Tag: finance

Thanks to the “pulling forward” of future production in the channel-stuffing-based inventory build of Q3, consensus estimates for the growth of the US GDP in Q4 2013 has collapsed to new lows for this cycle at a mere 1.5%. However, the “escape-velocity” recovery remains just around the corner as estimates for Q1 and Q2 2014 remain unimpacted by such nuance as reality…

 

Consensus GDP hits new lows for Q4 2013 – but 2014 will be just fine…

 

…just like 2013 was supposed to be in 2012…AND 2011… AND 2010…

Chart: Bloomberg and Deutsche Bank

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Cs8mQUqfquI/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Of the nine passengers aboard the small Makani Kai Air plane flight that crashed off the shore of Molokai Wednesday night, eight survived. The lone fatality was Loretta Fuddy, infamous for her “I have seen the original records” confirmation of the long-form birth certificate of the US President in 2011. Fuddy, who was 65 years old and had served as Hawaii’s state health director since January 2011, is described as “selfless, utterly dedicated, and committed” is a “terrible loss for the state“.

 

 

Via USA Today,

The plane, carrying a pilot and eight passengers, went down Wednesday in the water a half mile off the Hawaiian island of Molokai, the Maui Fire Department said. The lone fatality was Loretta Fuddy, who has served as state health director since January 2011.

 

Fuddy, 65, made national news in April 2011 when she verified the authenticity of certified copies of President Obama’s birth certificate. Obama had requested the release to curb claims by so-called “birthers” that he was born in Kenya and not eligible to be president.

 

…

 

Makani Kai Air President Richard Schuman told Honolulu-based KITV that he spoke with the pilot of the single-engine turboprop Cessna Grand Caravan after the crash.

“What he reported is after takeoff … there was catastrophic engine failure,” Schuman said. “He did the best he can to bring the aircraft down safely and he got everybody out of the aircraft.”

 

Schuman said the cause of the engine failure had not yet been determined.

 

Coast Guard Petty Officer Melissa McKenzie said a Coast Guard helicopter got three passengers out of the water while Maui fire crews picked up five people. One person swam ashore.

Paging Donald Trump…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/iIUmbKFonB4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Submitted by F.F.Wiley of Cyniconomics blog,

Earlier this year the notion that the Fed might modestly taper its purchases drove significant upheaval across financial markets. This episode should engender humility on all sides. It should also correct the misimpression that QE is anything other than an untested, incomplete experiment.

– Former FOMC Governor Kevin Warsh, writing in the Wall Street Journal on November 13.

If I may paraphrase a sainted figure for many of my colleagues, John Maynard Keynes: If the members of the FOMC could manage to get themselves to once again be thought of as humble, competent people on the level of dentists, that would be splendid. I would argue that the time to reassume a more humble central banker persona is upon us.

– Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, speaking in Chicago on December 9.

I fault the Fed for its lack of intellectual leadership on the economy and, in particular, Bernanke’s lack of forthrightness about the limits of the Fed’s ability to address slow growth and fiscal disequilibrium.

– Former St. Louis Fed President William Poole, speaking in Washington D.C. on March 7.

Does anyone else see a common theme?

Last month, we offered a plain language translation of the Warsh op-ed, because we thought it was too carefully worded and left readers wondering what he really wanted to say. Translation wasn’t necessary for Fisher’s speech, which contained a clear no-confidence vote in the Fed’s QE program. Poole’s comment was from a seminar question-and-answer session earlier this year, but it reached our inbox only last week in a transcript published in the latest Financial Analysts Journal. The Q&A was attached to an article that I’ll discuss here, because it makes claims we haven’t heard from others with FOMC experience.

Here’s an example:

Ben Bernanke talks a lot about risk management and the tradeoff between benefits and costs; he maintains that the need to balance these two issues justifies proceeding with the current policy. But Bernanke does not discuss the risk of political intervention in Fed policy despite numerous examples of the Fed giving in to political pressure and waiting too long to change its policy, which results in a detrimental outcome for the economy.

 

…

 

Essentially, pressure on the Fed will come from inside the government and may not be very visible; it may be limited to a few op-ed articles from the housing lobby. [FFW – presumably, Poole intended “it” to refer to the visible part of the pressure.] The true amount of political pressure will be largely hidden.

Poole is more or less saying that we have no idea what’s truly behind the Fed’s decisions. But he doesn’t stop there. He’s willing to make a prediction that you wouldn’t expect from an establishment economist:

[T]he real issue is the politics of monetary policy … I believe that the Fed will not successfully resist the political winds that buffet it. I am not a political expert or a political analyst by trade. My qualification for speaking on this topic is that I have followed the interactions between monetary policy and politics for a very long time. As with all things political, the politics of the Fed means that realities often fail to match outward appearances … I believe the Fed is likely to overdo its current QE policy of purchasing $45 billion of Treasuries and $40 billion of MBSs per month.

