What To Expect in 2012

Everything we know “based on evidence” is actually based on evidence together with appropriate theory. Steven Landsburg

Prediction 2011: Largely on the Spot But Too Much Optimism

First, a recap on the analysis and the predictions I made during the end of December of 2010 in an article “What to Expect in 2011”[1]

I identified four predominant conditions that would function as drivers of global financial markets (including the Philippine Phisix) as follows:

1. Monetary authorities of developed economies will fight to sustain low interest rates.

2. More Inflationism: Bailouts and QEs To Continue

3. Effects of Divergent Monetary Policies

4. The Globalization Factor

How they fared.

1. Low Interest Rates Regime

I noted that the US Federal Reserve has the “penchant to artificially keep down interest rates until forced by hand by the markets”; this has apparently been validated last year even as most of the market’s focus has shifted to the Eurozone.

In fact, suppressing interest rates has not just been undertaken by the US Federal Reserve, whom has promised that current zero bound rates (ZIRP) would be extended to 2013[2] aside from manipulating the yield curve via ‘Operation Twist’, but by major developed and emerging central banks as shown above[3].

Apparently, the worsening debt crisis in Eurozone compounded by Japan’s triple whammy natural disaster and China’s slowing economy (or popping bubble?) has intuitively or mechanically prompted policymakers to respond concertedly, nearly in the same fashion as 2008. This has resulted to a decline of global interest rates levels to that of 2009[4].

2. Bailouts and QEs Did Escalate

Except the US Federal Reserve, major global central banks have already been actively adapting credit easing or money printing policies.

The balance sheets of top 3 central banks has now accounted for almost 25% of world’s GDP[5]. Yet this doesn’t include the Swiss National Bank[6] (SNB) and the Bank of England[7] (BoE) whom has likewise scaled up on their respective asset purchasing programs.

The world is experiencing an unprecedented order of monetary inflation under today’s fiat standard based modern central banking.

3. Divergent Impacts of Monetary Policies on Financial Markets

I previously stated that

Divergent monetary policies will impact emerging markets and developed markets distinctly, with the former benefiting from the transmission effects from the latter’s policies.

While global equity markets have been down mostly on partial and sporadic signs of liquidity contraction arising from the unfolding Euro crisis and from indications of a global economic slowdown, monetary policy activism or strong responses by central banks did result to distinctive impacts on the marketplace.

Emerging markets with the least inflationary pressures exhibited resiliency. ASEAN 4 bourses, going into the close of the New Year, were among the ten world’s best performers[8] and served as noteworthy examples of the above.

The relative performances of global bourses have likewise been reflected on the commodity markets[9].

4. Globalization Remained Strong which Partly Offset Weak Spots

While there had been signs of partial stagnation of global trade in terms of volume during the last semester of the 2011, trade volumes remained at near record highs and have hardly reflected on signs of severe downturn or a recession[10] despite the Euro crisis.

Since deepening trends of globalization (in finance and trade) has also been expanding the correlations of the financial markets[11], which has been largely characterized as ‘Risk On’ and ‘Risk Off’ environments, the aggressive actions by central banks and the non-recessionary global environment in the face of the Euro crisis and patchy signs of economic slowdown has partly neutralized such tight relationship which allowed for selective variances in asset performances.

Overall, almost every condition that I defined in December of 2010 had been validated.

5. Mostly Right Yet Too Optimistic

On how I expected the markets to perform, I wrote,

Unless inflation explodes to the upside and becomes totally unwieldy, overall, for ASEAN and for the Philippine Phisix we should see significant positive gains anywhere around 20-40% at the yearend of 2011 based on the close of 2010. Needless to say, the 5,000 level would seem like a highly achievable target. What the mainstream sees as an economic boom will signify a blossoming bubble cycle.

Of course my foremost barometer for the state of the global equity markets would be the price direction of gold, which I expect to continue to generate sustained gains and possibly clear out in a cinch the Roubini hurdle of $1,500.

To repeat, Gold hasn’t proven to be a deflation hedge as shown by its performance during the 2008 Lehman collapse. The performance of Gold during the Great Depression and today is different because gold served as a monetary anchor then. Today, gold prices act as a temperature that measures the conditions of the faith based paper money system.

2011 saw the Philippine Phisix and ASEAN bourses marginally up, which means that I have been too optimistic to suggest of a minimum 20% return that was way off the mark.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t been that bad since the long-time darling of mine, the Philippine mining index, overshot on my expectations.

And given that the mining sector’s extraordinary returns has alternated every year[12], it is unclear if mining index will remain to be the horse to beat. Yet, current global monetary dynamics may change all that.

Aside, another observation of mine has been validated.

Gold, allegedly a deflation hedge/refuge, has not turned out as many have said.

Except for the July-September frame, gold prices have largely moved along with the price direction of the S&P 500 (blue circles).

The July-September frame which marked a short-term deviation from the previously tight correlations seems to coincide with the end of the QE 3.0. This along with the unfolding Euro crisis put pressure on US equity markets first, which eventually culminated with FED chair Ben Bernanke’s jilting of the market’s expectations of QE 3.0.

The belated collapse of gold prices (red circle), in response to Mr. Bernanke’s frustrating of the market expectations for more asset purchasing measures, had been aggravated by other events such as the forced liquidations by MF Global[13] to resolve its bankruptcy and several trade ownership issues aside from other trade restrictions or market interventions[14] that has stymied on gold’s rally.

