There is now rampant talk about a revived FED QE4 program, most powerfully talked about by Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio and Larry Summers (from the genetically powered economics family of Samuelson and Arrow). On December 24, Santelli and I considered the possibility of QE4 (see clip below). I posed this question to all investors: How would the equity markets react if the FED had to reignite its large asset purchases?
Tags:Fed, G-20, Japan, Larry Summers, QE4, Ray Dalio, RBA, Won, Yen, Yuan
Posted in Fed | 3 Comments »
As expected, the U.K. and the Trichet-led ECB held rate steady. The surprise was the South Korean Bank raising rates 25 basis points to 2.75 percent. Yet the markets, although purportedly surprised, did very little with the WON. More interesting for the currency markets was Trichet’s statement that the ECB was concerned about inflationary pressures within the EU. This on a day when Greek unemployment rose to more than 13 percent. Mr.Trichet, will you ever learn? The markets have just allowed the EU to phony up the Spanish and Portuguese DEBT auctions and before the DOLLAR can even try to rally, Trichet plays the INFLATION card. Really, with an overall European unemployment rate of 10 percent, do the ECB policy makers not believe in output gaps, and, of course, NAIRU?
Tags:BOE, China, Debt, deflation, Dollar, dual mandate, ECB, EU, Fed, Hu Jintao, inflation, jobless claims, portfolio balance channel, Pound, QE, Tim Geithner, Trichet, wealth effect, Won, Yuan
Posted in Currency, Debt Market, Europe, United States | Leave a Comment »
The RBNZ—KIWI CENTRAL BANK–announced they were holding rates at 3 percent and awaiting further news on the global economy before they would move again. Also, South Korea said it was considering more capital controls to halt the appreciation of the WON. The South Koreans offered up several possibilities for exchange controls but it appears they will follow upon the heels of the Brazilians. In two weeks the G-20 leaders will meet in Seoul and yet we have the hosts promoting the use of currency controls. Several G-20 members have thrown down the gauntlet in an effort to prevent the U.S. from embarking on depreciation of the DOLLAR by stealth.
The developing nations are none too happy to be the recipients of the hot money flows being fostered by the FED‘s zero interest rate policy, making it mandatory for China and the U.S. to reach some type of agreement on the YUAN in order to slow down the FED‘s backdoor effort at DOLLAR depreciation.
In another bout of political antagonism, Angela Merkel threw some water on the recent German/French agreement concerning the penalties to be invoked for violating budgetary rules of the Growth and Stability Pact. Going into the European summit, Merkel announced that Germany is going to push for a reopening of the Lisbon Treaty in order to harden budgetary rules and put some real teeth in the law.
Sarkozy felt strong that by backing Merkel down on the issue of severe punishment for excessive profligacy that Germany would be in a much more subdued mood going into the European summit. It seems that Merkel is playing to the fiscal conservatives in Germany by demanding a hardened “crisis resolution mechanism” to replace the present European Fianacial Stability Facility (EFSF). We will watch this carefully as Frau Merkel is toughening her stance for the homefront after been seen as very soft in defending German interests within Europe.
It seems to me that, today, Bill Gross removed Ben’s testicles by coming out against further quantitative easing. He openly called QE2 a Ponzi Scheme, although he renamed it a”Sammy Scheme” in honor of Uncle Sam. When the largest bond fund comes out against such action, the FED Chairman cannot be happy. Gross acknowledges that the FED has little choice but warns that going down this unmapped road can result in hellacious outcomes for bond holders.
Jeremy Grantham also weighed in with a similar note but was even more forceful in warning of the repercussions of another round of massive liquidity injection by the Bernanke Bunch. However, Grantham laid the blame heavily on the shoulders of Greenspan but takes Bernanke to task for following the same “green brick road” of monetary stimulus to maintain the illusionary power of equity gains in acting as the driver of the wealth effect. It was not a good day for the FED in its push for QE, as the FED has put a lot on the line with its constant drumbeat of the need to do everything to halt the onslaught of deflation. Hmmmm, we may have some new voices in the Tabernacle Choir.
Tags:Ben Bernanke, Bill Gross, Dollar, Fed, Jeremy Grantham, Kiwi, New Zealand Central Bank, PIMCO, QE2, Won, Yuan
Posted in Currency, Federal Reserve, G-20, New Zealand | 4 Comments »
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