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Even SocGen’s Albert Edwards was surprised at how quickly his latest predication was validated.

Recall that 3 weeks ago with the 10Y yield at 3.10%, with Edwards looking at the surge higher in 10Y Yields the SocGen strategist pointed out that the break in the 10y above 2.8% was not the key level that could mark the end of the secular bull market, but rather it was the 3.05% zone as shown in the chart below.

Commenting on this breakout, he said that rates might surge further and addressed whether this would mean the end his “Ice Age” thesis. As he noted, if investors “get the wrong side of a new multi-year bear market in government bonds, all investment portfolios will be shredded to ribbons as bonds are the cornerstone of most equity valuation models”.

Fast forward to today when in his latest note he writes “let me be totally honest: I was most surprised that the US 10y yield managed to smash through its multi-decade downtrend last week, mainly due to the fact that the CFTC data showed that speculators had already built unprecedented large short positions. It seemed that every man, woman and child was already bearish and so who was left to sell? Well clearly someone was! One thing that helped tip bond prices over the edge and take yields up to 3¼% was the fundamental support from stronger than expected economic data (see chart below). ”

Another factor for the latest breakout in yields which pushed the 10Y interest rate to fresh 7 years highs was the previously discussed economic exuberance by Fed Chair Powell who managed to convince markets that they were still too sanguine on their expectations on interest rates, “and the futures strip ratcheted up another notch towards the Fed dots.”

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

“This Is The Tipping Point”: One Bank Is Calling For A 30% Market Correction

October 10, 2018

“This Is The Tipping Point”: One Bank Is Calling For A 30% Market Correction

While some believe that it is the level (or stock) of the 10Y yield during a rate rout that determines the resulting revulsion toward equities, while others claim that it it speed of the sell off (the “flow” angle) that matters, the reality is that the higher rates rise – whether fast or slow – the less attractive risk assets become (in a recent analysis, Bank of America calculated what the great un-rotation “magic number” is for yields).

And while violent interest rate repricings certainly have an impact on risk assets – if only over the short-term, until rate vol normalizes – as today’s market action confirms, a more comprehensive theory suggests that the US dollar (the world’s reserve currency) and US interest-rates (world’s risk-free-rate) cycle play a vital role in determining changes in asset prices and the global economy, especially after the gold standard was abolished in 1971.

In a new note from Nedbank’s Neels Heyneke and Mehul Daya, the strategists explain why they believe “we are approaching historical thresholds”, where tighter monetary conditions in the US have traditionally been the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” for the equity market and economic growth, and why “this time should be no different.”

To begin, Nedbank defines US real interest rate as the spread between the US 10-year bond yield and the natural rate of interest (r*). The Laubach-Williams r* estimate is basically the real short-term interest rate at which the US economy is at equilibrium, i.e., where unemployment and inflation are at the 2% target. This allows to determination of monetary conditions in the US relative to the underlying economy.

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

The Commons, Short and Sweet

August 1, 2018

The Commons, Short and Sweet

I am always trying to figure out how to explain the idea of the commons to newcomers who find it hard to grasp. Here is a fairly short overview, which I think gets to the nub of things.

The commons is….

A social system for the long-term stewardship of resources that preserves shared values and community identity.

A self-organized system by which communities manage resources (both depletable and and replenishable) with minimal or no reliance on the Market or State.

The wealth that we inherit or create together and must pass on, undiminished or enhanced, to our children. Our collective wealth includes the gifts of nature, civic infrastructure, cultural works and traditions, and knowledge.

A sector of the economy (and life!) that generates value in ways that are often taken for granted – and often jeopardized by the Market-State.

There is no master inventory of commons because a commons arises whenever a given community decides it wishes to manage a resource in a collective manner, with special regard for equitable access, use and sustainability.

The commons is not a resource. It is a resource plus a defined community and the protocols, values and norms devised by the community to manage its resources. Many resources urgently need to be managed as commons, such as the atmosphere, oceans, genetic knowledge and biodiversity.

There is no commons without commoning – the social practices and norms for managing a resource for collective benefit. Forms of commoning naturally vary from one commons to another because humanity itself is so varied. And so there is no “standard template” for commons; merely “fractal affinities” or shared patterns and principles among commons. The commons must be understood, then, as a verb as much as a noun. A commons must be animated by bottom-up participation, personal responsibility, transparency and self-policing accountability.

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

What Lies Beyond Capitalism and Socialism?

May 2, 2018

What Lies Beyond Capitalism and Socialism?

The status quo, in all its various forms, is dominated by incentives that strengthen the centralization of wealth and power.

