Hugh Hendry Interview With King World News: “If Inflation Is A Monetary Phenomenon, Hyperinflation Is A Political Phenomenon”
by ilene - September 28th, 2010 8:27 pm
Hugh Hendry Interview With King World News: "If Inflation Is A Monetary Phenomenon, Hyperinflation Is A Political Phenomenon"
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
In which we learn that that outspoken iconoclast has now taken on a $2 billion short position in Japanese credit, although presumably not cash-based as Ecclectica is well under that in AUM. For those who wish to recreate this position synthetically, we refer you to Dylan Grice’s ATM swaption in the 10Y10Y forward which is the cheapest way to follow in Hugh’s footsteps, and, ahem, may we remind you of Takefuji’s recent bankruptcy…).
His bet is in essence a gamble against the "China will never fail" bandwagon: "I am just intrigued as to the optionality, as to the profits that could be made, should that revert. And because it’s deemed to be impossible, the trade is actually asymmetric. By golly if I am right, I can make a lot of money." Another topic is the already much discussed malinvestment in China, which was the centerpiece of the argument between Hendry and Faber from some time ago (link for clip). But back to what actual things Hugh is doing, he gives the following specifics: "I am shorting 10 year industrial corporate debt with 1% yield. Should this ricochet, which began in America, should the west be grappling with fears of recession, it goes to Asia, it goes to China, and I do not believe they have the vitality and consumption to pull the global economy out." And just in case there is any doubt how Hendry views the endgame, here it is: "At these immense levels of yen strength, Japan is bankrupt. And when it’s bankrupt it has given up hope, and there is huge political legitimacy to then do quantitative easing, which leads to the debauchery of the system." In other words: the nuclear response of monetary debasement is certainly coming. We won’t spoil what Hendry says on gold (suffice to add the following quote: "We will see a joint meltup in US Treasrys and gold") – for his insights on where the metal will go, for a shoutout to all Zero Hedge Hugh Hendry fans, and for much more, listen to the whole interview.
Full King World News interview.
And for those who may have missed it the first time around, here is arguably the most succinct and comprehensive interview with…
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DiggTrade War Tuesday – China, Japan and US at Odds
by Phil - September 28th, 2010 8:20 am
War does not determine who is right, only who is left. – Bertrand Russell
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Japan and China are at it again. We discussed the "fishing’ incident last week and Japan has released the Chinese captain who rammed one of their Coast Guard vessels. Now shippers in several Chinese cities said customs officers have stepped up spot inspections of goods being loaded onto ships bound for Japan and being imported from the country. Traders said officers in some cases were taking the highly unusual step of looking at every item in a container instead of following normal practice of examining a small sample. The heavy searches, which can add costly delays to shipments. For it’s part, Tokyo wants China to pay restitution and now China’s navy is moving into disputed waters.
China is fighting a trade war on two fronts as they are threatening to retaliate against US businesses operating in China if Congress passes legislation intended to force a revaluation of the Yuan. The House of Representatives is set to consider legislation this week that would let companies petition for higher duties on imports from China to compensate for the effects of a weak yuan. Forcing China to raise the value of its currency may create 500,000 jobs in the U.S., most in manufacturing at above-average wages, according to C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. China’s currency, which is undervalued by as much as 25 percent, is the most important trade issue facing the U.S., he said in testimony last week.
So we are pressuring China to strengthen their currency, which would make our currency relatively weaker. One would think the dollar couldn’t get much weaker than it is now (see Dave Fry’s chart). We’ve been shorting GLD (buying GLL) and TLT, expecting a dollar bounce off these levels but if we fail here – we’re going to have one very ugly chart.
Of course a 10% drop on the dollar could be just the ticket for the markets – since our stocks are priced in dollars. That makes them look pretty good compared to cash that’s sitting on the sidelines (or tied up in notes) that’s lost over 10% of it’s buying power since June.
That’s right, JUNE! As people who travel to…
From the Greenspan Archive: We Were Undercapitalized for 40 or 50 Years
by ilene - September 27th, 2010 1:22 pm
From the Greenspan Archive: We Were Undercapitalized for 40 or 50 Years
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
How can an economic system be chronically undercapitalized for "40 or 50 years"? There’s only supposed to be as much money as there is demand for that money, right? Someone has to pay for something and sometimes they have to borrow money to get the things they want. That’s fine, it creates more demand for money (Someone A has to get the money to pay Someone B for the things they wanted but couldn’t afford and ends up paying both for the things and the interest on the money used to get the things) and supposedly our friends at the Fed are there watching that. Did any of these 40 to 50 years involve Greenspan?
I can’t believe this a**hole says some of this sh*t out loud sometimes.
