Is America’s Economy Being Sovietized?

The foundation of the Soviet model of trade and investment was centralization under the guise of "universal public ownership". The entire goal of communism in general was not to give more social and political power to the people, but to extinguish alternative options and focus power into the hands of a select few. The process used to reach this end result can vary, but the goal always remains the same. In most cases, such centralization begins with economic hegemony, and it is in our fiscal structure that we have the means to see the future. Sovietization in our financial life will inevitably lead to sovietization in our political life. Does the U.S. economy’s path resemble the Soviet template exactly? No. And we're sure the very suggestion will make the average unaware free market evangelical froth at the mouth. However, as we show, the parallels in our fundamentals are disturbing; the reality is that true free markets in America died a long time ago.

Are Covert Operations Underway In The Global Currency Wars?

In an age of economic policy activism, including widespread quantitative easing and associated purchases of bonds and other assets, Amphora's John Butler reminds us that it is perhaps easy to forget that foreign exchange intervention has always been and remains an important economic policy tool. Recently, for example, Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand have openly intervened to weaken their currencies and several other countries have expressed a desire for some degree of currency weakness. In this report, Butler summarizes the goals and methods of foreign exchange intervention and places today’s policies in their historical context; but moreover he discusses the evidence of where covert intervention - quite common historically - might possibly be taking place: perhaps where you would least expect it... And if the currency wars continue to escalate as they have of late, it seems reasonable to expect that covert interventions will grow in size, scope and frequency.

Bass On Japan's Turbo QE: "It Won't Be Enough"

If JGB investors 'believe' as Richard Koo earlier noted, in the BoJ's new actions and Abenomics (to double the monetary base and generate inflation), then, Kyle Bass explains, a rational investor is likely to sell a portion if not all of them. The BoJ only has JPY10 trillion cushion (after the JPY60 trillion deficit) to soak up this 'rational investor paradox' selling and this is dwarfed by the holdings of JGBs in the largest Japanese banks (who are now starting to rotate away from JGBs into foreign bonds). Simply out, Bass exclaims, they are going to have make the plan even bigger... if they are to successfully contain rates. With a quadrillion JPY of JGBs out there, if a mere 5% is sold (from 'Abe'lievers) then Japan's Turbo QE is not big enough which leads to the paradoxical increase in the QQE, moar inflationary 'belief', and moar selling pressure... The BoJ has been in the market every day but 2 since April 4th trying to hold rates down (and is failing)...

"Dead Cat Bounce" Or "Pause That Refreshes"

While the off-the-lows mentality of today's market performance was heralded by most as a signal that the BTFD'rs are back, we gently remind them that the Nikkei (futures) did not bounce at all... In fact S&P futures bounced to a rather eerily perfect 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the overnight plunge and then faded into the close. All the major indices managed to get back to unchanged on the day (but the S&P 500 was the last to make it and instantly turned around once it did). Credit markets opened gap wider and did not bounce back anything like stocks. Treasuries sold off modestly from their pre-opening levels then drifted lower in yield into the close (ending down 2-3bps on the day but up 6-7bps on the week). The USD weakened most of the day and commodities gained on the day with gold and silver now up over 2% on the week. VIX fell from the open to the close but ended the day higher as we suspect hedges were lifted and exposure reduced into the bounce.

Quote Of The Day

The only sane central banker in the world, the Bundesbank's Jens Weidmann, take the prize for today's quote of the day with the following:

• ECB'S WEIDMANN WISHES JAPAN `GOOD LUCK IN THEIR EXPERIMENTS'

So do we. They will need it.

Richard Koo Warns Of "Beginning Of The End" For Japanese Economy

The surge in Japanese long-term interest rates is likely causing some lost sleep among bond market participants and policymakers (despite their ignorance of the moves in the BoJ minutes) as Nomura's Richard Koo notes, if this trend continues (now added to by the collapse in stock prices) it could well mark the “beginning of the end” for the Japanese economy. Although the stock market has (until now) welcomed the yen’s continued slide against the dollar, Koo warns that this trend needs to be carefully monitored, as simultaneous declines in JGBs and the yen can be interpreted as a loss of faith in the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan. The biggest concerns are that the extreme volatility in Japanese stocks and bonds is occurring at a time when the BOJ was buying large quantities of government bonds. It is now clear that even large-scale BOJ purchases of JGBs cannot stop yields from rising. Simply put, Koo notes, the BoJ needs to rein itself in and state it will not stand for overshooting inflation expectations or the 'bad' rise in rates could crush both the nascent recovery and the nation's banking system.

UBS On Japan - Are You 'Abe'liever?

We totally get why many are excited by the recent cyclical improvement in the Japanese economy. However, just because industrial production is turning up on the back of exports and 1Q GDP grew more than expected doesn’t mean Abeconomics is working. Most of the improvement in Japan is probably best described as a standard cyclical improvement in the aftermath of very depressed growth that was also heavily influenced by last year’s downturn in global trade. There are definitely signs that Japan’s economy are improving cyclically. However, as UBS notes, structurally, demographics remain a major headwind to raising aggregate demand. We feel many investors have not yet considered what slower growth for Asia will mean for Japan in the medium term. This will make it more difficult to raise aggregate demand above supply since capacity is sticky and Japan already has excess capacity. So for Abe-believers there will be fuel to support their optimism. However, once you move beyond that and think about what comes afterwards things look more challenging.