So there you have it: a 10-year FOMC veteran wants us to know that central banking isn’t all about the latest hot research on the wonders of unconventional measures.  On the contrary, monetary policy is no different than other types of policymaking; it’s guided by hidden political forces.

If you don’t mind our saying so, we feel a bit vindicated. Our very first Fed post ten months ago included the following:

As for the flip-flop [the Fed’s commitment to lifting the stock market through QE so shortly after claiming no responsibility for stock prices in recent bubbles], it’s easy to find a logical explanation. The banks want QE. Influential political and economic leaders want QE. Therefore, the path of least resistance is to give them QE. On the other hand, market manipulation to prick the Internet and housing bubbles would have been widely unpopular. Therefore, policymakers rejected the idea that they should manipulate markets and prick bubbles. No one likes to be unpopular.

 

More generally, QE seems to me to be explained by Bernanke (and his colleagues) being unable to sit still. This is natural behavior when you have to continually justify decisions. It’s not easy to explain to Congress, the media or public why you’re doing nothing but waiting for past policies to work. It won’t be long before people portray you as weak and indecisive and tell you to “Get to work, Mr. Chairman.” But once you start implementing new policies, especially if they’re in a direction that’s expedient for everyone in the short-term, then those criticisms go away. They’re replaced by adjectives like bold and proactive. And who doesn’t want to be known as bold and proactive?

We haven’t returned to this theme often, partly because it can’t be tested like we can test the Fed’s economic beliefs. Regular readers know that we do quite a lot of empirical work. We try our best to follow David Hume’s maxim that: “A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.”

As we see it, the Fed’s economic beliefs are proportioned more closely to political factors than real-life evidence. You might replace Hume with Upton Sinclair, who said “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.”

In other words, politics and personal incentives are a huge part of the picture, and not just in central banking but in the economics profession more generally.

The theories underpinning current policies, which have built up over the last 80 years or so, can’t be properly understood without thinking through the motivations behind key developments. Some of the motivational factors are obvious, while others are more subtle, but I won’t clutter this post with our musings on the hidden drivers in economics. Detlev Schlichter offered a nice summary in his book, Paper Money Collapse:

It would be naïve to simply assume that the exalted position of [mainstream economic] theories in present debate is the result of their superiority in the realm of pure sciences. This is not meant as a conspiracy theory in the sense that professional economists are being hired specifically to develop useful theories for the privileged money producers in order to portray their money printing as universally beneficial. But it would be equally wrong to assume that the battle for ideas is fought only by dispassionate and objective truth-seekers in ivory towers and that only the best theories are handed down to the decision makers in the real world, and that therefore whatever forms the basis of current mainstream discussion must be the best and most accurate theory available. No science operates in a vacuum. The social sciences in particular are often influenced in terms of their focus and method of inquiry by larger cultural and intellectual trends in society. This is probably more readily accepted in the other major social science, history. What questions research asks of the historical record, what areas of inquiry are deemed most pressing and how historians go about historical analysis is often shaped by factors that lie outside the field of science proper and that reflect broader social and political forces.

 

Moreover, ever since mankind began writing its histories they have served political ends. History frequently provides a narrative for the polity that gives it a sense of identity or purpose, whether this is justified or not, and the dominant interpretations of history can be powerful influences on present politics. Similarly, certain economic theories have become to dominate debate on economic issues because they fit the zeitgeist and specific political ideologies. This is not to say that economics cannot be a pure, objective science. It certainly can and should be. Whether theories are correct or not must be decided by scientific inquiry and debate, and not in the arena of politics and public opinion. But it is certainly true that many economists do depend for their livelihoods on politics and public opinion, and that they cannot operate independently of them.

Schlichter is one of many authors and bloggers willing to discuss the awkward realities lurking behind economic theory and central banking. But these ideas are considered taboo by most mainstream media outlets. They’re not discussed in establishment venues or spoken by establishment figures.

Or so I thought.

Poole’s refreshingly honest take on the Fed’s inner workings – from someone who truly knows what goes on behind the curtains – is more than welcome.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/hRkL5rvMW3g/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The markets are in a perilous condition today.

We’ve been noting for months that the markets were displaying signs of a top. Among other items, we recently noted:

1)   Margin debt (when investors borrow money to buy stocks) has hit new all time highs.

2)   The number of bearish investors has hit an all time low.

3)   Market leaders have peaked or are peaking.

4)   Market breadth (the number of stocks that are rallying) is falling.

5)   Earnings are falling at key economic bellweathers.

6)   Stocks have diverged dramatically from earnings and revenues.

Of course, market tops always take longer than one expects. The weakness of the S&P 500 over the last few weeks isn’t too promising.

A break below this line would open the door to a more serious correction, possibly to 1,700.

The key item to note would be if the market does correct in a big way while the Fed was engaged in its $85 billion per month QE plan. We’ve never had a correction greater than 5% since the Fed announced QE 3 and QE 4. A 5% correction from the most recent peak would bring us to 1,710.

