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Blain’s Morning Porridge – 23rd Jan 2020; Plague, Famine, Trump

January 23, 2020

Blain’s Morning Porridge – 23rd Jan 2020; Plague, Famine, Trump

“Being a bully on the internet is a sure sign of insecurity and weakness…”

I glanced up at the screens y’day and caught a headline flashing across the screen: “No more boom bust cycle” said the talking head on the screen. Really? Go ask former Premier Gordon Brown how well that worked out for him… 

The big news this morning is the frighteningly rapid escalation of the Wuhan Plague – the SARs like Coronavirus has now killed 17 (doubling overnight) and is spreading. Wuhan is in lockdown with trains and planes closed down, apparently overflowing hospitals, and restrictions being placed on citizens. It sounds scary, but “horse and stable door” springs to mind. Chinese stocks took a thumping – down 3.5%. Its all about uncertainty. Thus far it looks like the virus is most dangerous to the elderly and infirm, but until everything is known about the source and contagion, we really don’t know.. Fear is the mind killer…

Meanwhile.. 

Let me assure readers I regard Davos as a nonsense of preening inequality – but it does throw up interesting moments. Yesterday was no exception – from Prince Charles demanding proper Carbon taxing, and the EU agreeing  – making excellent points.  Carbon should be taxed. It’s going to happen.  That will go down well with Trump, who earlier lambasted the gathering with his rejection of “alarmists” and the “prophets of doom”. The scientists respond their role is to simple provide the evidence – which they have done.  

Who do you want to listen to? Donald or The Scientists?

Then we had the unpleasantness when the UK told America our priority is a trade deal with Europe. 

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

Bridgewater Co-CIO: “The Boom-Bust Cycle Is Over”

January 22, 2020

Bridgewater Co-CIO: “The Boom-Bust Cycle Is Over”

Just in case anyone was worried that the smart money was quietly getting ready to stop dancing after Bridgewater’s Co-CIO Greg Jensen told the FT in an interview last week that it’s time to buy gold (which he sees rising to $2,000 because the Fed and other central banks would let inflation run hot for a while and “there will no longer be an attempt by any of the developed world’s major central banks to normalize interest rates”) ahead of the Fed cutting rates to zero and that “equities are frothy” as “most of the world is long equity markets”, today Bridgewater’s other Co-CIO came out with a controversial statement that appears to convey a polar opposite message to Jensen’s warning.

Bob Prince, who alongside Greg Jensen helps oversee the world’s biggest hedge fund at Bridgewater Associates as its other Co-CIO, said “the boom-bust economic cycle is over.”

Speaking to Bloomberg TV in Davos, Prince suggested that the tightening of central banks all around the world “wasn’t intended to cause the downturn, wasn’t intended to cause what it did” – and yet that’s precisely what the shrinking of the Fed’s balance sheet did hence the record expansion over the past four months – and shockingly said that “the lessons were learned from that and I think it was really a marker that we’ve probably seen the end of the boom-bust cycle.”

Prince was referring not only to the boom-bust cycle created by central banks, which first ease then tighten, resulting in bubbles and eventually crashes, as described in “Every Fed Tightening Cycle Creates A Crisis“…

… but also to the broader cycle of economic expansion and contraction that repeats itself.

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

Why Gold Standard is Not Conducive of Boom-Bust Cycles?

July 9, 2018

WHY GOLD STANDARD IS NOT CONDUCIVE OF BOOM-BUST CYCLES?

According to some commentators on the gold standard, an increase in the supply of gold generates similar distortions that money out of “thin air” does.

Let us start with a barter economy. John the miner produces ten ounces of gold. The reason why he mines gold because he believes there is a market for it. Gold contributes to the wellbeing of individuals.

He exchanges his ten ounces of gold for various goods such as potatoes and tomatoes.

Now people have discovered that gold apart from being useful in making jewellery is also useful for some other applications.

They now assign a much greater exchange value to gold than before. As a result, John the miner could exchange his ten ounces of gold for more potatoes and tomatoes.

Should we condemn this as bad news because John is now diverting more resources to himself? This however, is just what is happening all the time in the market.

As time goes by people, assign greater importance to some goods and diminish the importance of some other goods. Some goods now considered as more important than other goods in supporting people’s life and wellbeing.

Now people have discovered that gold is useful for another use such as to serve as the medium of the exchange. Consequently, they lift further the price of gold in terms of tomatoes and potatoes. Gold now predominantly demanded as a medium of exchange – the demand for the other services of gold such as ornaments is now much lower than before.

Let us see what is going to happen if John were to increase the production of gold. The benefit that gold now supplies people is by providing the services of the medium of the exchange. In this sense, it is a part of the pool of real wealth and promotes people’s life and wellbeing.

