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The IMF Just Confirmed The Nightmare Scenario For Central Banks Is Now In Play
The IMF Just Confirmed The Nightmare Scenario For Central Banks Is Now In Play
The most important piece of news announced today was also, as usually happens, the most underreported: it had nothing to do with US jobs, with the Fed’s hiking intentions, with China, or even the ongoing “1998-style” carnage in emerging markets. Instead, it was the admission by ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny that what we said about the ECB hitting a supply brick wall, was right. Specifically, earlier today Bloomberg quoted the Austrian central banker that the ECB asset-backed securities purchasing program “hasn’t been as successful as we’d hoped.”
Why? “It’s simply because they are running out. There are simply too few of these structured products out there.”
So six months later, the ECB begrudgingly admitted what we said in March 2015, in “A Complete Preview Of Q€ — And Why It Will Fail“, was correct. Namely this:
… the ECB is monetizing over half of gross issuance (and more than twice net issuance) and a cool 12% of eurozone GDP. The latter figure there could easily rise if GDP contracts and Q€ is expanded, a scenario which should certainly not be ruled out given Europe’s fragile economic situation and expectations for the ECB to remain accommodative for the foreseeable future. In fact, the market is already talking about the likelihood that the program will be expanded/extended.… while we hate to beat a dead horse, the sheer lunacy of a bond buying program that is only constrained by the fact that there simply aren’t enough bonds to buy, cannot possibly be overstated.
Among the program’s many inherent absurdities are the glaring disparity between the size of the program and the amount of net euro fixed income issuance and the more nuanced fact that the effects of previous ECB easing efforts virtually ensure that Q€ cannot succeed.
(Actually, we said all of the above first all the way back in 2012, but that’s irrelevant.)
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Asian Currency Crisis Continues As China Holds, Malaysia Folds, & Japan Heads For Quintuple Dip Recession
Asian Currency Crisis Continues As China Holds, Malaysia Folds, & Japan Heads For Quintuple Dip Recession
Asia got off to an inauspicious start this evening with Japan printing a disappointing 1.6% drop in GDP – heading for its fifth recession in 6 years… so much for Abenomics, but, of course, Amari spewed forth some standard propaganda that he expects Japan to recover moderately (and Japanese stocks popped modestly assuming moar QQE). Then Malaysia continued its collapse with the Ringgit down another 1% hitting fresh 17-year lows and stocks dropping further, as the Asian Currency crisis continues. Heading into the China open, offshore Yuan signaled further devaluation but the CNY Fix printed very modestly stronger at 6.3969; and following last week’s best gains in 2 months, Chinese stocks are plunging at the open after Chinese farmers extend their streak of margin debt increases. Finally, WTI Crude drifted back to a $41 handle in early futures trading.
Asian Contagion…
Japan heads for Quintuple Dip recession…
The Asian currency crisis continues (led by Malaysia)
- *MALAYSIAN RINGGIT DROPS 0.9% TO 4.1155 PER DOLLAR
- *MALAYSIA’S KEY STOCK INDEX OPENS DOWN 0.4% AT 1,590.81
But broad-based USD strength against Asian FX continues…
Then China opened..
Great news – Chinese farmers and grandmas are releveraging!!
- *SHANGHAI MARGIN DEBT HAS LONGEST STREAK OF RISE IN TWO MONTHS
Seriously!
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Abenomics End Game: Thousands Protest In Downtown Tokyo, Demand Abe’s Resignation As PM Disapproval Soars
Abenomics End Game: Thousands Protest In Downtown Tokyo, Demand Abe’s Resignation As PM Disapproval Soars
Considering that Shinzo Abe’s first reign as prime minister of Japan lasted precisely one year from September 26, 2006 until September 26 of the following year, when he voluntarily resigned due to diarrhea, the fact that he has managed to stay in power for nearly 3 years since ascending to power for the second time in December 2012 and unleashing the currency-crushing and market-surging policy of unprecedented debt and deficit monetization known as “Abenomics” is quite impressive.
It also confirms that as long as the stock market keeps going higher politicians have nothing to fear even if it means a total collapse in living standards for the rest of the population.
Yet even with the Nikkei pushing on 18 years highs, it appears that Abe may have reached his rigged market rating benefit cap, because even as the Nikkei was soaring, Abe’s approval rating was plunging.
As we reported a month ago, “Abe Cabinet’s approval rating plunged to 39%, matching a record low, as more than half of voters oppose the new US-sanctioned military/security legislation being debated in the Diet…. As his popularity has waned, Abe has become more and more desperate to keep support and has, for the first time in 70- years, lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.”
