Reality

The U.S. Department of Homeland security is working on a project called FAST, the Future Attribute Screening Technology. FAST will remotely monitor physiological and behavioural signals like elevated heart rate, eye movement, body temperature, facial patterns, and body language, and analyse these signals algorithmically for statistical aberrance in an attempt to identify people with criminal or terroristic intentions. It’s useful to briefly talk about  a few of the practical problems that such a system would face.

Following a blistering two days of upside activity in Europe and a manic depressive turn in the US in the past 48 hours, the rally is now be running on fumes, and may be in danger of flopping once again, especially in Spain where the IBEX is tumbling by over 3% to a fresh 3 year low. Still, the Spanish 10 year has managed to stay under 6% and is in fact tighter on the day in the aftermath of the repeatedly irrelevant Bill auctions from yesterday, when the only thing that matters is tomorrow's 10 Year auction. Probably even more important is that the BOE now appears to have also checked to Bernanke and no more QE out of the BOE is imminent. As BofA summarizes, "The BoE voted 8-1 to leave QE on hold at their April meeting: a more hawkish outturn than market expectations of an unchanged 7-2 vote from March. Adam Posen - the most dovish member of the BoE over the last few quarters - took off his vote for £25bn QE, while David Miles judged that his vote for £25bn more QE was finely balanced (less dovish than his views in March)." Even the BOE no longer know what Schrodinger "reality" is real: "The BoE judged that developments over the month had been relatively mixed, with a lower near-term growth outlook, but a higher near-term inflation outlook. However, they thought that the official data suggesting very weak construction output and soft manufacturing output of late were “perplexing”, and they were not “minded to place much weight on them”." Naturally, this explains why Goldman's Carney may be next in line to head the BOE - after all to Goldman there is no such thing as a blunt "firehose" to deal with any "perplexing" issue. Finally, the housing market schizophrenia in the US continues to rule: MBA mortgage applications rose by 6.9% entirely on the back of one of the only positive refinancing prints in the past 3 months, which rose by 13.5% after a 3.1% drop last week. As for purchases - they slammed lower by 11.2%, the second week in a row. Hardly the basis for a solid "recovery."

As a Korean-American, many people expected me support Jim Yong Kim's appointment to the World Bank. Here is why I do not.

• First Japan now... Australia Ready to Help IMF (WSJ)
• "Not if, but when" for Spanish bailout, experts believe (Reuters)
• Spain’s Surging Bad Loans Cast New Doubts on Bank Cleanup (Bloomberg)
• Spain weighs financing options (FT)
• Spanish Banks Gorging on Sovereign Bonds Shifts Risk to Taxpayer (Bloomberg)
• Spain and Italy Bank on Banks (WSJ)
• Chesapeake CEO took out $1.1 billion in unreported loans (Reuters)
• China preparing to roll out OTC equity market – regulator (Reuters)
• Angry North Korea threatens retaliation, nuclear test expected (Reuters)
• North Korea Breaks Off Nuclear Accord as Food Aid Halted (Bloomberg)

Ten more years of low returns in the stock market.  If you are one of the millions of baby boomers headed into retirement - start saving more and spending less because the stock market won't bail you out.  Now that I have your attention I will explain why this is the likely future ahead for investors. In this past weekend's newsletter I wrote that “If you put all of your money into cash today and don’t look at the market for another decade – you will be better off..."  I realize that this statement is equivalent to heresy where Wall Street is concerned but there is one simple reason behind my apparent madness - the power of "reversion". This is not a new concept by any means as witnessed by Bob Farrell's rule #1 - "Markets tend to return to the mean over time."  However, the reality of what "reversion" means is grossly misunderstood by Wall Street, and the mainstream media, as witnessed by the many valuation calls that "stocks are now cheap because the market is now trading in line with its long term average."

