China

Just when BP finally seems to have got a handle on the Macondo well with the successful containment cap, multiple explosion and oil spill are taking place--halfway around the globe--in China.

 I have not written articles in a few months, except for the one I wrote for the July issue of Institutional Investor magazine, on Japan (I’ll post a link once the magazine comes out)..  I am sure Freud, after spending a few minutes in my subconscious, would provide some disturbing explanations.  But as Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  I've just been enjoying summer with my family.  

Ah, the perils of being a rich communist nation: everyone wants a part of the spoils. South China Morning Post reports that Honda's mainland China operations have been hit by a fresh strike, this time at the Atsumitec Company in the city of Foshan. The operation began on Monday, with 170 workers striking after management fired about 100, a worker who declined to give his name told reporters by telephone. “The local government has sent police to our factory and will be here in the afternoon,” he said. As SCMP reports, the strike follows a turbulent period in June, which saw hundreds of workers at a number of foreign-owned factories, many of those in the affluent Pearl River Delta, walk off the job demanding better pay. More than anything, the recent bout of strikes, in addition to putting increasing pressure on China's social tenuous fabric, demonstrate how just-in-time manufacturing, now highly popular among western manufacturers, can put companies at risk because it allows little margin for error when supply chains get disrupted. Should Chinese slave laborers, er, workers, continue aspiring to be able to work for even one fifth of US minimum wage, in their quest to replicate iPad mania so popular in the US, the problems may easily get out of hand. Furthermore, with labor costs rising dramatically, the impact on already tight export margins is going to be severe.

China just announced that its Q2 GDP came in at 10.3%, just below a consensus estimate of 10.5%. Surprisingly, for some odd reason the market seems to believe this "data." Although in retrospect, based on China's bottom up GDP goalseeking, the number, which we will show in a second is completely irrelevant, could very easily be true, based on two just announced stunners about the Chinese economy. The first comes from Fitch, which in a report released today titled Informal Securitisation Increasingly Distorting Credit Data, uncovers that China has in fact been massively underrepresenting the actual amount of new loans in the first half of 2010, courtesy of precisely the kinds of securitization deals that blew up half of our own banking system: "Adjusted for informal securitisation activity, Fitch estimates that the net amount of new CNY loans extended in H110 was closer to CNY5.9trn, or 28% above the official figure of CNY4.6trn...on a flow basis the volume of credit being shifted off balance sheets in recent times has been large and rising. Activity also is largely concentrated among just a few dozen banks, and institution-specific exposure is often much higher." And some are wondering why China's AgBank was scrambling to raise $20 billion via a hurried IPO... Yet this data pales in comparison with disclosure from a recent article in South China Morning Post, in which an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences noted estimates from electricity meter readings that there are about 64.5 million empty apartments and houses in urban areas of the country! This number is five times larger than the roughly 12 million in total US public (3.89 million) and shadow (8 million as estimated by Morgan Stanley) home inventory available currently. Forget Stephen Roach - China is covertly funding and creating a housing bubble that is at least 5 times as big as that of the United States. We leave it up to you to imagine the consequences of that particular bubble's bursting...

A Chinese credit rating agency downgraded the U.S. sovereign debt rating to AA with a negative outlook, along with other major Western nations, while slamming its Western counterparts.

The decline of China copper imports in recent months has caused a lot of distress among traders. Much of the focus has been on copper's eventual crash by China's property chock. However, China's property market is not the only game in copper town.

"For the Chinese, restarting the creeping revaluation of the renminbi has many benefits. Near the top of the list is gently moving its manufacturing base toward higher value added items and shifting production from servicing exports to satisfying domestic demand. Way down the list is appeasing the international critics of Chinese policy. The promotion of the domestic market is already underway, but the pace will be glacial – at least from the point of view of bank traders and US politicians – taking at least a decade to have a major impact on the composition of the Chinese economy. And there is no guarantee that any shift is coming, as the Japanese economy remains basically unchanged despite the dramatic increase in the value of the yen. We can only hope that the authorities in Beijing have a more adaptive and global view than those in Tokyo have shown and will adjust their banking and financial support system to integrate the renminbi and the Chinese economy with that of the West. Although the renminbi could rise to the 4.00 area by the end of this decade, the impact of this move will be felt inside of China, not outside. Furthermore, we can be sure that the Chinese leadership will do its best to manage this process in a way that has the most positive feedback for the Chinese society. Although the stronger renminbi will be a boon for China’s neighbors in Asia, it offers no help to the US or Europe." - John Taylor

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE ) is once again making waves, by reminding the world about its trillions in dollar-denominated holdings, and that these could be dumped in a heartbeat. Of course, in tried and true Chinese fashion, it is notifying the world it has no intention of using the "nuclear option" which of course is merely a reminder that the nuclear option not only exists but is certainly at the forefront of any "diplomatic" negotiations with the US. As Reuters reports, "In a series of questions and answers posted on its website, www.safe.gov.cn, SAFE asked rhetorically whether China would use its $2.45 trillion stockpile of reserves, the world's largest, as a "nuclear weapon." Apparently, the primary focus of the Q&A was to allay fears that China may be stockpiling gold in the open market: "SAFE was lukewarm about gold as an investment. "It cannot become a main channel for investing our foreign exchange reserves," the agency said, noting the size of the gold market was limited and prices were volatile. Buying more gold would also not help much in diversifying China's reserves." Of course, with all this occurring in light of recent disclosure that the BIS has been involved in gold swaps to provide liquidity to unknown banks, immediately obviates this statement, since, as we have pointed out previously, the Chinese 7 and 30 Day repo markets are still sufficiently strained, and gold would certainly come in useful to allay fears that domestic banks have something beyond massively underwater residential loans on their balance sheets to fund trillions in liabilities. All the Chinese statement really is, is a warning to the US to avoid following the advice of such permaspenders as Krugman, and now Goldman, and to launch into another round of monetary devaluation via QE. We are skeptical that once Bernanke puts the presses into turbo mode once again, that China will theatricize the same kind of wholesome support for US-based assets.

