Greece

Last night's major anti-IMF rally at Athens Syntagma square was one of the largest peaceful protests in Greece to date. There was one notable highlight: the dubious distinction of Greece's George Papaconstantinou as Goldman's employee of the decade (speaking of Goldman, whatever happened to that Fed investigation into Goldman's use of "derivative arrangements" with Greece. Reminder: "We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece" Bernanke said in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee). Below is a photographic gallery of last night's events courtesy of Preza.tv

Back in September 2010, Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the second largest in the world, decided to be contrarian for contrarianness' sake, and announced it had "stocked up on Greek debt, as well as bonds of Spain, Italy and Portugal. Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen says he backs the strategy, which contributed to a 3.4 percent loss on European fixed income in the second quarter, compared with gains on bonds in Asia and the Americas." The explanation was one that not even the high priests of obfuscation and lies back in the US, which only invest in "maturity" could come up: "“The point is, do you expect these guys to default?” said Harvinder Sian, senior fixed-income strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, in an interview. “Norway has taken the view that they will not. The Greek holdings are particularly interesting because the consensus in the market is that they will at some point restructure or default. Norway says its long-term perspective will protect it from losses. “One could say we are investing for infinity,” Johnsen said in an Aug. 27 interview. “It is important when you look at the time scope of the fund and the investments that there should be a portion of active management." Less than a year later, infinity appears to have finally arrived. The FT reports that the fund "recently announced plans gradually to reduce exposure to Europe, which currently accounts for half its equity holdings, as part of efforts to increase diversification but Mr Slyngstad said the fund remained bullish about the region in the long-run. However, he acknowledged the “enormous challenge” facing eurozone policymakers and voiced concern over the potential repercussions of a possible restructuring of Greek debts. “It is difficult to see all the secondary effects of such a move and therefore I think there will be a lot of caution before any such decisions will be taken,” he said." But, But... Didn't they say just 9 months ago that there was no risk of Greek default? Perhaps it is a good thing nobody actually holds these gentlemen, or anybody else for that matter, accountable for the outright stupidity they tend to spout on way too many occasions.

• US banks to cut Treasuries use (FT)
• Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall Street Cash (NYT)
• Banks battle over US tax law (FT)
• In Greece, Some See a New Lehman (NYT)
• Treasury Strips Emerging as Wall Street Favorite as U.S. Recovery Falters (Bloomberg)
• Lagarde strengthens IMF bid with Indonesia backing (Reuters)
• Why Not Go For 5% Growth? (John Taylor)
• ‘Perfect Storm’ May Threaten Global Economy: Roubini (Bloomberg)
• Powerful quakes rattle New Zealand city, six injured (Reuters)
• Syrian forces take border town as inhabitants flee (Reuters)
• Flawed Titan of the Fed (Newsweek)

Good morning Europe: do you know where you record wide PIIGS CDS are? From Reuters: "The cost of insuring Greek government debt against default rose to a record high of 1,600 basis points on Monday, hit by concerns that any second rescue of Greece will trigger a credit event or at least multi-notch rating downgrade of its debt. Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek government debt rose 58 bps on the day to 1,600 bps, according to data monitor Markit.  The Markit iTraxx index of western European sovereign CDS was up 9 bps on the day at 220 bps, near a record high of 221 bps hit on January 10. Portuguese CDS were up 40 bps at 773 bps, while Irish CDS were 33 bps higher at 745 bps, both at record highs. Spanish CDS were up 13 bps at 289 bps." The slow motion European implosion is now accelerating as the reality that there is no spoon, nor rescue plan, is finally appreciated.

The global economy is so rattled by price inflation, unemployment, natural disasters and global financial and political instability that it doesn’t know if it’s been “shot, f@*#ed, powder-burned or snakebit,”...

