Nomura

While his diagnosis of the balance sheet recessionary outbreak that is sweeping global economies (including China now he fears) is a useful framework for understanding ZIRP's (and monetary stimulus broadly) general inability to create a sustainable recovery, his one-size-fits-all government-borrow-and-spend to infinity (fiscal deficits during balance sheet recessions are good deficits) solution is perhaps becoming (just as he said it would) politically impossible to implement. In his latest missive, the Nomura economist does not hold back with the blame-bazooka for the mess we are in and face in 2012. Initially criticizing US and now European bankers and politicians for not recognizing the balance sheet recession, Koo takes to task the ECB and European governments (for implementing LTRO which simply papers over the cracks without solving the underlying problem of the real economy suggesting bank capital injections should be implemented immediately), then unloads on the EBA's 9% Tier 1 capital by June 2012 decision, and ends with a significant dressing-down of the Western ratings agencies (and their 'ignorance of economic realities'). While believing that Greece is the lone profligate nation in Europe, he concludes that Germany should spend-it-or-send-it (to the EFSF) as capital flight flows end up at Berlin's gates. Given he had the holidays to unwind, we sense a growing level of frustration in the thoughtful economist's calm demeanor as he realizes his prescription is being ignored (for better or worse) and what this means for a global economy (facing deflationary deleveraging and debt minimization) - "It appears as though the world economy will remain under the spell of the housing bubble collapse that began in 2007 for some time yet" and it will be a "miracle if Europe does not experience a full-blown credit contraction."

• Europe’s $39T Pension Threat Grows as Economy Sputters (Bloomberg)
• Monti Warns of Italy Protests as He Meets Merkel (Bloomberg)
• Bernanke Doubling Down on Housing Bet Asks Government to Help: Mortgages (Bloomberg)
• Europe Banks Resist Draghi Bid to Avoid Crunch by Hoarding Cash (Bloomberg)
• Europe Fears Rising Greek Cost (WSJ)
• ECB’s Nowotny Sees Risk of Mild Recession in Euro Region (Bloomberg)
• Republican Senators Criticize Fed Recommendations on Housing (Bloomberg)
• Spanish Banks Try to Build Their Way Out of Home Glut (WSJ)
• Europe Stocks Fluctuate After German Auction (Bloomberg)

As investors proceed happily through the forest that is this week's potentially epic fail, Nomura asks the question on every European is asking - What's in my wallet? Investors holding EUR-denominated assets and obligations face potential redenomination of contracts into new currencies. Based on the current misalignment of the real exchange rate and future inflation risk estimates, the fixed income group sees very material depreciation risks in most of the periphery and one surprise but critically the research enables risk-reward trade-offs on intra-European trades. This potential 'fungibility' issue is exactly what we described last week as a potential driver of stress and Nomura's work provides a framework for quantifying that relative stress. That said, Nomura adds the usual disclaimer: "For full disclosure, we are not regarding the break-up scenario as our central case." But... there is always a But. "But it has become a real risk over the last few months, and a possibility for which investors should now plan."

Below we present the note from Nomura which is making the rounds today following the WSJ article referencing it and which touches upon a topic discussed by Zero Hedge way back before even the second Greek bailout from July 21, namely that the statutory law governing the sovereign bond indenture (i.e., whether bonds are issued under Greek or English law) should have major implications for trading dynamics due to the defatul fallback currency in the case of a currency collapse. In a nutshell: "Bonds issued under local law, such as Greek law, would likely be converted from euros into a new local currency—a blow to any investors left holding the paper. "New" currencies, such as a new drachma, could rapidly fall in value by as much as 50%, according to most estimates. Foreign-law debt, on the other hand, would be more likely to remain in euros, assuming a smaller euro still existed at all, the bank said." That Nomura and the WSJ is only half a year late with this discussion is not surprising. What is surprising is that the discussion has appeared in the first place: needless to say this is another rhetorical escalation in the push to get Merkel on the "same page" as it being telegraphed all too loudly that investors are now actively gearing up for a Eurozone collapse. Then again Nomura bankers are people too and deserve to be well paid for being part of the detested 1%. How else will this happen unless they too join the onslaught by the global banking syndicate which now consists of Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and virtually everyone else, expect for Goldman of course, which appears quite happy with the chips falling as they may. After all, it already has Europe by the political short hairs. Now it just needs to take charge financially too. If in the process a few not so good banks are converted into omelette, so be it.