That would be the key line to watch. I’ve drawn it in the chart below.

Is the market topping? It’s too early to tell. But for certain we are in a bubble. It’s just a question of when it bursts.

For a FREE Special Report on how to beat the market both during bull market and bear market runs, visit us at:

 

http://phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/special-reports.html

 

Best Regards

 

Phoenix Capital Research

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/O-j_VOwDqik/story01.htm Phoenix Capital Research

The markets are in a perilous condition today.

We’ve been noting for months that the markets were displaying signs of a top. Among other items, we recently noted:

1)   Margin debt (when investors borrow money to buy stocks) has hit new all time highs.

2)   The number of bearish investors has hit an all time low.

3)   Market leaders have peaked or are peaking.

4)   Market breadth (the number of stocks that are rallying) is falling.

5)   Earnings are falling at key economic bellweathers.

6)   Stocks have diverged dramatically from earnings and revenues.

Of course, market tops always take longer than one expects. The weakness of the S&P 500 over the last few weeks isn’t too promising.

A break below this line would open the door to a more serious correction, possibly to 1,700.

The key item to note would be if the market does correct in a big way while the Fed was engaged in its $85 billion per month QE plan. We’ve never had a correction greater than 5% since the Fed announced QE 3 and QE 4. A 5% correction from the most recent peak would bring us to 1,710.

That would be the key line to watch. I’ve drawn it in the chart below.

Is the market topping? It’s too early to tell. But for certain we are in a bubble. It’s just a question of when it bursts.

For a FREE Special Report on how to beat the market both during bull market and bear market runs, visit us at:

 

http://phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/special-reports.html

 

Best Regards

 

Phoenix Capital Research

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/O-j_VOwDqik/story01.htm Phoenix Capital Research

While the distractions of the Japanese currency collapse, the resultant nominal offsetting surge in the value of the Japanese stock market, the doubling of the Japanese monetary base and the BOJ’s monetization of 70% of Japan’s gross issuance have all been a welcome diversion in a society struggling with the catastrophic aftermath of the Fukushima explosion on one hand, imploding demographics on the other, and an unsustainable debt overhang on the third mutant hand, the reality is that Japan, despite the best intentions of Keynesian alchemists everywhere, is doomed. 

One can see as much in the following two charts from a seminal 2012 research piece by Takeo Hoshi and Tatakoshi Ito titled “Defying Gravity: How Long Will Japanese Government Bond Prices Remain High?” and which begins with the following pessimistic sentence: “Recent studies have shown that the Japanese debt situation is not sustainable.” Its conclusion is just as pessimistic, and while we urge readers to read the full paper at their liesure, here are just two charts which largely cover the severity of the situation.

Presenting the countdown to Japan’s D-Day. 

Exhibit A.

The technical details of what is shown below are present in the appendix but the bottom line is this: assuming three different interest rates on Japan’s debt, and a max debt ceiling which happens to be the private saving ceiling, as well as assuming a 1.05% increase in private sector labor productivity (average of the past two decades), Japan runs out of time some time between 2019 and 2024, beyond which it can no longer self-fund itself, and the Japan central bank will have no choice but to monetize debt indefinitely.

and Exhibit B.

Figure 12 shows the increase in the interest rate that would make the interest payment exceed the 35% of the total revenue for each year under each of the specific interest scenarios noted in the chart above (for more details see below). The 35% number is arbitrary, but it is consistent with the range of the numbers that the authors observed during the recent cases of sovereign defaults. In short: once interest rates start rising, Japan has between 4 and 6 years before it hits a default threshold.

The paradox, of course, is that should Japan’s economy indeed accelerate, and inflation rise, rates will rise alongside as we saw in mid 2013, when the JGB market would be halted almost daily on volatility circuit breakers as financial institutions rushed to dump their bond holdings.

In other words, the reason why Japan is desperate to inject epic amounts of debt in order to inflate away the debt – without any real plan B – is because, all else equal, it has about 8 years before it’s all over.

Here is how the authors summarize the dead-end situation.

Without any substantial changes in fiscal consolidation efforts, the debt is expected to hit the ceiling of the private sector financial assets soon. There is also downside risk, which brings the ultimate crisis earlier. Economic recovery may raise the interest rates and make it harder for the government to roll over the debt. Finally, the expectations can change without warning. Failure in passing the bill to raise the consumption tax, for example, may change the public perception on realization of tax increases. When the crisis happens, the Japanese financial institutions that holds large amount of government bonds sustain losses and the economy will suffer from fiscal austerity and financial instability. There may be negative spillovers for trading partners. If Japan wants to avoid such crisis, the government has to make a credible commitment and quick implementation of fiscal consolidation.