Nevertheless, the gold-S&P 500 linkage appears to have been revived, where both gold and the S&P has taken on an interim upside trend (green line).

The S&P 500 closed the year with microscopic losses while gold registered its 11^th year of consecutive gains, up 10% in 2011.

Expect Volatile Markets in 2012

When asked to comment on the prospects of the stock market, JP Morgan’s once famous resounding reply was that “It [Markets] will fluctuate”.

1. Markets will Fluctuate—Wildly

2012 will essentially continue with whatever 2011 has left off.

Since 2011 has been dominated by the whack-a-mole policies on what has been an extension of the global crisis of 2008, which in reality represents the refusal of political authorities for markets to clear or to make the necessary adjustments on the accrued massive malinvestments or misdirection of resource allocation in order to protect the political welfare based system anchored on the triumvirate of the politically endowed banking sectors, the central banks and governments, then we should expect the same conditions in 2011 to apply particularly

1. Monetary authorities will continue to keep interest rates at record or near record low levels.

2. Money printing via QE and bailouts will continue and could accelerate.

3. There will be divergent impact from different monetary policies and

4. Globalization will remain a critical factor that could partly counterbalance the nasty effects of the collective inflationist policies (unless the ugly head of protectionism emerges).

I would add that since presidential election season in the US is fast approaching, most candidates or aspirants including the incumbent have been audibly beating the war drums on Iran[15], where an outbreak may exacerbate political interventions in the US and in the global economy and importantly justify more monetary inflationism.

One must realize that continued politicization of the marketplace via boom bust and bailout policies compounded by various market interventions and the risk of another war has immensely been distorting price signals which should lead markets to fluctuate wildly.

2. China and Japan’s Hedge—Steer Clear of the US Dollar

And where reports say that China and Japan have commenced on promoting direct transactions[16] by using their national currencies hardly represents acts to buttress the current system.

The Bank of Japan has also been underwriting their own Quantitative Easing (QE) which means the Japanese government are engaged in ‘competitive devaluation’ which is no more than a ‘beggar thy neighbour’ policy.

Instead, what this implies is that Japan and China, being the largest holders of US debt, seem to be veering away from their extensive dependence on the US economy as they reckon with, not only interest rate and credit risks, but also of currency, inflation, political and market risks. Even China and Japan appear to be taking measures to insure themselves from wild fluctuations.

On the other hand, China’s bilateral currency agreement with Japan plays into her strategy to use her currency as the region’s foreign exchange reserve[17].

3. Heightened Inflation Risks from Monetary Policies

QE 3.0 has not been an official policy yet by the US Federal Reserve but their balance sheet seem to be ballooning anew (chart from the Cleveland Federal Reserve[18]).

Yet this, along with surging money supply and recovering consumer and business credit growth, will have an impact on the US asset markets which should also be transmitted to global financial markets, as well as, to the commodity markets.

Yet given the large refinancing requirements for many governments (more than $7.6 trillion[19]) and for major financial institutions this year amidst the unresolved crisis, I expect major central banks to step up their role of lender of last resort.

Again the sustainability of the easy money environment from low interest rates and money printing by central banks will depend on the interest rates levels which will be influenced by any of the following factors: 1) inflation expectations 2) state of demand for credit relative to supply 3) perception of credit quality and or 4) of the scarcity/availability of capital.

Today’s bailout policies have been enabled and facilitated by an environment of suppressed consumer price inflation rates, partly because of globalization, partly because of the temporal effects from price manipulations or market interventions and partly because of the ongoing liquidations in some segments of the global marketplace such as from MF Global, the crisis affected banking and finance sectors of the Eurozone and also perhaps in sectors impacted by the economic slowdown or the real estate exposed industries in China, which may be suffering from a contraction.

However I don’t believe that the current low inflation landscape will be sustainable in the face of sustained credit easing operations by the central banks of major economies. Price inflation will eventually surface that could lead to restrictive policy actions (which subsequently could lead to a bust) or sustained inflationism (which risks hyperinflation). Signs from one of which may become evident probably by the second semester of this year.

Yet I think we could be seeing innate signs this: Given the current monetary stance and increasing geopolitical risks, oil (WTI) has the potential to spike above the 2011 high of $114 which may lead to a test of a 2008 high of $147.

4. Phisix: Interim Fulfilment of Expectations and Working Target

In the meantime, I expect the Philippine Phisix and ASEAN markets to continue to benefit from the current easy money landscape helped by seasonal strength, improvements in the market internals, and in the reversals of bearish chart patterns as forecasted last December[20]

The bearish indicators of head and shoulders (green curves) and the ‘death cross’ have now been replaced by bullish signals as anticipated[21]. The Phisix chart has now transitioned to the golden cross while ‘reverse head and shoulders’ (blue curves and trend line) has successfully broken out of the formation. It doesn’t require relying on charts to see this happen. Even the Dow Jones Industrials has affirmed on my prognosis[22].

The S&P 500, oil (WTI) and the Phisix seem to manifest a newfound correlation or has reflects on a synchronized move,whether this relationship will hold or not remains to be seen.

I believe that the Phisix at the 5,000 level should represent a practical working yearend target; where anything above should be a bonus.

