Eurozone

Whether it was Captain America's roadshow or Uncle-Sam 'wanting' your help, the US always seemed to maintain some semblance of class when propagandizing its citizens into buying its government bonds. Whether for patriotic or xenophobic reasons, it appeared to work. Japan, though, with its increasingly desperate demographic situation, deficits, downgrades, and well, general malaise of Koo/Keynesian-stuffed economic stagnation has turned to the next best thing - the all-girl band AKB48. As The Telegraph notes today, the all-female pop group will headline a summer campaign for "reconstruction bonds" aimed at financing projects in regions hammered by last year's quake-tsunami disaster. The debt campaign will see AKB48 - comprising about 90 performers, ranging in age from early teens to mid-20s - joined by sumo wrestling's champion Hakuho and female football star Homare Sawa, Japan's Jiji press agency reported. The group's bubblegum pop and synchronized dancing has proved a huge hit with young girls. Perhaps more disturbingly (and why Japan chose them maybe?) - running the gamut from girl-next-door to sultry temptress, the band also has a substantial male following - many of whom are older - who support a vast merchandising industry. Japan has the industrialized world's worst public debt, amounting to more than twice its gross domestic product - topping hard-hit eurozone countries including Greece, which have drawn fire from foreign investors over their fiscal management. All of this makes us wonder - Forget AKB48, how long until AK47 in musical, or primarily otherwise, format is used to encourage lending to sovereigns all around the "developed" world?

It seems the clarion call for central bank intervention to save us all is growing louder as following Citigroup's imploring letter earlier in the week, SocGen has done its homework on the impact of a Greek exit from the Euro and finds Euro Stoxx could drop by 50% under a contagion scenario. They believe the reason why the eurozone market is holding up relatively well - despite the rising risk of a Greek exit - is that contagion has not really spread yet, which is then 'discounted' away based on expectations of a central bank put to save the world. In the case of a disorderly break-up (the only kind there can be realistically in our view), they expect eurozone profits to decline for two years, a rise in bond yields (raising cost of funds), a rising equity risk premium, and the implicit drop in P/E multiples. A Greek exit alone (with no contagion) would likely knock 10% off Euro Stoxx but the significant rise in correlations across the euro-zone suggests the idiosyncratic becomes systemic very rapidly.

Today, the deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, Sergey Shvetsov, said that the Bank of Russia plans to keep buying gold on the domestic market in order to diversify their foreign exchange reserves.   "Last year we bought about 100 tonnes. This year it will be less but still a considerable figure," Shvetsov told Reuters on the sidelines of a financial conference in Milan. Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves fell to $514.3 billion in the week ending May 18, from $518.8 billion a week earlier. However, they have risen from the $498.6 billion seen at the end of 2011. Yesterday, Shvetsov said that Greece has plans for a parallel currency and that it is a “necessity” for Greece to leave the euro.

"We think the ramifications of a Greek exit are more serious than the market anticipates", is how Morgan Stanley starts their European strategy report this week. They have raised their probability of a Euro break-up to 35% but the most likely outcome they foresee is a Euro divorce with Greece's exit preceded by strong contagion via three main transmission channels: the sovereign, the banking sector, and the political situation. Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal are unsurprisingly the most at risk of material contagion and they recommend investors stay positioned defensively across risky assets as we remain in the 'Crisis' stage of the so-called C.R.I.C. cycle - and they note that unlike so many knife-catching US equity and Italian bond buyers, it is not sensible to try to pre-empt the Response phase of C.R.I.C. cycle. There appears to be four scenarios (and evolutions) for the future of Europe (from Renaissance to Divorce with Staggering On and an awkward 'Italian Marriage' in between) and we drill into the four additional possibilities under the divorce scenario for insight into the effects various risky asset classes will feel in each case.

Euro bonds “didn’t find much support” at the EU conference.
                              -Jean-Claude Juncker

“A majority of European Union leaders at a Brussels summit this week backed joint euro-area bonds.”
                             -Mario  Monti

Encapsulated in these two comments is the problem that Europe is now facing. Two views, two radically different positions and no agreement on a middle ground because there is not one. Of course the periphery countries, the weaker nations want Eurobonds because it would dramatically drop their cost of funding. Of course Germany and their stronger EU countries do not want it because it would dramatically raise their cost of funding. Nations, in the end, will act in their own self-interest, this has been proven more than enough times in history, which is why I stand by my conclusion that Eurobonds will not be forthcoming regardless of the polite rhetoric attached to them.

All yu need to read.

We have spent a considerable amount of time in the last week or two explaining just why depositor withdrawals (or bank runs) are the death knell for the Euro experiment. We first described the 'run on banks and governments' on the basis of the potential for overnight loss of 'fungibility' back in December but the escalation last week in Greece (and the contagion to Spain's Bankia) signals things are shifting to 11 on the amplifier of Euro-Fail. This evening brings new information from The Guardian that 'Police are urging Greeks to keep their money in bank accounts rather than putting it at risk of theft, amid further uncertainty about whether the austerity-struck country will remain in the eurozone.' Greece's national police spokesman, Thanassis Kokkalakis, told Reuters: "Many people have withdrawn their money from the banks fearing a financial crash, and they either carry it on them, find a hideout at home or in storage rooms. We urge people to trust the banking system, leave their money there, or at least in a safe place, not hide it at home" Is anyone picturing Cramer and his 'Bear Stearns' call? Speculation of a Euro-wide deposit guarantee scheme was quashed somewhat by yesterday's dismally predictable non-event summit - especially given the only three-week span to the next elections. That leaves Greek citizens juggling the possibility of having their home robbed against the probability that the government, via GEURO-isation, will do it for them in the bank.