Tomorrow morning Bloomberg TV conducted an interview with Ken Rogoff in Hong Kong (the same way you land in New York before you take off in London via the now defunct Concorde) in which the Harvard professor recently made famous for his words of caution that overlevering sovereigns always eventually leads to economic slow down, financial collapse, and ultimately bankruptcy, warned, when discussing China real estate, that "you’re starting to see that collapse in property and it’s
going to hit the banking system." With this coming days ahead of the massive Agri Bank of China IPO, it is interesting just how much influence the person who has been warning all along that the world is headed on an unsustainable path will finally have, now that the permabullish cackle of the MSM punditry has finally been discredited as futures are about to reenter triple digit reality. Oh yes, and score one for Jim Chanos, and all those who have long been warning about the inevitable Chinese bubble pop. Additionally, in discussing the suddenly prevalent topic of perpetual
stimulus, and particularly envisioning Paul Krugman's thesis that the
world will end unless another couple of trillion are thrown into the
fire of irresponsible deficit spending, Rogoff says "I couldn't disagree more... Just to keep drinking bottles of aspirin because you are worried you are going to get a headache, or it is going to turn into a migraine, it's too much prophylaxis."

An American geologist-- Xue Feng--was sentenced to eight years in prison for gathering data on China's oil industry.

It was only a month ago that Jim O'Neill was openly taunting those who refused to suckle on Goldman's Kool Aid teat: "dear grizzlies…….bet your worried about today’s rally?   See u later." (sorry, we won't let this go for a long time). Then again, those who did believe Goldman's and David Kostin's advice that the market would be 30% higher now, are down to 70% of AUM (the very same David Kostin who on September 12, 2008, the weekend before Lehman blew up, predicted a 12% rally by the end of 2008 on the road to "S&P 1,400"). So, yes Jim, the grizzlies are far less worried at this point. Wish we could say the same for the bulls. Which incidentally may explain why Jim O'Neill has been completely gone from the scene for the past month. Luckily, he has now reappeared, and is once again dispensing bullishness to all who care to listen. The quote du jour this time: "While I can understand why some of the China bears will be full of the
joys of Spring right now, this is a “desired slowing” and unlike some
of the many issues in the West, the quicker they slow, the better." And we thought Bob Pisani had trademark to the "a nuclear holocaust is a victory for the bulls" phrase. Needless to say, we disagree with everything Jim has to say, except for his world cup pick. That said, we certainly enjoy his spin for the comedic content.

Those China CDS are looking ever more attractive. Earlier today, Bank of China, Asia’s third-
largest lender by market value, announced it plans to raise as much as 60
billion yuan ($8.9 billion) in a rights offer to replenish
capital. Bloomberg reports: "The lender will sell 1.1 shares for every 10 held, or as
many as 19.56 billion shares in Shanghai and 8.36 billion in
Hong Kong, a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange showed
today." This latest equity offering in a region already drowning in capital raises was enough to halt trading in BOC shares until July 5 as the response to it would hardly be considered favorable. A sale by Bank of China would “damage market sentiment and banking shares further because we’ve already been flooded by share offerings,” Tang Yayun, a Shanghai-based analyst at Northeast Securities Co., said before the announcement. “This is a surprise given that they just completed a bond sale.” The bolded sentence is critical as it merely implies that the rot from the trillions in bad loans made to assorted house flippers, tulip sniffers, and opium den casino dwellers are finally coming home to roost. Indeed, Bank of China's capital adequacy ratio fell to 11.09 percent
as of March 31, below the minimum 11.5 percent required according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. The next wave of the solvency crisis tsunami has now officially made landfall in China.

If you ever happen to eavesdrop on a conversation between energy investors, two words are sure to crop up – China and oil. Usually, they’re used together and usually, it’s about China’s increasing presence on the global oil scene.

It’s a pretty safe bet that, as one of the world’s fastest growing economies, China needs a lot of energy. And with an oil appetite that grows by 7.5% each year, seven times faster than the U.S., the country’s reserves don’t even begin to compare to the consumption.

But fuelling the blistering pace of its economy is China’s number one priority, and it is on a mission to lock down its energy interests all around the world. The emerging powerhouse has often felt that it was the last one onto the energy playing field with a lot of catching up to do.

Credit default swaps are soaring against China ...

As if one needed additional fears about the Chinese bubble popping, with overnight reports that various Chinese provinces are rising minimum wages to quell social unrest, following last night's surprising decline in the China PMI, here comes CEBM with a very scary outlook on China trade in general, and exports in particular. Well, if nothing else it will sure help the US push its world's worst trade deficit a little higher now that it will have much less to import. From the report: "Our CEBM China export leading indicator has already peaked, indicating that China’s exports are likely to peak soon. Our export model suggests that China’s exports may decelerate from 3Q due to weakening domestic and foreign demand." And here are some bad news for Obama's plan to double US exports in the next 5 years: "As the government has unofficially adopted normalization strategy away from the stimulus we are likely to see property, infrastructure, and manufacturing investments lose steam in the second half. The deceleration of FAI may put downward pressure on China’s imports." Have no fear - with its record budget spending, NASA will soon discover intelligent and wealth life on Mars, which will be more than glad to import all of America's financial innovation and three other things we export.