Tired of all the trite meaningless propaganda from Economic PhDs who crawl out of the woodwork every time there is a downtick in gold, proclaiming in big bold letters that the Gold "bubble" has burst, only to crawl right back in when gold soars $100/oz in the days following their latest terminally wrong proclamation? Or, alterantively, wondering what will happen to gold from this point on? Then the following report from Nomura is for you. As Saeed Amen analyzes: "In this article we explain why the price of gold has fallen in recent weeks. Notably, price action during Asian hours has become very bearish, which had not been the case in previous unwinds earlier in the year. In addition, it is likely that losses in risky assets such as equities helped precipitate unwinding of very heavily extended long gold positions. However, the key reasons for being bullish gold remain; namely, a very low interest rate environment and the potential for long-term demand from Asia. Also, the potential for gold’s status as a safe-haven hedge to tail risks arising from various uncertainties due to the European debt crisis is likely to be enhanced, especially now that short-term speculative positioning is relatively light. Also on a short-term basis, we have begun to see some reversal in gold  back upwards during Asian hours, after the unwind." Overall, informative but nothing new to regular readers: gold liquidations on market plunge (confirming ironically that gold is now among the most liquid types of investments in the market) as had been predicted months ago, and the same long-term fundamentals for the metal once the current stock downturn shakes out all the weak hands.

Tired of all the lies that a US downgrade will have no impact whatsoever on unsecured funding be it money markets, repo or so many other shadow banking system components (full list is below)? So are we. Which is why we were very interested to read the following summary of a Nomura research report that a US downgrade "may cause a repo liquidity freeze." Remember the Ice-9 in money markets following Lehman? Well, it may not be quite as big as money markets (last at $2.7 trillion), but at $1.3 trillion, frozen Repos will certainly cause a lot of headaches, especially with a dramatic scarcity of short-term Bills available in the market place for replacement capital flow. For all those wondering why the Fed and the BIS have been writing paper after paper (here, here and here) warning about the potential complications arising from the shadow banking system, this is precisely the reason.

From Nomura: "The way the data and psychology has turned down just as QE2 is ending is no coincidence – just like it was no coincidence when the same thing happened at the end of QE1. To use the Fed Chairman's preferred term these days – the impact of QE is transitory. Much like fiscal stimulus, QE has a temporary impact but as soon as the extraordinary intervention ends, the patient begins to wither again. This is the trap that Bernanke fully understands and it seems like the endless monetization prophecies of Zerohedge and The Daily Dirtnap are at risk of coming true."

In his just released piece, Bob Janjuah's partner at Nomura, Kevin Gaynor, makes some quite profound and very contrarian observations on correlations, a topic discussed extensively on Zero Hedge in the past year. While the prevailing thought is that recently cross-asset correlations have actually dropped (in some cases to record levels), the truth is quite different: "While our colleagues in the Macro Strategy team have made a cogent case that price action in several markets reveals a more discerning behaviour and reduction in observed correlations, Bob and I have been coming around to a slightly different view. Many clients with whom we have spoken over recent weeks are becoming aware of the rather narrow sources of market drivers (two we would argue) and consequent similarities in terms of themes that have driven individual asset classes. It logically follows that anything changing the actual or expected state of those market drivers will have an impact on market returns across a range of risk types and geographies. More to the point, given the nature of those themes (mostly one way), we must be aware of the possibility for a non-linear response to linear changes in those market drivers. That's a fancy way of saying that correlation risk is actually rising in our opinion, as two themes appear to be dominating markets – western liquidity injections without leverage or EM FX appreciation and EM as the source of marginal final demand. These two potent forces have come to dominate the return environment. Consider leadership in DM equity indices since March 2009; it is basic materials and industrials and more lately oil and gas. Ex those sectors, western stock market returns would look rather more threadbare. But perhaps more the point in terms of the non-linearity issue is that the beta of the major indices to these sectors has naturally risen over the past 2 years. Whereas in the past, one had to broadly get financials correct to have a decent stab at calling equity returns (a gross oversimplification I know), it now seems to be the CRB sectors you need to get right." The follow through of all this, and it can be read below, is that the 30 year "great moderation" is rapidly ending and the inflationary threat is now very close, and would be EM driven. At that point none of the Fed's emergency tightening policies, no matter what Alan Blinder's textbook says, would have any impact whatsoever.