“During the past 18 months, there were very few instances of serial default and contagion that could have not been contained by adequate risk-based capital and liquidity,” he said. In response to a question, Greenspan said “we were undercapitalized in the banking system for maybe 40 or 50 years.”
Maybe I’m completely off but I read that to mean all we have to do is continue to throw a whole sh*t ton of dirty Fed money out there and that could totally fix these rotting cesspools of residential real estate popping and fizzing around America.
The Google Maps foreclosure dots look slightly less contagious than they did last time I checked but it still looks like an outbreak out there.
Here’s a solution since we’re just making this up: rent out foreclosed homes and make "owners" responsible for collecting the payments and returning the majority to whomever owns the mortgage (you know, like normal f**king homedebtors do minus the rent). Make these nearly foreclosed but rented out homes like operating leases so struggling CRE companies can pick them up and make a percentage from rents for holding them. It’s genius. F**k it! Otherwise bulldoze half of them and call the housing problem "corrected".
Good thing Greenspan fixed that little undercapitalization problem by opening Pandora’s box on all sorts of creative blip-creating genius. Greenspan is the libertarian of the century for freeing the dollar, aren’t you glad he decoupled it from gold? Maybe that’s…
Dollar riding the pattern lower…
by Chart School - September 22nd, 2010 4:40 pm
Dollar riding the pattern lower…
Courtesy of Chris Kimble
Last week I highlighted the flag/head & shoulders potential pattern in the Dollar ETF (UUP), first chart (see post). As I mentioned in the chart below, a “Break of line (1) would benefit commodities and international investments.”
The dollar did break support, (chart below), commodities/international markets have benefited. Now what? Support line has been broken and now the CRITICAL NECKLINE is breaking to the downside!
A break of the neckline should usher in even lower prices for the Dollar ETF (UUP), continuing to benefit Gold/Silver and other commodities.
One thing that MUST be respected is the 80 level, in the dollar (not shown). 80 has been support many times over the past 20 years. Will post that chart in the next couple of days.
Testy Tuesday – Fed Pop or Drop?
by Phil - September 21st, 2010 8:27 am
Isn’t this exciting?
We popped all of our 5% levels yesterday, now all we have to do is hold them and we can start looking ahead to the 10% lines. Just 10 days ago, on Friday the 10th, we did our last multi-chart study and I said in the morning post: "I am not TA guy but If I were a bear, I’d be pretty darned concerned about the charts as it looks to me like the 20-day moving averages are registering a short-term mistake in a generally rising trend." Look at how those 20 dma’s have snapped up in less than 2 weeks (blue lines are mid-points, green circles are 5% levels):
So Gold and Transports are running away with SOX falling behind. We’ve been playing the SOX up with USD, which is up 10% since I picked it in that Friday’s post but that’s been a relative underperformer for us as we nailed the bottom with a buying frenzy into the late August drop which culminated with my very bullish "September’s Dozen" from the 3rd. There were actually 10 stocks and only 9 fit in the multi-chart (I dropped HMY, who already gained 15%) with way more than a dozen trade ideas for our Members to take advantage of the anticipated short-term moves. Of the 10, only IRM has been laying around but we weren’t expecting a quick move on them and played a conservative April spread and took the risk on Oct $22.50 calls, which are our only loser, down 30% at .20 but I still like them if we break up from here.
The leverage you can gain with option plays is truly stunning. On BRCM, for example, the trade idea was a straight purchase of the Sept $32 calls for $1.25, BRCM topped out at $35.49 with the calls close to $3 on the 14th and they expired on Friday at $2.16, which is up 72%, even for people who didn’t stop out between there and up 140% that Tuesday. That trade was a combo trade with the sale of the October $30 puts at .70 and those are down to .30 (up 57%) which are well on their way to expiring worthless for a full 100% gain. We also took an artificial buy/write that stretched from Jan to Jan 2012 so that was 3 trade ideas on one stock – you can see how quickly we get past a dozen!
We get aggressive at the inflection points – had we…
Myths About “What’s Economically Important”
by ilene - September 18th, 2010 5:51 am
Myths About "What’s Economically Important"
Courtesy of Mish
Day in and day out I hear it from readers who insist that we are not in deflation and will not be in deflation because prices are rising and continue to rise.
Still others tell me it is illogical for a deflationist to like gold.
When I counter with a discussion about credit conditions I tend to get a blank stare or a comment like "I do not care about credit conditions. I own my home. What I care about are rising prices of food and energy."
When I counter with falling asset prices and zero percent interest rates on savings accounts I am likely to get as statement like "Who cares, I rent?", or perhaps "The poor have no assets or savings, all they care about is food prices."
Really?
