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Last month I was in a series of high-level meetings with members of Congress and the Senate in Washington.

While there’s been major news about the Supreme Court, my discussions were on something that both sides of the aisle are coming to consensus over.

You see, issues that impact your own bottom line are way more about economics than they are about politics. On Capitol Hill, leaders know that. They also know that voters react to what impacts their money. That’s why, behind the scenes, I’ve been discussing issues focused on protecting the economy.

Behind closed doors, we’ve been working on how to shield the economy from Too Big to Fail banks and how the U.S. can better fund infrastructure projects. These are initiatives that all politicians should care about.

Underneath the surface of the economy is a financial system that is heavily influenced by the Federal Reserve. That’s why political figures and the media alike have all tried to understand what direction the system is headed.

Also last week I joined Fox Business at their headquarters to discuss the economy, the Fed and what they all mean for the markets. On camera, we discussed this week’s Federal Reserve meeting and the likely outcomes.

Off camera, we jumped into a similar discussion that those in DC have pressed me on. Charles Payne, the Fox host, asked me what I thought of new Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, in general. Payne knew that I view the entire central bank system as a massive artificial bank and market stimulant.

What I told him is that Powell actually has a good sense of balance in terms of what he does with rates, and the size of the Fed’s book. He understands the repercussion that moving rates too much, too quickly, or selling off the assets, could have on the global economy and the markets.

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

“Something Has to Break” as China’s Onshore Defaults Hit a New Record

October 4, 2018

“Something Has to Break” as China’s Onshore Defaults Hit a New Record

Recent news from China has been really ugly.

But what can you expect? They’re trying to fight a trade war against the U.S. – deal with slowing growth – and survive against a stronger U.S. dollar.

And because of these problems – China’s major stock exchanges have really suffered this year.

But – contrary to what the mainstream says – I think things are going to get much worse. . .

For starters – the latest Chinese Manufacturing PMI (purchasing manager index) showed a continued downturn. Both in the NBS and Caixin Indexes.

Clearly the trade-war with the U.S. is being felt. And with little progress in negotiations between the U.S. and China – expect the near-and-midterm to continue being weak.

Now – Unfortunately – this slow down in the Chinese economy and the loss of sales and income are coming at a bad time. . .

Especially for their corporations.

The combination of a slowing economy, a stronger dollar, and a tightening Federal Reserve is putting pressure on indebted Chinese firms.

This is putting China’s elites between a rock and a hard place. . .

That’s because with the trade-war raging on and a tightening Fed – the Communist Party of China will want to ease and help their economy.

The Peoples Bank of China (the Chinese central bank) can cheapen the yuan to try and boost exports. And as I wrote before – the weaker yuan will offset Trump’s tariffs.

For example – if the U.S. places 20% tariffs on all Chinese goods – China simply must devalue the Yuan by 20%. This would offset the increased costs from the tariffs – keeping the price for U.S. consumers unchanged. Basically rendering the imposed tariff worthless.

But the problem with this is Chinese firms have significant dollar-denominated debts. So a stronger dollar makes their debt-burden much harder to service.

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

The Stock Market Just Crashed In Italy, And Argentina Has Panic-Raised Interest Rates To 65 Percent

September 28, 2018

The Stock Market Just Crashed In Italy, And Argentina Has Panic-Raised Interest Rates To 65 Percent

In the 9th largest economy in the world, the financial markets are crashing, and in the 21st largest economy in the world the central bank just raised interest rates to 65 percent to support a currency that is completely imploding. While the mainstream media in the United States continues to be obsessed with all things Kavanaugh, an international financial crisis threatens to spiral out of control. Stock prices are falling and currencies are collapsing all over the planet, but because the U.S. has been largely unaffected so far the mainstream media is mostly choosing to ignore what is happening. But the truth is that this is serious. The financial crisis in Italy threatens to literally tear the EU apart, and South America has become an economic horror show. The situation in Brazil continues to get worse, the central bank of Argentina has just raised interest rates to 65 percent, and in Venezuela starving people are literally eating cats and dogs in order to survive. How bad do things have to get before people will start paying attention?

On Friday, Italian stocks had their worst day in more than two years, and it was the big financial stocks that were on the cutting edge of the carnage…

Shares in Italian banks .FTIT8300, whose big sovereign bond portfolios makes them sensitive to political risk, bore the brunt of selling pressure, sinking 7.3 percent as government bonds sold off and the focus turned to rating agencies.

Along with the main Italian stock index .FTMIB, the banks had their worst day since the June 2016 Brexit vote triggered a selloff across markets.

