Category: zerohedge

The confusion reigns. The USD (aside from against the EUR) is bid and Treasuries are being sold along with precious metals in a continuation of yesterday’s taper-tantrum. However, stocks (and crude oil) are surging. As JPY’s implosion of moar QE from Japan expectations lift carry traders back from the grave.

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/aUvInJqaBfk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

While the last few days’ hearings have focused on the nefarious aspects of the crypto-currency, it would appear that the adoption of Bitcoin is growing in the broad market place. While drugs, assassinations, and money-laundering are the headline-grabbing reasons why this unregulated asset is under the US (and European) government’s eye, from ATMs, Subway (sandwich shops), and online retailers, the appeal is growing… and now, as AP reports, Cyprus’ largest university will start accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as an alternative way to pay tuition fees.

 

Via AP,

Cyprus’ biggest private university says it will start accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as an alternative way to pay tuition fees.

 

University of Nicosia’s Chief Financial Officer Christos Vlachos says the move will help foreign students in countries where traditional banking transactions are either difficult or costly to pay fees for programs such as online degrees.

 

The university claims it is the first in the world to take Bitcoin payments.

 

Vlachos told The Asssociated Press on Thursday that the university is also offering a new Masters’ degree in digital currency, a field he says is the monetary equivalent of the Internet in its infancy.

 

He said the Cypriot government should set up a regulatory framework to attract digital currency trading companies and boost the bailed-out country’s foundering economy.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/qu6U55YCuL4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Reports indicate strong Bitcoin interest in China.  BTC, the China-based Bitcoin exchange accounts (trading a third of all Bitcoin transactions, while China may account to close to half of the daily turnover,  according to some internet reports) at an estimated 200k Bitcoins a day. 

Registered participants on BTC is reportedly near 10k and rising quickly lately.  China-based Baidu, one on the largest internet companies in the world, has begun integrating Bitcoins into their network. 

On a recent trip to Asia and since, we found the Chinese media, in particular, had strong interest in Bitcoin angles and stories.  That level of interest, however, did not appear reflected among the asset managers to whom we spoke.

There two general explanations offered from the Chinese interest in Bitcoins.  The first is that it is part of China’s challenge to the US dollar.   Some who are involved in the digital currency space, think that the Bitcoin could actually chip away at the US dollar’s reserve currency status.  This seems quite far fetched and a incredible claim (in the sense of lacking credibility), though it has not stopped reporters from repeating it.  Yet, not to lose point, the idea is that digital currencies, of which the Bitcoin is the biggest and best known, is an alternative to fiat money. 

The other explanation of the popularity of China’s interest in Bitcoins is much less philosophical and normative and simply pragmatic and grounded into real needs.  Simply put, in a country that continues to closely regulate capital flows, the Bitcoin gives Chinese savers a way to circumvent the government’s strictures. 

China has been in the process of financial liberalization for some time, albeit at varying speeds.   It is expected to become gradually easier to investment overseas.   Often, when legitimate channels are developed, officials crack down harder on the shadier channels.  Back in 2009, Chinese officials did move against another digital currency (QQ).  Some argue that it was the centralized form that Chinese officials thought challenging rather than digital currencies in theory. 

Yet, there are few places in China to really spend Bitcoins and the issue seems to be how much are the Bitcoins, simply another speculative vehicle and how much is it a circumvention vehicle.  Even if it is most a speculative vehicle, regulators may still take an interest.   To be fair, the media coverage outstrips the actual number of people involved with Bitcoin trading in China. 

In the US, Bitcoins have a different function.  An like bluejeans and rock and roll music, the plasticity or flexibility of American culture and political institutions offers a different tact.  In Senate hearings early this week, both the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) suggested that digital currencies are comparable to the internet in its earliest days.  

