite of currency wars is not necessarily currency peace; it can easily be interest rate wars," is the warning Citi's Steve Englander sends in a note toda, as EM and DM bond yields have relatively exploded in recent weeks. The backing up of yields represents an increase in risk premium, so this will likely have negative effects on asset markets and the wealth effect abroad as well. It is difficult to explain the magnitude of the yield backup in terms of normal substitution effects, and broadly speaking, if you were to compare the backing up of bond yields with the beta of the underlying economy and asset markets there would be a good correspondence. So, Englander adds, it is fear, not optimism that is driving bond markets.

The short but profitable tale of how 483,000 private individual have "top secret" access to the nation's most non-public information begins in 2001. "After 9/11, intelligence budgets were increased, new people needed to be hired, it was a lot easier to go to the private sector and get people off the shelf," and sure enough firms like Booz Allen Hamilton - still two-thirds owned by the deeply-tied-to-international-governments investment firm The Carlyle Group - took full advantage of Congress' desire to shrink federal agencies and their budgets by enabling outside consultants (already primed with their $4,000 cost 'security clearances') to fulfill the needs of an ever-more-encroaching-on-privacy administration.

Here is my weekly outlook for the major foreign currencies.  Yes they are not backed by silver or gold, it is still the largest of the major captial markets at an estimated turn-over of some $4 trillion a day.  Yes, officials may try to guide the market directly and indirectly, but success is often elusive.   

This was one helluva week. Nevertheless current markets are still hooked on QE.

• Global Stocks Tumble as Treasuries Rally, Yen Strengthens (BBG)
• China Export Gains Seen Halved With Fake-Data Crackdown (BBG) - so a crash in the GDP to follow?
• FBI and Microsoft take down botnet group  (FT)
• Quant hedge funds hit by bonds sell-off  (FT)
• Russia's Syria diplomacy, a game of smoke and mirrors (Reuters)
• Obama Confidantes Get Key Security Jobs (WSJ)
• BMW to Mercedes Skip Summer Breaks to Keep Plants Rolling even as European auto demand slides to a 20-year low (BBG) - thank you cheap credit
• Paris threat to block EU-US trade talks  (FT)