default

One of the oddest phenomena over the past two years has been the relative outperformance of European bank CDS compared to their transatlantic counterparts. Well, this peculiar relationship has now ended. European banks are finally, on average, riskier than American ones. Investors have finally realized that "regulatory capitalization" in Europe is an even more ephemeral concept than in the US. Furthermore as JPM pointed out yesterday, not only do European banks use more leverage, but the "the larger size of Europe’s banks argue against using simple GDP weights to assess potential risks to global markets.  Due to a buyer’s strike over the last month, European banks now have 3.5x as much debt to issue than U.S. banks over the remainder of the year." Also, as we have been pointing out every single day for the past week, European banks, or at least those that have excess liquidity, have been storing more and more of their euros with the Central Bank, instead of lending it out. Add to this the relentless rise in EUR Libor, and this trade should have been a no-brainer for months.

Poor, poor Europe. Every room one shines a light in, the cockroaches don't even bother to scurry to safety any more. Yet what is glaringly obvious takes a media-reported soundbite to awake people. So is the case with Hungary today. After opening 7 tighter, Hungarian CDS are now 14 bps wider to 277bps. As the attached chart shows, the Hungarian Forint is now in freefall. Yet if investors are concerned about Hungary, they should take a look at some of its less lucky Eastern European neighbors which, just like Hungary, have been considered to be strong for so long.

Libor is now at 0.53%, eurodollars are plunging, new Fed-ECB rescue facilities are rumored to be imminent, Germany is set to introduce a ban on naked shorting of all stocks, and sovereign risk is exploding: it will be a fun day. Spain, Italy and Korea are all more than 20% wider on the day, as the contagion virus is spreading faster and faster toward the heart of Europe.

On the other hand ...

With its CDS at 875, today, Greece is riskier than dictatorical (but Fed Free) Venezuela and perpetually bankrupt Argentina. All the hedge funds who went long Greek bonds with or without protection are getting destroyed. And some very prominent names did. We are waiting for the latest HSBC report to confirm this.

Country         Spread       CPD

• Greece:       874.22      50.66
• Venezuela:   841.28     44.57
• Argentina:    832.50     43.17
• Pakistan:      708.40     38.22
• Ukraine:       601.41     34.24

No, you are not looking at Portugal or Greek CDS. BofA starting to rumble too: CDS hits 163.

As I warned, Greece is ever closer to default (a default that is damn near guaranteed) while Ireland is probably in worse shape!!! Financial contagion begets economic contagion which breeds more financial contagion...

Probably not the best words to use when trying to diffuse a ticking time bomb.

SCHAEUBLE SAYS WOULD REGRET LETTING EURO COUNTRY DEFAULT
SCHAEUBLE SAYS EURO FOUNDERS COULDN'T IMAGINE SOVEREIGN DEFAULT

The market should dutifully ignore this if it knows what's good for it.

And why not - after all it's all the rage among those waiting in line for iPads so they can be first to buy "The Steve Jobs Guide for Deadbeat Dummies Trying To Learn To Read Good." Now that Obama has given his blessing to an entire generation of Americans to tear up contracts (very appropriate coming from a contract law professor), the follow up to moral hazard is resulting in not just individuals and companies, but entire nations simply opting out of paying their dues. Evans-Pritchard reports that after today's ludicrous rates on 3 and 6 month Bills the tide may be turning in Greece, with both parties in the country finally realizing its creditors will do everything in their power to bleed it dry, at "usurious" rates. With economic growth negative for a decade and debt interests quite certainly positive, the marginal difference will destroy not only economic output, but sink Greece ever more in debt, as existing creditors fund capital shortfalls at maturity (or default) by ever increasing interest rates. Greece has the option to stop funneling domestic capital to Germany later (inevitable) or sooner (if it finally makes the right decision).

A casual reminder of what Joaquin Almunia said just over two months ago goes to show the caliber of intellect of those running the show. Needless to say, Zero Hedge was skeptical of Joaquin's bullshit. Speaking of said bureaucrat, we wonder - did he fall off the face of the earth recently? With statesmen like this, who create soundbites such as "We have no Plan B - Plan A is on the the table, it is fiscal adjustment" who needs enemies like Ben Bernanke. Oh yeah, Europe. Nevermind.

Bankingnews.gr has disclosed something interesting. According to the Greek website, an account, allegedly a large US bank, has been dumping, in what it classified as "panic selling", its holdings of a 10 Year GGB maturing on April 20, 2010, or in 11 days. What is unclear is whether the bank has been trading for its own account or for a client. What is clear, is that the seller is certainly not too convinced that the bond will see a repayment of principalwhen it matures, in other words believes that Greece will go bankrupt before April 20th.

The chart says bond curve got more worried, and the CDS curve was … what it was in January. It seems that the CDS market reacted to the bailout news, while bonds continued to sell off. Differences in the curves at other times are reflections of inflation expectations and non-credit idiosyncratic risk. Neither curve is pricing in magical lightning from Zeus’ butthole that miracles billions of euros...Seems that all Greece has to show for their trouble is higher interest costs on a mountain of issuance coming up. On a global scale, aggregate debt repudiation either through inflation or default will be the endgame.

In today’s financial world, a real life, real-time economic World Series of Poker is being played out before our very eyes between the Central Banks of the world’s largest economies. As opposed to the annual Las Vegas World Series of Poker tournament, the buy in at the Central Bank World Series of Poker table is exponentially steeper, in the range of trillions of dollars, yen, and Euros that have been used to monetize the world’s debt, and the stakes are default of sovereign debt and the accompanying collapse of that domestic fiat currency.

Ultimately, as my colleague Dylan Grice writes, I think we head back to double-digit inflation rates as governments opt to default. I certainly again expect to see CPI inflation above 25% in the UK and indeed in most developed nations in my lifetime ? I have happy memories of the three-day week and doing my homework by candlelight. In the near term, however, the deflationary quicksand will suck us ever lower until we suffocate. A key driver for underlying inflation remains unit labour costs. While unit labour costs decline at an unprecedented rate, they are sucking us inevitably into a Fisherian, debt-deflation spiral. Only then will we see how far policymakers are willing to go to debauch the currency. Last year saw them cross the Rubicon. Monetisation is now the policy lever of first resort.

- Albert Edwards, Soc Gen

Some amusing headlines appearing elsewhere today, proclaiming the Greek crisis is over. Hardly: Uri Dadush of the Carnegie Endowment, and formerly of the World Bank says that "it is virtually inevitable that Greece will either default or need a bailout of some sort." Dadush, who a week ago wrote a provocative op-ed in the FT titled "End this inflation fundamentalism", in which he noted that "what happens in Greece will not stay in Greece" also says that "over and beyond the Greek bailout we have to do some thinking about our approach to overall fiscal and monetary approach in Europe." What? Visiting Ben Bernanke every 6 months is no longer sufficient? Oh wait, when everyone is undergoing austerity measures (now coming to Portugal, soon Italy, UK, Germany, Japan, and, lastly the, US), just who is it that will importeveryone else's exports? Why China of course. But hold on, isn't China a net exporter? Oh who cares about facts...The market's mind is already made up. Uri's conclusion will make Hugh Hendry proud: "I think under any circumstance we are going to see a significantly lower euro. I think we are going to see slower growth in Europe over several years, and I think there is a serious risk that the eurozone will implode unless there is a sea-change in the way fiscal and monetary policies are conducted."