Treasury’s Calvery was quoted saying, “So often, when there is a new type of financial service or a new players in the financial industry, the first reaction by those of us who are concerned about money laundering or terrorist finance is to think about the gaps and the vulnerabilities that it creates in the financial system.  But it is also important that we step back and recognize that innovation is a very important part of our economy.”  

US officials seem to recognize the digital currencies can provide a legitimate financial service and has the same benefits and risks of online payment systems.  Later today, the Federal Election Commission is to decide today whether digital currencies, such as Bitcoins, can be used as contributions to political campaigns. 

For those devotees who embrace the Bitcoin in the US (of high income countries more generally) as an alternative store of value than fiat (paper) money, there seems to be a fundamental contradiction.  If it is truly desired as an alternative store of value, then the exchange value is less important, but if it cannot be used, then it might not be considered money.   It seems that such a holder of Bitcoins should only use them for transactions if they felt that value of Bitcoins was rich to paper money. 

The critique of fiat money indicates that paper money will continue to fall depreciate against some external metric, like gold or a basket of goods.  This view argues against using Bitcoins as medium for transactions.  Economists often argue there are three functions of money, a medium of exchange,  a store of value and a unit of account.    Digital currencies, including the Bitcoin has not achieve the networking effect that is required for a unit of account.  We argue here that its function as a store of value works against it acting as a medium of exchange.    Perhaps this is the trilemma facing digital alternatives to fiat money. 

Sovereigns traditionally have two monopolies:  the power of coinage and the legitimate use of violence.  There are numerous examples of the sovereign sharing its monopoly with others, but only in limited ways.  Those who embrace digital currencies as an alternative to fiat money may always exist, but in relatively small numbers.  Surely, the income and wealth divergence that transcends economic models, suggest that far too many people do not have sufficient fiat money to make ends meet and digital currencies are a luxury they cannot afford. 

On the other hand, digital currencies to facilitate transactions may have a greater future, but then, predicated on fiat currencies.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Gmu45YOyHR0/story01.htm Marc To Market

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,248.50, EUR 929.64 and GBP 775.76 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,271.50, EUR 939.69 and GBP 787.11 per ounce.

Gold fell $28.70 or 2.25% yesterday, closing at $1,244.70/oz. Silver slid $0.47 or 2.31% closing at $19.85/oz. Platinum dropped $22.80 or 1.6% to $1,389.00/oz, while palladium fell $9.75 or 1.4% to $708.25/oz.

Gold was trading near four month lows today after its biggest drop in seven weeks yesterday. Another bout of peculiar concentrated selling led to Comex halting trading in December gold futures twice yesterday, the fourth time in less than 3 months.

Gold in U.S. Dollars  and Suspensions Of COMEX Gold Trading – 3 Month (Bloomberg)

Minutes of the Fed’s October policy meeting suggested that the Fed may start scaling back the U.S. central bank’s $85 billion in monthly asset purchases at one of the next few meetings and this may have exacerbated the sell off. ‘Taper’ speculation remains rife despite the increasing likelihood of no taper due to the very fragile state of the U.S. economy.

Gold trading on Comex was interrupted twice, according to Nanex, which provides exchange data and summarizes high frequency trading activity. Thus, trading of gold futures were suspended twice yesterday and four times in the last three months as trading was also suspended on September 12, October 11, and now, November 20.

Nanex reported that about 1,500 gold futures contracts traded in one second at 6:26:40 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, triggering a $10 drop in prices and a 20 second trading halt.

Damon Leavell, a spokesman for the exchange said trading was halted at 6:26:41 a.m. New York time, for about 20 seconds. The December contract fell about $11 in less than a minute before trading was suspended.

Leavell declined to comment on the size of the trade that led to the halt. The “stop-logic” mechanism gives traders the opportunity to provide additional liquidity and prevent excessive price movements.

Immediately after the release of the Fed minutes, came another burst of selling which led to gold futures being suspended for another 20 seconds. The second bout of concentrated selling is believed to have been even more than 1,500 contracts. Each contract is worth 100 ounces so 1,500 contracts is worth nearly $200 million.