Reuters is reporting that Nomura is "downsizing" its commodities trading desk, resulting in some "job losses" - that is a modest euphemism. According to an insider, virtually the entire London commodity desk at Nomura was shown the door over the past several days, with deep cuts globally. This process however did not start today, and has been going on for a few days. As a result market expectations emerged earlier that there are commodity-related liquidations originating at Nomura. These are now likely very much unfounded, yet per two traders, the weakness in commodities is driven on expectations there is an legacy position unwind bottleneck. To an extent this is true, and the main reason why the WTI-Brent spread collapsed yesterday was due to the unwind of opposing bets by Nomura. Said unwinds are however now said to be completed, with little if anything left for liquidation, and we expect that the spread will promptly revert to its recent historical level in the $14-18 range, as the oversupply issues at Cushing persist as evidenced by today's DOE update. Additionally, the technical overhang on crude will soon be lifted after trading desks realize the order flow from Nomura has ceased.

Waiting for a Saudi revolution before buying those $200 oil calls? It may be time to reevaluate: according to Nomura a halt in just Libyan and Algerian oil production (far more likely than the crisis spilling over to Saudi) would send oil to over $220/bbl. Specifically "the closest comparison to the current MENA unrest is the 1990-91 Gulf War. If Libya and Algeria were to halt oil production together, prices could peak above US$220/bbl and OPEC spare capacity will be reduced to 2.1mmbbl/d, similar to levels seen during the Gulf war and when prices hit US$147/bbl in 2008." Wouldn't a doubling in price lead to a major demand plunge as well? Yes it would "This could also result in a temporary demand destruction of some 2.0mmbbl/d globally." Also, since the Fed's free money was not flooding global market last time, $220 is just a lowball estimate: "We could be underestimating this as speculative activities were largely not present in 1990-91."

Heading into 2011, assuming there are no major liquidity/insolvency events (and that is a big assumption, considering Europe is out there, somewhere) which will force more countries to come begging to various central banks, and international monetary authorities, and ultimately, the Federal Reserve, the key question is how should one look at rates, particularly on the long-end, opportunities in a world in which suddenly everyone (expect the US of course), is seeing their economies contract courtesy of austerity (which was just voted Webster's word of the year 2010). Demonstrating the continuum when it comes to making credit differentiation conclusions based on fiscal inequality, is Nomura's chart of the week, which provides a convenient tearsheet for the progression from Hong Kong on one end of the fiscal balance shortfall forecast spectrum, and ending with Greece, Ireland and Spain on the other. As Nomura notes: "Heading into 2011, significant fiscal divergence looks like a key theme for markets." This merely goes back to our broader theme from earlier this year, that any real asset upside will have to be made in the FX market, where relative performances are likely underappreciated, as opposed to equities, which are largely shunned by most, and where the only possible trade remains a levered beta play which, as always, takes the escalator up and the elevator down.

Just because "extended" and "exceptional" is so H1, 2010. With three brand new doves on the board of the Fed, it was only a matter of time before the printers realized that there is no reason why ZIRP should hold the central bank back, now that even hotdog vendors know all about the deleveraging double dip the US finds itself in. Up on deck we Nomura, which issued the first official change in a call for QE-Light. The firm's economists David Ressler and Zach Pandl, no doubt after consulting with Richard Koo, say, "we now expect the FOMC to 'ease' at the 10 August meeting. Exactly what form this easing might take is debatable. Our assumption is that they will change the language of the statement to signal that the balance sheet will remain expanded, and change policy around the MBS program to start reinvesting paydowns." It won't be the last. Should the Fed telegraph further easing, expect stocks to surge at least another 10% as the 10Y approaches 2.5% as nothing makes sense any more.

"Koo’s theory and his prescriptions for what currently ails the world are as fascinating as they are unconventional. Considering the woeful track record of orthodox economists (across the entire spectrum from liberal to conservative) in
diagnosing, much less treating, the body economic as it has been wracked with credit ills, Koo’s fresh perspectives, grounded in the searing experience of Japan’s Great Recession, demand careful consideration." Kathryn Welling

The news in commercial real estate keeps getting grimmer by the day. This crisis will have severe implications for pension funds that are carrying these properties on their books and banks that are exposed to commercial real estate loans. In other words, the commercial real estate crisis isn't over - not by a long shot.