Nationalism

As we noted this morning, the perfect 'reality-check' storm hit Europe this morning and with Draghi dismissing hope for more printing and nationalism raising its ugly specter, broad European equity markets made nearly their largest drop in five months. With the BE500 (Europe's S&P 500 equivalent) at three-month lows and Spain's IBEX within a few points of the March 2009 lows, things are becoming critical once again. Spanish yields jumped back over 6% but Italian spreads actually underperformed on the day +14bps vs Spain +12bps as Holland 5Y CDS blew past 130bps to near crisis-peak levels - leaving GDP-weighted European sovereign risk at three-month highs. The LTRO Stigma has broken above 150bps for the first time since before the LTRO as the realization of the implicit subordination of LTRO-encumbered banks is crushing unsecured bond-holders (on average trading at 350bps near four-month wides). EUR-USD basis swaps deteriorated a little remaining near their worst levels in three months but EURUSD remains miraculously just above 1.31 (though almost 100 pips off Friday's close) as repatriation flows are not helping correlation-driven algos in the US anymore.

According to Mark Grant, it's over: "There are only two ways out of the current dilemma and that is growth which is not possible as the European economies contract and fare worse as the result of the austerity measures or Inflation; which Germany can’t stomach. The “at the very bottom of the barrel” answer then is not an economic response at all but a question of politics. The answer is actually when some nation cannot take it anymore; either the funding and the increase in national debt and the resultant credit downgrades or in receiving and the pain inflicted upon the populace. From the funding perspective it will be when the debts of the givers begin to match the debts of the borrowers. From the recipients it will be when the core nations decide that no more money will be given and so they will leave the funding nations and their banks with the debts and return to their own currencies and devalue. Which one comes first can only be answered by Divine Providence but I do not believe the train wreck can be stopped. I do not believe, any longer, that the catastrophe can be avoided and I would begin to immediately plan for an event that will eclipse the American financial crisis of 2007-2009 because this one will be far worse."

In Canada, the Parti Quebecois always did better in tough economic times. When times are good, people like to hang out, talk about vacations, what they bought, which was the best Habs team of all time, and why the current version of Les Canadiens is underachieving. In tough times, people are eager to hear why the problems are someone else’s fault. Good times are always a direct result of one’s own actions; whereas, bad times tend to be blamed on someone or something else. Now they can talk a bit about how things would be better if those someone’s or something’s would change, before moving on to the best Habs player of all time, and what the current team should change to be like the old teams. Away from the election results, more economic data came out of Europe, and it is all bad. PMI missed. Spain is clearly in a recession. Bank stocks are getting hammered. The S&P futures are sitting just above 1,360. We tested the 1,358 level last week and had a strong bounce. The week before saw one sell-off get as low as 1,355 before bouncing. I think the combination of weak data, strange votes, and the realization that the firewall has no immediate impact will weigh on the market and we will break through and trade below 1,350 before we see another round of support.

8 pm has just passed in France, and all the polls are now closed, which means official preliminary data is now allowed - the first results from IPSOS are in, and are as follows:

• Francois Hollande: 28.4% - with victory virtually assured in the runoff round on May 6, it is now Hollande's election to lose. Could he? Yes - read here how Sarkozy can still catch up per DB.
• Nicholas Sarkozy: 25.5% - make the runoff round
• Marine Le Pen: 20.0% - extreme right: much better than expected as nationalism is back with a bang.
• Jean-Luc Melenchon: 11.7% - extreme left: best communist showing since 1981 yet weaker than expected.
• Francois Bayrou: 8.5%
• Eva Joly: 2.0%

In all of the polls for the last six months the socialist, Francois Hollande, is ahead in the run-off election between 6 and 16 points. The first bout is April 22 and the Concours d’Elegance is May 6. Now no one that is not French can understand the French well. The psychology of this nation is singular. What Mr. Hollande’s win will mean for France is something to be carefully considered. A tax rate on the wealthy at 75%, renegotiate the EU fiscal pact, raise the minimum wage, impose more governmental spending, a decrease in the retirement age and a hostility directed at the banks and other financial institutions that may be described as combative or perhaps virulent and a complete change in attitude and direction from Napoleon’s strutting reincarnation also known as Sarkozy. Furthermore, no one is paying particular attention to the announcement of an upcoming EU meeting to propose reintroduction of border controls between France and Germany but it is a clear sign of Federalism on the wane and of Nationalism coming to the fore.

Each day then that passes, as the cash river runs dry, will change the dynamics of the investment world. The biggest change that I see forthcoming on the landscape, beyond those which I have noted, I believe will take place in Germany. China is heading towards some sort of landing and most of Europe is now officially in a recession. The bite of the austerity measures will deepen the process and between the two I think we will begin to see a decline in the finances of Germany which will bring all manner of howls and screams. Germany cannot keep heading in one direction while the rest of its partners founder all around them. The demands of Berlin are self-defeating eventually as demand falls off and I think we are just at the cusp of deterioration in Germany. The problem, all along, has been that Eurobonds or other measures representing a transfer union will cause the averaging of all of the economies in Europe so that the periphery countries benefit with a higher standard of living while the wealthier nations have standards of living that decline as the result of accumulated debts for the troubled nations. This will bring out nationalism again in force as the grand dream succumbs to the grim reality of the costs for nations that have lived beyond their means. The Pied Piper always gets paid and Hamelin still rests upon German soil.
 

All you need to read.

The Volcker Rule ignores the most basic and elementary facts about bank risk taking in the financial markets and must hurt overall liquidity among financial intermediaries and investors. 

Explain to me again, how often is EVERYBODY ALWAYS RIGHT? Finding value in not following the name brand following crowd...

Humans are a flawed species. Our minds are easily manipulated. We don’t like pain. We prefer instant gratification. We are susceptible to mass delusion. We will often choose hope over critical thought. Those with higher IQs will regularly attempt to take advantage of those with lower IQs. Fear and greed are the two motivations used by the minority in power to control and manipulate the majority. The American people have been led astray by a small group of powerful men. We were herded through a door in the wall of perception that promised an American dream of material goods, entitlements and pleasure with no obligations or responsibility to future generations. There is only one choice that can save this country from ruin. Each individual must make a choice to either to continue supporting the manipulative, corrupt status quo or coming back through the Door in the Wall.

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend” – Aldous Huxley