Myra Saefong of Dow Jones Marketwatch wrote on her blog that, “sudden drops in gold prices and temporary trading halts in gold futures on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange seem to be becoming the norm”.

The timing was interesting as it came a day after news that Britain’s financial regulator is looking into whether gold benchmarks could have been rigged. The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a preliminary review into the issue, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

It is believed the London gold fixing is one of the important benchmarks being investigated for rigging. The London AM Fix determines the spot price for physical gold and is set twice daily by a panel of five banks. Zero Hedge suggested that the price falls on the COMEX yesterday may have been due to official intervention, possibly by the Bank of International Settlements.

Gold in U.S. Dollars, 1 Year – (Bloomberg)

Some entity appeared determined to get the gold price lower and they succeeded – for now.

The peculiar trading action in gold again yesterday suggests that certain banks may be manipulating the gold price in the same way that they rigged LIBOR and are alleged to have rigged foreign exchange markets. If so, a key question is, are they manipulating prices purely for profit motives or is there an official sanction for such intervention as alleged by GATA for many years now and by Zero Hedge recently.

The bottom line is that such trading action makes traders on the COMEX very nervous to go long and prevents gold getting some momentum and animal spirits.

However, while price manipulations work in the short term, in the long term gold prices will be dictated by the real world forces of physical supply and demand forgold coins, bars and jewellery. The smart money is fading out the considerable noise regarding volatile intraday price falls and focussing on gold’s importance as a long term diversification in a portfolio.

Investment Pyramid – (GoldCore)

It remains prudent to ignore this short term noise and day to day volatility and focus on gold’s importance as financial insurance and a vital diversification for all investors and savers today.

Support at $1,250/oz has been breached and gold is vulnerable of a fall to test support at $1,200/oz and the June 28th low of $1,180/oz.
 
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/cvjvXaN-0yE/story01.htm GoldCore

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

ObamaCare will act as a neutron bomb on the U.S. economy for systemic reasons.

Longtime readers know I have repeatedly explained why healthcare, i.e. sickcare, will bankrupt the nation. ObamaCare simply speeds up the coming collapse. Here are two of the dozens of entries I've written on sickcare: 

America's Hidden 8% VAT: Sickcare (May 10, 2012) 

Can Chronic Ill-Health Bring Down Great Nations? Yes It Can, Yes It Will (November 23, 2011)

I have also explained why ObamaCare's "fixes" are simulacra reforms that don't even address the systemic costs arising from the cartel-fiefdom structure of sickcare: 

Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part I (December 28, 2009)

Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part II (December 29, 2009)

Sickcare is unsustainable for a number of interlocking reasons: defensive medicine in response to a broken malpractice system; opaque pricing; quasi-monopolies/cartels; systemic disconnect of health from food, diet and fitness; fraud and paperwork consume at least 40% of all sickcare funds; fee-for-service in a cartel system; employers being responsible for healthcare, and a fundamental absence of competition and transparency.

Please glance at these charts to see how the U.S. healthcare costs are double those of competing nations on a per capita basis. Japan provides care for a mere 36% per person of what the U.S. spends–yet millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured.

If you set out to design a corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, unfair, deranged and unreformable system, you would arrive at U.S. healthcare/ObamaCare.

ObamaCare ignores the structural causes of our ill-health:

86% of Workers Are Obese or Have Other Health Issue Just 1 in 7 U.S. workers is of normal weight without a chronic health problem.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), i.e. ObamaCare, is a neutron bomb for employment. A neutron bomb is an enhanced-radiation thermonuclear weapon that famously leaves buildings, autos, etc. intact but kills all the people, even those inside buildings. vehicles, etc.

ObamaCare will act as a neutron bomb on the U.S. economy for these systemic reasons:

1. It is immensely complex, and already-marginalized small business owners will shed employees or simply close rather than have to figure out what all those thousands of pages of regulations and statutes mean to the survival of their business.