Again all these are conditional to the very fluid external political-financial environment, which includes risks from not only from the Eurozone, but from China and the importantly US—whose debt level is just $25 million shy from the debt ceiling[23] (probably the debt ceiling political risk will become more evident during the last semester).

Moreover, I believe that gold prices will continue to recover from the recent low.

Gains will crescendo as global policymakers will most likely ramp up on the printing presses. Gold will likely reclaim the 1,900 level sometime this year and could even go higher and will end the year on a positive note.

But then again all these are extremely dependent or highly sensitive to the situational responses of global policymakers.

Predicting social events or the markets in the way of natural sciences is a mistake.

As the great Ludwig von Mises explained [24],

Nothing could be more mistaken than the now fashionable attempt to apply the methods and concepts of the natural sciences to the solution of social problems. In the realm of nature we cannot know anything about final causes, by reference to which events can be explained. But in the field of human actions there is the finality of acting men. Men make choices. They aim at certain ends and they apply means in order to attain the ends sought.

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[1] See What To Expect In 2011, December 20, 2010

[2] See US Federal Reserve Goes For Subtle QE August 10, 2011

[3] Centralbanknews.info What Will 2012 Bring for Global Monetary Policy? December 27, 2011

[4] See Global Central Banks Ease the Most Since 2009, November 28, 2011

[5] Zero Hedge Top Three Central Banks Account For Up To 25% Of Developed World GDP, January 5, 2012

[6] See Hot: Swiss National Bank to Embrace Zimbabwe’s Gideon Gono model September 6, 2011

[7] See Bank of England Activates QE 2.0 October 6, 2011

[8] See Global Equity Market Performance Update: Philippine Phisix Ranks 6th among the Best, December 17, 2011

[9] See How Global Financial Markets Performed in 2011 December 31, 2011

[10] Key Trends in Globalization, New world trade data indicates slowdown but not recession in the global economy, November 25, 2011 ablog.typad.com

[11] Allstarcharts.com BCA Research: High Equity Correlations Are Here To Stay, January 4, 2011

[12] See Graphic of the PSE’s Sectoral Performance: Mining Sector and the Rotational Process, July 10, 2011

[13] See MF Global Fallout Haunts the Metal Markets, December 12, 2011

[14] See War On Gold: China Applies Selective Ban December 28, 2011

[15] See Could the US be using the Euro crisis to extract support for a possible war against Iran? January 8, 2012

[16] Bloomberg.com China, Japan to Back Direct Trade of Currencies, December 26, 2011

[17] See The Nonsense About Current Account Imbalances And Super-Sovereign Reserve Currency, April 20, 2011

[18] Cleveland Federal Reserve Credit Easing Policy Tools

[19] See World’s Biggest Economies Face $7.6 Trillion Bond Tab as Rally Seen Fading January 4, 2012

[20] See Phisix: Primed for an Upside Surprise December 11, 2011

[21] See How Reliable is the S&P’s ‘Death Cross’ Pattern?, August 14, 2011

[22] See US Equity Markets: From Death Cross to the Golden Cross, December 31, 2011

[23] Zerohedge.com Here We Go Again: US $25 Million Away From Debt Ceiling Breach, January 5, 2012

[24] von Mises Ludwig Misapprehended Darwinism, Refutation of Fallacies, Omnipotent Government p.120

Quote of the Day: Europe’s Sisyphean Task

Daily Reckoning’s Bill Bonner on Europe’s Sisyphean task or “endless and unavailing, as labor or a task” (Wikipedia.org)

European banks are stuffed with debt from insolvent governments. Governments are stuffed with debt from insolvent banks. Proposals on the table include plans to issue more debt by governments…or more debt by the banks. It’s fun to watch, but there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

Two drunks propping up each other.

Politically Driven Global Stock Markets Slammed Anew

Global stock markets got clobbered anew as Italian bonds breached the 7% threshold level in the face of Italy’s lingering political crisis in trying to resolve the debt issue. This also demonstrates signs of the diffusion of debt crisis in the Eurozone

From the Bloomberg report, (bold highlights added)

Europe’s biggest clearinghouse said that customers must put down bigger deposits to trade Italian bonds as concern rises that the government will struggle to reduce the world’s third- largest debt burden. Italian yields surged as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he won’t resign until austerity measures are passed, even after he failed to muster an absolute majority on a routine ballot in parliament yesterday.

A senior lawmaker said German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union may adopt a motion at an annual party congress next week to allow euro members to exit the currency area. In Greece, Prime Minister George Papandreou’s drive to put together a unity government fell into disarray as rival parties squabbled over the next premier.

The important twist here is that the formerly rigid stance of the Eurozone on their membership standings seem to have shifted, EU bureaucrats appear to be exploring the option for member exit.

None the less, if the market’s downside volatility has been due to the Eurozone, then it is a curiosity to see US equities falling more than the Euro stocks

(from Bloomberg)

Are the markets suggesting that US stocks, which has outperformed the Euro contemporaries, will be doing a catching up?

Well gold prices despite yesterdays’ steep losses remain on bullish trend which may indicate that the current volatility may be an interim development

As I have been saying expect sharp market volatilities based on the effects of the politicization of the financial markets and from boom bust policies.

The market climate remains very fragile and highly sensitive to the fluid developments in the realm of global politics.

