The world is aflame with the BLOWBACK from policies of the elites who carved a world fit to desired outcomes of a self-established ruling class. The free flow of capital in pursuit of cheap labor has led to the stagnant wages that have given rise to anti-establishment forces, which have upset the Davos crowd’s playbook. As long as capital pursues a maximization of return but is answerable to the Westphalian construct of the nation-state, there will continue to be bouts of conflict that result in less desirable outcomes for global corporations.
Posts Tagged ‘Erdogan’
Notes From Underground: Sympathy For the Devils
September 3, 2018Notes From Underground: Depending On the Outcome of Rational Actors?
August 19, 2018So much of social science is dependent on various actors making rational decisions. Economics has regularly proven that “actors” certainly fail to act rationally as manias, crashes and panics in repeated form are proof (see Charles Kindleberger). In the realm of politics, the dependence on nation-states to behave rationally has led to many major policy errors. During the Cold War the balance of nuclear weapons prompted both super powers to remain reticent to embark on direct confrontations and avoid an unthinkable shooting war. The fear of world destruction also meant that the USSR and UNITED STATES would leash their “allies” to prevent any direct conflict between the two major hegemonists.
Notes From Underground: The World Is Talking Turkey
August 12, 2018For a long time now, we at NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND have been discussing the danger of Turkish President Erdogan in his role as a potential disruptor to stability in the Middle East. Last week’s violent action in Turkey’s stock and currency markets is just one element of the instability for which Erdogan can be held responsible.
Notes From Underground: A Conversation With Bonugli and Ronni Stoeferle
June 10, 2018On June 6, I had a discussion with the Financial Repression Authority host Richard Bonugli and the highly respected Ronni Stoeferle. We covered myriad of global financial and political concerns as we tried to provide the foundation for profitable opportunities via in-depth analysis of these fragilities.
Notes From Underground: Brexit … You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
July 18, 2016Indeed, the world doth have many piles of prairie grass to be LIT. After the NYSE closed for the weekend but while CME‘s electronic markets were still trading news broke about a COUP in Turkey. To readers of NOTES, this possibility was forecast in a post from October 15, 2015. The coup was not a surprise but the execution of the COUP was a comedy of errors (except for the deaths) as the leaders failed to prevent any communication from President Erdogan. In the world of social media the first action OUGHT to have been the jamming of all radar and wireless communication so that the overthrowers of the elected government would have a monopoly over all messages. It seems that George Friedman of Stratfor was the first to doubt the ability of the military conspirators and announced that the coup had failed.
Notes From Underground: Weekend news is predominantly positive for the risk-on crowd
September 12, 2010A quick overview of the weekend: The Chinese growth story is proceeding at a much stronger rate than previously expected and Chinese inflation levels seem well contained. The global equity markets have opened higher as the China’s surging growth has given a boost to the risk-on crowd. We are not big fans of the Chinese data releases. We are and will be suspect of official data from a country that seeks to harness what its populace can read. We also are not surprised by Chinese strength as the copper and energy and grain markets have been telling us for months that the Asian upturn is real. The slack demand in the the developed world has be more then replaced by emerging global boom.
The Turkish elections have added more power to tonight’s risk-on profile. The elections went better than expected for Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan and gave him even more latitude for reforming the Turkish polity to further meet European legal standards. Turkey’s equity and bond markets viewed this a positive as the consistency of reforms is what the markets are most desirous of pursuing.
There is also news from Basel that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision agreed to the provisions of Basel III and though is means higher capital requirements, the new standards will not be phased in until 2013 to 2018, which gives the markets some breathing room. One of the more positive aspects will be based on what Bill White has called leaning into asset prices and acting in a countercyclical manner. As economies heat up capital ratios will rise for banks, thus acting to curtail out of control asset appreciation. This is a very good regulation and will act to head off future “irrational exuberance.” It will be awhile before its full effect is felt but it is an acknowledgement that BUBBLES need to be deflated in the incipient stages.
We will also be watching the DPJ election that takes place Tuesday in Japan. The intra-party battle between Ozawa and Kan can have a very big outcome for YEN valuation. If the old warhorse OZAWA were to gain the party leadership–and the Prime Minister post–the YEN will weaken in the initial anticipation that Ozawa would move to weaken the YEN. We will certainly report more about this as events unfold, but there were several stories written about the Japanese unhappiness in regards to the Chinese purchases of JGBs putting unwanted bid to the YEN. Some Japanese are even suggesting that China has ulterior motives and wishes to keep the YEN unduly strong to further its own trade advantage. This is merely “speculation,” but it certainly adds to the heat on possible intervention. We don’t know the outcome but pay attention as Ozawa ‘s victory could move him to action.