2. ObamaCare's primary mechanisms of lowering costs, insurance exchanges and technocratic selection of "best care practices," do nothing to change the systemic flaws of sickcare.

Many other commentators have already outlined how ObamaCare is driving employers to replace fulltime workers with part-time workers to avoid having to pay outrageously expensive monthly healthcare insurance premiums.

I see this response as a Corporate-America strategy. Corporate America has the human resources infrastructure and financial heft to figure out compliance and exploit loopholes in the insanely complex law. Small business has neither the infrastructure nor the financial resources. Small business owners will rely on the same cartels that are currently providing insurance for guidance, and of course the ObamaCare offerings will suit the financial needs of sickcare cartels.

Once small business owners see the costs of their options, some may opt to pay the penalties and others may follow the corporate strategy of turning each fulltime job into two part-time jobs to avoid paying for coverage or penalties, but many will choose instead to call it quits: either downsize to a one-person/one-household business with no employees at all, or sell/close the enterprise and escape the burdens.

What the lobbyists and attorneys who wrote the Obamacare monstrosity do not understand (because they have no exposure to or experience in the real economy) is the fragility of most small businesses: costs keep rising but revenues are stagnant. The mental and financial stresses keep rising, and ObamaCare does nothing to mitigate either source of stress.

The inside-the-Beltway types who crafted this mess have no idea of the pressures facing legitimate (non-black-market) business in America, corporate and small business alike.

ObamaCare offers even more incentives for Corporate America to offshore operations, and it provides powerful incentives to millions of marginal small businesses to shut down or shed all employees.

I am not alone in simply not wanting to waste the time, money and energy required to understand the new law and its various impacts on my business. We will cling to our already insanely expensive private healthcare insurance, one of the few that has been grandfathered in: new self-employed entrepreneurs won't be able to buy the absurdly costly policy we have–they will be offered a range of even worse deals, with higher costs and less coverage.

3. Perhaps most cruelly, the bronze level of ObamaCare–the "affordable" care–is a mirage, a simulacra of insurance rather than actual insurance. Bronze level ObamaCare features deductables of around $6,000.
In other words, you have to spend $6,000 before your insurance kicks in.

In an economy in which two-thirds of all households live paycheck to paycheck, this is the equivalent of no insurance. High-income sickcare lobbyists and millionaire politicos may look at $6,000 as no big deal, but for households with little savings or credit, that might as well be $60,000.

4. As many others have pointed out, the income levels that divide receiving a Federal subsidy from not receiving a subsidy are begging to be gamed. If $62,000 is the line in the sand that qualifies your household for a hefty subsidy on health insurance, the incentives to adjust earnings to fall just below $62,000 (or whatever the number is for the locale and household size) are immense.

People respond to the incentives and disincentives they are presented with, perverse or otherwise. The lobbyists, toadies and apparatchiks who wrote and passed ObamaCare could not have stuffed the bill with more perverse incentives if they had set out with that as their primary goal.

The neutron bomb has gone off, unseen by politicos and the Elites who wrote the bill. It is already undercutting fulltime employment, and it will soon add momentum to the free-fall erosion of small business growth and employment.
The strip malls and office parks will still be standing; there just won't be many employees in them.

Of related interest:

About Your $3.16 a Day Healthcare Insurance Plan… (February 21, 2013) MirageCare

What If ObamaCare, Too Big To Fail Banks and the State Are All the Wrong Sized Unit?(February 25, 2013)

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/yHh0_4ChTmY/story01.htm Tyler Durden

A pair of conflicting economist reports this morning.

