Stagflation

Surging inflation? Check. Negative GDP growth? Check. Increasing unemployment? Check. Dropping wages? Check. Looks like we have a stagflation bingo. Per Bloomberg: "U.K. unemployment claims unexpectedly rose in January, underlining the fragility of the labor market a year after the economy emerged from recession and as public spending cuts start in earnest. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose 2,400 to 1.46 million, the Office for National Statistics in London said today. The median of 25 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 3,000 drop. Unemployment based on International Labour Organization methods rose by 44,000 in the fourth quarter to 2.49 million." And this is just the start of what real austerity means: "Prime Minister David Cameron is counting on hiring at private companies as his government embarks on budget cuts that will cost 330,000 public-sector jobs over the next four years." And more economic humor: "There is a risk unemployment could rise” this year, Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec Securities in London, said before today’s report. “It’s possible that the public-sector job cuts happen straight away and you don’t see a pickup in private-sector job creation.”" Coming soon to every centrally planned regime near you.

Expectation of 405,000... Print: 454,000! Worst print in forever (well, October). The BLS calls it a "weather related backlog." Read - snow. Call it what it is - Stagflation, baby.

Non-seasonally adjusted number came at 482,399, as 161,913 people fell off extended benefits.

Continuing claims: 3,991K on expectations of 3,873K.

And just to complete the stagflationary picture, durable goods decreased by 2.5% on expectations of plus 1.5%. "This decrease, down four of the last five months, followed a 0.1 percent November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.5 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 2.5 percent."

When a few weeks ago we predicted that while contagion was the word of 2010, stagflation will define the current year, we had no idea how fast there would be glimmers validating our outlook. Yesterday's UK GDP data was the first datapoint that showed a decline in GDP even as the BOE's Posen infamously announced a day before that that UK inflation was surging. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of stagflation. Coming soon to a banana republic near you.

And after all the hype we finally know that December inflation was greater than expected, even as retail sales confirmed that the consumer is much weaker than had been propagandized: step aside word of the year "contagion" and meet your replacement "stagflation." CPI comes in surging at 0.5%, beating estimates of 0.4%, and far higher than November's 0.1%: the highest jump since June 2009. And those readers who have cars will likely be aware that Gasoline jumped by a massive 8.5% in December, the highest in a long time. Broadly, energy jumped by 4.6%. On an unadjusted 12 month basis, gasoline and fuel oil surged by 13.9% and 16.5% respectively. And there will be much more pain in store: somehow December food prices are supposed to have increased by just 0.1% in December: the lowest amount in the past 5 months. This number will very rapidly jump much higher as costs start being pass through. (full report)

That’s STAGflation, as in stagnant economy, not the more benign INflation, as in the stuff the US pretends doesn’t exist.

A new study forecast 1.3 million white collar professional jobs could be offshored by 2014. This offshoring tsunami, a stubborn U.S. labor market, plus QE3, which has proven ineffective at job creations, are brewing a perfect storm for stagflation.

The latest dismal GDP data probably will cement an official kick-off of Fed's QE2 on Nov. 3. However, as more quantitative easing could further dilute the value of the dollar, pushing up the commodity prices, the system could be pushed beyond its limit into a possible “demand-pull stagflation” scenario.

In his new post, Gonzalo Lira analyzes the Oil Shock of '79, and the subsequent run up in inflation. He comes to some interesting conclusions about 1979, and how those conclusions might apply to today, if and when there is a run on Treasuries. "In both 1979 and today, dollars were poised to chase after commodities, following a triggering event. In ‘79, it was the fall of the Shah. In 2010, we are waiting for our moment to exit Treasuries. Therefore, one can look at the events of ’79–’82 as a dress rehearsal for what I think will happen today, and in the immediate future, if and when the Treasury bond bubble pops." — Gonzalo Lira

This is an article I wrote for a newspaper that is a reprise of my reasoning why I think we are headed for stagflation. The article will appear next week, but it will be familiar stuff for my readers.

Well, let's take a not so anecdotal peek at the numbers behind the numbers...

So what happens when employment and asset prices go down while input prices go up?

In continuing the rant on the possibility of the US entering a stagflationary environment, as was hinted by Alcoa's quarterly report (see "Is My Warning of the Risks of a Stagflationary Environment Coming to Fore?"), I have decided to graphically illustrate the historically most successful inflation hedges as well as demonstrate where North America and Western Europe currently stand.

Reconciling Slack + Deficits:

The spread between the 2-year and 10-year points on the US yield curve has been unusually steep since May, when supply fears and convexity hedging caused a back up in rates. As the 10yUST backed up, the steepeness of the 2s10s curve reached a high of over 250 basis points. The same can't be said for forward curve spreads which have remained stubbornly flat. The 2s10s yield curve in swaps is currently ~222 basis points; meanwhile 1yForward is at ~150 and 2yrs forward is at ~87bps.

Read on...