Printer Friendly

eMail Article

November 24, 2009

Pivotal Events
by Bob Hoye

The following is part of Pivotal Events that was published for our subscribers Thursday, November 19, 2009.

Signs Of The Times

Recent Years:

"Yield Curve is Banks' Silver Lining"

"The impact on a bank's bottom line works as follows: it pays 4% interest on deposits, then lends that money at more profitable rates of, say, 5%."

- Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2007

"A little more than a week after the Fed slashed interest rates, signs are emerging that credit markets are improving."

- Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2007

* * * * *

This Year:

"Need to develop a way to tackle asset-price bubbles...before the whole thing comes to a catastrophic consequence."

- Bloomberg, November 5, 2009

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer

Since the first in 1720 great bubbles have occurred whether the currency is convertible or fiat. The culture of policymaking rests upon the notion that economies are national and being random can be managed. The main tool has been econometric modeling that assumes that expert manipulations of interest rates and money supply will avoid bad things from happening. Unresponsive to contrary evidence, this theory has endured since the formation of the Fed in 1913.

The above quote shows growing apprehension of the danger of another outbreak of financial speculation. The problem is that interventionists have no means of forecasting such events. They have spent most of the last 100 years in preventing another depression without ever taking back any "stimulus". The consequence has been a 96 percent decline in purchasing power of the senior currency.

Some think that the policymakers are insane enough to take the dollar to zero. They may be foolish enough to continue the attempt, but market forces seem to be gathering that would prevent that compulsion. They could be severe enough to drive policymakers sane.

"IMF sells 200 tons of gold to India."

- Reuters, November 3, 2009

This was the first time that the IMF has sold gold to a central bank since 2000. At the time of the LTCM failure the establishment worked hard to keep gold down and this writer frequently talked with one of the IMF honchos. At a desperate moment he said that they (IMF) had plenty of gold with which to stifle rallies. He has now retired so this can be mentioned.

Gold's real price set a cyclical low at 143 in May 2007 and perhaps the cyclical rise since (to 385) has overwhelmed official ambition to "kill" gold rallies.

Also perhaps, the establishment outside of macro-economists is becoming unusually concerned about deliberate policies of dollar depreciation.

"The global speculative-grade default rate rose to 12.4% in October, surpassing the record set in 1991 for the highest proportion of defaults since the Great Depression."

- Bloomberg, November 5, 2009

Politics:

Prompted by the same old forces of credit contraction, Washington is replicating the New Deal that was started by Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in 1927 and pounded into America's culture by President Roosevelt. As led by Obama's "Chicago" political machine, this will be as nasty and bullying as FDR's "New York" politics. The irony is that history shows that Rome was "New Dealed" to death.

For the latter, The New Deal in Old Rome by H.J. Haskell can be read on the internet. In 2007 Amity Shlaes published The Forgotten Man, which covers the radicalism of Washington in the 1930s.

* * * * *

STOCK MARKETS

Clearly, the "Conundrum" of asset inflation in the midst of an historical credit contraction continues. And as we have been noting, some asset-classes have reached impetuous conditions. Within this, stock markets have reached bullish sentiment that exceeded levels reached at the top of the bull market in October 2007. Even the constantly maligned gold has reached 97 Percent Bulls, which is without precedent on this survey.

Going the other way, the dollar bears became very excited.

It is worth checking other accomplishments made by the stock market. One is the six-month rebound out of a crash, which counted to September when the 92 Percent Bulls registered. Another is the fifty-percent retracement that the Dow finally registered this week. That looks after the post-crash rebound, and as Ross has been tracking it, the Stochastic is overbought enough to limit the move. (As of yesterday it rolled over.)

On the near-term, our October 29 edition observed that week's hit and noted that there could be a rally into early November.

On the somewhat longer-term, in July we had expected credit conditions to be troubled by late in the year, and while the party continues in long-dated corporates there has been a small step to widening spreads at the shorter-maturities.

The action in credit markets and in the gold/silver ratio reminds of October 2007. Some key pieces are attached from then that show just how difficult that transition was.

In the meantime, our October 29 advice for traders to sell the November rally "aggressively" was a little early. However, speculation is again at exceptional levels, seemingly on the cusp between a correction and the discovery that policymakers have at last created the equivalent of perpetual motion.

Generally, perpetual motion has been doing poorly in the Tokyo market since 1989. This week's decline in the Nikkei is threatening the October low, and today's trade on the EWJ has taken that out and at 9.20 is threatening the July low of 9.10.

Bigger Picture: Financial markets have staged a magnificent post-crash rebound, accompanied by a recovery in business. It has also been accompanied by an heroic "stimulus", whereby the state is pre-empting spending by the private sector. It is worth adding that "stimulus" was ramped up with the Bear Stearns crisis and continuously applied through and beyond the panic's end in March.

As with the Second New Deal in the 1930s, today's political ambition is very hostile to the market and will drive capital away from normal economic calculation making any "recovery" less than optimal. Driving capital into caution also reduces liquidity.

And apparent liquidity has been the problem. Central banks have, as usual, been creating it out of thin air. In turn, this has been leveraged into an immense carry-trade in the treasury curve - thus our watching for reversal.

The same goes for long-dated credit spreads. Short-dated, as represented by the TED-Spread, have reversed to widening.

Link to Friday, November 20th ' Bob and Phil Show' on Howestreet.com: http://www.howestreet.com/index.php?pl=/goldradio/index.php/mediaplayer/1477

Bob Hoye
Institutional Advisors

The opinions in this report are solely those of the author. The information herein was obtained from various sources; however we do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. This research report is prepared for general circulation and is circulated for general information only. It does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and the particular needs of any specific person who may receive this report. Investors should seek financial advice regarding the appropriateness of investing in any securities or investment strategies discussed or recommended in this report and should understand that statements regarding future prospects may not be realized. Investors should note that income from such securities, if any, may fluctuate and that each securitys price or value may rise or fall. Accordingly, investors may receive back less than originally invested. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.

Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes an offer to buy or sell any securities or options or futures contracts. Foreign currency rates of exchange may adversely affect the value, price or income of any security or related investment mentioned in this report. In addition, investors in securities such as ADRs, whose values are influenced by the currency of the underlying security, effectively assume currency risk.

Moreover, from time to time, members of the Institutional Advisors team may be long or short positions discussed in our publications.

Copyright © 2003-2010 Bob Hoye

Image rendition and html coding Copyright © 2000-2010 SafeHaven.com

« Opinions expressed at SafeHaven are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of SafeHaven or its management. Articles are available via RSS/XML. Please visit RSSHelp for instructions. »