The Global Financial System Is Unraveling, and No, the U.S. Is Not Immune

 

The “recovery”/Bull Market is in its 10th year, and yet central banks are still tiptoeing around as if the tiniest misstep will cause the whole shebang to shatter: what are they so afraid of?

The cognitive dissonance/crazy-making is off the charts:

On the one hand, central banks are still pursuing unprecedented stimulus via historically low interest rates, liquidity and easing the creation of credit on a vast scale. Some central banks continue to buy assets such as stocks and bonds to directly prop up the “market.” (If assets don’t actually trade freely, is it even a market?)

Goldman Warns That Market Valuations Are at Their Highest Since 1900

 

• Returns likely to be lower across all assets in medium term
• Risk scenario sees inflation jump that ushers ‘fast pain’

A prolonged bull market across stocks, bonds and credit has left a measure of average valuation at the highest since 1900, a condition that at some point is going to translate into pain for investors, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

How central banks have sown the seeds for the next financial crisis

The notion that governments have somehow got on top of the forces of financial instability is for the birds

Here’s a somewhat scary statistic for those meant to know about these things. After a six-year bull market, the typical stock in America’s S&P 500 shares index is valued on a multiple of more than 18 times estimated forward earnings. This is not just expensive by historic standards, but super-expensive. In fact, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs, it ranks as in the top 98th percentile of historic valuations since 1976, or in other words one of the highest in nearly 40 years. It scarcely needs saying that these peaks tend to signal the top of the cycle, with some kind of bear market or crash just around the corner.

Citi Warns “Central Banks’ Grip On The World Economy Is Waning”

While central banks’ grip on the economy seems to be waning, notes Citi’s Matt King, additional liquidity still seems as potent as ever when it comes to propping up global markets. The question in our minds revolves around whether central banks remain willing to keep pumping when the economic benefits are so questionable. Equally, though, valuations are already so elevated that we doubt they can afford to stop. One way or another, this feels like a recipe for increased volatility.