…

 

A crisis will happen if the government ignores the current fiscal situation or fails to act. Then, the crisis forces the government to choose from two options. First, the Japanese government may default on JGBs. Second, the Bank of Japan may monetize debts. The first option would not have much benefit because bond holders are almost all domestic. Monetization is the second option. Although that may result in high inflation, monetization may be the least disruptive scenario.

Finally, this is how the BOJ’s epic monetization was seen by the paper’s authors back in March 2012.

Bank of Japan could help rolling over the government debt by purchasing JGBs directly from the government. The Bank of Japan, or any other central bank with legal independence, has been clear that they do not endorse such a monetization policy because it undermines the fiscal discipline. However, at the time of crisis, the central bank may find it as the option that is least destructive to the financial system. If such money financing is used to respond to the liquidity crisis, this will create high inflation.

 

The prospect for high inflation will depreciate yen. This will partially stimulate the economy via export boom, provided that Japan does not suffer a major banking crisis at the same time.

 

An unexpected inflation will result in redistribution of wealth from the lenders to the borrowers. This is also redistribution from the old generations to the young generations, since the older generation has much higher financial assets whose value might decline, or would not rise at the same pace with inflation rate. This may not have such detrimental impacts on the economy, since many who participate in production and innovation (corporations and entrepreneurs) are borrowers rather than lenders.

For now monetization is indeed less disruptive. The question is for how much longer, since both Japan and the US are already monetizing 70% of their respective gross debt issuance. And once the last bastion of Keynesian and Monetarist stability fails, well then…

Once the crisis starts, the policy has to shift to crisis management. As we saw above, the crisis is likely to impair the financial system and slow down consumption and investment. Thus, the government faces a difficult tradeoff. If it tries to achieve a fiscal balance by reducing the expenditures and raising the taxes, the economy will sink further into a recession. If it intervenes by expansionary fiscal policy and financial support for the financial system, that would make the fiscal crisis more serious. This is a well-known dilemma for the government that is hit by debt crisis…. If not helped by the government, the banking system will be destroyed, and the economy will further fall into a crisis. Rational depositors will flee from deposits in Japanese banks to cash, foreign assets or gold.

Ah..
. rational.

* * *

Appendix:

The private saving ceiling is the absolute maximum of the domestic demand for the government debt, but the demand for JGBs will start falling well before the saving ceiling is ever reached. One potential trigger for such a change is that the financial institutions find alternative and more lucrative ways to invest the funds. In general, when the economic environment changes to increase the returns from alternatives to the JGBs, the interest rate on JGBs may start to increase. If this suddenly happens, this can trigger a crisis. Increases in the rate of returns may be caused by favorable changes in the economic growth prospect. The end of deflation and the zero interest rate policy would also lead to higher interest rates.

…

In Figure 6 , the authors calculate Japan’s debt’GDP over the next three decades using the following assumptions on the interest rate:

• R1: Interest rate is equal to the largest of the growth rate (?t) or the level at 2010 (1.3%).
• R2: Interest rate rises by 2 basis points for every one percentage point that the debt to GDP ratio at the beginning of the period exceeds the 2010 level (153%).
• R3: Interest rate rises by 3.5 basis points for every one percentage point that the debt to GDP ratio at the beginning of the period exceeds the 2010 level (153%) .

R1 is motivated by the fact that the average yield on 10 year JGBs over the last several years has been about the same as the GDP growth rate during the same time interval, but constrains the interest rate to be much lower than the current rate even when the GDP growth declines further. R2 and R3 assume that the interest rate rises as the government accumulates more debt. Many empirical studies have demonstrated such relation. R2 (2.0 basis points increase) uses the finding of Tokuoka (2010) for Japan. R3 (3.5 basis points increase) assumes the coefficient estimate used by Gagnon (2010). It is the median estimate from studies of various advanced economies

…

A more reasonable scenario is to assume the growth rate of GDP per-working-age person (or an increase in labor productivity) to be similar to that of the 1990s and 2000s. We consider two alternative growth rates per-working-age population. The low growth scenario is that the increase in labor productivity at 1.05% (average of 1994-2010) and the high growth scenario is at 2.09% (average of 2001-2007, the “Koizumi years”).12 Table 6 shows the growth decomposition on the assumption of the 1.05% growth rate of GDP per-working-age person…. The upper bound for the debt accumulation is reached by 2024 at the latest.

Full paper

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/8NuME7zSM7o/story01.htm Tyler Durden

While the distractions of the Japanese currency collapse, the resultant nominal offsetting surge in the value of the Japanese stock market, the doubling of the Japanese monetary base and the BOJ’s monetization of 70% of Japan’s gross issuance have all been a welcome diversion in a society struggling with the catastrophic aftermath of the Fukushima explosion on one hand, imploding demographics on the other, and an unsustainable debt overhang on the third mutant hand, the reality is that Japan, despite the best intentions of Keynesian alchemists everywhere, is doomed. 