Italian bonds got hit extremely hard too. The following comes from Business Insider…

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

Ben Bernanke’s Waffle House

September 16, 2018

Ben Bernanke’s Waffle House

Salvador Dali Spain 1936-38

Yes, it is hard to believe, but still happening: 10 years after Lehman the very same people who either directly caused the financial crisis of 2008 or made things much much worse in its aftermath, are not only ALL walking around freely and enjoying even better paid jobs than 10 years ago, they are even asked by the media to share their wisdom, comment on what they did to prevent much much worse, and advise present day politicians and bankers on what THEY should do.

You know, what with all the wisdom, knowledge and experience they built up. because that’s the first thing you’ll hear them all spout: Oh YES!, they learned so many lessons after that terrible debacle, and now they’re much better prepared for the next crisis, if it ever might come, which it probably will, but not because of but despite what their wise ass class did back in the day.

Which never fails to bring back up the question about Ben Bernanke, who said right after Lehman that the Fed was entering ‘uncharted territory’ but ever after acted as if the territory had started looking mighty familiar to him, which is the only possible explanation for why he had no qualms about throwing trillion after trillion of someone else’s many at the banks he oversaw.

Somewhere along the line he must have figured it out, right, or he wouldn’t have done that?! He couldn’t still have been grasping in the pitch black dark the way he admitted doing when he made the ‘uncharted territory’ comment?! Thing is, he never returned to that comment, and was never asked about it, and neither were Draghi, Kuroda or Yellen. Did they figure out something they never told us about, or were and are they simple blind mice?

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

Albert Edwards: Why We Are Destined To Repeat The Mistakes Of The Past

September 13, 2018

Albert Edwards: Why We Are Destined To Repeat The Mistakes Of The Past

With everyone and their grandmother opining on the 10 year anniversary of the start of the global financial crisis, it was inevitable that the strategist who predicted the great crash (and according to some has been doing the same for the past decade) – SocGen’s Albert Edwards – would share his thoughts on what he has dubbed the “10th anniversary of chaos.”

In it, the SocGen skeptic slams the trio of Bernanke, Geithner and Paulson who have been not only penning op-eds in recent days, but making the media rounds in a valiant attempt to redirect the spotlight from the culprits behind the crisis, writing that “they just never recognized beforehand that the economy was a massive credit bubble, just like it is now” and points to central bank arrogance as the “main reason why we should still be scared.”

Of course, just like 10 years ago, as long as the market keeps going up, nobody is actually “scared” and instead everyone is enjoying the ride (just as the legion of crypto fans who are no longer HODLing). The “fear” only comes when the selling begins, and by then it’s always too late to do anything about the final outcome as yet another bubble bursts.

Below we excerpt some of the observations from Edwards’ “A thought on the 10th anniversary of chaos”

Central Bank arrogance is one of the main reasons why we should still be scared. As a former official at the NY Fed, Peter Fisher, recently noted, “The Fed has acknowledged no failures. All the experiments have been successful, every one: no failures, no negative side-effects, no perverse consequences, only diminishing returns.”

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

Mexico’s Central Bank Just Broke with the War on Cash

September 3, 2018

Mexico’s Central Bank Just Broke with the War on Cash

Motivated by inflation?

A strange thing just happened in Mexico. The Bank of Mexico (Banxico), announced that it is considering launching a 2,000 peso note (ca. $105), double the highest denomination note currently in circulation. It’s also considering doing away with Mexico’s lowest denomination 20 peso bill (ca. $1.05), which will be replaced by a coin with the same face value.

Not everyone’s happy about the proposal, which forms part of a range of measures aimed at updating Mexico’s currency notes. Miguel González Ibarra, director of the Center for Financial Studies and Public Finance of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that introducing a higher denomination bill flies in the face of the broad trend among advanced economies to weed out such notes.

In 2016 Peter Sands, the former CEO of the British bank Standard Chartered, set the tone of the debate when he published a report for Harvard Kennedy School of Government imploring central banks around the world to stop issuing high-denomination notes and bills. They include the €500 note, the $100 bill, the CHF1,000 note and the £50 note. This is the first rule of the war on cash: make high-denomination notes taboo in law-abiding circles.

“Such notes are the preferred payment mechanism of those pursuing illicit activities, given the anonymity and lack of transaction record they offer, and the relative ease with which they can be transported and moved,” the report warned. In other words, only criminals use cash. High-denomination notes, the report added, “play little role in the functioning of the legitimate economy, yet a crucial role in the underground economy.”