On one hand, the DOL reported that seasonally adjusted Initial Claims dropped from an upward revised 344K to 323K (a number which will be revised higher as is now the tradition) below the expected 335K, which incidentally in an ultrasensitive environment to every piece of good news may be bad news as it means the November NFP report may come in better than expected and cement the Fed’s intention to taper as soon as December at least according to yesterday’s FOMC Minutes. Then again, the BLS noted that the decline was influenced by the Veterans’ Day holiday, so once again what is really going on beneath the surface is very much unclear. As Bloomberg notes, as a result of the holiday, “investors should anticipate a likely reversal next week in the pace of firings.” Ironic when the bulls are forced to cheer for bad economic data so the Fed balance sheet-driven melt up may continue. Continuing claims rose modestly by 66K to 2.876MM, slightly higher than expected, but well below the 3.325MM at this time last year.

 

On the other hand, Producer Price Inflation followed the recent CPI decline, and dropped by 0.2% in October in line with expectations, making the October headline PPI print the biggest drop since April’s -0.7%. Broken down by component, foods saw an increase of 0.8%, offset by a 1.5% drop in energy. PPI ex-food and energy rose by 0.2%, a fraction above the expected 0.1%, and rose 1.4% compared to a year earlier.

So adding the two reports together: Claims suggest Fed may taper soon if the labor market is indeed improving (with companies hiring part-time workers), while the PPI confirms that at least according to the BLS, inflation is nowhere to be found, suggesting much more QE in stock.

Just you typical, run of the mill, baffle with BS day.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HZvm52gCElQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

 

The capital market for new issues and refinancing of corporate debt has been on a tear the past few months – I think that ended yesterday. That's because the dreaded Taper Talk has resurfaced. The Fed minutes yesterday rekindled Fear of Taper.

The Taper On/Taper Off story has been with us for six months now. It started in May with the release of the Fed minutes and the first "whisper' of the Taper. The talk of the Taper reached a zenith in late September as the debt markets were convinced that Bernanke would start the Taper in October. It was a big surprise to players when Good Ole Ben chose to delay the October start and push it to sometime in the future; and now it's back.

 

 

An interesting consequence of Taper Talk is how it affects the Corporate new issue bond calendar. The following chart shows how talk of taper killed the ReFi market in June/July/October, and it also shows how the window for new issues opened right after Big Ben delayed the taper for a few months. Up until yesterday the corporate finance types and bond dealers on Wall Street were having a daily party. As of today, they will be back to struggling to push deals out the door.

 

 

My read of this is that the debt market does not work well unless there is the perception of QE -4 ever. The capital markets freeze up whenever the threat of a disruption of the $85B of grease the Fed provides every month arises. When the capital markets are working well, the deal flow is there, and this is good for the economy. When there is Taper Talk the refinancing gears get gummed up, and it acts like a drag on the economy.

There is no doubt in my mind that Yellen is going to push off the Taper for as long as she can. But even the Great Dove can't push the Taper off for too long. I think that Yellen will be forced to initiate a Taper by March. That suggests that there is a four month window before the actual event, but I don't think the Taper Talk is going to subside as it did in October/November. The Talk of the Taper will be with us (and the closing of the refinancing window) for months. As a result we are going to see a pause in the up move in equities and a closing of the bond window. This will translate into an economic drag. Whatever your forecast of 4th Q and 1st Q growth were on Tuesday, you should mark them down a bit today.

QE is the lubricant of the system. But when it is ended (or threatened to end) it causes pain. We've had five years of grease, now we are going to have to pay a price. My guess is that this new round of Taper Talk is going to hurt pretty bad. The reason is that there is next to no basis to believe that QE can be continued beyond a few more months. The Taper sign is now on, it will remain on until the talk is turned into action. When the Taper Talk sign is on, beware. The sign is now brightly lit.

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/nYQlPCt_5iE/story01.htm Bruce Krasting

 

The capital market for new issues and refinancing of corporate debt has been on a tear the past few months – I think that ended yesterday. That's because the dreaded Taper Talk has resurfaced. The Fed minutes yesterday rekindled Fear of Taper.