As longtime readers know, my work aims to 1) explain why the status quo — the socio-economic-political system we inhabit — is unsustainable, divisive, and doomed to collapse under its own weight and 2) sketch out an alternative Mode of Production/way of living that is sustainable, consumes far less resources while providing for the needs of the human populace — not just for our material daily bread but for positive social roles, purpose, hope, meaning and opportunity, needs that are by and large ignored or marginalized in the current system.

One cognitive/emotional roadblock I encounter is the nearly universal assumption that there are only two systems: the State (government) or the Market (free trade/ free enterprise). This divide plays out politically as the Right (capitalism, favoring markets) and the Left (socialism, favoring the state). Everything from Communism to Libertarianism can be placed on this spectrum.

But what if the State and the Market are the sources of our unsustainability?What if they are intrinsically incapable of fixing what’s broken?

The roadblock here is adherents to one camp or the other are emotionally attached to their ideological choice, to the point that these ideological attachments have a quasi-religious character.

Believers in the market as the solution to virtually any problem refuse to accept any limits on the market’s efficacy, and believers in greater state power/control refuse to accept any limits on the state’s efficacy.

I often feel like I’ve been transported back to the 30 Years War between Catholics and Protestants in the 1600s.

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

“Bloodbath” – Dow Crashes Over 1000 Points, Enters Correction

February 8, 2018

“Bloodbath” – Dow Crashes Over 1000 Points, Enters Correction

Dow crashed over 1000 points today….

All 2018 gains are gone…

Time for “Markets In Turmoil” special…

Markets “turmoiled” again today as Treasury yields spiked on a weak auction and the implications of a budget deal that means more supply is coming. This spooked stocks once again and XIV, the Inverse ETF, tumbled at the open – after ramping stocks delusionally into the open. As stocks got monkey-hammered again, so bonds were bid and ended with a relatively small rise in rates as plunges in Risk-Parity funds likely prompted forced delevering in stocks and bonds. Perhaps most notably, credit spreads started to snap wider and rate volatility spiked as equity market contagion spreads.

Investors have swung from “extreme greed” to extreme fear” in a record few days…

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

Cowen: Shutdown Brings “More Default Risk Than The Market Realizes”

January 22, 2018

Cowen: Shutdown Brings “More Default Risk Than The Market Realizes”

Echoing almost verbatim the bleak outlook on the US government shutdown laid out by Goldman on Friday in which the bank said the government closure could last “up to a few weeks” and become dangerous once it approaches the timing of the debt ceiling, Cowen’s senior policy analyst Jaret Seiberg writes on Monday morning that the danger of an impasse that would preclude reaching a deal to raise the debt ceiling, which the government will hit in March “is a bigger worry than a government shutdown that lasts several days or a week.”

According to Seiberg – who calls Trump an “unpredictable negotiator” over spending bill – pushing the spending bill into the debt ceiling time-line may make a package “even more politically toxic,” especially since Republicans may have more objections to raising the debt ceiling than Democrats;

On the other hand, the Cowen strategist sees little impact to financials and housing from a short government shutdown, as most housing programs will function, financial system oversight remains:

Fannie, Freddie will continue to operate; Ginnie Mae will continue to ensure principal/interest payments are made to investors; FHA can continue to approve insurance for loans, but those that require staff review might get delayed; if shutdown extends into weeks there may be problems
Fed, FDIC, OCC will continue to monitor banks; SEC will furlough employees, but key systems are governed by contracts

Finally, Pantheon’s Ian Shepherdson agrees: should the government closure extend into March, then all bets are off:

In the worst case scenario, the budget impasse could drag on, via a series of stopgap measures, until March, perilously close to the point where the debt ceiling has to raised or suspended, as was the case from November 2016 through March last year.

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

“What Happens When The Market Can No Longer Pretend”: Charting Today’s Minsky Moments Dynamics

October 28, 2017

“What Happens When The Market Can No Longer Pretend”: Charting Today’s Minsky Moments Dynamics

Back in July, Deutsche Bank’s derivative strategist Aleksandar Kocic believed he had found the moment the market broke, which he defined as a terminal dislocation between market and economic policy uncertainty: as he wrote 4 months ago, it was some time in 2012 that markets “lost their capacity to deal with uncertainty.”

It was also some time in 2012 that traders and market participants realized central banks have not only taken over the market, but have no intention of ever leaving as the alternative is a crash that wipes out 8 years of artificial “wealth effect” creation and puts the very concept of fractional reserve and central banking in jeopardy.

