Today, additional evidence that recession — or worse — is in sight.
But first, it appears the “Powell put” may extend the countdown clock…
Since Jerome Powell’s dovish comments on Friday, the Dow Jones has been up and away… as an addict thrills to the promise of additional stimulant.
It leaped another 256 points today. Continue reading
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is sounding the alarm about a bubble that he believes is forming in the bond market.
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The former Fed chairman says the current situation in the bond market is comparable to what happens in the stock market during an equity bubble. Continue reading
TCW Group Inc. is taking the possibility of a bond-market selloff seriously.
So seriously that the Los Angeles-based money manager, which oversees almost $140 billion of U.S. debt, has been accumulating more and more cash in its credit funds, with the proportion rising to the highest since the 2008 crisis.
“We never realize what the tipping point is until after it happens,” said Jerry Cudzil, TCW Group’s head of U.S. credit trading. “We’re as defensive as we’ve been since pre-crisis.”
The fact that Russia bought another 30 tons of gold earlier this week, bringing its total gold reserves to 1,238 metric tons should make the United States worried, said Todd Wood, the author of the book “Currency” and a contributing writer at the Washington Times.
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Russia is now the fifth-largest holder of gold reserves, according to the IMF. Moscow is increasing its gold reserves to strengthen the value of its own currency, the ruble. The smart move, Wood argues, adding that Russia is “preparing for the day when the tables will turn” and the world will see the decline of the Western economic power. Continue reading
Six years after the Global Financial Crisis, the U.S. stock market continues to soar to new heights with nary a pullback or correction. In this piece, I will explain why the stock market is experiencing a new bubble that is actually another wave of the bubble that has existed since the mid-1990s.
A two-decade old bubble? Yes, you’ve read that correctly. Most people will consider this assertion preposterous, but the facts don’t lie. Though the U.S. stock market has been experiencing a bubble for two decades, it will not last forever. I believe that the ultimate popping of this bubble will have terrifying consequences for both investors and the global economy that is tied so closely to the stock market.
The SP500 stock index has more than tripled since its low in 2009, but that doesn’t mean that we are out of the woods. On the contrary, this is the calm before the storm. Continue reading
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Last week the bond market did something it’s only done one other time in 45 years. Yet not many people noticed.
There are no one-way bets in global finance, but Japan’s stock market comes close. The authorities are about to funnel large sums into Japanese stocks openly and deliberately under the next phase of Abenomics, both by regulatory fiat and by purchasing the Nikkei index directly with printed money.
Prime minister Shinzo Abe is unshackling the world’s biggest stash of savings, the $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF). Officials say the ceiling on equity holdings will rise from 12pc to around 20pc as soon as August, opening the way for a $100bn buying blitz. Continue reading
In order to avoid financial loss for the clients as well as the business, UBS is now classifying what were once medium-risk investors into high-risk investors. It also doubles as a warning which possibly indicates anticipation of a looming catastrophe.
It really looks like the investment industry is trying to get investors to participate in this “great rotation” from bonds to equities.
According to Charlie Gasparino (via Josh Brown) some clients of UBS are about to get a shocking letter in the mail. Continue reading
The 1994 bond shock – and seared in the memories of bond-holders – ricocheted through global markets. It bankrupted Orange Country, California, which was caught flat-footed with large bond positions. It set off the Tequila Crisis in Mexico as the cost of rolling over `tesobonos’ linked to the US dollar suddenly jumped.
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Bank of America said the “Great Rotation” under way from bonds into equities closely tracks the pattern of 1994, with bank stocks leading the way. Continue reading
A senior adviser to the Chinese government has called for an economic attack on Japan’s bond market to crash the yen and drive the country into submission, reported the Telegraph on September 18.
The threat comes as Japan and China vie over ownership of the Senkaku group of islands located between the two nations.
Jin Baisong, who holds a position at a branch of China’s Commerce Ministry, noted that China has become Japan’s most important creditor. China should use its $230 billion of Japanese bonds “in the most effective manner” and ignite a budgetary debt bomb in its eastern neighbor, he said.
He also indicated that China should starve Japan of rare earth elements. China supplies around 95 percent of the world’s rare earth metals, which are used in many hi-tech applications including military machinery. “It’s clear that China can deal a heavy blow to the Japanese economy without hurting itself too much,” he said.
Jin’s threats may be directed at Tokyo, but America should take note because they could just as easily be aimed at the Red, White and Blue—and maybe they are.
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Under President Obama, America has publicized its Pacific Maritime strategy as the cornerstone of its defense policy. Under this reorientation of American power, America is working to string together the various smaller Pacific nations into an economic and military alignment against China. In this context, America has often referred to its ally Japan and its many islands as its “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the region. Japan is America’s most important Asian ally.
If America does not strongly back Japan, it risks having its Pacific strategy revealed as an empty shell. If China can force Japan to back down, it will be a huge signal for other Southeast Asian nations to submit to China. Japan’s only other choice would be rearmament. To this point, Japan has opted for a small military in exchange for American support. If U.S. support is ever seen as unreliable, Japan will be forced to re-militarize. A rearmed Japan will be much more independent and less America-centric in its policies.
Yet America has to be very careful in its dealings with China too. America conducts 2½ times more trade with China than it does with Japan. The U.S. federal government has also borrowed a whopping $1.3 trillion from China (and Hong Kong). China also owns another half trillion or so in other U.S. dollar debt assets.
China has its fingers on the pin of a much bigger hand grenade.
And there is no doubt that China considers America’s debt as a weapon to be used too. Back in 2007, Xia Bin, a cabinet-rank minister, stated that China’s foreign reserves should be employed as a “bargaining chip” in trade talks with the U.S. That same year, as China and America hammered out a trade deal, He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further, warning that China could obliterate the greenback if it so desired. “China has accumulated a large sum of U.S. dollars. Such a big sum … contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency,” he said. If China’s central bank is forced to dump its U.S. currency, it “might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar,” he said. China’s state media describes China’s huge dollar holdings as a weapon. In the past, it has referred to America’s debt pile as China’s “nuclear option,” indicating Beijing could easily trigger a dollar meltdown of massive proportions if it needed to.
America faces some tough choices. Watch to see how its massive debt leads to a weakness that will alienate its allies. America is about to lose a lot more influence within the Asia Pacific. Whether China drives Japan into submission, or causes Japan to seek military independence from Washington, America risks being effectively driven back to the beaches of Darwin and Pearl Harbor.
China has got its fingers on a global economic hand grenade, and things may be about to get ugly.
Full article: China Threatens to Pull Pin on Global Economic Hand Grenade (The Trumpet)
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