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

Lira Plummets After Turkish Central Bank Deputy Governor Quits

August 30, 2018

Lira Plummets After Turkish Central Bank Deputy Governor Quits

It was already an ugly day for the Turkish Lira, which earlier in the day accelerated its drop for the 4th consecutive session, sending the USDTRY to the highest level since August 14 when the currency crashed over the weekend to the lowest level on record.

Today’s drop was initially precipitated after Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey “is not without alternatives” and warning that it won’t “back down over threats.”

In his latest attack on the US, Erdogan said that “some do not hesitate openly stating the fact that they are trying to drive us into a corner through the economy. There are surely structural issues in the Turkish economy. We know these issues and are working to fix them.”

Alas, as we noted earlier, judging by the plunge in the lira, the market did not seem convinced by Erdogan’s latest rant, and proceeded to slide further after closing last night down 3.0% at 6.469 which was weaker than where it was on the Friday 3 weeks ago (6.4323) when the panic spread across the market. The only softer closing level was on the following Monday (6.884) but that actually included a big intra-day rally back from the Asian wides. Yesterday was the third day in a row the Lira has weakened (post domestic holidays) while Turkey’s 5yr CDS was also +14.4bps wider and touched 500bps again (recent high was 535.0 on Aug 13).

Meanwhile, the latest attempts by Turkish authorities to shore up the lira in mid-August that led to a three-day rally in the aftermath, now seem to be losing potency now. And the most recent effort, yesterday’s reintroduction of borrowing limits for banks yesterday – an unwind of what took place just two weeks ago – is proving ineffective.

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

Economic Crisis Looms In Iran As Sanctions Bite

August 30, 2018

Economic Crisis Looms In Iran As Sanctions Bite

In a little over two months, painful U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil sector will take effect, but the Iranian economy is already showing signs of strain.

Iran’s currency, the rial, has fallen by more than half since the start of the year. There is now a thriving black market for U.S. dollars as the rial continues to plunge.

The turmoil has the government engaging in a bit of a circling firing squad. In July, the head of the central bank was sacked. In early August, the labor minister was ousted and just this past weekend the economy minister was removed.

The reshuffling and purging of top officials suggests that hardliners in Tehran are gaining ground against the government of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate by comparison. “Rouhani’s failure to respond to the economic crisis with gut and grit has further isolated him,” Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told the Wall Street Journal. “Even his erstwhile allies in the parliament are deserting what they believe is a sinking ship.”

But even though the economic indicators look poor, Rouhani’s real failure in the eyes of the hardliners has been political. That is, his government made the mistake of trusting the United States when it agreed to the 2015 nuclear deal. The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the pact earlier this year was proof in Tehran that opening up and negotiating with the U.S. on the nuclear program was a miscalculation. Rouhani has been in trouble since then, and the economic pain related to the re-implementation of U.S. sanctions is merely compounding the problem.

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

Did Russia Really Dump Its U.S. Debt?

August 22, 2018

DID RUSSIA REALLY DUMP ITS U.S. DEBT?

Russia dumped 84% of its American debt,” blared a July CNN headline. Russian central-bank head Elvira Nabiullina said the sales were just part of “diversifying the entire structure of currencies.” But with the U.S. dollar accounting for two-thirds of global foreign-exchange reserves and most (non-intra-eurozone) international trade, dumping this much dollar debt goes well beyond prudent diversification.

Many commentators have therefore speculated that the government was actually protecting itself against future U.S. economic attacks. “It looks like Russia was worried about sanctions and their ability to trade Treasuries,” said one head bond trader, “so they sold.”

Still, the Russian central bank needs dollars, which it has always held mainly in the form highly liquid interest-bearing U.S. Treasuries, to stabilize the ruble through market intervention and to help its banks manage liquidity. Furthermore, Russian president Vladimir Putin has stated that “Russia is not rejecting the dollar” and is “not planning any sudden moves.” This doesn’t jibe with the media headlines.

We therefore decided to explore another possibility: that the headlines are just plain wrong, and that Russia has not sold anywhere near that many Treasuries.

Let us start with U.S. Treasury Department data on holdings of Treasury securities. These do indeed show an $81 billion (84 percent) plunge in Russian-held Treasury debt—from $96 billion in March to $15 billion in May. Other figures, however, suggest that Russia’s actual selloff was much smaller than this.

One indicator is Treasury Department data that track sales, between U.S. and foreign entities, of long-term Treasuries—the sole component of Russia’s Treasury holdings that has dropped since March. From March to May, these data show just $35 billion of Russian sales, as the middle bar in the left-hand box above indicates.