I recently wrote an article that addresses the subject of sociopaths and how they insinuate themselves into society. Although the subject doesn't speak directly to what stock you should buy or sell to increase your wealth, I think it's critical to success in the markets. It goes a long way towards explaining what goes on in the heads of people like Bernie Madoff and therefore how you can avoid being hurt by them. But there's a lot more to the story. At this point, it seems as if society at large has been captured by Madoff clones. If that's true, the consequences can't be good. So what I want to do here is probe a little deeper into the realm of abnormal psychology and see how it relates to economics and where the world is heading. If I'm correct in my assessment, it would imply that the prospects are dim for conventional investments – most stocks, bonds and real estate. Those things tend to do well when society is growing in prosperity. And prosperity is fostered by peace, low taxes, minimal regulation and a sound currency. It's also fostered by a cultural atmosphere where sociopaths are precluded from positions of power and intellectual and moral ideas promoting free minds and free markets rule. Unfortunately, it seems that doesn't describe the trend that the world at large and the US in particular are embarked upon. In essence, we're headed towards economic and financial bankruptcy.

Back in November we penned "The Complete And Annotated Guide To The European Bank Run (Or The Final Phase Of Goldman's World Domination Plan)" in which we described what the long-term reality of Europe, not that interrupted by the occasional transitory LTRO cash injection and other stop-gap central bank measure, would look like. And yet there was one piece missing: after Goldman unceremoniously set up its critical plants in Italy via Mario Monti and the ECB via Mario Draghi, one key target of Goldman domination was still missing. The place? Why the center of the entire modern infinitely rehypothecatable financial system of course: England, which may have 1,000x consolidated debt/GDP, but at least it can repledge any asset in perpetuity thus giving the world the impression it is solvent (no wonder AIG, MF Global, and now the CME are scrambling to operate out of there). Which is why we read with little surprise that none other than former Goldmanite, and current head of the Bank of Canada, is on his way to the final frontier: the Bank of England.

The Federal government is supporting its dependents and its crony-capitalist Elites with borrowed money: $1.5 trillion every year, fully 40% of the Federal budget. It is in effect filling the gap between exploding costs and declining income, just like the middle class did until they ran out of collateral to leverage. The dwindling middle class, now at best perhaps 25% of the workforce, has been reduced to tax donkeys supporting those above and below who are dependent on Federal largesse. Fisher found that this cycle ends in transformational political upheaval. No wonder; even as the class paying most of the taxes shrinks and is pressured by higher costs, the class of dependents expands as the economy deteriorates and the super-wealthy Power Elites continue to control the levers of Central State power.

With S&P futures, and most notably financials, staging the second overnight opening surge in a row, we thought it perhaps worth reflecting on five quite concerning fundamental reasons why dip-buyers (as anesthetized as they have become thanks to central bank 'protection') could face a tougher time. As Mike Wilson of Morgan Stanley notes, for those looking for a cause or explanation of recent weakness, feel free to blame it on the more hawkish Fed minutes, Draghi’s comments that it was now “up to governments to do the right thing” or the soft US payroll numbers. After such an uninterrupted run, some kind of correction was inevitable and simply a matter of timing. The bigger question to resolve is whether this pull back will look like what we experienced in 2010 and 2011 or end up being more muted. Obviously, the key variables for this analysis remain growth and liquidity expectations. The 'payback' that we have been warned about for such an unseasonably warm winter is upon us (as macro data surprises increasingly to the downside) and that is the first flaw in BTFD logic. Wilson goes on to point out that NFIB small business hiring intentions have dropped precipitously, GDP growth is weak but earnings growth is now catching up (down) to that weakness and for many stocks is rapidly falling towards zero, we remain in a 'liquidity lull' as central banks stand on the sidelines and reflect, and perhaps most worrisome is the rapid deterioration in the Bloomberg financial conditions index. All-in-all, these sum up to suggest a greater-than-5% correction is more than likely.