The story of Facebook’s disappointing IPO is a gripping tale, and it holds some valuable lessons. But it concerns an event that has already happened. Forget Facebook — there are far more interesting events in play and that will affect you, if only at the margins. They haven’t happened yet, and they may not happen at all. But if they do, you’d sure as hell better have a plan.

Forget "austerity"and political theater--the only way to truly comprehend the Eurozone is to understand the Neocolonial-Financialization Model, as that's the key dynamic of the Eurozone. In the old model of Colonialism, the colonizing power conquered or co-opted the Power Elites of the region, and proceeded to exploit the new colony's resources and labor to enrich the "center," i.e. the home empire. In Neocolonialism, the forces of financialization (debt and leverage controlled by State-approved banking cartels) are used to indenture the local Elites and populace to the banking center: the peripheral "colonials" borrow money to buy the finished goods sold by the "core," doubly enriching the center with 1) interest and the transactional "skim" of financializing assets such as real estate, and 2) the profits made selling goods to the debtors.

In essence, the "core" nations of the E.U. colonized the "peripheral" nations via the financializing euro, which enabled a massive expansion of debt and consumption in the periphery.

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,558.50, EUR 1,239.27, and GBP 993.62 per ounce. Yesterday's AM fix this morning was USD 1,555.00, EUR 1,229.44, and GBP 989.56 per ounce.
Gold fell $5.60 or 0.36% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,561.20/oz. Gold has been trading sideways in Asia and was slightly lower in Europe prior to buying which saw gold rise to about the close in New York yesterday. 

We will start with an appetizer of Liquidity Tenders and Securities Market Program Bond Purchases, move on to a plate of Emergency Liquidity Assistance, sample a pre-entre of Pro-Growth measures and ECB Covered Bond purchases, dive into an entre of Fed Swap Lines, medium rare, with a side of Emergency Liquidity Assistance, and finally unwind with a desert plate of Firewalls. To close we will dream of tomorrow' menu which some say may feature the mythical Eurobonds and even the, gasp, legendary Europan Bank Deposit Guarantee... Please charge it all to the taxpayer, of course.

Peripheral stock indices underperformed in early trade, with banks under considerable selling pressure amid renewed tensions in credit markets. Wave after wave of poor data from the European PMIs and the German IFOs placed shares under further pressure and talk of macro names selling EUR/USD weighed on the pair. As a result, in the fixed income space, the German 2/5 spread traded at levels not seen since December 2008. However as the session progressed, stocks staged a decent recovery, which coincided with unconfirmed market talk of an asset reallocation trade, together with talk of Asian real money accounts buying French OATs, which in turn prompted sharp tightening in FR/GE 10y bond yield spread. This also supported EUR/USD, which after coming close to making a test on the 1.2500 barrier is now trading little changed. In other news, the ONS reported that the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of the year, more than previously thought. The downward revision was due to a bigger contraction in construction output than previously estimated. Despite this, FTSE in the cash has persisted, and is the strongest performing index in Europe today.

• China Pledges More ‘Fine-Tuning’ in Support for Growth (Bloomberg)... more promises, just never any actual funding
• Spain Calls for Help to Lower Borrowing Rates (AP)
• China Is a Black Box of Misinformation (Bloomberg)
• Fed data expose US$100bn JP Morgan blunder (IFRE)
• EU Chiefs Clash on Bonds Amid Call Greece Keep Cutting (Bloomberg)
• Spain to Recapitalize Bankia in Latest Bailout (WSJ)
• The running schizo tally: EU urges Greece to stay in euro, plans for possible exit (Reuters)
• The Seeds of the EU’s Crisis Were Sown 60 Years Ago (Bloomberg)
• Fed's Bullard says orderly Greek exit possible (Reuters)
• Some Big Firms Got Facebook Warning (WSJ)
• Chesapeake Raises Big Bet in Ohio (WSJ)

If there was one catalyst for the market to be "convinced" of an imminent coordinated liquidity injection, as Zero Hedge first hinted yesterday, or simply a 25-50 bps rate cut from the ECB as some other banks are suggesting and Spain's ever more desperate Rajoy is now demanding, it was the overnight battery of European Flash PMI, all of which came abysmal, throughout Europe, the consolidated Eurozone PMI posting the worst monthly downturn since mid-2009, the PMI Composite Output and Manufacturing Index printing at a 35 month low of 45.9 and 44.7 respectively. PMIs by core country were atrocious: France Mfg PMI at 44.4 on Exp of 47.0 and down from 46.9, a 36 month low; German Mfg PMI at 45.0 on Exp. of 47.0 and down from 46.2. The implication, as the charts below show, is that GDP in Europe is now negative virtually across the board. Adding insult to injury was the UK whose GDP fell 0.3%, more than the 0.2% drop initially expected. The cherry on top was German IFO business climate, which tumbled from 109.9 to 106.9 on Expectations of 109.4 print, as the European crisis is finally starting to drag the German economy down, or as Goldman classifies it, "a clear loss in momentum." What does it all add up to? Why nothing but a massive surge in risk, as the market's entire future is now once again in the hands of the #POMOList, pardon, the central banks: unless the ECB steps up, Europe will implode due to not only political but economic tensions at this point. Sadly, as in the US, by frontrunning this event, the markets make it more improbable, thus setting itself up for an even bigger drop the next time there is no validation of an intervention rumor: after all recall what sent stocks up 1.5% yesterday - a completely false rumor of a deposit insurance proposal to come out of the European Summit. It didn't, but that didn't prevent markets to not only keep their massive end of day gains, but to add to them. it is officially: we have entered the summer doldrums, when bad is good, and horrible is miraculous.

All you need to read.