This 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.
Posts Tagged ‘swap lines’
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: No Surprises This Monday
November 28, 2011Even as the rumors of a massive IMF intervention to support Italy faded into the New York close the equity were buoyed by the robust start to the HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON. Increased sales and no bad news from Europe left the risk on (deleveraging halted) for at least another day. The 2/10 Italian curve aided the rally as the curve MOVED 50 BASIS POINTS AND CLAWED BACK TO A POSITIVE SLOPE. IN YESTERDAY’S BLOG IT WAS NOTED THAT THE 2/10 CURVES OF THE SPANISH AND ITALIAN DEBT MARKETS WERE NOW AN IMPORTANT INDICATOR OF DEBT STRESS AND FEARS FOR THE ECONOMIES OF THOSE ON THE PRECIPICE OF CRISIS.
Notes From Underground: The European Union KICKS GEITHNER’S CAN DOWN THE ROAD
September 18, 2011Friday and Saturday were the days that U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner was in Poland sitting in on an ECOFIN meeting to try to persuade the financial policy makers of the EU to come to some type of resolution on a bailout of the PIIGS, an increase in the European Financial Stability Facility, and, hopefully, some program of support for the recapitalization of the European banking sector. Geithner pressed the ECB and European Governments to increase the 440 billion EURO EFSF rescue fund by utilizing leverage in its buying of sovereign debt. The tone of Geithner’s message was that the U.S. has woken up to the huge threat the EU debt crisis poses for the American economy, and, of course, President Obama’s election chances. Mr. Geithner warned that the EU crisis was a “CATASTROPHIC RISK TO FINANCIAL MARKETS.” He advised that the conflict between European governments and its central bank must end.
Notes From Underground: The Use of Swap Lines … HMMMM
September 15, 2011After Secretary Geithner told the CNBC audience that he was going to Poland as an observer of the ECOFIN meeting on Friday, it seems he changed his mind. U.S. policymakers have woken up to the fact that the European credit crisis is the real deal and risks sending the entire global financial system into a period vicious cycle of asset liquidation. The Obama administration has come to realize that a severe credit crisis can certainly undermine the JOBS PROGRAM AND ANY OTHER STIMULUS PROGRAMS IN THE WORKS. If the world frets of a U.S. renewed recession, then imagine the global trepidation of a simultaneous credit crunch in Europe. A EUROPEAN MELTDOWN WOULD BRING THE U.S. TO INCREASED UNEMPLOYMENT AND A CERTAIN DEFEAT FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.