Occupy Wall Street French Edition: Arnaud Montebourg

Riding on the Occupy Wall Street’s theme, aspiring French politician Arnaud Montebourg appears to be making headway in French politics.

From Reuters, (bold emphasis mine)

French Socialist Arnaud Montebourg was eliminated in round one of his party's presidential primary Sunday, but his campaign against globalization, greedy banks and trash TV was such a hit that mainstream leftists may ignore it at their peril.

A 48-year-old lawyer and member of parliament, Montebourg scored a surprise 17 percent in Sunday's vote after proposing during televised Socialist Party debates to put banks on a tight leash and ramp up protectionism…

Montebourg's main proposition is that it is time to do away with the idea that France has no choice but to compete with the likes of China on prices when the latter is unbeatable because of lower social and environmental standards.

At a time when European governments are under pressure to yet again bail out the financial industry, Montebourg has struck a chord in proposing that banks be brought to heel by having the state buy stakes in them and put vote-wielding government officials on their boards.

"All those who have lost out from globalization have heard the proposals for a new France," Montebourg said Sunday.

Mr. Montebourg has essentially not been saying anything new when it comes to French politics, which have long been steeped in socialist democracy, except for imputing the culpability of banks to the ongoing crisis.

In the Eurozone or in the world, France has not been known as a political haven for capitalism (see Economist chart above)

But as this Economist April article says (bold emphasis mine)

Like their politicians, the French always sound defiantly anti-globalisation. In polls they are far more hostile to free markets than Germans, Chinese or Russians. Yet when it comes to buying or eating foreign stuff, they are as enthusiastic. France is one of the most profitable markets for McDonald’s. Judging by the dress code of French teenagers, there will be long queues outside Abercrombie & Fitch—though whether to buy the hooded tops or to eye up the sales staff may be another question.

Again this serves as another example of “do as I say but not as I do”

This means that for an aspiring politician like Mr. Montebourg, the way to get elected would require staple adherence to socialist rhetoric with a little populist twist—blame capitalist greed on politically privileged banks.

Besides, for Mr. Montebourg to propose more government presence in the banking system is hardly any change. What this does is to formalize or embed what has already been in place, an unsustainable welfare state financed by government protected towards government controlled banks.

Chart from Philipp Bagus

Yes banks, like in the US, have complicit roles played to the respective lingering political economic problem alright, but what Mr. Mountebourg has been missing is that overspending and bubble policies of the welfare state has functioned as the primary reasons for this unfolding crisis.

And institutionalizing government’s presence in the banking system will hardly be the solution; to the contrary this will even exacerbate the existing problems.

Yet despite Mr.Mountebourg’s emergent popularity, French politics has not been representative of the dominant political trend of the Eurozone.

From the Economist (dated June 7, 2011)

Stagflation, NOT DEFLATION, in the Eurozone

Some Keynesian diehards reach a state of egotistical orgasm, when they see the financial markets crashing, accompanied by record low interest rates.

They extrapolate these selective events as having to prove their point that today’s environment has been enveloped by a deflation induced liquidity trap- or the economic conditions, which according to Wikipedia.org, when monetary policy is unable to stimulate an economy, either through lowering interest rates or increasing the money supply.

Let’s see how valid this is.

The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 or an equity index representing 50 blue chip companies within the Eurozone is down by about 28% as of yesterday’s close from its peak in mid-February.

For the month of August, the Stoxx 50 fell by a dreadful 16%.

Yet according to the Bloomberg the Eurozone’s inflation has raced to the highest level in 3 years.

European inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in almost three years in September, complicating the European Central Bank’s task as it fights the region’s worsening sovereign-debt crisis.

The euro-area inflation rate jumped to 3 percent this month from 2.5 percent in August, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today in an initial estimate. That’s the biggest annual increase in consumer prices since October 2008. Economists had projected inflation to hold at 2.5 percent, according to the median of 38 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Chart above and below from tradingeconomics.com

So low growth, high unemployment and elevated inflation in the Eurozone characterizes a stagflation climate and NOT deflation, in spite of the stock market meltdown.

While it is true given that commodity prices have crashed lately, which should temper on or affect consumer price inflation levels downwards, this is no guarantee that deflation in consumer prices will be reached. Perhaps not unless we see a nasty recession or another bout of a funding crunch. So far global central banks continue to apply patches in the fervid attempt to contain funding pressures.

Besides, contra-liquidity trap advocates, everything will depend on how monetary policies will be conducted in the face of unfolding events.

The ECB has actively been purchasing bonds (Danske Bank).

Yet despite these actions, the ECB has adapted a relatively less aggressive stance compared to the US in 2008. This implies that the policy response has continually lagged market expectations, and importantly, has been continually hobbled by political divisions, which has led to the ensuing turmoil.

This is not to say that aggressive responses by political authorities would solve the problem, but as in the US, they could serve as a balm. These are the “extend and pretend” actions that eventually will implode. For me, it’s better to have the painful market adjustments now, than increasingly built on systemic fragility which eventually would mean more pain.

Yet, despite current hurdles central bankers have not given up.

Denmark will unleash the same inflationism to bailout her banks. According to this report from Bloomberg,

Denmark’s central bank said it will provide as much as 400 billion kroner ($72.6 billion) as part of an extended collateral program to provide emergency liquidity to the country’s banks.