This intention was confirmed last week when as Kocic again wrote overnight, it became clear – once again – that Central Banks’ main agenda “is management of the risk of policy unwind” which has two different aspects, especially for those who still believe there is such as a thing as a “market.” Kocic explains:

On one hand, it is reassuring that Central Banks are cognizant of severity of the risk and are showing appropriate flexibility in adjusting their reaction functions to incorporate these realities.
On the other hand, this is less good because it does not allow the market to reposition and, thus, normalize. By soliciting feedback from the markets, Central Banks are further encouraging bad behavior making things potentially worse by postponing the resolution further into the future.

This is also the “nightmare scenario” envisioned by Eric Peters: a world in which central banks inject more and more liquidity and “stimulus”, and yet inflation does not rise, resulting in greater and greater financial inflation, i.e., asset bubbles, and a Fed chair who is confused about the “mystery” of inflation.

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

Cash Bans and the Next Crisis

September 17, 2016

Cash Bans and the Next Crisis

Criminalizing Cash

Money sometimes goes “full politics”. Take poor Kenneth Rogoff at Harvard. He wants a dollar with a voter registration card, a U.S. flag on its windshield, and a handgun in its belt – the kind of money that supports the Establishment and votes for Hillary.

Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics at Harvard University, participates in a session on the third day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. The World Economic Forum in Davos will be attended by a record number of chief executive officers, with a total of 2,500 delegates attending the five-day meeting. Etatiste tool Kenneth Rogoff, whose authoritarian jeremiads against cash currency we have first discussed and criticized in 2014 in “Meet Kenneth Rogoff, Unreconstructed Statist”. As Hans-Hermann Hoppe once noted: “[I]ntellectuals are now typically public employees, even if they work for nominally private institutions or foundations. Almost completely protected from the vagaries of consumer demand (“tenured”), their number has dramatically increased and their compensation is on average far above their genuine market value. At the same time the quality of their intellectual output has constantly fallen. What you will discover is mostly irrelevance and incomprehensibility. Worse, insofar as today’s intellectual output is at all relevant and comprehensible, it is viciously statist.”

Photo credit: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Writing last month in the Wall Street Journal under the headline “The Sinister Side of Cash”, he noted that:

“Paper currency, especially large notes such as the U.S. $100 bill, facilitate crime: racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug and human trafficking, the corruption of public officials, not to mention terrorism.”

Of course, large notes do make it easier for criminals to operate. Like cellphones. And sunglasses. And automobiles with air-conditioning. But that’s what money is supposed to do: make it easier for an economy to function. You use it as you please.

Yes, dear reader, we are back to our regular beat. Money. But what’s this? Finally, we’re beginning to see some action. You’ll recall that the markets have been eerily quiet – with less movement in stocks than we’ve seen in the last 100 years. What gives?

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

What It Means To and Why It Matters That We Buy Local

March 18, 2016

Fresh apples in baskets on display at a farmer's market

WHAT IT MEANS TO AND WHY IT MATTERS THAT WE BUY LOCAL

Buying local is quickly becoming a trend, and though some folks may not have noticed the slow change in supermarkets and the growing numbers of farmers’ markets, only occasionally visiting the US (where I was born) or the UK (where my wife was born) has really made it have an impact on us. Each time, we notice more. We are excited about the change. It’s great to go back a try local treats we don’t often get abroad, and it’s nice to have the information to opt into more responsible purchases.

Whether it’s mindless masses following a fashion or rise in consumer consciousness, staying local does matter on the grand scale. This morning I read an interesting, inspiring (and, for any permaculturalists, not altogether ground-breaking) article about “Replanting America”. According to a study from The University of California, Merced, it would be possible to locally produce 90% of the nation’s nutritional needs for a well-balanced diet, using only the existing farmland in America. It would just mean using that land to grow something besides corn, soy and other cash crops and growing food instead.

Farmers’ Market (Courtesy of Gemma Billings)

While I’ve seen lots and lots of these kinds of studies and claims over the years, the part of this one that struck me was that apparently scientists from earth and environmental disciplines aren’t that stoked on local food because it doesn’t actually make such a big difference in the scheme of emissions. The claim follows that transportation makes up only about a tenth of the total emissions from food production, with farms accounting for the rest. I know current farm practices are horrible, but I’m not sure such ideas are addressing the big picture.

SO, THEN, WHY DOES BUYING LOCAL MATTER?

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

Who Will Raise Rates? The Market or the Fed?

February 11, 2016

Who Will Raise Rates? The Market or the Fed?