The overall decline in support was apparently attributable to the fact that 53 percent of the respondents oppose the security bills being deliberated in the Lower House. Only 29 percent support the legislation, the survey showed.Three constitutional law scholars said in the Lower House Commission on the Constitution on June 4 that the security legislation is unconstitutional. The Abe Cabinet countered their stance by releasing an opinion paper that said the bills do not violate the Constitution.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Japan Inc Rocked By Massive Accounting Fraud: Toshiba CEO Quits After Admitting 7 Years Of Cooked Books
Japan Inc Rocked By Massive Accounting Fraud: Toshiba CEO Quits After Admitting 7 Years Of Cooked Books
While Abenomics has been an unmitigated disaster for Japan’s ordinary population, where the soaring stock market has benefited the top decile of the population while everyone has been slammed by a record 25 consecutive months of declining real wages and soaring input costs, there had been one bright spot: corporate earnings, which unlike in Europe or even the US, have been growing at a steady double-digit clip. What was surprising is that Japan was perhaps the one place where currency debasement was leading to an immediate flow through to rising EPS.
Then on Friday, a report out of Reuters caught our attention when news hit that 140 year old electronics conglomerate, and “pillar of Japan Inc“, Toshiba had inflated profits by a stunning $1.2 billion for a whopping 7 years, with fabricated figures amounting to 30% of the company’s “profits” since 2008!
Suddenly we saw Japan’s profitability “renaissance” in a very different light as Toshiba’s scandal suggested that, if endemic, Japan Inc’s house of soaring profits was built on nothing more than fabricated foundations.
And while we await to see which other companies will admit they too had been cooking their books in the past few years, we will have to do it without Toshiba’s CEO Hisao Tanaka, who together with five members of his senior staff, resigned earlier today.
According to the FT, “Tanaka said on Tuesday at a news conference, following a 15-second bow of contrition, that he “felt the need to carry out a major overhaul in our management team in order to build anew our company.” “We have suffered what could be the biggest erosion of our brand image in our 140-year history.”
Why the Bank of Japan Can’t Stop a Sudden Collapse of the Yen
Why the Bank of Japan Can’t Stop a Sudden Collapse of the Yen
On Friday morning in Tokyo, the Nikkei stock index was up again, at 20,600, highest in 15 years. Since “Abenomics” has become a common word in December 2012, the Nikkei has soared 128% on a crummy economy, terrible government deficits, and an insurmountable mountain of government debt. This 10-day run of straight gains, or 11-day run if Friday plays out, is the longest glory streak since February 1988 when Japan was in one of the craziest bubbles the world had ever seen.
The subsequent series of crashes had the net effect that the Bank of Japan became engaged in propping up the stock market not only by pushing interest rates to zero and dousing the market with money via waves of QE, but also by buying equity ETFs and J-REITs.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made asset-price inflation his top priority. Under pressure from the BOJ and the government, state-controlled entities – such as the Government Pension Investment Fund with ¥137 trillion in assets – are dumping Japanese Government Bonds into the lap of the BOJ and are buying stocks with the proceeds.
Foreign hedge funds have jumped into the fray, which is the hot money that can evaporate overnight. But fear not, every time the Nikkei drops 100 points or so, the BOJ starts buying, or creates the perception that it’s buying, and within minutes, stocks shoot back up. It’s part of the BOJ’s relentlessly communicated policy to inflate asset prices come hell or high water.
And hell or high water may now be on the way.
Ultimately, monetary policies hit the currency. So the yen has sagged about 35% since Abe took over. On Thursday in Tokyo, it hit ¥124.3 to the dollar, the lowest since December 2002. Friday morning, after some jawboning by the government and the BOJ, it recovered a smidgen.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Potemkin on the Pacific—–Abenomics Is Still Failing
Potemkin on the Pacific—–Abenomics Is Still Failing
For the first time since June 2012 Japan has attained a trade surplus. It is, however, premature to interpret that as an end to the impoverishment the island has undertaken these past three years, the last two under QQE. There are various reasons for the end of the negative trade imbalance, but the most significant surround the Chinese New Year.
China’s annual holiday plays havoc with any number of economic accounts of its own, but it should not be surprising to see its closest trade partners under the same difficulties in measurement. Unfortunately for Japan, as QQE was intended to foster trade in the other direction, China remains the most visible and deepest supplier for Japanese industry. As such, the level of activity from China is the largest single source in variability – with crude oil imports now a distant second, contrary to expectations.