The Taper On/Taper Off story has been with us for six months now. It started in May with the release of the Fed minutes and the first "whisper' of the Taper. The talk of the Taper reached a zenith in late September as the debt markets were convinced that Bernanke would start the Taper in October. It was a big surprise to players when Good Ole Ben chose to delay the October start and push it to sometime in the future; and now it's back.

 

 

An interesting consequence of Taper Talk is how it affects the Corporate new issue bond calendar. The following chart shows how talk of taper killed the ReFi market in June/July/October, and it also shows how the window for new issues opened right after Big Ben delayed the taper for a few months. Up until yesterday the corporate finance types and bond dealers on Wall Street were having a daily party. As of today, they will be back to struggling to push deals out the door.

 

 

My read of this is that the debt market does not work well unless there is the perception of QE -4 ever. The capital markets freeze up whenever the threat of a disruption of the $85B of grease the Fed provides every month arises. When the capital markets are working well, the deal flow is there, and this is good for the economy. When there is Taper Talk the refinancing gears get gummed up, and it acts like a drag on the economy.

There is no doubt in my mind that Yellen is going to push off the Taper for as long as she can. But even the Great Dove can't push the Taper off for too long. I think that Yellen will be forced to initiate a Taper by March. That suggests that there is a four month window before the actual event, but I don't think the Taper Talk is going to subside as it did in October/November. The Talk of the Taper will be with us (and the closing of the refinancing window) for months. As a result we are going to see a pause in the up move in equities and a closing of the bond window. This will translate into an economic drag. Whatever your forecast of 4th Q and 1st Q growth were on Tuesday, you should mark them down a bit today.

QE is the lubricant of the system. But when it is ended (or threatened to end) it causes pain. We've had five years of grease, now we are going to have to pay a price. My guess is that this new round of Taper Talk is going to hurt pretty bad. The reason is that there is next to no basis to believe that QE can be continued beyond a few more months. The Taper sign is now on, it will remain on until the talk is turned into action. When the Taper Talk sign is on, beware. The sign is now brightly lit.

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/nYQlPCt_5iE/story01.htm Bruce Krasting

With the US shale revolution set to make America the largest exporter of crude, however briefly, the influence of Saudi oil is rapidly declining. This has been felt most recently in the cold shoulder the US gave Saudi Arabia and Qatar first over the Syrian debacle, and subsequently in its overtures to break the ice with Iran over the stern objections of Israel and the Saudi lobby (for a good example of this the most recent soundbites by Prince bin Talal ). But despite the shifting commodity winds and the superficial political jawboning, the reality is that nothing threatens the US dollar’s hegemony in what many claim is the biggest pillar of the currency’s reserve status – the petrodollar, which literally makes the USD the only currency in which energy-strapped countries can transact in to purchase energy. This may be changing soon following news that the Shanghai Futures Exchange could price its crude oil futures contract in yuan, its chairman said on Thursday, adding that the bourse is speeding up preparatory work to secure regulatory approvals.

 In doing so China is effectively lobbing the first shot across the bow of the Petrodollar system, and more importantly, the key support of the USD in the international arena.

This would be in keeping with China’s strategy to import about 100 tons of gross gold each and every month, in addition to however much gold it produces internally, in what many have also seen as a preparation for a gold-backed currency, which however would require a far broader acceptance of the renminbi in the international arena and most importantly, its intermediation in a crude pricing loop. It is precisely the latter that China is starting to focus on.

Reuters reports:

China, which overtook the United States as the world’s top oil importer in September, hopes the contract will become a benchmark in Asia and has said it would allow foreign investors to trade in the contract without setting up a local subsidiary.

 

“China is the only country in the world that is a major crude producer, consumer and a big importer. It has all the necessary conditions to establish a successful crude oil futures contract,” Yang Maijun, SHFE chairman, said at an industry conference.

 

Yang’s presentation slides at the conference stated that the draft proposal is for the contract to be denominated in yuan and use the type of medium sour crude that China most commonly imports.