Lenders will also be able to borrow liquidity for six months, alongside the central bank’s existing seven-day facility, at a rate that tracks the benchmark lending rate, currently 1.55 percent, the bank said in a statement today.

The country’s lenders face a deepening crisis that threatens to stall a recovery in Scandinavia’s worst-performing economy. Two Danish bank failures this year triggered senior creditor losses, leaving international funding markets closed to all but the largest banks. Lawmaker efforts to spur a wave of consolidation and help banks sidestep Denmark’s bail-in rules have so far failed.

For as long as central bankers fight to preserve the political status quo by using expansionary credit easing tools or inflationism, deflation remains a less likely outcome.

Has Germany and Ireland been printing their own Currencies?

I have seen some unconfirmed reports or rumors where EU member states as Ireland and Germany have been re-issuing their native currencies prior to joining the EU, particularly the Irish pound and the German deutschmark

From Moneynews.com

Ireland's central bank reportedly is printing Ireland's old currency in case the country leaves the eurozone. At least that's the rumor circulating in Dublin, notes Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham stockbrokers in that city.

McQuaid, writing a guest commentary for The Guardian, says he's not sure if the rumor is true. But he does hope Ireland has contingency plans in case the euro disintegrates.

Then again, given the record of European leaders, a lack of backup plan wouldn’t be surprising.
As Greece struggles to remain solvent, the European monetary union is scrambling to stop the debt crisis from spreading. If the crisis does spread, Ireland might be next in line.

Some pundits say Ireland should drop the euro.

Being master of your own destiny does have appeal, McQuaid admits. If it returned to the punt, Ireland could boost exports by devaluing the currency and reduce its debt burden.

Also, a known political insider Philippa Malmgren, special assistant to Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council for ex-President Bush and was also a member of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, aka, the Plunge Protection Team, at Sweden's largest business paper, Dagens Industri says that she expects Germans to return to the Deutschemark and have already ordered its re-issuance (hat tip: Bob Wenzel)

Germany refuses more emergency loans and prepares the reintroduction of the D-mark. They have already ordered the new currency and excites the printers to rush. It says the U.S. economy Doctor Philippa Malmgren.

"My impression is that the German Government sent us a number of signals that, from their perspective there is no other solution (than to leave the euro)," writes Philippa Malmgren, formerly an advisor to former U.S. President George W. Bush and global strategy director the banking giant UBS in his blog.

The validity of these reports are unclear.

Nevertheless, when markets are usually exhibiting signs of depression as this, they could signal a bounce or an important inflection point.

Otherwise if these reports are true, then a realization of Euro’s disintegration would likely mean intensely turbulent times for the financial markets—as the “newly” independent European central banks would likely embark on saving their respective national banking system by printing tsunami of money to counter waves of deflationary defaults.

In this case, we should expect even more massive gyrations both on the upside and downside that could make hearts palpitate rapidly.

Fasten your seat-belts.

BRICs Mulls Bailout of the Eurozone

From the Reuters,

BRIC major emerging markets are considering ramping up holdings of euro-denominated bonds in a bid to help European countries mired in a sovereign debt crisis, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Tuesday, citing a monetary official.

Valor reported a decision could be made at a Sept. 22 meeting of finance ministers and central bank presidents from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Washington.

Brazil's central bank declined to comment on the story.

This comes on the heels of China’s proposed investment on Italy, yesterday.

From Bloomberg/Businessweek, (bold emphasis mine)

China’s status as the fastest- growing major economy and holder of the largest foreign-exchange reserves lured another bailout candidate as Italy struggles to avoid a collapse in investor confidence.

Italian officials held talks in the past few weeks with Chinese counterparts about potential investments in the country, an Italian government official said yesterday, adding that bonds weren’t the focus. Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti met with Chinese officials in Rome earlier this month, his spokesman Filippo Pepe said by phone today, declining to say exactly when the talks took place or what was discussed.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, asked about buying Italian assets, said Europe is one of China’s main investment destinations, without specifically mentioning Italy.

Italy joins Spain, Greece, Portugal and investment bank Morgan Stanley among distressed borrowers that turned to China since the 2007 collapse in U.S. mortgage securities set off a crisis that widened to engulf euro-region sovereign debtors. Stocks rose on the potential Chinese investment in Italy even as previous commitments failed to have a lasting impact…

Any Chinese purchases of euro-region debt to date haven’t produced a lasting cut in yield premiums for Greece, Portugal or Spain…

Any Chinese purchases of euro-denominated debt may help it diversify its reserves away from dollars. The biggest foreign owner of U.S. government debt has doubled its holdings of Treasuries in the three years through June to about $1.17 trillion.

China is playing a “white knight” role in assisting Europe and buying itself goodwill that will enable it to purchase more sensitive European assets such as technology companies, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based Faros Trading in a June report. The European Union still has an arms embargo on China, imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

My comments:

1. The above exhibits the bailout mentality prevalent among policymakers. It’s easy to spend money or resources that aren’t theirs, since the costs of the ensuing political actions are distributed or externalized or borne by taxpayers. Policymakers are essentially unaccountable for their actions.

2. This also demonstrates the implicit desire of global governments to preserve the status quo, again at the expense of local taxpayers.

