Funding Mismatch

Last week, Bernanke's first (of four) lecture at George Washington University was entirely dedicated to attempting to discredit gold and all that sound money stands for. The propaganda machine was so transparent that it hardly merited a response: those away from the MSM know the truth (which, simply said, is the "creation" of over $100 trillion in derivatives in just the first six months of 2011 to a record $707 trillion - how does one spell stability?), while those who rely on mainstream media for the news would never see an alternative perspective - financial firms are not among the top three sources of advertising dollars for legacy media for nothing. Still, for those who feel like the Chairman's word need to be challenged, the following extensive and annotated reply by QBAMCO's Paul Brodsky makes a mockery of the Fed's full on assault on gold, and any attempts by the subservient media to defend it. To wit: "Has anyone asked why so many powerful people are going out of their way to discredit an inert rock? We think it comes down to maintaining power and control over commercial economies. After professionally watching Fed chairmen cajole, threaten, persuade and manage sentiment in the markets since 1982, we argue this latest permutation is understandable, predictable and, for those willing to bet on the Fed’s ultimate success in saving the banking system (as we are), quite exciting.... Gold is no longer being ignored and gold holders are no longer being laughed at. “The Powers That Be” seem to have begun a campaign to discredit gold."

There are relatively few natural buyers of Spanish long dated bonds here. Fast money is likely caught long, and it will take a potentially reluctant ECB and some already overly exposed Spanish institutions to step up and stop the slide. It may happen, but many of the policies that “bailed out” Greece created very bad precedents for bondholders, and some of those are coming home to roost, as is the understanding that LTRO ensures that banks can access liquidity, but does nothing to fix any problem at the sovereign level.

You know there is a reason why Europe just came crawling with an advance handout looking for US assistance: Moody's just went apeshit on Europe.

• Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative
• France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative
• Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook
• Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook
• Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook
• Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook
• Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook
• Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook
• United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

In other news, we wouldn't want to be the company that insured Moody's Milan offices.

You're about to hear a big boom come from across the Atlantic, but I've yet to hear a peep from the rating agencies. And many of you guys think they were delinquent during the other credit bubble!!!????

More reasons why quality blogs should be staple fodder for those who are serious about real information and analysis. Now reporters, editors, bankers, analysts, managers, politicos & regulators frequent blogs. Do you wonder why?

Follow Europe, banks or corporates? You're out of your damn mind if you subscribe to rating agencies over Blog based independent research!!! Don't believe me? I'll walk you through the evidence, step by step!

You know the saying...It's not paranoia if they're really after you. Europe is much, much closer to universal bank collapse than the media is letting on. You, my friends, are getting a distorted picture of mis(or dis, depending on your paranoia level)information. Enter Bear Stearns 2.0 without a JPM to swallow it with Fed help, or Lehman Brothers 4.0x5!

As we get closer to that point where economic reality and financial fact override/overpower politics & concerted central financial planning that attempts to outlaw insitutional failure, we need to employ fact based strategies backed by research based in realism to not only capitalize, but even last through the coming storm.

A European Bank Run: Step-by-Step. I outline the problems of a single bank that, unfortunately, is shared by many. This time next year, never let anybody tell you that this couldn't be seen coming as I illustrate how it will happen, and in detail!

Recent history shows us what happens when you borrow short and lend long against assets that have been halved in value, hasn't it? Guess who hasn't been to (very recent) history class...

Even as the immediate factor for the 1000 point drop in the Dow is investigated for the next several months by the SEC, a process which will likely not come to any reasonable market structure regulatory recommendation before the SEC is forced to analyze the next subsequent (and even greater) crash, the one primary fundamental cause for the sell off in stocks this week was the ever deteriorating situation in Europe. As the euro tumbled on Thursday afternoon, which we noted 20 minutes before the stock market crash began in earnest, as implied correlation algos went berserk, and as viewers were witnessing the near-warfare in Athens live, things just got too real for speculators (investors is so 20^th century). Various computerized trading platforms merely kicked on (or rather, off) after the initial panic had already set in, and liquidity evaporated, leading to the implosion in the market. And the primary reason for the initial market pessimism early on Thursday was the fact that even as the whole world was listening to Jean-Claude Trichet to say soothing words after the ECB's rate decision, the central bank president once again did not realize the gravity of the situation. And to speculators, long habituated to Bernanke's endorsement of infinite moral hazard and speculative mania, the fact that someone refused to play "ball" and leave open the possibility that failure is still permitted in our day and age was the last straw. Now, 48 hours later, we learn that the rumors, which we reported about the ECB preparing a bailout fund, were indeed true. Our sense is that at this point the ECB's action is "too little, too late" as contagion fear has already crept deep within the fabric of various overt and shadow funding/liquidity mechanisms. Additionally, the world is now convinced that Europe can only deal with problems retroactively, and who knows how big and unfixable the next problem will be: the ECB, which has lost most of its credibility after "inviting" the IMF to do a heavy part of the bailout, is about to become the laughing stock of global central banks. Trichet is seen merely as a powerless bureaucrat, caught between Merkel's electoral struggles and Bernanke's demands for contagion interception and implicit Fed supremacy over Europe. The contagion from the "isolated" Greek fiasco is rapidly spreading. Here are some of the ways in which markets are about to be affected.

Are exogenous events on the real economy about to bring a round 2 of the eurodollar short squeeze, and will the newly-instituted USD-funded carry trade amplify the effects of the unwind?

"When investors are forced to sell even their less-speculative positions to make good on their loans, markets spiral lower and create a severe demand for cash. At that point, the Minsky moment has arrived." The Minsky moment is, once again, knocking on the door.

A candid look at the burgeoning US T-Bill holdings, the ever-worsening asset-liability duration and funding mismatch, and the implications for "moderating credit conditions", money on the sidelines, and US monetary policy, at a time when 2009 Treasury interest expense is set to surpass half a trillion dollars for the first time in history.

Courtesy of the Fed's own disastrous policy of flooding the market with trillions of cheap credit over the past several decades, the resulting massive one-sided trade of buying dollar denominated securities, funded with inappropriately duration matched products, ended up in $6.5 trillion of Fed-funded global Moral Hazard exposure. When the wheels came off the financial system last fall, the Fed had to step in and bail out all foreign Central Banks. From the BIS: "In providing US dollars on a global scale, the Federal Reserve effectively engaged in international lending of last resort...What pushed the system to the brink was not cross-currency funding per se, but rather too many large banks employing funding strategies in the same direction, the funding equivalent of a crowded trade." The imminent question - How long until the next iteration of the Fiat banking system's most crowded trade (long US-denominated securities, courtesy of a cheap carry trade somewhere in the world) pulls the system back to the brink again?