One can see as much in the following two charts from a seminal 2012 research piece by Takeo Hoshi and Tatakoshi Ito titled “Defying Gravity: How Long Will Japanese Government Bond Prices Remain High?” and which begins with the following pessimistic sentence: “Recent studies have shown that the Japanese debt situation is not sustainable.” Its conclusion is just as pessimistic, and while we urge readers to read the full paper at their liesure, here are just two charts which largely cover the severity of the situation.

Presenting the countdown to Japan’s D-Day. 

Exhibit A.

The technical details of what is shown below are present in the appendix but the bottom line is this: assuming three different interest rates on Japan’s debt, and a max debt ceiling which happens to be the private saving ceiling, as well as assuming a 1.05% increase in private sector labor productivity (average of the past two decades), Japan runs out of time some time between 2019 and 2024, beyond which it can no longer self-fund itself, and the Japan central bank will have no choice but to monetize debt indefinitely.

and Exhibit B.

Figure 12 shows the increase in the interest rate that would make the interest payment exceed the 35% of the total revenue for each year under each of the specific interest scenarios noted in the chart above (for more details see below). The 35% number is arbitrary, but it is consistent with the range of the numbers that the authors observed during the recent cases of sovereign defaults. In short: once interest rates start rising, Japan has between 4 and 6 years before it hits a default threshold.

The paradox, of course, is that should Japan’s economy indeed accelerate, and inflation rise, rates will rise alongside as we saw in mid 2013, when the JGB market would be halted almost daily on volatility circuit breakers as financial institutions rushed to dump their bond holdings.

In other words, the reason why Japan is desperate to inject epic amounts of debt in order to inflate away the debt – without any real plan B – is because, all else equal, it has about 8 years before it’s all over.

Here is how the authors summarize the dead-end situation.

Without any substantial changes in fiscal consolidation efforts, the debt is expected to hit the ceiling of the private sector financial assets soon. There is also downside risk, which brings the ultimate crisis earlier. Economic recovery may raise the interest rates and make it harder for the government to roll over the debt. Finally, the expectations can change without warning. Failure in passing the bill to raise the consumption tax, for example, may change the public perception on realization of tax increases. When the crisis happens, the Japanese financial institutions that holds large amount of government bonds sustain losses and the economy will suffer from fiscal austerity and financial instability. There may be negative spillovers for trading partners. If Japan wants to avoid such crisis, the government has to make a credible commitment and quick implementation of fiscal consolidation.

…

 

A crisis will happen if the government ignores the current fiscal situation or fails to act. Then, the crisis forces the government to choose from two options. First, the Japanese government may default on JGBs. Second, the Bank of Japan may monetize debts. The first option would not have much benefit because bond holders are almost all domestic. Monetization is the second option. Although that may result in high inflation, monetization may be the least disruptive scenario.

Finally, this is how the BOJ’s epic monetization was seen by the paper’s authors back in March 2012.

Bank of Japan could help rolling over the government debt by purchasing JGBs directly from the government. The Bank of Japan, or any other central bank with legal independence, has been clear that they do not endorse such a monetization policy because it undermines the fiscal discipline. However, at the time of crisis, the central bank may find it as the option that is least destructive to the financial system. If such money financing is used to respond to the liquidity crisis, this will create high inflation.

 

The prospect for high inflation will depreciate yen. This will partially stimulate the economy via export boom, provided that Japan does not suffer a major banking crisis at the same time.

 

An unexpected inflation will result in redistribution of wealth from the lenders to the borrowers. This is also redistribution from the old generations to the young generations, since the older generation has much higher financial assets whose value might decline, or would not rise at the same pace with inflation rate. This may not have such detrimental impacts on the economy, since many who participate in production and innovation (corporations and entrepreneurs) are borrowers rather than lenders.

For now monetization is indeed less disruptive. The question is for how much longer, since both Japan and the US are already monetizing 70% of their respective gross debt issuance. And once the last bastion of Keynesian and Monetarist stability fails, well then…

Once the crisis starts, the policy has to shift to crisis management. As we saw above, the crisis is likely to impair the financial system and slow down consumption and investment. Thus, the government faces a difficult tradeoff. If it tries to achieve a fiscal balance by reducing the expenditures and raising the taxes, the economy will sink further into a recession. If it intervenes by expansionary fiscal policy and financial support for the financial system, that would make the fiscal crisis more serious. This is a well-known dilemma for the government that is hit by debt crisis…. If not helped by the government, the banking system will be destroyed, and the economy will further fall into a crisis. Rational depositors will flee from deposits in Japanese banks to cash, foreign assets or gold.

Ah… rational.

* * *

Appendix:

The private saving ceiling is the absolute maximum of the domestic demand for the government debt, but the demand for JGBs will start falling well before the saving ceiling is ever reached. One potential trigger for such a change is that the financial institutions find alternative and more lucrative ways to invest the funds. In general, when the economic environment changes to increase the returns from alternatives to the JGBs, the interest rate on JGBs may start to increase. If this suddenly happens, this can trigger a crisis. Increases in the rate of returns may be caused by favorable changes in the economic growth prospect. The end of deflation and the zero interest rate policy would also lead to higher interest rates.

