It seems this would be a good headline for the New York tabloids if any mainstream U.S. media outlets actually paid attention to what took place in Europe. Again, EU leaders failed to agree on a large fiscal stimulus backed by a common funding mechanism, or as George Soros and others recommended, a perpetual EUROBOND of at least a TRILLION EUROS or more. The Germans and their running dogs fail to acknowledge that the collapse of the European financial system if the Italians choose the “nuclear option” and say CIAO to the EURO the cost will far exceed any amount being discussed.
Archive for the ‘Currency’ Category
Notes From Underground: From Bully Pulpit to Blabbermouth
April 21, 2020ATTENTION: What you are about to read IS NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT for I don’t care about your politics and you shouldn’t even know mine. The OVAL OFFICE provides the U.S. president a pulpit in which to amplify his/her voice in a an effort to tip the policy debates in their favor. But one a policy is ill advised from a trade/financial perspective and we will shout it from NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND.
Notes From Underground: The G-7 Meet on Tuesday
April 13, 2020On Monday, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said the G-7 will be holding a video conference Tuesday, which will include all the central bankers. What is on the agenda? It has not been announced so we are left to GUESSING. The Swap LINES have been opened, massive asset purchase programs are in place, new facilities have been created and fiscal stimulus is raining down in all the old familiar places. The OIL agreement is in place and the FED has even embarked on a program of exchanging CASH for high yield bond ETFs in an effort to prevent a continued negative feedback loop in corporate debt markets. What is there for the G-7 to discuss?
Notes From Underground: Just a Song Before I Go
April 5, 2020At this time of great chaos in the world I am going to take a 10 day hiatus to sit back and reflect as it is the time of Passover and Easter. These holidays will take on special significance this year as the Covid-19 impacts our plans.
So as I retrench I put forward the words of the Prophet Micah for something to contemplate: “To Act Justly, and to LOVE MERCY and to walk HUMBLY with YOUR GOD.” Wishing all my readers a meaningful period of the holidays before us. I may post a podcast I recorded this morning with Anthony Crudele but that will be it, although I will respond to all questions in an effort to stay alert to critical issues in a rapidly changing global environment. Now to the issues before us.
Notes From Underground: My Fantasy News, “China Swaps U.S. Treasuries For Fort Knox”
March 22, 2020This headline would have seemed ridiculous eight weeks ago but today it has great relevance. If I ran the PBOC (or rather had the totalitarian impulses of President Xi), the command from above would be trade in the overvalued U.S. debt instruments for a 3,000-year vehicle that’s a reliable store of VALUE. The world’s central banks have confirmed a central theme of NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND: It is not inflation they fear but the onset of a DEFLATIONARY SPIRAL.
Notes From Underground: Three Cheers for Christine Lagarde
March 19, 2020While the rate cutters were busy dumping on ECB President Christine Lagarde for not cutting and only announcing an increase in bond purchases I opined that Lagarde was getting more by doing less. Lagarde did not go down the Draghi route and lock up with Jens Weidmann and the Fiscal Austerians in the Hanseatic League. The ECB president played for a bigger prize and tonight she delivered with an announced 750 billion euro bond buying program of both public and private issues.
Notes From Underground: The G-7 Was All About the Dollar
March 5, 2020The other day I called question to the tepid G-7 statement, which was followed by a 50 basis point CUT from the Federal Reserve. On Thursday the Financial Times published a story saying the Fed’s move was counter to a history of G-7 collaboration. Let us first dissuade the popular mythology of the G-7 as relevant to any serious global action. The colonial remnants of the authority of the bailiwick of the mechanism for the containment of the Soviet Empire are a JOKE. During the financial crisis it was the moves made by China that did more to stabilize global growth than any action by the G-7.
Notes From Underground: Into the Dark Recesses of My Mind
March 3, 2020Three weeks ago we at NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND suggested the Fed needed to cut interest rates by 50 basis points in an effort to get ahead of the potential negative economic fallout from a DEMAND SHOCK caused by the Covid-19 virus. But the rate cut was to be presented with the caveat that this was an economic cut and financial considerations were not involved. If the demand shock from the VIRUS never materialized the cut would be RESCINDED. After announcing an emergency cut Tuesday Chairman Jerome Powell took a few questions from the media.
Notes From Underground: A New Form of Asian Contagion
February 23, 2020On July 2, 1997 the Thai baht entered crisis mode, kicking off what become known as 18 months of Asian Contagion. The so-called Asian Tigers experienced massive capital disruptions as the Chinese economic miracle undermined the capital expenditure projects that were creating the manufacturing capacity to lift the TIGERS out of poverty and into significance in the global supply chain. The emerging markets learned that as fast as capital flows in to support foreign direct investment it can hurriedly depart as it seeks alternative venues with a better competitive advantage .
Notes From Underground: Man Plans, God Laughs
February 2, 2020It has been three weeks since I have sat down to articulate my thoughts on the global macro financial system in an effort to profit from trade/investment potentials. A lot of the discourse with many readers the focus was on the situation in the Middle East.