Today's futures pop on short-term bill auctions in Europe (that remain in a world of their own and should not be considered as anything but emergent in nature rather than indicative of investor demand) and ad hoc data in Germany that disconnects from any sense of reality in true economic environs only confirms Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson's perspective that there still isn't much fear out there. We remain in the midst of a longer-term deleveraging cycle, of that there can be little argument in reality (unless of course exponential trends are natural) and as Wilson points out we are likely to remain in the wide trading range that we have been in the past two years - however, many investors appear to disagree (not the least of which the effusively exuberant 'Ace' Greenberg this morning). Few expect a correction more than 5-10%, Buy-lists are already in great demand, and put-call ratios remain muted. "Of course, this is what happens when an animal becomes conditioned to buy the dip in a pavlovian manner over years during which they have remain unscathed by some of the biggest financial risks we have ever witnessed. As the saying goes, “the only fools bigger than those that are playing are those that are watching.” Of course, having some Fed official speaking every other day to remind us they are there to save the day in the event of trouble helps perpetuate this unnatural one way market." However, his bottom line is that slowing/disappointing economic data, zero percent earnings growth and a liquidity lull sounds like a recipe for more than a 5% correction.

In one of the most coherent take-downs of the government's data gatherers, economists, reporters, and the general investing public that soak up the propaganda spewed forth by the former, TrimTab's CEO Charles Biderman destroys today's 'Advance' retail sales, and crushes the Census Bureau's process. Needing little additional comment, we can only hope that the 'ignorance is bliss' approach of the mainstream media and self-serving talking heads is at least questioned by the broad investing public when they hear the sense that Biderman speaks with regard to the antiquated methodologies used to gather data and the factual destruction of Wall Street Journal "I am the law" headlines straight off the government's press releases. The simple fact is that while anyone suggesting the government's data may not be accurate is dismissed as a tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorist (Goldman Sachs client 'muppetry', high-frequency-trading liquidity destruction, rehypothecation and shadow-banking deleveraging, LTRO-Stigma, and real European sovereign balance sheet aside for example), when faced with the facts - the unadulterated numbers - it is hard to argue with tough reality; leaving only the shrug, 'money-on-the-sidelines', 'trend-is-your-friend', 'retail not participating yet', self-fulfilling mutual masturbation that is now become our virtuous circle of reporting, government data, and sell-side economists.

Amid the fourth heaviest volume of the year, Apple shares fell over 4% today - its largest single-day drop in six months (and largest two-day drop in 23 months) and GOOG also fell over 3%. This dragged the NASDAQ down but the S&P 500 (which was implicitly hurt by this major underperformance) managed to survive with relatively minimal damage close-to-close as the EUR repatriation drove TSY yields up and the USD down with correlations doing the rest to support stocks. Heavier volume and trade size came in as ES (the S&P 500 e-mini future) slid notably into the close though - almost 10pts off its afternoon highs and over 1% off its day-session opening levels (which were the highs). USD weakness accelerated rapidly after the European close - quite evenly distributed across all the majors but EUR weighed heavily as it retraced most of Friday's losses. The USD selling stopped around 130pm ET. The USD weakness supported some recovery from early weakness in commodities but the second largest compression in Brent-WTI in 16 months to around $15 - led by Brent more than WTI - on the Seaway reversal date being brought forward, was the biggest news in commodities. Silver ended unch and gold down modestly. Credit outperformed stocks on the day (and from open-to-close) but this seems as much credit-equity index arb as credit remains notably weaker. HYG stayed in sync with SPY today after we first noted the convergence on Friday (following the April asset allocation shift). After rallying early, Treasuries stabilized through the USD selling frenzy immediately post-European close but as the USD stabilized in the late afternoon (and AUD weakened) so Treasuries were oddly sold off (along with stocks) ending the day basically unchanged (after being lower by 4-5bps before the US open). VIX closed unchanged after opening lower and pushing to well over 20% at its worst - as 19% seemed to support it as we rallied in the afternoon. ES tested above its 50DMA once again and closed back below it on a relatively heavy day with very low average trade size.

