China: Continued Boom or Bursting Bubble?

In a February 2010 Casey Report article titled Is China’s Recovery a Fraud?, my thesis was the $2.1 trillion stimulus package rolled out by Chinese authorities after the 2008/2009 financial crash was leading to enormous malinvestment. As with all monetary and fiscal stimuli, however, the initial high is always followed by a hangover

The 18-year Round-trip Journey of Greek Bond Yields

In October 1993, when Andreas Papandreou was re-elected as prime minister, Greece’s liabilities exceeded 100 percent of gross domestic product. The national debt was 114 percent of gross domestic product. Inflation was more than 14 percent and the economy was shrinking

BOE and ECB: What It Means and What is Next

The Bank of England, which has a penchant for surprising the market, chose not to wait for the quarterly inflation report to provide cover, and announce GBP75 bln additional bond purchases over the next four months. We forecast sterling to finish the year near $1.50. However, in the near-term there is scope for additional position adjusting. A move above the $1.5500-50 area could target $1.57 before sellers re-emerge.

The ECB focused on liquidity measures, including a 12- and 13-month long-term refi operations and 40 bln euro covered bond purchases. The ECB did not cut rates as many had expected. Short-term European rates back up smartly, with the euribor futures strip yields rising 9-13 bp. We expect the euro to finish the year near $

Currency Sovereignty

This week we will begin to examine our next topic: government spending, taxing, interest rate setting, and bond issue. We will examine fiscal and monetary policy formation by a government that issues its own currency. We will bear in mind that the exchange rate regime chosen does have implications for the operation of domestic policy. We will distinguish between operational procedures and constraints that apply to all currency-issuing governments and those that apply only to governments that allow their currency to float

ECB: despite talk of rate cuts, the focus is liquidity

ECB member Mersh called the speculation over a 50 bp cut “wild”, according to news accounts. However, given the dismal flash PMI readings and its correlation with GDP, the market is aware that the ECB can indeed cut rates next week, even though Trichet did not use the “normal” word cues to suggest it. However, at the Sept ECB meeting Trichet said monetary policy was still accommodative

Here’s why inverted yield curves are a leading indicator of recession

Just following up on my last post about the expectations theory of interest rates, I wanted to explain why yield curve inversion signals recession – and why it hasn’t this go round in the

IMPORTANT: Long-term interest rates are a series of future short-term rates

On how the expectations theory of interest rates explains why debt-induced depressions are fundamentally deflationary in nature

Continued Policy Mistakes in Brazil

BRL is one of the worst EM performers today, and continues a string of underperformance (-10.8% vs. USD) that began with the unexpected 50 bp rate cut August 31. Since then, only HUF has done worse at -11.5%. It’s really a confluence of factors, but markets are clearly punishing Brazil for its continued efforts to weaken the currency, which have distorted markets there. Besides the countless FX measures, of which Friday’s was only the latest in a long line of poorly communicated policy shifts, we are now seeing even more distortions added into the economy with the imposition of import tariffs to help protect domestic manufacturers. Not only is this inefficient from pure trade theory, but it will also likely add to already high price pressures

Monetary Policy and the Future of China

There is a road open for China involving controlled inflation that would lead to re-balancing, both domestically and internationally, which has some uncertainties. These must be compared to those of sustaining the export-led growth model, basically an even bigger currency mismatch in the PBoC balance sheet and ever more unproductive capital investments

EMEA central banks have moved into dovish mode

In the EMEA space, central banks from Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, and Turkey all meet next week. We don’t see any change from these four central banks and in general we believe EM central banks have moved into dovish wait-and-see mode for now, with the obvious exception of Brazil and Turkey, who have both cut, and RBI, who just hiked 25 bp for purely domestic reasons

Should our government borrow more at negative real interest rates?

If real returns remain low, it will skew capital investment. When recession hits, debtors backing those losing investments will be caught out and forced to delever aggressively as resource misallocation becomes evident

Asian Manufacturing PMIs suggest slowing economic growth

My take: economic growth is moderating in Asia and that has caused central banks to become more dovish. Markets no longer expect the tightening cycle there to continue at the same pace. The 50 basis point cut in Brazil could be seen as a harbinger of more dovish emerging market interest rate policy everywhere – not that the CBs would go so far and cut as Brazil has done. The real question is China. They have been tightening. Will they continue to do so in the face of obvious weakening domestically and in Europe and North America