For everything that has gone wrong over the past year or so, there was and is a benign interpretation to accompany each negative factor. Oil prices were “transitory”, longer run inflation expectations didn’t matter because “professional forecasters” remained steadfastly devoted, and no matter which market has gone highly askew it’s just “normal” worry. All of these nonthreatening rationalizations trace back [...]
The Chinese central bank has managed to instill some order in both onshore and offshore RMB markets, but at what cost? The amount of intervention that was induced severely strains only the future at those maturities. Central banks are nothing if not short-termists in the purest sense, so repeating what doesn’t work never factors; all that matters is right now. [...]
Someone emailed me this article published at Yahoo!Finance that purports the Fed’s tightening is going to send stocks soaring, the DJIA mentioned specifically heading toward 25,000. The way in which this thesis was derived is the object of inquiry, starting with the belief that QE4 (QE5 by my reckoning) is forthcoming. This is not due to the Fed realizing its [...]
Economists had noticed by the mid-1970’s that what they thought were steady money relationships with the economy had broken down. This divergence was not slight; how could it be given that the era still stands today as the Great Inflation? Ostensibly, a great deal of research on the topic was devoted to monetary policy implications which is a direct assault [...]
More and more the media are finally starting to get the message about Chinese liquidity and its tendency for or against “devaluation.” For their part, the PBOC has been quite clear about its intentions all along; it was only the impenetrable fog of orthodox economics that prevented more widespread acknowledgement and understanding. There are no “reserves” at least not in [...]
If the Wall Street Journal meant to reach for reassuring comfort, they fell far short. After spending late summer last year and into the fall proclaiming that manufacturing didn’t matter (12%), the newest round of talking points are “false positives.” In other words, manufacturing and industry does matter, after all, but just “not enough” to tip into full recession. That [...]
The S&P 500 Index ((IVV)) has had a rough first part of the year. Having failed at strong resistance at both moving averages, the index was essentially in a freefall on its way down to the 1800 level. After a drop of over 250 points, it managed to hold that level and now looks likely to bounce back up to at least [...]
Most people who have called themselves bears over the last couple of years had a pretty simple equation to justify their bearishness – High Present Valuations = Low Future Returns. And today’s valuations - the valuations of two years ago – were so high that future returns would be very low and probably, possibly, at some point, negative. The argument [...]
The November update for TIC figures shows relatively few surprises given what was witnessed November into December then January. The heavy downdraft of October was somewhat reversed, and even the official sector was probably less strained (outside of China) than at any time in 2015. But these are reactive symptoms to the greater problem of “dollar” availability, so the most [...]
If markets have rebounded today after the sustained selloff on fresh “stimulus” hopes, then one would have to wonder immediately what the background fundamentals might be. Setting aside all notions of past “stimulus”, the call for more would seem to suggest, quite strongly, something far, far less than desirable. Yet, in the same breath economists and brokerage firms would have [...]
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