Friday’s jobs data was almost as the pundits had predicted. Why was there so much activity when the nonfarm payrolls and average hourly earnings and length of work week were basically the right on the consensus predictions? Yes, I’m aware that the “whisper number” was 250,000-plus due to the removal of harsh weather conditions. However, if that was the case, the dollar should have weakened and the short-end of the U.S. yield curve OUGHT to have outperformed the long end resulting in a STEEPENING of the 2/10 (none of which occurred). The 2/10 curve actually flattened as the U.S. stock markets began selling off, a drop initiated by the Nasdaq 100’s key momentum stocks. The weekly charts of the S&P and the Nasdaq took different turns as the SPOOs closed higher on the week and the Nasdaq closed lower, an indication of some reallocation from the momentum-oriented stocks to the more solid large-cap, earnings-based equities.
Posts Tagged ‘moral hazard’
Notes From Underground: All of Germany is a “Tea Party”
March 27, 2013For the last three years, this blog has made the point that a moral drama playing out on the global financial stage. The U.S. Tea Party was based on a concept of liquidating the assets of large debtors and letting the pain be absorbed by the financial system and those who have saved and played by the rules of capitalism will be rewarded. The moral precepts of the “original” Tea Party supporters may have been correct but the timing of favoring system-wide asset liquidation had long passed and the fallout would have led to economic collapse and possible political upheaval. The U.S. could not handle the massive unemployment from a forced deleveraging. While I am opposed to moral hazard in principle, the enforcement of punishing debtors at the expense of the entire system is absurd.
Notes From Underground: Jeroen Dijsselbloem and the Template of Doom
March 25, 2013It made little sense to blog about Cyprus last night because the initial news release was so vapid it was of little use. Those who perceived a risk-on based “settlement ” proved to be disappointed this morning. Long before Dutch Finance Minister Dijsselbloem opened his mouth, the euro and its various correlated trades were in a turnaround from last night’s movement. Mr. Dijsselbloem also serves as the head of the ECOFIN (European Finance Ministers) so his voice carried more weight than the usually opining of a podium-addicted eurocrat. It seems that the ECOFIN honcho made it known that the severe punishment of investors and depositors in Cyprus was to serve as the TEMPLATE for all future European banking insolvencies. The stern tone of the message sent global equities lower and the DOLLAR and any currency not in Europe, rallying.
Notes From Underground: And The Winner of This Year’s GREENSPAN MORAL HAZARD Award Is … JON CORZINE
November 1, 2011Another day another crisis in EUROLAND, or the LA LA LAND of Wall Street, which we will know refer to as THE LAND OF MORAL HAZARD. The leaders of the Wall Street establishment have proven again that no risky investment is too big as long it is with OPM (other people’s money). Jon Corzine went all in on a bet on PIIG DEBT in an effort to increase the annual returns at MF GLOBAL. In a ZIRP environment, a clearing house has a difficult time making money because the earnings, which are the overnight float, are so extremely low. In order to generate greater earnings on the FLOAT, greater risks need to be taken so the need to purchase riskier sovereign debt becomes the outlet.