3. The transfer of resources from productive to non productive entities will have temporary palliative effects. Over the long term, this weakens the productive capability of productive enterprises, as well as, heightens the risk environment of the global economic and financial system. Besides, such transfers distort price signals and resource distribution in the marketplace which only increases systemic fragility.

And since we are dealing with non-productive entities, i.e. governments, for BRIC political leaders, the above represents a choice between domestic or international ‘political’ expenditures.

Again go back to #1.

4. BRIC governments will be a part of the consortium that will rescue elite bankers of the Eurozone and the US. This only reveals how widespread the welfare government-banking-central banking cartel is.

5. For China, part of the incentive to conduct a bail out is to project her growing geopolitical influence; yet a very expensive way to signal success.

China will also use this opportunity to squeeze political deals with economic repercussions. Like any political concession, these would likely benefit the client cronies and the political patrons of the incumbent Chinese government.

6. Diversification of currency reserves out of the US dollars has been attributed as one of the motives for the rescue. But why the Euro, whom like the US suffers from the almost the same disease?

Notice that the current developments signifies as a continuing crisis since 2008. Despite repeated trillions of US dollars or Euro spent on a seemingly expanding breadth of bailouts, there are hardly any convincing signs that this crisis will be over anytime soon. Much of the present political actions have been meant to 'kick the can down the road', which means the likelihood of even larger crisis ahead.

None of the above shows that the BRIC's rescue will matter. Again the thumbprints gleaned from the above would likely be more inflationism.

Greece Passes Austerity Measures Paving Way for Bailout

Pardon me, but this seems as another “I told you so” moment in terms of the Greece crisis.

Many have stridently been calling for a Euro collapse on this Greece vote.

I argued otherwise,

But most importantly this signifies as the implicit desire to keep the current unholy central bank-government-banking system cartel or patronage system intact.

Proof of this is that the exigency to conduct bailouts has almost been representative of the creditor nation’s banking system exposure to crisis affected economies

Any signs that would risk the survival of this tripartite global political arrangement would translate to urgent or contingent collaborative actions, despite political differences.

Faced with the risks of a Greek default, the ECB and Germany have been working on a compromise. China’s recent declaration to help shore up Eurozone bonds or the bailout of Greece has also demonstrated such tight kinship on a global scale.

The current framework of socio-political institutions has been built around such symbiosis. It’s a relationship based on financial repression.

And unknown to most, the political elites will fight to maintain this status quo despite the unpopularity on the constituency.

And apparently events has been turning out the way I saw it.

From Bloomberg,

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won approval for his 78 billion euro ($113 billion) package of budget cuts and asset sales aimed at meeting European aid requirements and will face a second vote on the implementation of the plan today. Data today may show European consumer prices climbed in June, fueling the prospects of an interest-rate increase next week,

This comes even as the Greek populace, accustomed to welfare entitlements, seems to be vehemently against it.

From the Financial Times,

Violent protests escalated after the governing Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) had won the vote by a clear majority. Clashes between stone-throwing protesters and riot police firing teargas spread beyond Syntagma into the city’s main shopping streets. Angry demonstrators tore bollards from the ground and used them to smash paving stones and marble facades for ammunition. Rubbish bins were upturned, their contents spewed across roads and were set on fire...

Pasok won approval for the new four-year package of tax increases and spending cuts by 155 votes to 138 with five abstentions – all by members of the Democratic Alliance, a conservative splinter group. Two deputies were absent.

Fears that as many as five deputies would defect proved unfounded as only one, Panayiotis Kouroumblis, shouted “No” when it came to the vote. He was then expelled from Pasok.

With one exception, the conservative opposition New Democracy party voted against the package after Antonis Samaras, their leader, had once again rejected appeals for consensus by Olli Rehn, the European commissioner handling the crisis, and Angela Merkel, German chancellor.

As you can see politicians will lord it over their constituency by force. It’s repression, whether applied to politics (political repression) or economics (financial repression).

This is NOT to say that the Euro crisis is over. It’s been another dilatory ‘kick the can down the road’ tactic with repercussions down the road.

I DO NOT imply that Euro can’t collapse too. All conventional currencies based on central banking fiat money system, will remain under pressure, if the bailout policies persists and becomes entrenched.

For the Euro, it’s obviously not their appointed hour yet.

The point is:

This has been how the political institutions have been established, and this will likely be the general direction of policies...until the system reaches a 'tipping point' such that economic reality will work to undermine the existence of these institutions or when common sense and self discipline prevails.

US Money Market Funds likely the Contagion Link to the PIIGS crisis

How vulnerable is the US to the PIIGS debt and entitlement crisis?

From Bloomberg, (bold emphasis mine)

U.S. money funds eligible to buy corporate debt had about $800 billion, or half their assets as of May 31, in securities issued by European banks, Fitch Ratings estimated. European lenders held more than $2 trillion at year-end in loans to Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy, the most indebted European countries, the Bank of International Settlements estimated...

European Union leaders vowed June 24 to prevent a Greek default as long as Prime Minister George Papandreou pushes a $78 billion euro ($111 billion) package of budget cuts and asset sales through Parliament this week. Greece needs to cover 6.6 billion euros ($9.4 billion) of maturing bonds in August.

“Money-market mutual funds still remain vulnerable to an unexpected credit shock that could cause investors to doubt the ability to redeem at a stable net asset value,” Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in a June 3 speech. Some funds have “sizable exposures” to European banks through short-term debt, he said.

