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It’s Raining Money

February 26, 2018

It’s Raining Money

With apologies to the Dire Straights:

Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it
You play the bull on the fin TV
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and stocks for free

After 9 years of artificial liquidity drenching markets the same game continues in 2018: It’s raining money. Again. Still.

Last week we saw the standard script of the last 9 years unfold: Dovish talk by central bankers and artificial liquidity taking over markets. The latest avalanche of free money entering markets are of course buybacks courtesy of tax cuts which now are expected to reach $650B in 2018 announcements coming to $50B a month.

In many cases companies don’t know what to do with all that free cash, but to buy back their own shares. Warren Buffet pretty much spelled it out this weekend and today:

“A large portion of our gain did not come from anything we accomplished at Berkshire,” Buffett wrote.

The firm’s most recent annual letter revealed the investment conglomerate’s net worth surged $65 billion in 2017, with $29 billion of that stemming from tax proceeds. That gain was realized in December, after the passage of the tax plan.

So he has a problem, knowing that stocks are expensive he’s having a hard time investing the cash so he’s opening the door to buy back his own shares over issuing more dividends. None of this creates jobs, jobs, jobs of course, but is a refection of the absurdity of the ill devised tax cuts that will continue to expand wealth inequality but will continue to produce a bid underneath markets until the bitter end.

Lest also not forget that the ECB keeps running QE at 30B Euro a month and overnight the BOJ’s Kuroda announced persistent monetary easing is needed while China injected 150b yuan in overnight liquidity as well and voila a sea of global green:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Writing on the Wall

February 19, 2018

The Writing on the Wall

Many times people’s eyes glaze over when it comes to macro analysis and I get it. Macro analysis is by definition: Macro. It’s like watching a glacier melt and it only becomes of concern when the glacier structure collapses and you just happen to be in front of it. And then everybody says: Nobody could’ve seen it coming.

Yet following the macro pieces is so incredibly important and I continuously try to dedicate some time to dissect the big data pieces and the data keeps screaming the same message: The Writing is on the Wall.

For reference I keep track of these observations in NT blog and the Macro Corner.

Here’s a few that stuck out in the past few days.

Goldman Sachs sees red ink everywhere, warns US spending could push up rates and debt levels

“Goldman Sachs sees a tidal wave of red ink — and it may drag the U.S. economy into its undertow.

Federal deficit spending is headed toward “uncharted territory,” the firm said on Sunday, suggesting that the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans may not be able to count on the economic boost of tax reform for very longer. Goldman Sachs warned that the economic impetus from tax reform may have diminishing returns after this year. “The fiscal expansion should boost growth by around 0.7pp in 2018 and 0.6pp in 2019, but will likely come to an end after that”—listing a litany of reasons why spending and debt would conspire to undermine the world’s largest economy. 

Goldman’s analysts wrote that the “growth effect comes from the change in the deficit, not the level, and further expansion would put the U.S. onto an even less sustainable long-term trend. Second, some of the recent deficit expansion relates to changes unlikely to be repeated, such as the temporarily large effect of certain tax provisions.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Rising Debt + Rising Rates

February 12, 2018

Rising Debt + Rising Rates

Have they all lost their collective minds? Look I get that some people are leaning Democrat versus Republican and vice versa and that’s fine, but what exactly are voters getting? If, on the one hand, you think Democrats tax and spend too much you get Republicans on the other hand who cut taxes with disproportional benefit to the top 1% and then spend even more. Fiscal conservatives? Please.

In early February the US government was already scheduled to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year. 

A week later and that figure is already out the door as this week both parties agreed to expand spending caps seemingly preparing for World War III. An incremental hundreds of billions of dollars to the military budget alone in just 2 years. What for? To what end? It’s a bonanza for defense contractors surely and the president apparently wants a parade, but have we entered the math no longer applies zone?

The numbers are staggering:

Sven Henrich
✔@NorthmanTrader

Ok, if nobody will say it I will: This is insane.
Just the increase alone is larger than Russia’s entire annual military budget.
“The budget deal would raise military spending by $80B through the rest of fiscal year and by $85B in fiscal year 2019”https://www.marketwatch.com/story/congressional-leaders-say-theyve-struck-two-year-budget-deal-2018-02-07?link=sfmw_tw …

The end result? Much, much more borrowing and deficits into the trillion+ range forever and ever amen:

2019? Looks lot be $1.4 Trillion.