Some people are confused by what I mean when I say that rates will rise as we move into the sovereign debt crisis, which will pick up steam in 2017 moving into 2020. We are NOT talking about central banks raising rates; we are looking at the FREE MARKET. As people realize that government debt comes with a risk, capital will begin to shift into the private assets. The market will not buy all the government debt that appears ready to explode. With central banks moving negative on short-term rates, smart money will wake up and flip into equities. If equities break-even, that is better than a guaranteed loss in government bonds. In Japan, the 10 year rate just went NEGATIVE so you want to park money with the government for 10 years and pay them to hold it?

Plus, the risk with government bonds will be that they can convert even short-term paper, of say 90 days, to 10-year bonds. Governments have done this before. As banks begin to get in trouble again, smart money will try to get off the grid. Banks will have to pay more for money as those keeping money in banks move out.

The FREE MARKET will force rates higher. Sure, central banks can keep short-term rates NEGATIVE as long as they buy the government debt. But this cannot continue indefinitely. The FREE MARKET will always win. This is how governments fail. The game remains on as long as there are bids at their auctions to sell new debt. What happens when there is NO BID? That is how the FREE MARKET will raise rates. Smart capital will move from public to private debt and equities in addition to gold and real estate on a VERY SELECTED basis.

The Cycle of War turned up in 2014. We have seen an escalation in international war (Russia-Ukraine) and in the Middle East while civil unrest spreads everywhere. This trend will pick up also in 2017 and move into 2020.

Stocks, the Economy and the Money Supply – What to Watch

January 27, 2016

Stocks, the Economy and the Money Supply – What to Watch

In previous articles we have occasionally discussed the interaction between economic indicators and the stock market. Among the topics we have touched upon: for one thing, the capitalization-weighted indexes can hardly be called “leading indicators” of the economy anymore. In fact, if one studies specific major turning points over the past two decades or so, it is clear that the market seems to “know” very little (at least not in advance).

The impression one gets is actually that the major indexes are acting like coincident rather than leading indicators of the economy. However, the market is not completely bereft of leading indicator qualities. What seems to be leading the economy are not the cap-weighted indexes, but market internals.

Even while the SPX still rose, resp. went sideways in 2015, market internals began to deteriorate (here shown: S&P hi/low percent, NYSE a/d line, SPX stocks above 200 & 50 day ma) – click to enlarge.

We believe we can explain why this is the case. In an economy in which the money supply can be expanded ex nihilo by central planners and/or commercial banks, the pace of money supply growth tends to lead both stock market returns and the performance of the economy as measured in terms of aggregate data.

Readers may have noticed our habit of adding the qualifier “as measured by aggregate data”. We are doing this because the boom period is a kind of Potemkin village: seemingly busy economic activity and surging accounting profits are masking the fact that a great deal of capital is consumed. Simply put, accounts are falsified, because loose monetary policy distorts and falsifies the entire economy’s price structure.

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

It’s Official: China Confirms It Has Begun Liquidating Treasuries, Warns Washington

August 27, 2015

It’s Official: China Confirms It Has Begun Liquidating Treasuries, Warns Washington

On Tuesday evening, we asked what would happen if emerging markets joined China in dumping US Treasurys. For months we’ve documented the PBoC’s liquidation of its vast stack of US paper. Back in July for instance, we noted that China had dumped a record $143 billion in US Treasurys in three months via Belgium,leaving Goldman speechless for once.

We followed all of this up this week by noting that thanks to the new FX regime (which, in theory anyway, should have required less intervention), China has likely sold somewhere on the order of $100 billion in US Treasurys in the past two weeks alone in open FX ops to steady the yuan. Put simply, as part of China’s devaluation and subsequent attempts to contain said devaluation, China has been purging an epic amount of Treasurys.

But even as the cat was out of the bag for Zero Hedge readers and even as, to mix colorful escape metaphors, the genie has been out of the bottle since mid-August for China which, thanks to a steadfast refusal to just float the yuan and be done with it, will have to continue selling USTs by the hundreds of billions, the world at large was slow to wake up to what China’s FX interventions actually implied until Wednesday when two things happened: i) Bloomberg, citing fixed income desks in New York, noted “substantial selling pressure” in long-term USTs emanating from somebody in the “Far East”, and ii) Bill Gross asked, in a tweet, if China was selling Treasurys.

Sure enough, on Thursday we got confirmation of what we’ve been detailing exhaustively for months. Here’s Bloomberg:

China has cut its holdings of U.S. Treasuries this month to raise dollars needed to support the yuan in the wake of a shock devaluation two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

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

The Exquisite Market Setup – Monetary Metals Supply-Demand

August 24, 2015

The Exquisite Market Setup – Monetary Metals Supply-Demand

Interesting Developments in Gold

There is an exquisite setup building once again. Tight fundamentals in the gold market apply upwards pressure on the price. For quite a while, we have been saying gold’s fundamental price was around a hundred bucks above the market price. Well, the market price moved up $46 this week. What happened to the fundamental price? You’ll have to read on to see (no cheating and reading ahead!) but suffice to say it’s quite a bit higher than the market.