The $2.68 trillion money-fund industry is the biggest collective buyer in the commercial paper market.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. led to the Sept. 16, 2008, closure of the $62.5 billion Reserve Primary Fund when it suffered a loss on debt issued by the bank. Reserve Primary triggered a wave of redemption requests when it became the first money-market fund in 14 years to expose investors to losses.

Customers were denied access to most of their cash for months as the fund liquidated. Investors, fearing that other funds might fail, withdrew $230 billion from the industry by Sept. 19 in a run that threatened to cripple issuers of short- term debt.

Money market funds are limited to securities that can be converted into cash within 13 months.

JPMorgan’s Roever and Peter Rizzo, senior director of fund services at credit rater Standard & Poor’s in New York, said U.S. managers have been reducing their European bank holdings and shortening the average maturities of those remaining. That would allow them to withdraw more quickly without having to sell securities into a potentially illiquid market.

S&P estimated that 80 percent of European bank holdings is limited to three months or less, and 95 percent to six months or less among the 500 U.S. and European money funds it rates.

And this is partly why news feeds of proposed continued buying by the US Federal Reserve of US treasuries continue to stream

From another Bloomberg article,

The Federal Reserve will remain the biggest buyer of Treasuries, even after the second round of quantitative easing ends this week, as the central bank uses its $2.86 trillion balance sheet to keep interest rate slow.

While the $600 billion purchase program, known as QE2, winds down, the Fed said June 22 that it will continue to buy Treasuries with proceeds from the maturing debt it currently owns. That could mean purchases of as much as $300 billion of government debt over the next 12 months without adding money to the financial system.

As I earlier noted, even if QE 2.0 does officially end this month, this proposed reinvestment program serves as transitional QE. Eventually whether it is QE or another name, asset purchasing programs by the US Federal will continue.

This also lends credence to the view that QE 2.0 may have been put in place to save foreign (European) banks in order to diminish contagion risks.

At the end of the day, it’s been all about saving the international banking cartel under the guise of saving the economy.

Political Interventions has Led to the Widening of Divergences in Global Asset Markets

By creating illusory profits and distorting economic calculation, inflation will suspend the free market's penalizing of inefficient, and rewarding of efficient, firms. Almost all firms will seemingly prosper. The general atmosphere of a "sellers' market" will lead to a decline in the quality of goods and of service to consumers, since consumers often resist price increases less when they occur in the form of downgrading of quality. The quality of work will decline in an inflation for a more subtle reason: people become enamored of "get-rich-quick" schemes, seemingly within their grasp in an era of ever-rising prices, and often scorn sober effort. Inflation also penalizes thrift and encourages debt, for any sum of money loaned will be repaid in dollars of lower purchasing power than when originally received. The incentive, then, is to borrow and repay later rather than save and lend. Inflation, therefore, lowers the general standard of living in the very course of creating a tinsel atmosphere of "prosperity.- Murray N. Rothbard

The fascinating thing about markets is that we can always expect the unexpected.

When events don’t play out according to expected patterns, this only shows how people respond differently to even similar conditions. That’s because many variables affect or influence people’s response to evolving conditions.

As the great Ludwig von Mises wrote, (bold emphasis mine)[1]

Epistemologically the distinctive mark of what we call nature is to be seen in the ascertainable and inevitable regularity in the concatenation and sequence of phenomena. On the other hand the distinctive mark of what we call the human sphere or history or, better, the realm of human action is the absence of such a universally prevailing regularity. Under identical conditions stones always react to the same stimuli in the same way; we can learn something about these regular patterns of reacting, and we can make use of this knowledge in directing our actions toward definite goals. Our classification of natural objects and our assigning names to these classes is an outcome of this cognition. A stone is a thing that reacts in a definite way. Men react to the same stimuli in different ways, and the same man at different instants of time may react in ways different from his previous or later conduct. It is impossible to group men into classes whose members always react in the same way.

This is not to say that future human actions are totally unpredictable. They can, in a certain way, be anticipated to some extent. But the methods applied in such anticipations, and their scope, are logically and epistemologically entirely different from those applied in anticipating natural events, and from their scope.

And based on logical and epistemological observations one can observe that the current market conditions are being defined by the deepening signs of divergences.

Divergences in Global Equity Markets

As global markets continue to wobble, most of Asian markets caught fire this week.

Despite Asia’s seeming reanimated equities, individual performances based on recent price actions have been idiosyncratic. In other words, some bourses have recoiled strongly from sharply oversold conditions while the other outperforming bourses have merely shed some the recent languor and could be poised for another upside run.

I would think the Philippine Phisix as representing the second category.

Most of the major bourses, the US S&P 500 [SPX], iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan Index Fund [AAXJ] and the MSCI World (ex USA) Index (EOD) [MSWORLD] have all been on a downdraft almost synchronically since May.

In the past, all markets would have chimed as one.

In contrast the Phisix has swung like a pendulum to erase last week’s losses and post a positive (+2.15%) year to date gains.

Yet based on chart formations, the Phisix appears to be emitting significantly bullish signals. A reverse head and shoulder pattern, which once transgressed or encroached, could possibly send the local benchmark to the 4,900-5,000 level by the year end.

On the other hand, the actions of the BRICs represent the first category where some of the recent gains of Asian bourses signify more of oversold bounces.

