Tag Archives: #thistimeisdifferent

Gone Undetected

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When Covid, last winter, emerged
Most government bond prices surged
As havens were sought
And most people thought
That price pressures would be submerged

But since then, with six months now passed
Economists all are aghast
Deflation expected
Has gone undetected
As price levels beat their forecasts

You may recall that when the coronavirus first came to our collective attention at the end of January, it forced China to basically shut down its economy for three weeks. At that time, expectations were for major supply chain disruptions, but concerns over the spread of the virus were not significant. Economists plugged that information into their models and forecast price rises due to supply constraints. Of course, over the next two months as Covid-19 spread rapidly throughout the rest of the world and resulted in lockdowns of economic activity across numerous countries, the demand destruction was obvious. Economists took this new information, plugged it into their models and declared that the deflationary pressures would be greater than the supply chain disruptions thus resulting in deflation, and more ominously, could result in a deflationary spiral like the one the US suffered during the Great Depression.

Central banks didn’t need their arms twisted to respond to that message, especially since the big three central banks, the Fed, ECB and BOJ, had all been struggling to raise inflation to their respective targets for nearly ten years. Thus began the greatest expansion of monetary stimulus in history. Throughout this period, central bankers pooh-poohed the idea that inflation would emerge by pointing to the financial crisis of 2008-9, when they implemented the previously greatest expansion in monetary policy, flooding economies with money, yet no inflation was recorded. At least, price inflation in goods and services, as measured by governments, remained subdued throughout the period.

But there is a very big difference between the current economic situation and the state of things back in 2009. During the financial crisis, banks were the epicenter of the problem, and printing money and injecting it into banks was all that was needed to prevent a further collapse in the economy. In fact, fiscal policy was relatively tight, so all that money basically sat on bank balance sheets as excess reserves at the Fed. There was no increase in buying pressure and thus no measured inflation. In fact, the only thing that inflated was financial asset prices, as the central bank response led to a decade long boom in both stock and bond prices.

In 2020 however, Covid-19 has inspired not just central bank action, but massive fiscal stimulus as well. At this point, over $10 trillion of fiscal stimulus has been implemented worldwide, with the bulk of it designed to get money into the hands of those people who have lost their jobs due to the economic shutdowns worldwide. In other words, this money has entered the real economy, not simply gone into the investment community. When combining that remarkable artificial increase in demand with the ongoing supply chain breakages, it is not hard to understand that price pressures are going to rise. And so they have, despite all the forecasts for deflation.

Just this morning, the UK reported CPI rose 1.0% Y/Y in July, 0.4% more than expected. Core CPI there rose 1.8% Y/Y, 0.6% more than expected. This outcome sounds remarkably like the US data from last week and shows this phenomenon is not merely a US situation. The UK has implemented significant fiscal stimulus as well as monetary support from the BOE. The UK has also seen its supply chains severely interrupted by the virus. The point is, prices seem far more likely to rise during this crisis than during the last one. We are just beginning to see the evidence of that. And as my good friend, @inflation_guy (Mike Ashton) explains, generating inflation is not that hard. Generating just a little inflation is going to be the problem. Ask yourself this, if the economy is still dragging and inflation starts to rise more rapidly than desired, do you really think any central bank is going to raise rates? I didn’t think so. Be prepared for more inflation than is currently forecast.

With that in mind, let us consider what is happening in markets today. Once again the picture is mixed, at least in Asia, as today the Nikkei (+0.25%) found a little support while the Hang Seng (-0.75%) and Shanghai (-1.25%) came under pressure. European exchanges are showing very modest gains (DAX +0.25%, CAC +0.1%) and US futures are all barely in the green. This is not a market that is excited about anything. Instead, investors appear to be on the sidelines with no strong risk view evident.

Turning to bond markets, we continue to see Treasury yields, and all European bond yields as well, slide this morning, with the 10-year Treasury yield down 2 basis points and similar declines throughout Europe. Commodity markets are showing some weakness, with both oil (WTI -0.9%) and gold (-0.6%) softer this morning. Add it all up and it feels like a bit of risk aversion rather than increased risk appetite.

And what of the dollar? Despite what has the feeling of some risk aversion, the dollar is slightly softer on the day, with most currencies showing some strength. In the G10 space, NZD is the outlier, rising 0.7% on the back of a massive short squeeze in the kiwi. But away from that, the movement has been far more muted, and, in fact, the pound is softer by 0.2% as traders are beginning to ask if Brexit may ultimately be a problem. In addition, while the UK inflation data was much higher than expected, there is certainly no indication at this time that the BOE is going to reverse course anytime soon. I have to say that the pound above 1.32 does seem a bit overextended.

EMG currencies are a more mixed picture with RUB (-0.3%) responding to oil’s modest decline, while ZAR has pushed higher by 0.6% on the back of strong foreign inflows for today’s local bond auctions. In what appears to be a benign environment, the hunt for yield is fierce and South Africa with its nominal yields above 9% in the 10-year and inflation running well below 3% is certainly attractive. But otherwise, movement has been uninteresting with most currencies edging higher vs. the dollar this morning.

On the data front today, the only US release is the FOMC Minutes from the July meeting where analysts will be searching for clues as to the Fed’s preferred next steps. More specific forward guidance tied to economic indicators seems to be in the cards, with the key question, which indicators?

