Reality

Mitt Romney's net worth of $250 million is well-known by virtually everyone in America: after all, it was the primary campaign offensive used by the Obama team against his presidential challenger in an election run largely down wealth, and social class lines, and whom "Democrats targeted in ads and speeches as being out of touch with most Americans." What many may not know is that staunch democrat Al Gore's own personal wealth, has soared from virtually nothing in 1999 to a staggering $200 million according to an analysis conducted by Bloomberg.

An import report on a key element of the economy will show big problems looming for Social Security - it will be ignored.

On the third year anniversary of the flash crash, and in a week in which earnings season unwinds and in which there is very little macro news, the bulk of the newsflow happened overnight, starting with a drop in the Chinese Service PMI, which tumbled from 54.3 to 51.1, the lowest in two years, then we got Australian retail sales which dropped -0.1% on expectations of 0.4% gain, indicating that the Chinese slowdown is dragging down the entire Asia-Pac region further.  Afterwards, we got a barrage of European non-manufacturing PMI data starting with Spain, at 44.4, down from 45.3, the lowest since December (although one wonder if Spain has finally opened a branch of the BLS, reporting that unemployment actually dipped by 46.1k, on expectations of just a 2k decline, and down from 5k the prior month: how curious the timing of the "end of austerity" and the immediate "improvement" in the economy), then Italy Service PMI printing at 47.0, up from 45.5, on expectations of a 45.8 print, the highest since August 2011, French Services PMI rising modestly from 44.1 to 44.3, Germany's up from 49.2 to 49.6, on expectations of an unchanged print, all of which leading to a combined Eurozone PMI at 47.0, up from 46.6, and beating expectations of a 46.6 print.

The Federal Reserve's extreme monetary policy has done nothing but repress 'safe' assets to the point of making 'risky' assets relatively cheap. This is of course not the case were you to isolate each risky or safe asset and consider its value standalone. Choosing stocks over bonds because "well, what is the alternative?" is akin to the red-pill/blue-pill choice from The Matrix and the reflationary 'normal' that we are supposed to believe in is what 'apparently' justifies a 1.7x rise (12%!) in multiples since QE4EVA was announced. During that same period, consensus earnings expectations have plunged (merely pushed out one more year for the renaissance) and global trade and growth has collapsed. However, while we have shown many divergences from reality in the past, it is the manic/depressive difference between inflation expectations and stock valuations (implicitly supported by reflation) that is the clearest example of the short-term triumph of hope over reality.

Back in December we pointed out the patently obvious: in the absence of an external rebalancing mechanism, i.e., a free-floating currency, the only option for the bulk of the periphery to regain competitiveness was through ongoing wage collapse and persistent localized depression. Five months later, just as predicted, Europe is in a worse shape than ever before, not only in those non-core countries where wage deflation is accelerating, but the weakness has fully spilled over to the core. Of course, none of this is rocket science, and has been quite obvious to anyone who thought for more than 15 seconds about the "future" of the Eurozone. What is surprising, however, is that with every passing day even the most staunchest supporters of the euro, in this case Oskar Lafontaine, German finance minister in 1998-1999, under whose supervision the euro was launched, are becoming the most vocal Euro-skeptics an unsound, political (capital) currency can no longer buy. Here is the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Prithard dissecting the conversion of the latest europhile turned euroskeptic.

While GBP jumped and the world celebrated the UK's recent avoidance (for now) of a triple-dip recession (defined on GDP as opposed to reality), the situation in the island nation appears to be going from bad to worse. As Carney takes over the reigns of this once mighty nation he faces a country deeply divided. As the BBC reports, while London real estate prices smash old records, a stunning one-in-five households borrowed money or used savings to cover the costs of food in April. This is the equivalent of five million households unable to fund their food via income alone. Over 80% of these people are concerned about rising food prices (just as print-meister Carney is about to go 'Abe' on them) and almost 60% find it difficult to cope on their current incomes. The director of the consumer group 'Which?', noted that "many households are stretched to their financial breaking point," as "families face a cost of living crisis." While equity and real estate prices hit all-time highs, the opposition sums up the country's feeling, "this incompetent government needs to wake up to the human cost of their failed economic policies."

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Perfectly summarizing the cognitive dissonance of the mainstream media (and their drone-like viewers), this duel of the Soft-Money-Honey Maria B and Hard-Money Golden Boy Peter Schiff was a tragic farce. Maria comes out swinging, "whether this is a manufactured market or not, you've got no alternative but stocks - where's my yield?" Schiff counters, "there are alternatives" - summarily scoffed at (a-la his housing appearances in 2006/7) by Maria - "we have a completely phoney economy driven 100% by cheap money; the minute you take it away, the whole thing implodes." And while the 'fight' moves on, we are left thinking they are in two different rings since whatever point is made by Schiff is summarily ignored for the status quo. "QE will be here until we have a USD crisis and the Fed can't get away with it anymore," Schiff reminds, adding, "There is no exit strategy... the Fed is bluffing; exit is impossible." The glancing blows continue deep into the late rounds. "The reality is we are living in a bubble; and all bubbles burst," (reminding us of Sam Zells' comments to the very same CNBC anchor a few weeks back), "it's unfortunate we didn't learn that lesson in 2008 but we're about to learn a much bigger lesson." Disingenuous laughter follows at Schiff's suggestion at holding Gold with Maria's anchoring bias loud-and-proud - "I'm looking for alternatives to stocks, and I can't find any."