…

In Figure 6 , the authors calculate Japan’s debt’GDP over the next three decades using the following assumptions on the interest rate:

• R1: Interest rate is equal to the largest of the growth rate (?t) or the level at 2010 (1.3%).
• R2: Interest rate rises by 2 basis points for every one percentage point that the debt to GDP ratio at the beginning of the period exceeds the 2010 level (153%).
• R3: Interest rate rises by 3.5 basis points for every one percentage point that the debt to GDP ratio at the beginning of the period exceeds the 2010 level (153%) .

R1 is motivated by the fact that the average yield on 10 year JGBs over the last several years has been about the same as the GDP growth rate during the same time interval, but constrains the interest rate to be much lower than the current rate even when the GDP growth declines further. R2 and R3 assume that the interest rate rises as the government accumulates more debt. Many empirical studies have demonstrated such relation. R2 (2.0 basis points increase) uses the finding of Tokuoka (2010) for Japan. R3 (3.5 basis points increase) assumes the coefficient estimate used by Gagnon (2010). It is the median estimate from studies of various advanced economies

…

A more reasonable scenario is to assume the growth rate of GDP per-working-age person (or an increase in labor productivity) to be similar to that of the 1990s and 2000s. We consider two alternative growth rates per-working-age population. The low growth scenario is that the increase in labor productivity at 1.05% (average of 1994-2010) and the high growth scenario is at 2.09% (average of 2001-2007, the “Koizumi years”).12 Table 6 shows the growth decomposition on the assumption of the 1.05% growth rate of GDP per-working-age person…. The upper bound for the debt accumulation is reached by 2024 at the latest.

Full paper

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/8NuME7zSM7o/story01.htm Tyler Durden

It takes the planet 1.5 years to restore what humanity burns through in a year. The silver lining, the US is #1 in something once again – consumption. In fact, it would take 4.4 Earths to sustain the planet if everyone lived like Americans. Rather disappointingly, the USA is 56th in the world for alcohol consumption per capita (though we suspect that will rise).

 

Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.org

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

Submitted by Lance Roberts of STA Wealth Management,

This past Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the November jobs report which sent the mainstream analysts and economists into an ecstatic state as the numbers were substantially stronger than estimates.  However, in reality, the employment report continues to show that employment is being driven almost entirely by population growth rather than real economic strength.  I have discussed this previously stating:

"However, the reality is that, despite better than expected numbers in the report, employment gains to this point have been nothing more than a function of population growth.  The chart below shows the 12 month average of the net change in both employment and population.   As you can see, there have been very few months since the turn of the century where employment has exceeded population growth."

"This explains two things:

1) Why the employment to population ratio has plunged along with the labor force participation rate; and

2) That employment gains, so far, have been a function of businesses hiring only to meet the demand increases caused by an increase in population rather than from a growing economy.

The latter point is very important and relates directly to an issue that has been lurking silently in the background called 'labor hoarding.'"

Louis Woodhill reiterated this point recently in his column entitled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" stating:

"All that happened in November was that the labor market (as reported by the BLS Household Survey) made up most, but not all, of the ground that it lost in October. During the past two months, America moved 3,000 full-time-equivalent (FTE)* jobs farther away from full employment.

 

During those 61 days, our working age population increased by 399,000, but 265,000 Americans fled the labor force, continuing the unprecedented exodus from the world of work overseen by President Obama. While the "headline" (U-3) unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 7.0%, the "true" unemployment rate, adjusted to the labor force participation rate of December 2008, rose from 10.9% to 11.0%.

 

President Obama's so-called 'economic recovery' is now 53 months old. During that time, America has moved 1.3 million FTE jobs farther away from full employment, the adjusted unemployment rate has increased from 9.7% to 11.0%, and real household income has fallen by 4.4%." 

The problem, as Woodhill so correctly states, is that the "real" economy is not growing and is only, at best, treading water.  While mainstream economists and analysts continue to jump on a monthly data point as a sure sign of economic recovery – the reality is quite different. 

The solution to solving this problem is something that I have addressed many times in the past when analyzing the monthly National Federation of Independent Small Business Survey which continues to point to government regulations, taxes and poor sales as the top three concerns of small businesses around the country.

"The uncertainty surrounding the economy that currently exists limits the ability for businesses to plan.  While the country can continue to run without a budget, as long as there is 'ink for the printing press,' small businesses do not have that luxury.  For businesses, their outlook is driven by those silly little economic factors like supply, demand and profits.  While it may currently seem to be a statement by businesses on the results of the election – it is more of an outlook on the future of the economy and how their personal livelihoods are going to be affected."

Importantly, Woodhill addresses this issue with his formula for a return to a strong economic America.