Add it all up and we have another slow summer day where the dollar drifts lower. Arguably, the biggest unknown right now would be an agreement on the next US fiscal stimulus package, which if announced would likely result in a weaker dollar. However, I am not willing to forecast the timing of that occurring.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

Quite the Sensation

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Economists’ latest creation
Called MMT’s quite the sensation
It claims there’s no risk
To nation or fisc
From vast monetary dilation

So, here’s the deal…apparently it doesn’t matter if economic growth is slowing around the world. It doesn’t matter if politics has fractured on both sides of the Atlantic and it doesn’t matter if the US and China remain at loggerheads over how to continue to trade with each other. None of this matters because…MMT is the new savior! Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is the newest output from our central banking saviors and their minions in the academic economic community. In a nutshell, it boils down to this; printing unlimited amounts of money and running massive budget deficits is just fine and will have no long-term negative consequences. This theory is based on the data from the past ten years, when central banks have done just that (printed enormous amounts of money) and governments have done just that (run huge deficits) and nothing bad happened. Therefore, these policymakers theorize, that nothing bad will happen if they keep it up.

Markets love this because hyper monetary and fiscal stimulus is perceived as an unambiguous positive for asset prices, especially equities, and so why would anybody argue to change things. After all, THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT he said with tongue firmly in cheek. This time is never different, and my greatest concern is that the continuing efforts to prevent any slowing of economic growth is going to lead to a situation that results in a massive correction at some point in the (probably) not too distant future. And the problem will be that central banks will have lost their ability to maintain stability as their policy tools will no longer be effective, while governments will have limited ability to add fiscal stimulus given their budget situations. But clearly, that day is not today as evidenced by the ongoing positivity evident from rising equity markets and an increasing risk appetite. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.

Said Mario after his meeting
‘This weakness should really be fleeting’
But traders believe
His view is naïve
Explains, which, why rates are retreating

It can be no surprise that the euro declined further yesterday (-0.8%), although this morning it has regained a small bit (+0.25% as I type). Not only did the PMI data disappoint completely, but Signor Draghi appears to be starting to recognize that things may not be as rosy as he had hoped. While he still held out hope that rates may rise later this year, that stance is becoming increasingly lonely. At this point, the earliest that any economist or analyst on the Street is willing to consider for that initial rate hike is December 2019 with the majority talking 2020. And of course, my view is that there will be no rate rise at all.

The problem they face is that that with rates already negative, when if the Eurozone slips into recession by the end of the year, what else can he do. Fortunately, Mario explained that the ECB still has many options in front of them, “We have lots of instruments and we stand ready to adjust them or use them according to the contingency that is produced.” The thing is, he was talking about forward guidance, more QE and TLTRO’s, all policies that are long in the tooth and appear to have lost a significant portion of their efficacy. As I have written before, Draghi will be happy to vacate his seat given the problems that are on the horizon. Though he certainly had to deal with a series of difficult issues (Eurozone debt crisis, Greek insolvency), at least he still had a full toolkit with which to work. His successor will have an empty cupboard. One last nail in the growth coffin was this morning’s Ifo data, which printed at its worst level in three years, 99.1, much lower than the expected 100.9. I would love to hear the euro bullish case, because I don’t see much there.

Away from that story, Brexit remains an ongoing market uncertainty, although it certainly appears, based on the pound’s recent trajectory, that more and more traders and investors have decided that there will be no Brexit at all. At least that’s the only thing I can figure based on what is happening in the market. On the one hand, I guess it is reasonable to assume that given all the tooth-gnashing and garment rending that we have seen, the belief is that Brexit will be so toxic as to be unthinkable. And we have begun to see some of the rest of the Eurozone members get nervous, notably Ireland which is adamant about preventing a hard border between themselves and Northern Ireland. Alas there is still no resolution as to how to police the border in the event the UK leaves. (And based on the ongoing US discussion, we know that any type of border barrier will be a waste of money!) It is not clear to me that it is viable to rule out a hard Brexit, but that is clearly what investors are beginning to do.

As to the US-China trade story, despite President Trump’s professed optimism that a deal will be done, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, indicated that we are still “miles and miles” away from a deal. And though it certainly appears that both sides are incented to solve this problem, especially given the slowing growth trajectory in both nations, it is by no means clear that will be the outcome. At least not before there is another rise in tariffs. And yet, markets are generally sanguine about the prospects of the talks failing.

So, despite potential problems, risk is in the ascendancy this morning with equity markets rising, commodities and Treasuries stable and the dollar under pressure. It is almost as if there is fatigue over the myriad potential problems and given that none of them have actually created a difficulty of note yet, investors are willing to ignore them. At least that’s my best guess.

A tour around the FX markets shows the dollar softer against most of its G10 counterparts, with JPY the only exception, further adding to the risk-on narrative, while it remains mixed vs. EMG currencies. However, overall, the tone is definitely of the dollar on its back foot. Given the ongoing US government shutdown, there is no data scheduled to be released and the Fed remains in quiet mode ahead of next week’s meeting, so unless something happens regarding trade, my money is on continued dollar weakness in today’s session as more and more investors whistle that happy tune.

Good luck and good weekend
Adf