It is hardly panic time yet: Reuters adds that industry participants with direct knowledge of the plan have said the contract would be priced in the yuan, otherwise known as the Renminbi, and the U.S. dollar. However, one can argue that the CNY-pricing is for now a test to gauge acceptance of the Chinese currency, and will take on increasingly more prominence as more and more countries, first in Asia and then everywhere else, opt for the CNY-denomination and in the process boost the Renminbi to ever greater parity with the USD.

Here are the punchlines:

“The yuan has become more international and more recognised by the financial market,” Chen Bo, Chinese trading firm Unipec’s executive general manager, told Reuters.

 

“I don’t think it would be unacceptable for the world to use the renminbi for commodities trading.”

Certainly not, although it would also entail a depegging the CNY from the USD, something which China is for now unable and unwilling to do. Because once the Yuan is freely priced, kiss all those Wal-Mart “99 cent” deals goodbye. 

Which in retrospect may be just what the US wants: a very gradual and controlled dephasing of the USD’s reserve currency status. Recall that what the Fed wants at any cost is inflation which has so far failed to materialize at the level demanded by the Chair(wo)man thanks in part to cheap Chinese goods and ongoing US exporting of inflation to China. So if that means a spike in the prices of China imports – so key to keeping US inflation in check – so be it. Because we can already see the Fed’s thinking on the matter – certainly it will be able to always restore the USD’s supreme status in “15 minutes” or less when it so chooses.

Of course, by then China, and the Petroyuan, may have a very different view on the world.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/FF5-qCF-J9U/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Investors are focused on the possible tapering of U.S. stimulus and starting to take some money off the table after a strong equities rally year-to-date. Less attention is being paid to the biggest source of risk at present: deflation in the developed world. All of the past week’s data point to heightened deflationary risks. Paltry U.S. consumer price index (CPI) figures, German producer prices undershooting and another bout of weakness in commodity prices, particularly oil, suggest deflation is winning the battle over central bank stimulus. Which is something that Asia Confidential has been forecasting for some time.

It’s no coincidence that at the same time, the Japanese yen has reached four month lows versus the U.S. dollar. Japan is printing an enormous amount of money in a bid to end its 20-year affair with deflation. It wants inflation at all costs and the yen is collateral damage. Lowering the yen increases the competitiveness of Japanese exporters, resulting in more cars, robots and flat-panel TVs being shipped abroad. And that means Japan is exporting deflation, and resultant lower prices in these goods, to the rest of the world. Key competitors in China and South Korea are starting to fight back but are being hampered by their strong currencies versus the yen.

There’s increasing talk that Europe will resort to more stimulus soon to wade off deflation. The euro has been remarkably strong compared to other currencies, making the region’s exporters increasingly un-competitive. Across the Atlantic, Bernanke and co. have been further hinting at QE tapering, but with rising deflation risks, any tapering seems unlikely. If Japan succeeds in weakening the yen further, you can be sure that other countries will start to complain and print money to lower their own currencies. The phrase “currency wars” may come back in vogue soon enough.

What does all this mean for markets? Well, it increases the odds of a further stock market correction before year-end. And a bond rally would seem overdue. But more broadly, it means the tussle between deflation and central bank stimulus should continue. That means more money printing and low interest rates for the foreseeable future. Which could push asset prices higher from already elevated levels, raising the odds of a major correction down the track.

Disinflation reigns

I’ve spoken of deflation so far, but it’s really disinflation (falling inflation) that’s occurring. A host of recent data suggests that this remains the primary threat to global economies, including:

1) The U.S. inflation rate fell to 1% annualised in October, the lowest figure in almost 50 years, excluding the 2008 financial crisis. Inflation in America peaked in 2011 and remains way below the Fed’s 2% target rate. The chart below is courtesy of Business Insider.

