Dealer banks are accomplishing their withdrawal from FICC and the eurodollar necessities of dark leverage in the typical corporate fashion. For one, there is attrition as past derivatives trades simply runoff or mature. Second, banks have been engaging in what are called compression trades to an enormous degree, the money dealing equivalent of synergy. Finally, dealers have been studious and [...]
Economics is a not a science. It tends to emulate the appearances by which outwardly hard sciences project in terms of rules and especially mathematical complications, but it does not conform. Karl Popper observed in 1972 that, “Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory [...]
Before embarking on the great unknown of Q4 2015, it makes sense to try to gain a little more clarity about Q3 2015. Specifically, the “dollar” run that blasted through China and opened the prospects for both an end to Fed/Yellen faithfulness and increasing uncertainty about the true nature of economy and finance globally began around July 6; a day [...]
When grounded in the framework of traditional banking, wholesale dynamics can be quite confusing to the point of being impenetrable. Nowhere is that more the case than the wholesale ideas of currency and what counts for establishing chains of traded liabilities. In the traditional banking/monetary framework, everything is reducible to money; all else are just derivative claims on it. The [...]
The latest update for TIC “flow”, for the month of May, was mostly what was expected given the “dollar pause” at that time. Central banks were still active but not nearly as engaged as they had been through the worst parts of the “dollar” crisis in late 2014 and early 2015. Official accounts (central banks and foreign governments) had turned [...]
In the age of ZIRP it can be difficult to gain perspective especially about interest rate movements. Trying to analyze the ups and downs including any relevance or importance is clouded by the lack of historical clarity on that account. We really have no idea about the true significance of scales at and near the zero lower bound because this [...]
With funding markets and currencies showing pessimism once more with regard to the “dollar”, waiting for confirmation from TIC presentations is less than desirable. The Federal Reserve offers an alternate measure listed on its H.4.1 as a memoranda item. It tracks what the Fed holds in direct custody for foreign central banks and other “official” accounts and conduits. The holdings [...]
To many, the “strong dollar” will always be an economic condition. If the price of the dollar is rising, then it will be assumed, mostly by economists, to be a relative judgment in favor of domestic growth potential and reality. That view misses the very relevant fact that “dollars” are not necessarily of domestic origin or for domestic purposes. The [...]
“Dollar” credit markets are completely unconvinced by the Establishment Survey that economic growth is at hand. Not only has this bearish/tightening trend been in place for over a year, uninterrupted too, it has actually picked up in the wake of last week’s “unquestionable” payroll expansion. The bearishness continues on all fronts, in tandem with oil prices which is not a [...]
I don’t want to devolve into a Clintonian argument over the basic meanings of certain words, but that may be the best course in analyzing and discussing Europe’s circumstances in the very new age of negative interest rates. Reuters says there is “clear proof” that Draghi’s desperation and new bluff is “gaining traction.” An all-time low for euro zone money [...]
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