In yet another bad omen for Greece, now that Bailout Plan #2 has been demonstrated to be impractical and every question related to it is met at best with silence, it is back to plan B: letting Greece default. And in what is very good news for longs in the Drachma black market (which is already offered on an "when issued" basis by several large financial institutions), the Bundesbank's president Jens Weidmann just announced that “If the [Greek] commitments are not met, that cancels the basis for further funds from the aid package,” Weidmann told the newspaper. “This would be Greece’s decision, and the country then would have to bear the surely dramatic economic consequences of a default. I don’t think this would be sensible, and it would surely put partner countries in a difficult situation. But the euro would even in this case remain stable.” Translation: we now believe our banks are well enough reserved for what comes next. It also means that the rift with the ECB, which will be exposed as near-insolvent courtesy of using Greek collateral for tens of billions of loans that will have to be impaired, is now terminal. As for the far trickier, and now answered, question where the money to withstand this upcoming systemic shock comes from, just read this expose on the Fed's use of QE2 reserves.

Courtesy of the recently declassified Fed discount window documents, we now know that the biggest beneficiaries of the Fed's generosity during the peak of the credit crisis were foreign banks, among which Belgium's Dexia was the most troubled, and thus most lent to, bank. Having been thus exposed, many speculated that going forward the US central bank would primarily focus its "rescue" efforts on US banks, not US-based (or local branches) of foreign (read European) banks: after all that's what the ECB is for, while the Fed's role is to stimulate US employment and to keep US inflation modest. And furthermore, should the ECB need to bail out its banks, it could simply do what the Fed does, and monetize debt, thus boosting its assets, while concurrently expanding its excess reserves thus generating fungible capital which would go to European banks. Wrong. Below we present that not only has the Fed's bailout of foreign banks not terminated with the drop in discount window borrowings or the unwind of the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, but that the only beneficiary of the reserves generated were US-based branches of foreign banks (which in turn turned around and funnelled the cash back to their domestic branches), a shocking finding which explains not only why US banks have been unwilling and, far more importantly, unable to lend out these reserves, but that anyone retaining hopes that with the end of QE2 the reserves that hypothetically had been accumulated at US banks would be flipped to purchase Treasurys, has been dead wrong, therefore making the case for QE3 a done deal. In summary, instead of doing everything in its power to stimulate reserve, and thus cash, accumulation at domestic (US) banks which would in turn encourage lending to US borrowers, the Fed has been conducting yet another stealthy foreign bank rescue operation, which rerouted $600 billion in capital from potential borrowers to insolvent foreign financial institutions in the past 7 months. QE2 was nothing more (or less) than another European bank rescue operation!

The first rule of media (especially when dealing with an idiot audience that has a 7 second attention span): when all else fails, redirect. That's precisely what Eurogroup president, and certified, sanctimonious, pompous liar, Jean-Claude Juncker just did today, as it is becoming increasingly clear that nobody in Europe has any clue just what the Greek bailout #2 will look like now that the ECB and Germany are at polar opposites on how to proceed, the ECB thinks it is a rating agency and can dictate what an Event of Default is, and German bankers are willing to cede to private involvement in the bailout, but in a way that is voluntary. The problem is that these three are very much mutually exclusive. So what does Juncker go ahead and do - he redirects to highlighting the problems of the US: "The debt level of the USA is disastrous," Mr. Juncker said. "The real problem is that no one can explain well why the euro zone is in the epicenter of a global financial challenge at a moment, at which the fundamental indicators of the euro zone are substantially better than those of the U.S. or Japanese economy." That may well be the defining moment: by now everyone knows that the global economy is a massive pyramid scheme. Yet to this point, those in control have at least kept their mouths shut. However, when in order to explain one's insolvency, those at the very top of the control pyramid have no other choice than to point out just how broke others are (when in reality it is all one big, interconnected, "globalized" and truly insolvent Ponzi), then the unwind has begin.

Many have asked for it, so here it is: the full list of gentlemen (and ladies) attending this year's Bilderberg conference. Some wonder if like in previous years, when following the group's 2009 and 2010 meetings in Greece and Spain, the host countries have subsequently had to deal with some sad episodes of sovereign insolvency, if 2011 host Switzerland, despite its ironclad Swiss National Bank (except for all those dollars on the balance sheet of course) may be next...