Byzantine Empire. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, with Romanus I and Christopher. 913-959 AD. Gold Solidus, Constantinople mint. Struck 924-931 AD.

At the same time, the fundamental price of silver is below the market price. We included a graph last week, showing that gold is being sold at a discount and silver at a premium to their fundamental prices. The price of silver moved up this week, though it didn’t move like gold. It was up, then down, then up, then back down, ending a mere nine cents higher than last week. In fact, on Friday, the price of gold went up about 0.8% but the price of silver dropped 1.7%.

And this is the crux. According to popular belief, the prices of the metals are supposed to move together. Silver is supposed to go up when gold goes up, only more. This is due to money printing, inflation, economic fear, anticipation of further policy madness from the Fed, or whatever. It’s much clearer when you price everything in gold.

The fundamentals for silver just aren’t there right now. What happens when a trading thesis is believed by just about everyone?

These are the market upsets about which stories are told years later.

Could we see gold with a 13 handle and silver with a 14 handle? Read on…

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

The Swiss National Bank Bought Another 500,000 AAPL Shares Just Before 10% Correction

August 5, 2015

The Swiss National Bank Bought Another 500,000 AAPL Shares Just Before 10% Correction

Three months ago we were stunned to learn, and report, that the Swiss National Bank – a central bank – had been one of the biggest buyers of AAPL stock in the first quarter, when it added 3.3 million shares to its existing position, or 60%, bringing the total to 9 million shares, for a grand total of $1.1 billion. Moments ago, the SNB which unlike the Fed and the other “serious” central banks releases a 10-Q divulging its equity holdings, updated on its latest stock portfolio.

We were amused to learn that in the quarter in which AAPL stock almost hit a new all time high, the Swiss money printing authority which reported a record $20 billion loss in the second quarter, and a record $52 billion in the first half, added another 500,000 AAPL shares, bringing its new grand total to a whopping 9.4 million shares, equivalent to $1.2 billion as of June 30 (well below that now following the recent 10% correction).

At $1.2 billion, AAPL remains the top holding of the SNB, almost double the second largest position, which as of June 30 was Exxon stock valued at $637 million (and is worth much less now, and has most likely been surpassed in notional terms by #3 MSFT).

So what are the the Swiss hedge fund with nearly $94 billion in equity holdings? Here is the full breakdown.

Now if only the Fed would be this transparent about its own equity holdings…

The Irony Of Market Manipulation

July 28, 2015

The Irony Of Market Manipulation

Having gazed ominously at the extreme monetary policy smoke-and-mirrors intervention in bond markets, and previously explained that “the stock market is to important to leave to the vagaries of an actual market.“ While the rest of the world’s central banks’ direct (BoJ) and indirect (Fed, ECB) manipulation of equity markets, nobody bats an eyelid; but when PBOC steps on market volatility’s throat (like a bull in a China bear store), people start complaining… finally. There is no difference – none! And no lesser Asian expert than Stephen Roach warns that we should be afraid, very afraid as he states, the great irony of manipulation, he explains, is that “the more we depend on markets, the less we trust them.”

BoJ is directly buying Japanese Stocks and the rest of the world’s central banks are buying bonds with both hands and feet… for the first time ever, central banks are set to monetize all global government debt, something we showed previously…

But with China’s heavy handed “measures” seemed to save the world (until the last 2 days)…

9-Jul-15 Thurs CSRC:
1) suspended reviews of IPOs & other secondary market fundraising activities from Jul 9;
2) asked listcos to choose 1 out of 5 measures (including share buyback by major shareholders, companies and senior executives, employee stock buyback
incentive & employee stock ownership) to protect share price.
China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC):
1) allowed banks to roll over matured loans pledged by stocks;
2) encouraged banks to provide liquidity to China Securities Finance Corp Ltd. (CSFC) & offer financing to listed companies to buy back shares.
China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC): insurance asset mgt companies should not demand early repayment from brokers for debt products on margin financing.
Minister of Public Security & CSRC: to investigate malicious short selling activities on Jul 9.
State-Owned Assets Supervision & Admin Commission (SASAC): asked provincial SASACs to submit daily report if local SOEs’ increased stock holdings starting Jul 9.
CSFC: issued Rmb80bn short-term note in interbank market on Jul 9, yield at 4.5% p.a., duration at 3 months; and will purchase mutual fund products to stabilize liquidity.

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

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