Irrational Exuberance

Some rather scary predictions out of Paul Farrell today: "It’s inevitable: Wall Street banks control the Federal Reserve system,
it’s their personal piggy bank. They’ve already done so much damage, yet
have more control than ever.Warning: That’s a set-up. They will eventually destroy capitalism,
democracy, and the dollar’s global reserve-currency status. They will
self-destruct before 2035 … maybe as early as 2012 … most likely by
2020. Last week we cheered the Tea Party for starting the countdown to the
Second American Revolution. Our timeline is crucial to understanding the
historic implications of Taleb’s prediction that the Fed is dying, that
it’s only a matter of time before a revolution triggers class warfare
forcing America to dump capitalism, eliminate our corrupt system of
lobbying, come up with a new workable form of government, and create a
new economy without a banking system ruled by Wall Street." And just like in the Hangover, where the guy is funny because he's fat, Farrell is scary cause he is spot on correct.

My last post "Correlation of mortgage rates with real housing prices: how increasing inflation could affect housing prices", raised some questions. I didn't have the chance to respond to them. But before I do, let me go back to the original purpose of the article. I asked the question, "What could happen to real estate in the event of higher inflation?" If inflation shot up from 1% to 7%, what would happen to the real value of your home. My thesis was: you're screwed. You will lose what little equity you have and real housing prices could drop by as high as 50%. - Taylor Cottam

The year is 2002, America has just woken up with the worst post dot.com hangover ever. Paul Krugman then, just as now, writes worthless op-eds for the NYT. And then, just as now, the Keynsian acolyte recommended excess spending as the solution to all of America problems. Only this one time, at band camp, Krugman went too far. If there is one thing that everyone can agree on, is that the Housing Bubble, is arguably the worst thing to ever happen to America, bringing with it such pestilence and locusts as the credit bubble, the end of free market capitalism, and the inception of American-style crony capitalism. Those who ignored it, even though it was staring them in the face, such as Greenspan and Bernanke, now have their reputation teetering on the edge of oblivion. So what can we say of those who openly endorsed it as a solution to America's problems? Enter exhibit A: New York Times, August 2, 2002, "Dubya's Double Dip?" Name the author: "The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar
slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates
and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the
Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a
morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this
recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household
spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as
Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing
bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble." If you said Krugman, you win. Indeed, the idiocy of Keynesianism knew no bounds then, as it does now. The solution then, as now, to all problems was more bubbles, more spending, more deficits. So we have the implosion tech bubble: And what does Krugman want to create, to fix it? Why, create a housing bubble... Well, at least we know now how that advice played out.

Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, was more directly responsible for the current Global Depression than even his worst critics realize. Here is the explanation why. —Gonzalo Lira.

While traditionally technicals have been considered voodoo by the vast majority of "legitimate" financial analysts, lately the trend has flipped, and scribbling that one is something as demode as a fundamental analyst tends to generate scowls of disapproval and outright disgust from PMs with a 10 second holding horizon during hedge fund interviews. Which is why looking at the chartist tea leaves, as Goldman's John Noyce has done, suggests that those looking for much more irrational exuberance in bond yields may get their wish, as a double top formation may be forming in 10 Years. The result of a broader double top would likely be an end target of between 2% and 2.2% in the 10 Year, and something potentially as low as 2.84% in the 30 Year, which would probably put all those with TBT exposure in the poor house.

ICI reports that the week ended July 14 saw another massive outflow from domestic equity mutual funds of $3.2 billion, bringing the July total to $7.3 billion, and year-to-date equity outflows to a stunning $37.5 billion. Yet neither liquidations, nor redemptions, nor mutual fund capitulation, nor lack of liquidity, nor lack of human traders, nor rumors that it is all one big scam, can tame the market's most recent bout of irrational exuberance: in a time when equity funds had to redeem over $7 billion in stocks, the stock market surged by 90 points! Just like last week, despite huge order blocks of selling pressure, the fact that volume is so light and liquidity so tight, the market succeeds in ramping ever higher, now that the few remaining carbon-based market participants have reverse engineered the key algo "predictive" frontrunning mechanisms, and manage to fool them that there is bid side interest, into which all domestic equity mutual funds manage to sell en masse. Soon enough there will be little left to sell, which will, paradoxically cause a much overdue market crash. (It is a bizarro market for a reason). And even as equity mutual funds are running on fumes (explains Bill Miller's call of desperation yesterday), all the money in the world continues to rush into credit funds: the past week saw inflows into every single bond category, with a total of $5.8 billion going into all taxable bond funds. We are gratified that behind the fake equity facade of "alliswellishness", everyone is pulling their money out of stocks with an increased sense of urgency. Retail has had it with this pathetic shitshow of a market: the computer can front run each other for all anyone cares. We are fairly confident that the Obama administration will not have a soft spot in its heart to bail out the quant community... unless, of course, Rahm Emanuel discovers some way to unionize algorithms and give them voting rights.

