Global Economy

Just read.

All you can read.

• Greece is Relevant: Central Banks Warn Greek-Led Euro Stress Threatens World (Bloomberg)
• Greece is very Relevant: World Economies Prepare for Panic After Greek Polls (Reuters)
• ECB's Draghi flags euro risks, spurs rate cut talk (Reuters)
• And as usual, beggars can be choosers... Hollande Urges Common Euro Debt, Greater ECB Role (Reuters)
• Wait and flee - Electoral uncertainty sends the economy into suspended animation (Economist)
• The EU Smiled While Spain’s Banks Cooked the Books (Bloomberg)
• Osborne’s £100bn Plan for UK Economy (FT)
• Two Cheers for Britain’s Bank Reform Plans: Martin Wolf (FT)
• BOJ Holds Policy Ahead of Greek Vote with Eye on Global Markets (Bloomberg)
• China Hits Back at U.S. Criticisms at WTO (Reuters)

"We are witnessing the biggest financial-market manipulation of all time. The authorities have intervened more and more, and thereby created this monster. They might change the rules when the game goes against their own interests. We are in a severe credit crunch. It starts when the weakest links in the system can't finance their activities. Then you have a flight to safety into Treasuries and German bunds, compounded by a quasi-shortage of good collateral. That's why bond yields have fallen so low. This isn't an inflationary environment but a deflationary one."

A month after the US Treasury sold $24 billion in 10 Year bonds at what was then a record low yield of 1.86%, the US government once again approaches that mysterious primary dealer-repo nexus with the latest offer US banks can't refuse: a $21 billion reopening. What is notable about today's auction is that in about 40 minutes, the auction will price at a record low yield of just about 1.63%, or 23 bps lower to the last record yield. So far so good: after all the global economy is once again collapsing (but don't look at US stocks for validation: they only indicate whatever Brian Sack wants them to indicate). Where things get patently surreal, however, is when one takes a look at today's POMO operation conducted by the Fed (remember those). Because as can be seen on the table below from the NY Fed, at 11 am today, so precisely 2 hours before when the Treasury will complete its own sale, bought $4.8 billion of... wait for it... 10 Year bonds.

All you can read.

All you need to know.

For years some of us have been preaching that the so-called American Dream, if it once existed, was then appearing as nothing more than a myth. Ronald Reagan, touted as the great communicator, articulated this myth quite well making most everyone feel hopeful and proud, while at the same time spreading the most perverse moral disease that can confront any modern day society: the cult of inequality – an inevitable result from the infamous trickle-down economics and the homage to greed. And, for three decades, that’s what we have been living in the United States: a morbid growth in inequality either sponsored or condoned by the leadership in the White House, all following in Reagan’s footsteps: the two Bushes, father and son; Bill Clinton; and now, our fizzle-savior, Barack Obama. The truth is that Americans have been fed by both parties the Great American Lie, while at the same time being humored with the placebo of the American Dream.

All you need to read and some more.

At the high level, our global economic plight is quite simple to understand says noted Australian deflationist Steve Keen.  Banks began lending money at a faster rate than the global economy grew, and we're now at the turning point where we simply have run out of new borrowers for the ever-growing debt the system has become addicted to. Once borrowers start eschewing rather than seeking debt, asset prices begin to fall -- which in turn makes these same people want to liquidate their holdings, which puts further downward pressure on asset prices.

Société Générale head of foreign exchange research Kit Juckes on the US dollar dynamic, QE 3, 4, and 5, "even lower rates for even longer than you thought," and the Bank of Japan slowly learning to match policies with the Fed.

"The global banking system is functionally insolvent and will fail without exogenous policy action" is how QBAMCO's Paul Brodsky begins his latest treatise noting that asset monetization (and in, particular, gold monetization) would solve many more problems than it would create. The negatives would merely recognize the balance sheet damage already done and beginning to be manifest (first, in the private sector and now, increasingly in the public sector). The global economy is threatened because, in real terms, it continues to misallocate capital and rolling unfunded debts and debating in the political sphere over the merits and risks of unfunded growth or policy-administered national austerity programs is a futile endeavor. The math suggests strongly neither can work. Brodsky is convinced policy-administered asset monetization would stop the global financial system from seizing, restore sorely needed economic balance, and reset commercial incentives so that real growth can once again gain traction.

All you need to read.

The game continues.  Talk up the economy, talk down printing and pray. If the market heads into the Fed meeting at current levels it runs the risk of being disappointed.  If this is combined with continued economic weakness then the real set up happens between the June meeting and the August one.  It is in that interim period that the market could throw another one of its hissy fits and beg for more liquidity.  Money supply growth is extremely sluggish right now all over the world.  The velocity never happened and the global economy is rolling over.  The Fed is already behind the curve and so when they are forced to act the infusion will have to be huge just to stem the momentum. Mike Krieger suggests people go back and look at different asset classes from the prior two lows in China’s M2 year-over-year growth rate.  The first one occurred in late 2004.  The M2 growth rate then accelerated until around mid 2006.  In that time period gold prices went up around 65% and the S&P 500 went up 20%.  In the second period of acceleration from late 2008 to late 2009 gold was up 65% and the S&P500 was up 15%.  We are at one of these inflection points and considering the DOW/Gold ratio is still holding gains from its countertrend rally from last August of almost 40%, this is probably one of the best entry points to buy gold and short the Dow of any time in the last decade.

China Cut Their Rates for First Time Since '08 & we all know what happened in 2008, right? As the momentum drivenvtrades ramped markets I placed Armageddon put (way OTM, material time value) puts on throughout the morning - for literally pennies