2) U.S. bank loan growth is showing a similar slowdown. Stimulus isn’t resulting in increased lending and therefore isn’t filtering through to the real economy. There’s just not enough end-demand for loans as businesses and consumers remain cautious about taking on debt.

3) The German producer price index (PPI) fell 0.2% month-on-month in October, more than expected. On an annualised basis, the PPI fell 0.7%. It points to slower inflation ahead.

4) The trend of slowing inflation is a Europe-wide issue. No wonder the European Central Bank cited falling inflation as a factor in its decision to cut rates earlier this month.

5) It’s not data as such, but softening commodity prices also point to falling inflation. The correction in oil prices is particularly pertinent.

These are just a few of the signs that deflation remains firmly in charge.

Why Japan’s largely to blame

Japan is back on the radar of investors given a breakout in its stock market and the yen reaching a four-month low. There’s a larger story brewing though. And that’s growing evidence that the grand experiment of Abenomics has been a complete and utter failure.

Recent third quarter GDP of 1.9% was half the level of the second quarter. More importantly, personal incomes
have barely budged while the cost of living has soared, thanks to the falling yen. This week’s trade figures showed imports surging 26% year-on-year (YoY) in October, versus 19% expected, due to soaring fuel imports. This overshadowed exports rising 19% YoY, more than analyst forecasts. Consequently, Japan’s trade balance (difference between exports and imports) fell to the third lowest level on record.

Why does this matter? Well, Japan runs a budget deficit of close to 10%. It used to run a major trade surplus, which has now turned into a trade deficit. If you run budget and trade deficits, you need to plug the gap either via private savings or the central bank printing massive amounts of money. The problem with the former is that using private savings to finance the gap means there’ll be less savings for private investment, a key growth driver for the economy. This means that you can expect Japan to print increasing amounts of money and for the yen to weaken further.

Besides the yen, the other point of interest will be Japanese government bonds. If Japan accelerates the monetisation of debt (central bank buying bonds to finance government), that’ll crowd out private players in the bond market. In fact, this is already happening. The so-called crowding out effect will almost certainly lead to increased volatility as private players are marginalised.

This is important because Japan desperately needs bond yields to stay low. The government’s enormous debt load (nearing 245% of GDP) means that just a small increase in bond yields and interest rates would lead to interest expenses on government debt reaching intolerable levels (a 2% rate would have interest expenses covering 80% of government revenues).

As Asia Confidential has highlighted on several occasions, Japan is in a desperate situation where there are no happy endings. There are only bad and worse outcomes. The government has chosen an extraordinary experiment which could well pave the way for the worst outcome to occur.

But this isn’t just a Japan issue. Other countries aren’t going to sit idly by and watch Japan steal market share due to the softening yen. At some point, they’re going to hit back with currency devaluations of their own. And then the real currency wars will begin in earnest. History shows these wars never end well as global trade suffers from the tit-for-tat between countries.

Are bonds set to come back?

Markets have largely ignored deflationary risks thus far. Stocks have surged, with few corrections, while bonds have spluttered. Given stagnant to falling GDP in the developed world and declining inflation, the bond market action has been particularly puzzling. Usually, government bond yields closely correlate with nominal (real plus inflation) GDP. If nominal GDP is falling, then so too should government bond yields.

This is why you should expect government bond yields in the developed world to head lower given the current deflationary threats. And it should also mean stocks have a further correction in the near future.

Short-term market action is always difficult to call though. Long-term trends are easier to distinguish. And on this front, little has changed. You have an ongoing battle between deflation and central bank government efforts to prevent it via QE. Deflation is winning right now, which is why you should expect more QE, not less, going forward.

If that’s right, stimulus and low interest rates could be with us for some time yet. Asset prices may be bid up further. And the market bears may have to wait before a more serious correction happens. The catalyst for that is likely to be a loss of faith in central bank stimulus.

This post was originally published at Asia Confidential:
http://asiaconf.com/2013/11/21/deflation-is-crushing-qe/

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