For 727 editions, and nearly 30 years, Bill Buckler, the "captain" of the free market-praising Privateer newsletter provided a welcome escape from a world overrun with "free-lunch" economists, "for-hire" politicians, "crony-capitalist" oligarchs, "heroin-addict" bankers, "the-solution-to-record-debt-is-more-record-debt" Keynesians, and all those other subclasses of that species which Einstein, or whoever, described so aptly in saying that they all expect a different, and happy, outcome when applying the same flawed methods over and over. And for 30 years, Buckler's steadfast determination and adherence to his arguments, beliefs, reasoning and ironclad logic brought him countless followers, all of whom are now able to see past the bread and circus facade of a world every day on the edge of political and social collapse. Sadly, all good things come to an end, and so does The Privateer. We are delighted to celebrate its illustrious memory by presenting to our readers the final, must read, issue of the newsletter which encapsulates the philosophy and ideology of its author - a man much respected and admired in the free market circles - and thirty years of objective, unbiased market and economic commentary, best of all.

The world is awash in contradiction with stocks rising to new highs as interest rates reflect a slowing economy. It is an upside down world according to PIMCO's Mohamed El-Erian. As Lance Roberts annotates, the moustaced maestro explains individuals are both excited and anxious. They are excited by the rally in the markets as they see their portfolios increase in values but at the same timed overwhelmingly concerned about the economic future. It is a world with an enormous contrast between the markets and the real economy. That is the world we are navigating and it is incredibly unusual. This is why it is an unloved rally. His discussion at the recent Strategic Investment Conference is about a simple framework to reconcile these issues. The long term view matters greatly - but the short term matters also.

You know the market is frothy when the greatest concern among professional money managers is "Asset Bubbles." As interest rates rose in the early part of this year, the 'great rotation' - with outflows out of bonds and in to stocks - was heralded by many as ammo for the next leg higher in stocks; now over a quarter of investors - a share that rose 100% since BofAML's previous (March) survey - believe 'the great rotation' will never happen (only another 73% to get to reality). Instead, there are increasing concerns about inflows leading to bubbles – mainly in high yield, where investors appear uncomfortable with flows-driven spread tightening without fundamental improvement and higher interest rates (and implicitly the linkage between equity valuations and credit bodes ill for the latter, as opposed to supportive). In fact, asset bubbles now rank as the number one concern on investors’ minds, while a slow recovery moved up into second spot. So despite the best efforts of the 'marketing' arms of the big sell-side shops (so-called 'strategists'), the professional buy-side is not 'adding' at these highs, but becoming increasingly skeptical.

While Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's off-the-cuff remarks during the Q&A were in his words "as stupid as they were insensitive", the core message of his presentation was clear: the party of the last 20 years is now over and the longer we fail to address the real issues the bigger the hangover will be in the future. The central question Ferguson asks is whether our institutions, corporations and governments, are degenerating. As Lance Roberts of Street Talk Live notes Ferguson believes that without addressing the structural problems that plague the economy from production to employment – stimulus will fail. The reality is that the 'punch bowl' won't fix employment growth, economic growth or the rule of law.

“Labor market conditions are affected by a variety of factors outside a central bank’s control,” admitted the Fed's Jeffrey Lacker after the employment report bounced around the world.

Across the five valuation methodologies that Goldman's David Kostin uses to consider the S&P 500's richness, the current price (around 1600) represents the average. While the Fed Model (bond vs stock value) is the one significant 'framework' suggesting upside potential but as Kostin notes, it is bonds that are more mispriced than stocks and the gap could close from bond side (significantly reducing the upside potential of this model). His macro-valuation framework, as well as the ROE vs P/B relationship and the Discounted Dividend Model all suggest year-end 2013 fair value at around the current price (i.e. 0% upside). And remember, as we noted recently, this 'expectation' still relies on the H2 2013 rebound in GDP and implicitly EPS (+28% in Q4 2013!) that is so hoped for.

A. Gary Shilling's discussion of how to invest during a deleveraging cycle is a very necessary antidote to the ecstacy and euphoria that surrounds the nominal surges in risk-assets around the world sponsored by central banking largesse. Shilling ties six fundamental realities together: Private Sector Deleveraging And Government Policy Responses, Rising Protectionism, the Grand Disconnect Between Markets And Economy, a Zeal For Yield, the End Of Export Driven Economies, and why Equities Are Vulnerable. The risk on trade is alive and well - but will not last forever. We are still within a secular bear market that begin in 2000 with P/E ratios still contained within a declining trend. Despite media commentary to the contrary - this time is likely not different.