Slowly but surely, the Spanish authorities are gradually socializing the rest of the world to the dismal truth that we have been so vociferously arguing - that their debt levels (or more specifically their debt/GDP ratios) are significantly higher (explicitly) than their current official data suggest. Today's news, via the WSJ, that the Spanish government may take over some regions' finances, in an attempt to shore up investor confidence (just as Ireland did with its banks and we know how well that worked out?) is yet another step closer to the 'realization'  that all that is "contingent" is actually "explicitly guaranteed." As we noted here, this leaves Spain's Debt/GDP nearer 135% than its 'official' 68.5%. The WSJ notes comments from a top government official that "there will soon be new tools to control regional spending" and that they may take over at least one of the country's cash-strapped regions this year. As we broke down extensively here, this is no surprise as yet another group of political elite find the truth harder to deal with than the blinkered optimism they face the media with every day and yet as PM Rajoy notes "Nobody can expect that deep-seated problems be solved in just a few weeks", the irony of the euphoria felt around the world at the optical rally in Spanish spreads for the first few months of the year is not lost as Spain heads back into the abyss ahead of pending auctions and what appears to be more ponzified guarantees of regional finances (as long as they promise to pay it back and have 'a plan'). The simple truth is, as acknowledged by Rajoy, Spain has lost the trust of financial markets.

Back in October, there were those who were confused how it was possible that European sovereign bond yields could be exploding to their highest in a decade, even as the EURUSD keep grinding higher. We explained it, and said to prepare for much worse down the road. Sure enough, much worse came, and was promptly forestalled as both the Fed expanded its swap lines and lower the OIS swap rate, and the ECB "begrudgingly" ceded to LTRO 1+2 (that this resulted in nominal price gains was to be expected - after all humans enjoy being fooled when price levels rise when in reality just the underlying monetary base has expanded). But how did the EURUSD spike fit into all this? Simple - FX repatriation. This was explained as follows: "the sole reason for the EUR (and hence S&P and global 100% correlated equity risk) surge in the past 9 days is not driven by any latent "optimism" that Europe will fix itself, but simply due to the previously discussed wholesale asset liquidations (as none other than the FT already noted), which on the margin are explicitly EUR positive due to FX repatriation, courtesy of the post-sale conversion of USDs to EURs. Which means that the ever so gullible equity market has just experienced one of the biggest headfakes in history, and has misinterpreted a pervasive European, though mostly French, scramble to procure liquidity at any cost by dumping various USD-denominated assets, as a risk on signal!" It appears we are now back into liquidation mode, and the higher Euro spread surge, the faster EURUSD will rise as more and more FX is "repatriated." In other words, as back in the fall of 2011, the faster the EURUSD rises, the worstr the true liquidity situation in Europe becomes: a critical regime change, which will naturally fool the algos who assume every spike up in EURUSD is indicative of Risk On, and send ES higher when in reality, the underlying situation is diametrically opposite.

At the start of April, ECB's Draghi noted, "let's keep in mind that it [the LTRO] is not capital", adding that "if a bank does not have capital, it would be better to raise it now". Given the rapidly fading glow of LTRO's liquidity flush, the seemingly 'wasted' ammunition that Spanish and Italian banks have fired at the sovereign bond bears and the complete and utter lack of capital raising that has occurred, perhaps it is no wonder that credit spreads on the major European financials have exploded back to near their wides once again (LTRO-encumbrance aside). As Barclays notes today, the major financials alone look set to need over EUR120 billion in capital to bring their credit risks down to acceptable levels to be able to openly access capital markets once again. This means a median 30% of current equity market capitalization has to be raised. Just as we pointed out again and again, not only is the LTRO an encumbrance of bank balance sheets (and therefore increasingly subordinates all existing bond-holders implicitly reducing recoveries in a worst case scenario) but it delayed much-needed decision-making by giving the banks an 'out' for a few months.