I didn’t see these figures mentioned in any campaign brochures have you? And this is all pre-recession folks. We get a recession and you are looking at 2-3 trillion dollar deficits.

Think I’m going hyperbole on you?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Debt Beneath

January 4, 2018

The Debt Beneath

Debt is irrelevant and matters not. It’s different this time. That’s the message from politicians, markets and participants. Tax cuts pay for themselves (they do not), leverage doesn’t matter (it does) and the increased costs of servicing the debt as a result of rising rates will be offset by imaginary real wage growth to come (they won’t). But the calmest market waters in history continue to keep these illusions alive as asset prices keep levitating from record to record.

Debt does matter and it was ironically left to Janet Yellen to voice any remnant concerns about the sustainability of debt to GDP: “It’s the type of thing that should keep people awake at night” she said.

With good reason:

After all the debt burden has never been higher and rates, following years of enabling the largest debt expansion in human history, are starting to rise in the US. In the larger historic context rates are still low, but let’s be clear, they are rising:

And with rising rates come questions of the sustainability of servicing incredibly high debt loads.

The worldwide equity rally since the early 2016 lows has resulted in a massive increase in the market capitalization of global asset prices which have increased by over $25 trillion in value since then. As discussed in my 2017 Market Lessons US market capitalization is now north of 143% of US GDP.

Low rates and free money in form of global QE and now US tax cuts make it all possible and consequence free. But is it?

Let’s take a look at the leveraging game over the past 2 years since this is when the most recent rally began. And note in many cases we don’t have full 2017 data yet so I’m using the running 2 year data where I can pull it. The trend is the same: Up, up and away.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Caution: Slowdown

November 11, 2017

Caution: Slowdown

Many of you know I keep posting charts keeping taps on the macro picture in the Macro Corner. It’s actually an interesting exercise watching what they do versus what they say. Public narratives versus reality on the ground.

I know there’s a lot of talk of global synchronized expansion. I call synchronized bullshit.

Institutions will not warn investors or consumers. They never do. Banks won’t warn consumers because they need consumers to spend and take up loans and invest money in markets. Governments won’t warn people for precisely the same reason. And certainly central banks won’t warn consumers. They are all in the confidence game.

Well, I am sending a stern warning: The underlying data is getting uglier. Things are slowing down. And not by just a bit, but by a lot. And I’ll show you with the Fed’s own data that is in stark contrast to all the public rah rah.

Look, nobody wants recessions, They are tough and ugly, but our global economy is on based on debt and debt expansion. Pure and simple. And all that is predicated on keeping confidence up. Confident people spend more and growth begets growth.

But here’s the problem: Despite all the global central bank efforts to stimulate growth real growth has never emerged. Mind you all this is will rates still near historic lows:

And central banks supposedly are reducing the spigots come in 2018:

I believe it when I see it. In September the FED told everyone they would start reducing their balance sheet in October. It’s November:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Big Bad Bear Case

July 26, 2015

The Big Bad Bear Case

coolbear6

My aim with this article is to outline, with facts, large global structural issues that I believe everyone, bulls and bears alike, should be fully aware of. While some of this discussion may rattle the cage a bit you will hopefully find this article well researched and informative.

Recently I’ve outlined why we switched our trading stance from buy mode (Door Shut) to sell mode (Inversion) on stocks. This week I’ve also outlined the aggregate technical factors that have us very cautious on stocks in general (Totality) while not precluding the possibility of new highs.

This article, however, will focus on much larger structural issues that have been building for years, decades indeed. And no this article is not so much about central banks, debt issues, Greece, China, deficits, etc. While all these are important as part of the overall picture, they are mere current symptoms of a much larger issue that is at the core of all that is already in play and will only deepen in our societies in the decades to come: Institutionalized poverty with an ever widening divide between the haves and the have nots which will result in an eventual drastic revaluation of asset classes across the board.

And before you think I’m off on a hyperbolic rant let me assure you my reasoning will be very much fact based and I have reason to believe the US Fed and Janet Yellen are very much aware of it all, but have no solution to prevent it from happening. In fact it is mathematically unavoidable.

A few weeks ago in The Greek Butterfly I discussed the concept of a global math construct that needs to maintain its integrity to make global debt serviceable. To that end I concluded that they would not let Greece default.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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