"So, what can the government do to encourage capital investment? Well, it can stop discouraging it. Here is the formula for prosperity:

 

Prosperity = Rule of Law + Economic Freedom + Stable Money + Low Tax Rates + Sane Regulations + Free Trade."

This formula, while not a revolutionary solution to solving the economic mystery, is simply a point of logic.  However, it clearly represents the detachment of the current Administration which has little real world experience, along with the bulk of the ivory tower academics advising them, from the issues impeding the economic recovery. However, as I stated previously:

"Business owners are some of the best allocators of capital and resources.  They spend money to increase production, expand facilities and hire employees to meet increasing demand.  They operate within the confines of the real economic environ
ment, rather than theory, and the results of the recent election point to a tougher economic climate ahead.  Until there is improvement in the uncertainty that surrounds the economy, there is likely to be little headway that will be made in the months to come.  While further stimulative programs may boost asset markets in the near term it is unlikely that the engines of economic growth will kick in until debt levels are reduced, tax policies are clarified and the regulatory environment is cleared."

Woodhill's formula reiterates what small business owners across this country have been clamoring for over the past five years.  Business owners inherently want to grow, employ more people and achieve greater profitability which in turn creates economic growth.  It is simply in their best interest to do so.  However, the current Administration continues to intervene with more regulations, threats of higher taxes, increased costs and uncertainty about the economic future.  Subsequently, business owners continue to fight back against the current fiscal and monetary policy makeup by reducing costs, increasing productivity and suppressing employment and wage growth.  As Niall Ferguson noted:

"23 years ago the world seemed much simpler. Francis Fukuyama wrote that the West had won the war of Capitalism. However, 23 years later things have changed. By 2016, the economy of China will exceed that of the U.S. This is not what Fukuyama expected in 1989. It should not be possible that a communistic society could poised to overtake a capitalistic economy. It is quite an amazing turn of events.

 

The explosion of public debt in Western economies is a symptom of the more profound economic malaise. The argument between stimulus and austerity is very futile. The reality is that by 2050 interest payments on government debt will be above 100% of federal revenues; according to the Alternative Fiscal Scenario (AFS) of the CBO. The AFS are the more realistic of the two assumptions that the CBO produces.

 

There were '6 Killer Apps' that defined the U.S. during its great economic growth cycle – Competition, Scientific Revolution, Modern Medicine, Consumer Society, Work Ethic and Property Rights

 

Those issues allowed for growth, innovation and rising economic prosperity during the 20th century. Today, while the rest of the world has slowly been adopting these 'killer apps' the U.S. is slowly losing them.

 

A critical point is the Rule of Law. In order to have a strong, and prosperous, economic environment the participants in the system must be able to rely on a stable and fair legal system. In the U.S., the rule of law has been under continuous attack over the last 30 years. The decline in the rule of law has been evident in the shift of prosperity in the U.S. economy. If you look at 15 different measures of the rule of law, as they exist in countries all around the world today, unfortunately the U.S. does not rank at the top it any category. However, Hong Kong beats the US on every single rule of law and ranks in the top levels on every single measure.

The problem is that the U.S. has a 'rule of lawyers'. As an example 'Dodd-Frank' is the largest single employment scheme for lawyers in the history of the U.S.  However, when it comes to the private sector, which has to live with the implications of the bill, it massively increases costs, reduces competition and impacts future prosperity."

The long term implications of these secular shifts are crucially important to the future of everything from investing, to living and the future of our economy.  It is not too late to change our future, but it eventually will be if we do not begin to make changes soon.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/XkM0mM-XmVc/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Submitted by Lance Roberts of STA Wealth Management,

This past Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the November jobs report which sent the mainstream analysts and economists into an ecstatic state as the numbers were substantially stronger than estimates.  However, in reality, the employment report continues to show that employment is being driven almost entirely by population growth rather than real economic strength.  I have discussed this previously stating:

"However, the reality is that, despite better than expected numbers in the report, employment gains to this point have been nothing more than a function of population growth.  The chart below shows the 12 month average of the net change in both employment and population.   As you can see, there have been very few months since the turn of the century where employment has exceeded population growth."

"This explains two things:

1) Why the employment to population ratio has plunged along with the labor force participation rate; and

2) That employment gains, so far, have been a function of businesses hiring only to meet the demand increases caused by an increase in population rather than from a growing economy.

The latter point is very important and relates directly to an issue that has been lurking silently in the background called 'labor hoarding.'"

Louis Woodhill reiterated this point recently in his column entitled "Curb Your Enthusiasm" stating:

"All that happened in November was that the labor market (as reported by the BLS Household Survey) made up most, but not all, of the ground that it lost in October. During the past two months, America moved 3,000 full-time-equivalent (FTE)* jobs farther away from full employment.

 

During those 61 days, our working age population increased by 399,000, but 265,000 Americans fled the labor force, continuing the unprecedented exodus from the world of work overseen by President Obama. While the "headline" (U-3) unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 7.0%, the "true" unemployment rate, adjusted to the labor force participation rate of December 2008, rose from 10.9% to 11.0%.