From Greek website Capital: "George Papandreou said that reforms on the political system or the public administration need the voting of Greek people through referendums. Furthermore, he stated that “the road will be difficult but we must endure the pain”, adding that he is determined to proceed with all the necessary changes to make the country’s debt sustainable."

The near 100% equity run up at the height of the correction was easily seen by my and my staff, but I severely underestimated the breadth and depth of this synthetically contrived, central bank centrally planned, bear market rally (which is essentially what has been called a "recovery" of late).

• Germany Digs In On Greek Debt Restructuring (Bloomberg)
• Libya emerges as Opec's big winner (FT)
• Athens approves four-year austerity package (FT)
• Germany sticks to demand for Greek bond swap (Reuters)
• Fed said to consider expansion of capital reviews (Bloomberg)
• Ally Financial delaying IPO (Reuters)
• Tokyo Riot Squad to Safeguard Tepco Meeting (Bloomberg)
• Christine Lagarde's victory a "done deal" says IMF rival (Telegraph)
• Jamie Dimon's faulty capital requirement math (Simon Johnson)

Something quite disturbing happened during today's latest attempt by the Fed to sell $3.8 billion in face amount of Maiden Lane 2 assets: it had a busted dutch auction. In fact, the auction was so massively busted, the New York Fed managed to sell only half of the bonds for sale, or $1.898 billion in 36 Cusips of the total 73 Cusips offered for sale. Suddenly, the Fed's attempts to sale piecemeal portions of the $31 billion Maiden Lane II portfolio that was offered to be repurchased by AIG, and subsequently was offered for open auction as Zero Hedge first suggested, is starting to backfire, after a month ago several traders complained that instead of "dribbling" out small piece of the portfolio (the previous average auction block notional for sale was under $1 billion). As per Housing Wire from May 17, which cited a complaint by an MBS trader: "if you charge ahead and bleed out one or two lists a week for the next
10 to 12 weeks, prices will continue to go lower, and in the interest of
maximizing value for the taxpayer, I think it is time to re-engage the
large portfolio bid you had or make available to other counterparties
the ability to bid large chunks of what you have left to sell." Well, the trader got what he wanted... And in the process may have blown up the credit market. As Bloomberg reports, "Federal Reserve auctions of mortgage securities that the central bank assumed in the rescue of American International Group Inc. are fueling a selloff in credit markets as Wall Street rushes to hedge against losses on stockpiled debt." Sure enough, someone focusing on the equity market may be completely oblivious to the devastation that has been unleashed on HY and IG traders: "Declines in credit-default swaps indexes used to protect against losses on subprime housing debt and commercial mortgages accelerated this month, reaching almost 20 percent in the past five weeks as the cost of the insurance climbs, according to Markit Group Ltd. The plunge this week started infecting everything from junk bonds to the debt of financial companies." And while as Bloomberg points out that there is a confluence of technical and fundamental factors affecting credit sentiment,  "You almost have a perfect storm of events,” said Shah of AllianceBernstein. “You have both the fundamental justifications for the market going lower and you have the technicals being created by Maiden Lane” there is a far scarier implication. If dealers and funds are unable to handle a mere $31 billion MBS portfolio disposition, and its weekly sale (think of its as a reverse repo) is starting to cause massive ripples in the bond market, just what will happen when dealers are forced to hold back the tens of billions in weekly bond auctions they freely flip back to the Fed now. In other words, is the credit market on the verge of a oversaturation implosion (hence the title)?

Stocks outperformed credit at the index level today but there was a significant shift in internals in corporate credit that provides the context for continued weakness in risk assets.

On the rare occasion that I’m bored, I like to watch 24-hour news television for entertainment. It’s hilarious watching the talking heads spin out of control in apoplectic fits when they’re essentially arguing the same point; they might be from different parties, but they’re merely battling over small details of the same government-sponsored solution. Recently I caught one of these talking head financial experts on TV arguing about debt levels in the United States. He was saying that the US debt doesn’t matter all that much because the US government has so many assets to offset its debt. For example, he suggested that things like the highway system, national parks, and strategic petroleum reserve would more than offset America’s liabilities, so the looming national debt isn’t such a big deal after all. He couldn’t have been more wrong.