The overall March surplus for Japan was just under ¥230 billion, but imports from China fell 19.4% in March. That was undoubtedly an adjustment for activity in February, as imports from China surged almost 40% that month. This exchange in monthly trade balance with China more than accounts for the Japanese surplus: February’s deficit with China was ¥769 billion on that surge in imports, while March’s deficit came in at only ¥174 billion. Thus without the China’s variability there would still be a serious trade deficit in March for Japan overall.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, unleashes stimulus plan to spur growth – Business – CBC News
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, unleashes stimulus plan to spur growth – Business – CBC News.
Japan’s cabinet approved 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion US) in fresh stimulus Saturday for the ailing economy, pledging to get growth back on track and restore the country’s precarious public finances.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is wrapping up his second year in office hard-pressed to salvage a recovery that fizzled into recession after a sales tax hike in April.
The stimulus plan endorsed by the cabinet includes 600 billion yen ($5 billion US) earmarked for stagnant regional economies. It also lays out Abe’s vision for countering longer term trends such as Japan’s surging public debt and a declining and aging population.
“A strong economy is the wellspring of Japan’s national strength,” said a summary of the plan released by the government.
It pledged to restore vitality to local regions to enable young Japanese “to have dreams and hopes for the future.”
Game Over Japan: Real Wages Crash Most In 21st Century, Savings Rate Turns Negative | Zero Hedge
Game Over Japan: Real Wages Crash Most In 21st Century, Savings Rate Turns Negative | Zero Hedge.
When about a month ago it was revealed that Japan’s shadow economic advisor is none other than Paul Krugman, we said it was only a matter of time before the Japanese economy implodes. Terminally. We didn’t have long to wait and last night the barrage of Japanese economic data pretty much assured Japan’s transition into failed Keynesian state status.
In fact, after last night’s abysmal Japanese eco data, we doubt even the most lobotomized Keynesian voodoo priests have anything favorable left to say about Abenomics: not only did core inflation miss expectations and is now clearly in slowdown mode despite Japanopenly monetizing all gross Treasury issuance, not only did industrial production decline 0.6% missing expectations of an increase and record its first decline in 3 months with durable goods shipments crashing, not only did consumer spending plunge for the 8th straight month dropping 2.5% in November (with real spending on housing in 20% freefall), but – the punchline – both nominal and real wages imploded, when total cash wages and overtime pay declined for the first time in 9 months and 20 months, respectively.
And the reason why any poll that shows a recently “re-elected” Abe has even a 1% approval rating has clearly been Diebolded beyond recognition, is that real wages cratered 4.3% compared to a year ago. This was the largest decline since the 4.8% recorded in December 1998. In other words, Abenomics has now resulted in the worst economy, if only for consumers, in the 21st century.
How Japan Bankrupted Itself – The Globalist
How Japan Bankrupted Itself – The Globalist.
Following the start of Abenomics in 2012, Japan moved back to the center of attention of global financial markets. After two and a half decades of economic stagnation, hopes were high that Japan would escape its long stagnation and deflation.
Plenty of economists around the globe hoped that, in so doing, Japan would show the western world, mainly the Eurozone, the way to do the same and avoid a similar long period of low growth and stagnating incomes.
Conversely, the failure of Abe’s plan for Japan’s recovery would not only be a disaster for the country of the rising sun.
It would also be very bad news for central bankers and politicians in the west as well. It would prove that Keynesian policies don’t work in a world of too much debt and shrinking populations.
To assess the probabilities of these scenarios, it is worthwhile to have a deeper look on how Japan ended up in the current economic malaise.
Why Japan’s Money Printing Madness Matters | David Stockman’s Contra Corner
Why Japan’s Money Printing Madness Matters | David Stockman’s Contra Corner.
This is getting hard to believe. The announcement that Japan has plunged into a triple dip recession should have been lights out for Abenomics. But, no, its madman prime minister has now called a snap election to enlist more public support for his campaign to destroy what remains of Japan’s economy.
And what’s worse, he’s not likely to be stopped by the electorate or even the leadership of Japan Inc, which presumably should know better. Here’s what Japan leading brokerage had to say about the “unexpected” 1.6% drop in Q3 GDP—- compared to the consensus expectation of a 2.2% gain and after the upward revised shrinkage of 7.3% in Q2.
We think that the economy is gradually improving,” said Tomo Kinoshita, an economist at Nomura Securities. “There’s no reason to be pessimistic about the economy going forward.”
Really? How in the world can an economist perched at the epicenter of Japan Inc. think that its economy is improving when Japan’s constant dollar GDP has now fallen back to pre-Abenomics levels; and, in fact, is no higher than it was in late 2007 prior to the “financial crisis”? Indeed, aside from the Q1 pull-forward of spending to beat the consumption tax increase, Japan’s economy has remained stranded on the flat-line it attained after world trade recovered from its 2008-2009 plunge.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