 

President Obama's so-called 'economic recovery' is now 53 months old. During that time, America has moved 1.3 million FTE jobs farther away from full employment, the adjusted unemployment rate has increased from 9.7% to 11.0%, and real household income has fallen by 4.4%." 

The problem, as Woodhill so correctly states, is that the "real" economy is not growing and is only, at best, treading water.  While mainstream economists and analysts continue to jump on a monthly data point as a sure sign of economic recovery – the reality is quite different. 

The solution to solving this problem is something that I have addressed many times in the past when analyzing the monthly National Federation of Independent Small Business Survey which continues to point to government regulations, taxes and poor sales as the top three concerns of small businesses around the country.

"The uncertainty surrounding the economy that currently exists limits the ability for businesses to plan.  While the country can continue to run without a budget, as long as there is 'ink for the printing press,' small businesses do not have that luxury.  For businesses, their outlook is driven by those silly little economic factors like supply, demand and profits.  While it may currently seem to be a statement by businesses on the results of the election – it is more of an outlook on the future of the economy and how their personal livelihoods are going to be affected."

Importantly, Woodhill addresses this issue with his formula for a return to a strong economic America.

"So, what can the government do to encourage capital investment? Well, it can stop discouraging it. Here is the formula for prosperity:

 

Prosperity = Rule of Law + Economic Freedom + Stable Money + Low Tax Rates + Sane Regulations + Free Trade."

This formula, while not a revolutionary solution to solving the economic mystery, is simply a point of logic.  However, it clearly represents the detachment of the current Administration which has little real world experience, along with the bulk of the ivory tower academics advising them, from the issues impeding the economic recovery. However, as I stated previously:

"Business owners are some of the best allocators of capital and resources.  They spend money to increase production, expand facilities and hire employees to meet increasing demand.  They operate within the confines of the real economic environment, rather than theory, and the results of the recent election point to a tougher economic climate ahead.  Until there is improvement in the uncertainty that surrounds the economy, there is likely to be little headway that will be made in the months to come.  While further stimulative programs may boost asset markets in the near term it is unlikely that the engines of economic growth will kick in until debt levels are reduced, tax policies are clarified and the regulatory environment is cleared."

Woodhill's formula reiterates what small business owners across this country have been clamoring for over the past five years.  Business owners inherently want to grow, employ more people and achieve greater profitability which in turn creates economic growth.  It is simply in their best interest to do so.  However, the current Administration continues to intervene with more regulations, threats of higher taxes, increased costs and uncertainty about the economic future.  Subsequently, business owners continue to fight back against the current fiscal and monetary policy makeup by reducing costs, increasing productivity and suppressing employment and wage growth.  As Niall Ferguson noted:

"23 years ago the world seemed much simpler. Francis Fukuyama wrote that the West had won the war of Capitalism. However, 23 years later things have changed. By 2016, the economy of China will exceed that of the U.S. This is not what Fukuyama expected in 1989. It should not be possible that a communistic society could poised to overtake a capitalistic economy. It is quite an amazing turn of events.

 

The explosion of public debt in Western economies is a symptom of the more profound economic malaise. The argument between stimulus and austerity is very futile. The reality is that by 2050 interest payments on government debt will be above 100% of federal revenues; according to the Alternative Fiscal Scenario (AFS) of the CBO. The AFS are the more realistic of the two assumptions that the CBO produces.

 

There were '6 Killer Apps' that defined the U.S. during its great economic growth cycle – Competition, Scientific Revolution, Modern Medicine, Consumer Society, Work Ethic and Property Rights

 

Those issues allowed for growth, innovation and rising economic prosperity during the 20th century. Today, while the rest of the world has slowly been adopting these 'killer apps' the U.S. is slowly losing them.

 

A critical point is the Rule of Law. In order to have a strong, and prosperous, economic environment the participants in the system must be able to rely on a stable and fair legal system. In the U.S., the rule of law has been under continuous attack over the last 30 years. The decline in the rule of law has been evident in the shift of prosperity in the U.S. economy. If you look at 15 different measures of the rule of law, as they exist in countries all around the world today, unfortunately the U.S. does not rank at the top it any category. However, Hong Kong beats the US on every single rule of law and ranks in the top levels on every single measure.

The problem is that the U.S. has a 'rule of lawyers'. As an example 'Dodd-Frank' is the largest single employment scheme for lawyers in the history of the U.S.  However, when it comes to the private sector, which has to live with the implications of the bill, it massively increases costs, reduces competition and impacts future prosperity."

The long term implications of these secular shifts are crucially important to the future of everything from investing, to living and the future of our economy.  It is not too late to change our future, but it eventually will be if we do not begin to make changes soon.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/XkM0mM-XmVc/story01.htm Tyler Durden