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

The Fed and Interest Rates

August 16, 2018

THE FED AND INTEREST RATES

Most experts agree that through the manipulation of short-term interest rates, the central bank by means of expectations regarding future interest rate policy can also dictate the direction of long-term interest rates. On this way of thinking expectations regarding future short-term interest rates are instrumental in setting the long-term rates. (Note the long-term rates are an average of short-term rates on this way of thinking).

Given the supposedly almost absolute control over interest rates, the central bank by correct manipulations of short-term interest rates could navigate the economy along the growth path of economic prosperity, so it is held. (In fact, this is the mandate given to central banks).

For instance, when the economy is thought to have fallen below the path of stable economic growth it is held that by means of lowering interest rates the central bank could strengthen aggregate demand. This in turn will be supportive in bringing the economy onto a stable economic growth path.

Conversely, when the economy becomes “overheated” and moves onto a growth path above that which is deemed as stable economic growth, then by lifting interest rates the central bank could slow the economy back onto the path of economic stability.

But is it valid to suggest that the central bank is the key factor in the determination of interest?

Individuals time preferences and interest rates

According to great economic thinkers such as Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises interest is the outcome of the fact that every individual assigns a greater importance to goods and services in the present against identical goods in the future.

The higher valuation is not the result of capricious behaviour, but because of the fact that life in the future is not possible without sustaining it first in the present. According to Carl Menger,

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

Here’s Why Rip-Roaring Inflation Is Inevitable

August 4, 2018

Here’s Why Rip-Roaring Inflation Is Inevitable

The stability of America’s status quo is illusory.

One of the enduring mysteries of the past decade is why inflation has remained tame while the central bank and government have pumped trillions of dollars of newly created money into the economy. Millions of words have been written about this, and so some shortcuts will have to be taken to make sense of it in one essay.

Let’s start with the basics.

1. Adding newly created money but not generating new goods and services of the same value reduces the purchasing power of existing money. To keep it simple: say the economy of a country is $20 trillion. (Hey, the US GDP is $20 trillion…) Say its money supply is $10 trillion.

So banks and/or the government create $2 trillion in new money but the value of goods and services only expands by $1 trillion. the “extra” $1 trillion of newly created money (either “printed” or borrowed into existence) reduces the value of all existing money.

In effect, the new money robs purchasing power from all existing money.Those holding existing money have lost purchasing power while the recipients of the new money receive purchasing power they didn’t have prior to receiving the new money.

We can see how this works by looking at a chart of GDP to debt. As debt has soared (and remember, debt is “new money” that was loaned into existence), GDP has risen at a much lower rate, so the ratio of debt to GDP has skyrocketed. (see chart below)

2. Where “inflation” (higher prices for the same item) shows up depends on who gets the newly created money: the wealthy few or the wage-earning many. As I have explained many times, in our system, all newly issued money goes to banks, financiers and corporations–the super-wealthy few.

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

BOJ Intervenes For Third Time In A Week: Offers To Buy Unlimited Bonds To Stabilize Markets

July 30, 2018

BOJ Intervenes For Third Time In A Week: Offers To Buy Unlimited Bonds To Stabilize Markets

Ahead of the potentially dramatic BOJ decision tonight, the Japanese bond market is becoming increasingly jittery.

After 10Y JGBs sold off early in the session, with yields rising as high as 0.11% – the highest level in almost a year and a half – as the market continues to test the Bank of Japan’s intentions ahead of its policy decision, on Monday morning, the BOJ intervened again, offering to buy an unlimited amount of bonds for a third time in a week.

While unlimited in size, the central bank offer, made at 0.1% for bonds with 5-10 year maturities, drew some 1.6 trillion yen ($14.4 billion) of bids which were all accepted, the central bank reported just around 1am EDT. The 10-year yield pared the day’s advance after the move was announced.

Following the announcement, the 10-year JGB yield slid half basis point lower to 0.095%, compared with the 0.11% touched before the operation. This is over 3x more than the close of 0.03% just ten days ago ahead of media reports the BOJ will adjusted the parameters of its YCC.

As Bloomberg notes, Monday’s purchase was significantly larger than the 94 billion yen bought in the latest prior on Friday, as prevailing bond prices were below where the BOJ was buying, allow investors to take advantage of the free money.

The fixed rate of 0.10% for the operations on Friday and Monday was lower than the 0.11% offered at four previous operations for the five-to-10 year maturities. Monday’s fixed-rate operation was the seventh since the policy was introduced, and the first time it has conducted three operations within a single week as shown below.

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

Is Trump Starting To Lean On The Fed Or Setting It Up?

July 20, 2018

Is Trump Starting To Lean On The Fed Or Setting It Up?

President Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernan this morning he “does not agree”, is not “thrilled” or “happy” with the FOMC’s interest rate hikes. The full interview and transcripts will be available tomorrow.

