The most important piece of the French President’s visit to Japan was to discuss a cooperative agreement with the Japanese Prime Minister on the development of new and improved nuclear powered electricity-generating facilities. The Japan Times and Bloomberg both reported that “Hollande and Abe discussed nuclear energy and agreed to promote joint development of a next-generation nuclear reactor as well as to support private-sector efforts to export nuclear power technologies to emerging countries.” Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva Corp. are two of the main developers of nuclear technology for domestic purposes. As I have written previously, the issue of nuclear energy is a vital link in the ABE economic plan. Prior to the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima disaster, Japan produced most of its electricity through nuclear power generators. The tragic outcome from the tsunami forced Japan to curtail most of the nuclear generators and become more reliant on imported energy, especially liquified natural gas (LNG).
Posts Tagged ‘IMF’
Notes From Underground: Why Are The G-7 Finance Ministers Meeting In England This Weekend?
May 10, 2013There was a Reuters story yesterday by William Schomberg, “G7 Finance Chiefs to Discuss Bank Reform Push.” Very few people picked up on this but it seems strange that all the sudden a meeting is called to discuss what elements of bank reform. Are they going to try to persuade Germany to get behind the EU push for a banking union and if so why the hurry before the September German elections? The idea of a banking union with resolution authority is sure to be a lightening rod for all the German angst about the bailouts of the peripheral nations. The Reuters piece notes that some G-7 officials are upset that the U.K. called the meeting so soon after the recent IMF talks in Washington. One official said, “I am really annoyed I’ve got to give up my weekend for this.”
Notes From Underground: Are the French Kicking the Hornet’s Nest?
May 6, 2013First, the unemployment report offered no surprises as the market was close to the actual release. The real surprise was in the upward revisions to the February and March numbers. The negative surprise was the average work week shrinking by 0.2% of an hour. The shorter work week may be an aberration but it may mean that employers are cutting workers hours so as to keep under the Affordable Care Act mandates, but I caution it is far too early to say that this is definitely occurring. The BOND markets reacted negatively to the “stronger” jobs data and the 10-year note future fell as yields rose by 10 basis points. Investors bought stocks and seemingly sold bonds in a performance of risk-on/risk-off. Again, one day’s action does not a trend make. The pure risk-on/risk-off paradigm has been dormant for quite a while and let’s hope it stays that way.
Notes From Underground: A Day of Disconnects In Global Markets, Or a Ball of Confusion
April 22, 2013First, I need to clear the air on an issue that is cited over and over, of which causes me great discomfort. In last Thursday’s Financial Times, Robert Pollin and Michael Ash, the two professors who sponsored graduate student Thomas Herndon of UMass-Amherst–and of recent fame for finding the flaws in Rogoff/Reinhart–published the article heard round the world: “Why Reinhart and Rogoff are wrong about austerity.” I am not disputing the results of their work but I am questioning a causal relationship that they note:
Notes From Underground: Europe To Be Crucified On a EUR/YEN Cross
April 21, 2013Tonight’s BLOG headline is attributable to my friend KM after a long conversation about the IMF and G-20 meetings that took place in Washington during the past four days. It appears that Japanese monetary policy was not the subject of derision but rather applauded as a strong measure to lift Japan’s domestic economy out of two decades of malaise. Let me be as clear as possible: There is a full frontal assault being waged on the German model of GROWTH THROUGH AUSTERITY. The first shot fired was several months ago when IMF economist Olivier Blanchard delivered a paper stating that the previous belief that the negative impact on GDP from austerity was not a multiplier effect of 0.5% but rather a greater measure of 0.9-1.5% in its impact so a decease in fiscal spending would create a much greater slowdown than previously thought. The battle was waged in the efforts to limit the sequestration in the U.S. even as IMF Managing Director Lagarde cautioned that U.S. tightening is “too much, too fast and it’s in the wrong place. It’s not right for the U.S. economy and it’s not right for the world.”