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

Central Banks Put a Safety Net Under Financial Markets

January 30, 2018

CENTRAL BANKS PUT A SAFETY NET UNDER FINANCIAL MARKETS

Most early business cycle indicators suggest that the global economy is pretty much roaring ahead. Production and employment are rising. Firms keep investing and show decent profits. International trade is expanding. Credit is easy to obtain. Stock prices keep moving up to ever higher levels. All seems to be well. Or does it? Unfortunately, the economic upswing shows the devil’s footprints: central banks have set it in motion with their extremely low, end in some countries even negative, interest rate policy and rampant monetary expansion.

Artificially depressed borrowing costs are fueling a “boom.” Consumer loans are as cheap as never before, seducing people to increasingly spend beyond their means. Low interest rates push down companies’ cost of capital, encouraging additional, and in particular risky investments – they would not have entered into under “normal” interest rate conditions. Financially strained borrowers – in particular states and banks – can refinance their maturing debt load at extremely low interest rates and even take on new debt easily.

By no means less important is the fact that central banks have effectively spread a “safety net” under financial markets: Investors feel assured that monetary authorities will, in case things turning sour, step in and fend off any crisis. The central banks’ safety net has lowered investors’ risk concern. Investors are willing to lend even to borrowers with relatively poor financial strength. Furthermore, it has suppressed risk premia in credit yields, having lowered firms’ cost of debt, which encourages them to run up their leverage to increase return on equity.

The boom stands and falls with persisting low interest rates. Higher interest rates make it increasingly difficult for borrowers to service their debt. If borrowers’ credit quality deteriorates, banks reign in their loan supply, putting even more pressure on struggling debtors.

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

Money Creation and the Boom-Bust Cycle

January 11, 2017

Money Creation and the Boom-Bust Cycle 

A Difference of Opinions

In his various writings, Murray Rothbard argued that in a free market economy that operates on a gold standard, the creation of credit that is not fully backed up by gold (fractional-reserve banking) sets in motion the menace of the boom-bust cycle. In his The Case for 100 Percent Gold Dollar Rothbard wrote:

I therefore advocate as the soundest monetary system and the only one fully compatible with the free market and with the absence of force or fraud from any source a 100 percent gold standard. This is the only system compatible with the fullest preservation of the rights of property. It is the only system that assures the end of inflation and, with it, of the business cycle. (1)

Murray Rothbard was convinced that we should return to a sound monetary system based on the market-chosen money commodity gold. Note that the use of gold as money as such cannot keep banks from issuing fiduciary media (a.k.a. uncovered money substitutes). The important thing is therefore that the monetary and banking system are free. A free banking system will develop along sound lines of its own accord, not least because banks have to continually clear transactions between each other and will tend to shun overextended lenders. A free market monetary/ banking system would likely be different from today’s system in numerous aspects, but it would be just as sophisticated and efficient. Most importantly, it would be economically sound and the likelihood that severe business cycles emerge would be vastly lower. Photo via mises.org

Some economists such as George Selgin and Lawrence White have contested this view. In his article in The Independent Review George Selgin argued that it is not true that fractional-reserve banking must always set in motion the menace of the boom-bust cycle. According to Selgin:

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

China’s Rolling Boom-Bust Cycle

May 18, 2016

China’s Rolling Boom-Bust Cycle 

Sweet Authoritative Nothings

There is a mysterious figure making regular appearances in China’s government mouthpiece “People’s Daily”, which simply goes by the name “authoritative person” (AP). This unnamed entity always tends to show up with bad news for assorted speculators, by suggesting that various scenarios associated with monetary and/ or fiscal stimulus are actually not in China’s immediate future (the details of AP’s latest pronouncements can be found here and here).

people's dailyThe People’s Daily. “Authoritative Person” may be hiding somewhere in the picture to the left.

Some observers seem to believe that this represents a “renewed shift in policy” – Bloomberg e.g. quotes an economist with Mizuho Securities as follows:

“It is very significant and may signal a shift in China’s policies,” said Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Each time they publish this, it is normally a warning.” 

Others are more careful – after all, this seems to be a case of “we’re saying one thing and doing another”, given a credit expansion of 4.6 trillion yuan in just the first quarter, which has sent narrow money supply growth soaring to more than 22% annualized.

The more measured argument is that it could be a sign that the debate about future economic policy is ongoing, resp. has been revived. No-one really knows – it is basically the Chinese version of Kremlinology.

1-China - M1,M2 growthAt the end of March, China’s narrow money supply measure M1 was growing at more than 22% y/y – click to enlarge.

Although the extension of new yuan loans has slowed significantly in April from January’s heady pace (555 bn. vs. 2.5 trn.), there has still been enough pumping in the system to push M1 up again in March-April from a brief dip in February – in other words, if there is indeed a change in policy, it is not really visible yet.

