Make no mistake, Larry Kudlow is worthless as a source of financial wisdom because he wishes to be everybody’s friend. That prevents him from having a discussion about serious financial concerns. The Kudlow mantra is: Pay attention to the growth coming from the tax and regulatory reforms put in place by the Trump administration. I agree with the great need for regulatory reform, but the Kudlow mantra of “don’t worry about budget deficits because growth will take care of it” is RUBBISH. The Trump administration has increased spending while cutting taxes, which in my opinion has merely resulted in INTERTEMPORAL MISALLOCATION. The TRUMP White House has merely brought forth demand from the near future with no genuine way to pay for it. This is of course right out of the Nixon play book in which “we are all Keynesians now.”
Posts Tagged ‘Brazilian real’
Notes From Underground: Larry Kudlow, White House Eunuch
September 17, 2018Notes From Underground: Mario Draghi Sings Castrato At The Frankfurt Financial Opera House
June 5, 2013Tomorrow brings two central bank interest rate announcements. First, at 6:00 a.m. CST the Bank of England will deliver its last decision under the guiding hand of Governor Mervyn King. Consensus calls for no change in the 0.50% lending rate or the current BOE asset purchase program. Governor King has been in favor of increasing the quantitative easing amount but has been outvoted by his board three consecutive meetings. It would be silly to affect a policy change before the new governor takes his place. Forty-five minutes later, the European Central Bank will announce its decision and it is expected to hold rates at 0.50%–the ECB cut its rate by 25 basis points at its last meeting.
Notes From Underground: The G-20 Communique … YADA,YADA,YADA … What Currency Wars?
February 18, 2013As expected, the G-20 communique was more insipid blathering about global growth, BIS capital regulation and the enactment of some new macroprudential regulations to ensure global financial tranquility. To reflect on the lack of consistency in this communique, let me quote from point 20: “We welcome the OECD report on addressing base erosion and profit shifting and acknowledge that an important part of fiscal sustainability is securing our revenue bases.” This is pure nonsense for it reflects the great divide that exists between the old line powers of the G-7 and the more broad-based and emerging economies found within the structure of the G-20.The old line (developed) economies want to preserve their tax bases so as to have enough revenue to maintain previous promises of retirement and pension programs for their aging populations.
Notes From Underground: The Biggest Loser If The Fiscal Cliff is Activated? Ben Bernanke’s Fed.
December 3, 2012It seems that if the Washington politicos fail to reach a resolution on preventing a fiscal crisis, the biggest loser will be the FED. The U.S. central bank is on record as pushing for continued monetary ease as long as unemployment remains unexpectedly high. The recent definition as forwarded by some Fed Governors and Presidents is around the 6.25% rate of unemployment. If the fiscal cliff is realized, projections are for the jobless rate to rise to between 9.5 and 10.0%. The question for the global financial markets will be: What is the FED‘s response going to be in an effort to counteract the renewed contraction in the U.S. economy?
Notes From Underground: Draghi … Could’ve, Should’ve, Would’ve
August 8, 2012The interest rate variable is alive, well and affecting global markets. Mario Draghi has played the “WIZARD OF FRANKFURT” as he has sought to forestall a financial implosion of Europe. Draghi’s comments in London on July 26, in that the ECB would stem the crisis at end with the tools at its disposal, markets had to believe that ECB policy would be “SUFFICIENT.” As we all know by now, President Draghi has been successful as the Spanish and Italian yield curves have steepened and the 2-YEAR NOTES have seen its yields dramatically drop–the Spanish went from 7% to 3.73%.
Notes From Underground: Is the Euro the New Funding Currency For the Carry Trade?
January 5, 2012For many years the carry trade has been the mainstay of the RISK-ON profile. For some periods the ZERO INTEREST RATE POLICY of Japan forced money out of its system and in search of high-yield currencies in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and other attractive venues. One of the best carry trades ever was LONG BRAZILIAN REAL/SHORT YEN as investors could fund the trade by borrowing YEN at very low rates and placing it in high yielding Brazilian bank accounts. As the Brazilian currency attained status as a commodity currency and, thus, a proxy for the China growth story, the BRAZILIAN REAL soared and the carry trade was a major win/win. When the U.S. FED went to an extreme low interest rate, the U.S. DOLLAR became a funding currency as the U.S. became a much less attractive place for global capital flows.
Notes From Underground: Is This a One-Act Play or Will There Be More Theatrics?
November 30, 2011Today was the day the world’s major central banks decided to “shock” the markets and provide a coordinated intervention to help ease the pressure in the Global bank lending markets. LED BY THE U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE, the OVERNIGHT INDEXED SWAP +100 WAS LOWERED BY THE FED AND OTHERS TO +50 POINTS, AS WELL AS THE MARGIN REQUIRED FOR ECB LENDING TO BANKS WAS DROPPED TO 12% FROM 20%. This is a technical move by the world’s banks to try to ease the pressure in the interbank lending market. I believe this is the first act in a concerted attempt to shift market psychology.
Notes From Underground: Where are the jobs? Recent employment report doesn’t jive
December 5, 2010Friday’s U.S. unemployment report was far less robust than anticipated. This consensus miss led to a selloff in the DOLLAR and a rally in commodities as the weak number gave rise to the need for more aggressive FED action. At first blush the GOLD was sold and other commodities also were falling but that didn’t last long as the risk-on trade gained the upper hand on the full execution of QE2. The worst part of the unemployment data was that the RATE INCREASED TO 9.8 PERCENT and this is what drives the FED at this juncture.
Notes From Underground: Short Look at Being Long Russia
November 10, 2010Allow me, readers, to journey down the rabbit hole. I believe a major theme in 2011 is that many of the high correlative trades are going to break apart and fundamentals will prevail over mere mathematical permutations (hence NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND WHERE 2+2=5 is also a beautiful thing). One of the areas of decoupling will be in the area of DEVELOPING MARKETS where all nations are not equal. Russia is one of those nations that I believe will outperform, as the rising middle class will continue to push for more development that is not just natural-resource based. Now I am not naïve and certainly understand the pernicious nature of Putin and his kleptogarchs and the failure of the rule of law. One of Yra’s laws is the MONEY IS FASCIST, by which I mean that money in search of a high return will tolerate autocratic rule. History certainly bears this out, especially when we are in a greed cycle rather than fear.