Actually, I did tell you last quarter (and 2 years ago) that not only is Goldman basically the world's largest, federally insured hedge fund (with trading influenced earnings volatility to prove it), but that most pundits have forgotten their balance sheet threatens solvency in times of high volatility and rapidly declining prices. 2008, anyone? Anyone???

D'oh!

It seems everyone is perplexed by the most recent irrational bout of July market action. Like clockwork, once July rolls in, the market surges, no questions asked. This year, the ramp is particularly blatant because as the attached chart demonstrates, bonds, which are a far more credible barometer of market (in)sanity, indicate the S&P is rich by at about 50 points. As this spread will most certainly converge eventually as we discussed previously, a short stock, short bond position would generate some much needed P&L in this world of deranged fractal algorithms. As to what may have caused the most recent bout of irrational exuberance, David Rosenberg has the most logical, and generic solution: excess liquidity and a short covering spree, and "nothing fundamental here."

The irrational exuberance of the last 24 hours has evaporated following the Meredith Whitney downgrade of Goldman 2010 EPS, but mostly after reports that some European banks are so busted they managed to fail an exquisitely doctored test designed so that no banks would fail. The market is once again wondering if someone can fail this farce, what would the test of reality look like? The result: the traditional carry-risk correlation has once again recoupled and with countless such occurrences continues to be the most routinely profitable intraday trade available.
The irrational exuberance of the last 24 hours has evaporated following reports that some European banks are so busted to fail an exquisitely doctored test designed so that no banks would fail. The market is once again wondering if someone can fail this farce, what would reality look like? The result: the traditional carry-risk correlation has once again recoupled and with countless such occurrences continues to be the most routinely profitable intraday trade available.

Irrational exuberance or Rational idiocy?

If Goldman Sachs wanted to reduce its exposure to subprime mortgage investments, why didn't it simply sell the assets it owned? Two reasons: First, those large sales would have sent a signal that something was terribly, terribly wrong, and thereby pushed prices down further. That's how supply and demand normally works. Second, Goldman professed to be market maker, which uses its trading book to instill confidence. It ostensibly bought, sold and inventoried mortgage securities to provide stability and liquidity to the marketplace. Of course, we now know that such market confidence was entirely misplaced. To sidestep these issues, Goldman and other major banks found a solution that subverted the laws of supply and demand, and escaped the price discovery of a transparent marketplace. They fabricated synthetic CDOs, such as Abacus 2007 AC-1. These toxic assets, invented out of thin air, made the meltdown worse than it otherwise would have been.

The VIX has just hit the lowest level since July of 2007 as Sentiment Trader reports that "speculation in the options market has spiked to its highest levels since the spring of 2000." The government's endorsed moral hazard policy has now lead to the worst of both the dot.com and the housing bubbles. There is nothing that can ever again default or lose money: Uncle Sam is there with your money to guarantee it. Ben Bernanke sees no bubble anywhere.

Dudley talks theory, avoids practice, when discussing the driving force behind today's market - the biggest asset bubble reflation in history. Although to be fair, Dudley does destroy the concept of efficient markets and notes that when we enter the irrational exuberance everyone piles on the same side of the trade, only to realize there is nobody to sell to when the bubble pops. Dudley says nothing to indicate that Fed pundits are anything beyond theoretical puppets of Wall Street, whose sole purpose is to reflate the market to the highest possible point before recent events catch up with Wall Street surreality. And we quote, courtesy of Geoffrey Batt: state of emergency in Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and parts of South Africa, increasing violence in Iraq and Pakistan, bombing in India, multiple bombings in Russia, imminent Greek default, talk of Iran invasion, Karzai claiming he may join the Taliban, South Korean ship attacked and destroyed, Israel considering using nukes as a preemptive weapon, UK elections, massive banker backlash, and so much more. Yet all investors care about is whether the iPad's WiFi can penetrate 1 inch of drywall (ignoring that by buying apple shares, they are selling life insurance on Steve Jobs), and whether everyone can pretend just long enough that there is nothing moving this market but excess liquidity, before it all unravels with the 1% of the population that has profitted the most long taken profits and relaxing on a beach in a non-extradition Pacific island.