Notes From Underground: Clearing the Air of Bad Assumptions
April 15, 2013Last night’s BLOG attempted to make sense out of all the chatter around the gold action of the last few days, and, more importantly, during the last several months. The points I tried to make were:
- A reiteration of a theme I have stated over and over again, that the GOLD MARKET WAS/IS A TIRED BULL and that investors were leaving the moorings of great store of value or haven. The GOLD has been the repository of investor and traders confidence in a very unstable, insecure investment climate. The GOLD has risen for 11 straight years and as any market can correct as the financial landscape changes. As investors have gained comfort that the world central banks have for the moment been successful in generating some economic growth, money has left the precious metals in search of more risk-oriented assets with a yield attached. It is no mistake that it is the large-cap, strong dividend stocks that have led the way. A failure to understand that and react accordingly is just a case of myopia;
- I, IN NO WAY INTENDED TO INFER THAT I HAD INTERVIEWED JIM SINCLAIR AND THAT HE PROVIDED ME WITH A PRICE TARGET FOR THE CHINESE. HE DID NOT AND I CERTAINLY DID NOT INTERVIEW HIM. THE ONLY POINT I WAS TRYING TO MAKE WAS THAT I AGREED WITH JIM’S RECENT COMMENTS ABOUT THE NEED FOR CHINESE AND RUSSIAN GOLD PURCHASES TO PROVIDE THE NEEDED BUYING TO STEM THE AVALANCHE OF SELLING FROM FUTURES, OPTIONS and ETFS. When markets correct, be that housing or stocks, it is THEN YOU LEARN THE PAIN OF LEVERAGE. Gold has been a very popular, profitable investment, which means that in today’s world of financial engineering leverage is involved. I wholeheartedly agree with Jim’s analysis that the massive selling can only be absorbed by a massive buyer, be it a desirous procurer or somebody with a massive short wishing to cover.
Notes From Underground: Gold, Huh, Yeah, What Is It Good For?
April 14, 2013This is the question investors all over the world are asking after the massive selloff on Friday. I have argued that gold was a tired bull for the last six months and that global equities had replaced gold as investors’ and traders’ haven and store of value. Gold has done yeoman’s work as a store of value in the world of central bank hyperactivity resulting in negative real yields all over the globe. As gold prices have stagnated, investors have sought out other asset classes to supplant the need for increased risk and hopefully positive returns. Multinational corporations with high dividends have become the new store of value and the rush to unload traditional hard assets for productive real assets has gained traction. The Cypriot debacle scared global investors and sent them scurrying from bank deposits to corporate assets, with a higher yield via dividends and possible appreciation. (Especially if the assets are domiciled in a jurisdiction that has a court system that protects property rights.)
Notes From Underground: George Soros Gets It Right; Cyprus Follows Britain Down An Ugly Yellow Brick Road
April 10, 2013Over the last few years of writing Notes From Underground, I have taken his eminence, George Soros (aka the palindrome) to task for advocating that the German polity surrender its sovereign authority to a federal EU entity as he pushed for a harmonization of fiscal authority and then an EU-wide EUROBOND. Previously, Mr. Soros has pushed that the Eurocrats not pursue this Eurobond through a nation-by-nation vote but rather just foist it upon the citizens of Euroland. In a paper released yesterday, Mr. Soros is again pushing a Eurobond backed by a union-wide banking structure and a Euroland harmonized tax system, in which all nations surrender some sovereign authority to a centralized power. There will be no BUNDS, OATS, SPANISH or ITALIAN bonds. It will just be a Eurobond backed by the full credit of the EU fiscal authority. This time around though, Soros does advocate the German government should seek the consent of the electorate.
Notes From Underground: … And From The Joker (IMF Director Christine Lagarde)
April 8, 2013Today we got follow-through in the global equity markets as the EUR/YEN cross rallied to three-year highs since the YEN was, again, the chief recipient of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) enhanced efforts to bring forth inflation from a long time deflation-plagued economy. The Japanese investors were busy sending forth YEN in search of yield but also buying NIKKEI stocks in a return for domestic yield. A positive outcome from the sudden desire of Japanese investors into equities may mean an increase in corporate democracy as the demand for dividends is going to increase. The corporate culture in Japan has always been anti-shareholder as the predominant thought is that management owns corporations and the shareholders should be quiet and not make waves. The status quo has been challenged by some foreign activist investors and always rebuffed in a very anti-democratic show of defiance. As the desire for an income stream for investors, look for the ABE government to be supportive of increased democratization of corporate Japan. The flow of corporate money to investors would aid domestic demand, especially as bond returns go negative.
Notes From Underground: Why Is This CASH S&P HIGH DIFFERENT FROM THE PREVIOUS HIGH?
March 31, 2013I make a distinct reference to the CASH HIGH S&Ps versus the S&P FUTURES has made an all-time high. According to the CQG charts, the all-time high in the S&P futures front month is 1586.75 and the high daily close is 1576.25. The CASH high is 1576.09 and the previous high CASH daily close was 1565.15, which was surpassed on Friday’s close. Here is a significant chart that shows the important difference between Friday’s close and the last record high close of October 9, 2007.