Jul19_Trump Interview

Click here for excerpt of interview

You Heard It Here First

Presidents never, or rarely comment on monetary policy or currency market moves. for that matter, x/ the hackneyed meme “a strong dollar is the best interest of the United States.”

President Trump hit them all in this interview today, from the Fed to the Euro and Chinese RMB (“dropping like a rock”). It doesn’t surprise us.

Recall our March 21st post, The Biggest Risk At The Fed.

But this doesn’t concern us as much as the Fed’s independence.

“Just let it rip”

That is we are worried more about the freedom from White House pressure and interference in conducting monetary policy than getting a few bps wrong on the Fed Funds rate. This is especially true and relevant given the strongman tendencies and lack of respect for institutional norms of the current president.

Here is Larry Kudlow, the president’s new chief economic adviser:

“Just let it rip, for heaven’s sake,” Kudlow said of economic growth in the U.S., during a more than hour-long interview Wednesday on CNBC. “The market’s going to take care of itself. The whole story’s going to take care of itself. The Fed’s going to do what it has to do, but I hope they don’t overdo it.” – CNN
– Global Macro Monitor, March 21, 2018

We were assured by Fed insiders shortly after that post in March Chairman Jerome Powell was tough and we should not underestimate his independence. He has thus far proven to be an extraordinarily competent Fed leader.

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

Turkish Lira Tumbles To Record Low As “Ticking Time Bomb” Looms In Banking System

July 11, 2018

Turkish Lira Tumbles To Record Low As “Ticking Time Bomb” Looms In Banking System

Having exercised his newly-omnipotent capabilities to alter central bank decrees and appointing a puppet cabinet, Turkish President Erdogan is now urging the general public to borrow in the currency in which they are paid, but, as Bloomberg reports, that warning came too late for the country’s energy companies.

Turkish power producers are emerging as one of the biggest risks to the nation’s banks after they plowed billions of dollars into new power generation, distribution projects and deals over the past 15 years. Now, with the lira depreciating faster than they can raise electricity prices, some utilities earn less per year than what they have to repay in foreign-currency loans, according to the Ankara-based Electricity Producers’ Association.

Domestic banks are the most exposed to loans in foreign currencies, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note in May.

The NPL ratio for the banking industry rose to just over three percent in the week ended June 29 for the first time since October, according to data from the banking watchdog.

“A realistic estimate of non-performing loans are around 7-8 percent,” saidAtilla Yesilada, an economist for GlobalSource Partners in Istanbul. “There is no feasible scenario of lower loan rates through 2020 either. We can expect a default wave post-state of emergency,” Yesilada said. The state of emergency is due to expire on July 18.

At least $6.1 billion of loans taken out by energy companies are known to be in the process of being restructured or refinanced, including about $4 billion of debt owned by Bereket Enerji, which is selling power plants to cut its liabilities. Companies across various industries have agreed, or are still in talks, to reorganize at least $24 billion of loans.

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

Spotlight Turkey: Hyperinflation and Mass-Migration Crisis Inevitable

July 11, 2018

Spotlight Turkey: Hyperinflation and Mass-Migration Crisis Inevitable

Turkey isn’t close to hyperinflation yet. But the path it’s on is a guaranteed way to get there.

As Erdogan tightens his grip on finance and the central bank, Investors Fear Turkish Currency Crisis.

The Turkish lira fell around 4% against the dollar late Monday after Mr. Erdogan appointed his son-in-law as finance minister and put in place measures that could curb the independence of the country’s central bank. Investors also sold Turkish shares and debt, with yields on its dollar bond maturing in October 2028 rising from around 6.8% last week to about 7.15% recently, according to Tradeweb. Yields rise as prices fall.

“There’s a real risk that this spirals into a full-blown currency crisis,” said Paul McNamara, a portfolio manager at GAM Holding . “It’s got so many red flags that we’ve associated with economic crises…in the past.”

In such a crisis, a sharp slide in a currency threatens the government and local companies’ ability to pay foreign debt. Turkey has one of the highest levels of external debt for a developing country, at 53.4% of gross domestic product, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. Local companies have raised billions of dollars, leaving them and the wider economy vulnerable to a slide in the lira, which would make paying off that debt more expensive.

The lira has lost a fifth of its value this year as investors sold ahead of Mr. Erdogan’s June re-election, concerned he would erode the central bank’s independence and usher in looser monetary and fiscal policies. Mr. Erdogan has described high interest rates as “the mother and father of all evils,” stoking fears that his preference for lower rates could prevent the central bank from supporting the currency and tackling inflationary pressure.

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

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