China’s (SSEC) and India’s (BSE) spectacular rallies this week, appears to have broken the intermediate downtrend. As to whether the upside breakaway from the current downturns signify as key inflection points remains to be seen.

This will likely be reflected on the commodity markets too.

Divergence in Commodity Markets

Again divergences have likewise been apparent over at the commodity markets.

The recent rally in gold seems to have been thwarted and this has been coincidental to the forcible or manipulated tanking of oil prices which have been due to the International Energy Agency’s [IEA] declaration to release oil reserves in the markets over the coming month[2].

This has been part of the concerted efforts to depress commodity prices since May.

So far the gold and silver remains on the uptrend while oil and the CRB Reuters [CCI] index appears to have broken down.

With the Belgian central bank reportedly having to lease out 41% of their gold reserves, which effectively represents as shorting of gold[3], another political angle with which to manipulate the commodity markets, aside from the setting up for the conditions required for the next wave of asset purchasing program[4], would be to limit the losses being suffered by central banks that have been ‘short’ gold.

But this, in my view, signifies as the secondary order.

On the other hand, the current distortions in the commodity markets brought about by these variable interventions will likely only worsen the commodity economic imbalances and would likely signify a fleeting impact.

To the contrary, this could even setup the gold market for a possible trailblazing run!

Signs of such dynamic can be seen in the unfolding Greece debt crisis where ordinary Greeks have reportedly been stampeding into gold (to even eschew gains from interest rates) just to safeguard their savings from the fear of a collapse of their banking system[5].

QE 2.0 as Bailout of Foreign Banks?

And speaking of the European debt and entitlement crisis, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently downplayed the contagion risks of US banks because US banks haven’t been “significantly exposed”. Although Mr. Bernanke admits that US banks have “very substantial exposure to European banks in the so-called core countries, Germany, France”[6].

Given Mr. Bernanke’s very dismal track record and his admission that they “don’t have a precise read” of the performance of the US economy[7], I am pretty confident that his public statements conceals the true nature of intended political actions.

Tyler Durden of Zerohedge.com exposes evidences where money from QE 2.0 have been redirected or diverted to foreign or mostly European banks operating in the US.

Cash holdings of foreign banks based on the US have risen almost in proportion with the US Federal Reserve’s $600 billion QE 2.0.

These intricate diversions have been coursed indirectly through the Eurodollar market via US primarily dealers, US and foreign banks. The US Federal Reserve do not buy assets directly, they are done through agents.

The beneficiary international banks had supposedly been in trouble and require these excess reserves to neutralize the growing risks from the ongoing crisis at the Eurozone.

To quote Mr. Durden[8] (bold emphasis mine, above chart from Zerohedge)

In other words, foreign banks operating in the US have an artificially pumped up cash balance creating a false sense of security, with the fungible cash having been borrowed from abroad. This also means, that when and if European banks realize they need the cash "lent out" to US-based subsidiaries, and demand the $600 billion+ in dollars, all they will see is a white flag of surrender, as the US-operating banks disclose they have pledged the cash for one thousands and one uses, and its sudden withdrawal would end up crashing the capital markets. It also means that explanations that this cash was used by European banks to satisfy regulatory capitalization shortfalls are absolute gibberish. And yes, if and when there is a surge in dollar needs out of Europe, the Fed will have two choices: QE(x) and FX liquidity swaps.

If such claim is true, then we should even expect more QEs to come...and quite soon, given the current tumultuous conditions of the Eurozone.

Also, such actions imply that the US has been very concerned with the developments in Europe enough to engage in QE 2.0 for this reason.

Also, this only goes to show that the US has surreptitiously been in rescuing or bailing out banks across the globe.

Fitting pieces of the puzzle together, we can easily see why a Goldman Sachs alumni has been appointed as the European Central Bank president[9] and why Bank of Japan (BoJ) has imported Ben Bernanke’s dogma of propping up her domestic stock markets by asset purchases as policy[10]—all of which has been meant to rescue the teetering banking system of the world.

If the overall undeclared aim is to survive the current central bank-banking cartel, then there will be NO alternative but for central banks to maintain the asset purchasing programs.

Apparently, the myriad political interventions in the marketplace have led to different effects or the widening of divergent price actions across the global asset markets.

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[1] Mises, Ludwig von Regularity and Prediction, Theory and History; Introduction

[2] See War on Commodities: IEA Intervenes by Releasing Oil Reserves, June 24, 2011

[3] See Belgian Central Bank ‘Lends’ 41% of Gold Reserves, Growing Role of Gold as Money, June 21, 2011

[4] See Poker Bluff: No Quantitative Easing 3.0?, June 5, 2011

[5] See Greeks Go For Gold, June 22,2011

[6] Bloomberg.com Bernanke Sees Small Impact on U.S. Banks of a Greek Default (1), June 22, 2011

[7] See Ben Bernanke Admits to the Knowledge Problem, June 23, 2011

[8] Durden, Tyler The Eurodollar Missing Link: Explaining The QE2-Related Cash Surge In US-Based Foreign Banks, Zerohedge.com June 22, 2011

[9] See Revolving Door Syndrome: European Central Bank’s New Head was Goldman Sach’s Honcho, June 25, 2011

[10] See Bank of Japan’s Interventions in Japan’s Stock Markets, June 23, 2011