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

Austrians Get (Some) Mainstream Credibility

January 16, 2016

AUSTRIANS GET (SOME) MAINSTREAM CREDIBILITY

Well, well: who would have believed it. First the Bank for International Settlements comes out with a paper that links credit booms to the boom-bust business cycle, then Britain’s Adam Smith Institute publishes a paper by Anthony Evans [Editor’s note: Anthony is a Founding Fellow of The Cobden Centre] that recommends the Bank of England should ditch its powers over monetary policy and move towards free banking.

Admittedly, the BIS paper hides its argument behind a mixture of statistical and mathematical analysis, and seems unaware of Austrian Business Cycle Theory, there being no mention of it, or even of Hayek. Is this ignorance, or a reluctance to be associated with loony free-marketeers? Not being a conspiracy theorist, I suspect ignorance.

The Adam Smith Institute’s paper is not so shy, and includes both “sound money” and “Austrian” in the title, though the first comment on the web version of the press release says talking about “Austrian” proposals is unhelpful. So prejudice against Austrian economics is still unfortunately alive and well, even though its conclusions are becoming less so. The Adam Smith Institute actually does some very good work debunking the mainstream neo-classical economics prevalent today, and is to be congratulated for publishing Evans’s paper.

The BIS paper will be the more influential of the two in policy circles, and this is not the first time the BIS has questioned the macroeconomic assumptions behind the actions of the major central banks. The BIS is regarded as the central bankers’ central bank, so just as we lesser mortals look up to the Fed, ECB, BoE or BoJ in the hope they know what they are doing, they presumably take note of the BIS. One wonders if the Fed’s new policy of raising interest rates was influenced by the BIS’s view that zero rates are not delivering a Keynesian recovery, and might only intensify the boom-bust syndrome.

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

How Could the Fed Protect Us from Economic Waves?

June 11, 2015

How Could the Fed Protect Us from Economic Waves?

Making Waves

Mainstream economists tell us that the Federal Reserve protects us from economic waves, indeed from the business cycle itself. In their view, people naturally tend to go overboard and cause wild swings in both directions. Thus, we need an economic central planner to alternatively stimulate us and then take away the punch bowl.

Fed_ReserveNewspapers report on the adoption of the Federal Reserve Act. It was erroneously held that it was going to be “a constructive Act to aid business”. Ominously, even more such acts were promised.

 

Prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, a popular term described the supposed benefits created by the Fed. The Great Moderation referred to the reduced volatility of the business cycle. For example, I have written beforeabout economist Marvin Goodfriend, who asserted that the Fed does better than the gold standard.

 

toon(Credit: Greg Ziegerson and Keith Weiner)

An Orwellian Mandate for the Provision of Miracles

This belief is inherent in the Fed’s very mandate from Congress. The Fed states its three statutory objectives as, “maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” These terms are Orwellian.

Maximum employment means five percent of able-bodied adults can’t find work. Stable prices are actually rising relentlessly, at two percent per year. The meaning of moderate long-term interest rates must be changing, because rates have been falling for a third of a century.

That aside, the basic idea is that the Fed has both the power and the knowledge to somehow deliver an economic miracle. However, we know that central planning never works, even for simple things such as wheat production. Communist states have invariably failed to produce the food to keep their people alive. Stalin, Mao, and other communist dictators have deliberately starved off segments of their populations that they couldn’t feed.

 

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

China Momentum Indicator Plunges to “Hard Landing” Level

May 16, 2015

China Momentum Indicator Plunges to “Hard Landing” Level

“But nothing is normal in China anymore.”

Hard-landing gurus have been predicting an imminent end of the China bubble for years. A “hard landing” would be the optimistic scenario. The other scenario would be a crash-and-burn. But to their greatest frustration, there was no hard landing, or a soft landing, or any landing for that matter. China just kept on flying.

Fueled by an enormous credit bubble and monetary propellants, it kept adding to entire ghost cities, industrial overcapacity, and the most breath-taking infrastructure build-out the world has ever seen. Global demand for its products faded as labor got more expensive, but the 1.35 billion increasingly moneyed Chinese consumers discovered splurging on smartphones, cars, luxury goods, and a million other things. The China bubble stayed aloft, despite all the cracks appearing here and there.

But now it’s running out of air.

The car business in China has been the most phenomenal growth party in the world: in two decades, it went from nearly nothing to 20 million passenger vehicle sales per year. Every global manufacturer elbowed into it with multi-billion dollar investments. It’s a big part of the Chinese economy, impacting retail sales, manufacturing, and investment in fixed assets as plants, distribution centers, and dealerships are built. It adds to transportation as these cars are shipped from the plant to dealers across the country. It adds to services such as finance and insurance.

But the party has been running out of booze. In April it just about stalled at a dreadfully tiny year-over-year growth rate of 3.7% when the industry is counting on a 9% increase for the year and is building out capacity to accommodate much more. Hence what automakers dread: price cuts.

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

 

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