Such comments come from those who are not thinking clearly about what’s important. Here’s why:
- In a fiat credit-based financial system, when credit is plunging businesses are not hiring. There are currently 14.9 million unemployed who want a job but do not have a job because businesses are not hiring. There are 2.4 million "marginally attached" persons who do not have a job yet want a job, but are not considered unemployed because they stopped looking. There are 8.9 million part-time workers who want a full time job but cannot get one because businesses are not hiring. There are countless millions of college graduates who are underemployed, working at WalMart, delivering pizzas, or attempting to sell trinkets on eBay, because businesses are not hiring. There a still millions more in college hoping for a job upon graduation who will not get one because businesses are not hiring. This is all related to the ongoing credit contraction.
- When credit is plunging so do yields on treasuries and in turn yields on savings accounts. Those on fixed incomes attempting to live off interest income are screwed. Indeed, many are rapidly draining their principal because they collect no interest.
- Those who have a job, pay for those who don’t. Food stamp usage is soaring and now costs over $60 billion dollars a year.
- When credit is plunging, consumers are not shopping, business earnings are under pressure, and wages stagnate or in many cases outright decline. Even those with jobs and no debt have been
…
30-Year Fibonacci level at hand for Silver
by Chart School - September 17th, 2010 3:59 pm
30-Year Fibonacci level at hand for Silver
Courtesy of Chris Kimble
I have received several requests for the “Big Picture” on Silver. Here it is…..
Gold finds itself at all time highs…Silver at the 38% retracement level. If Silver can break good ole Fibonacci, the next line (2) is a BIG PERCENTAGE above line (1)!
******
Early Today, Chris posted:
Gold Record/Silver breaking out… Play it how?
In the “Hi Yo Silver” chart below (see post) Silver had created a series of ascending triangles, which lead to higher prices around 65% of the time. Silver is up 13% since this post, in just 30 days! How much is gold up during the same time frame? Just a little over 3%…. All metals don’t perform the same!!!
Silver gained 10% more than Gold in the past 30 days. It was this potential per why I have been suggesting to pick up Silver!
Click on chart to enlarge
Below is an update to that chart, with a snap shot of Gold. Silver is breaking from the ascending triangle and is testing resistance at line (2).
Long-term breakouts can lead to much higher prices in any product, same should apply to Gold and Silver! How should one play it? Nothing wrong with owning the metal itself, yet what about Gold/Silver stocks?
Below is a “ratio chart” created by dividing the Price of gold by the XAU Index (gold and silver stocks), looking to see which one is performing better.
The ratio chart is breaking a three year support line which is suggesting gold stocks (see this post on gold stocks, GDX & GDXJ) are going to do better than Gold for a while.
Game Plan…Own GDX and GDXJ WITH STOPS, due to the rising wedge and resistance at (1) and (2) in the middle chart! Gold and Silver are looking great….yet clear breakouts from these patterns, in my opinion, are still not in place for either metal yet!!!
How Investors Get Suckered Time After Time
by Chart School - September 16th, 2010 1:07 pm
Dr. Paul viewed David Rosenberg’s chart picked up by Clusterstock as the "chart of the day" yesterday (posted here, with comments by Edward Harrison) and Paul concluded that this is not a good time to start buying gold. Obviously, with the rise in gold prices over the last decade, there was a great decade-long trade opportunity. But prices go up and down, and past performance does not dictate future results. - Ilene
How Investors Get Suckered Time After Time
Courtesy of Dr. Paul Price at Beating Buffett
The following chart was published on Clusterstock yesterday with commentary explaining how this proved that stocks were no longer a good place to invest…
As the S&P 500 was the only major asset class to have shown negative results over the past 10-years, they felt it was obvious that Gold, Long-term Bonds and Commodities would continue to be the best place for the next decade. In other wordsthe conclusion was that new money should be allocated to whatever had just finished going up the most!
I hear ads for gold every day shouting that, “I invested in gold 10 years ago and it’s the best decision I ever made.” “Gold has tripled since 2000. Get in now for the move to $3000 /oz.”
How many times have you made great profits buying something that just finished tripling? How did your real estate purchase in 2006 work out using that reasoning?
The same ‘Gold Bug’ ads were running in 1979 – 1980 sucking people in right at the top as Gold briefly broke through $800 /oz. for the first time. The second chart shows the disastrous results for those who took the bait.
See the longer-term chart below to learn that it took about 30 years for Gold to regain its 1980 highs (without adjusting for inflation). Even at this week’s new all-time nominal high Gold is still well below the old peak. So much for Gold as an inflation hedge.
I look at the first chart presented and draw the opposite conclusion from the Clusterstock article. If stocks suffered through 10 years of negative returns they might be quite cheap considering all the revenue, earnings and book value growth that took place.
I’d be avoiding…
How Investors Get Suckered Time After Time
by ilene - September 16th, 2010 1:04 pm
Dr. Paul viewed David Rosenberg’s chart picked up by Clusterstock as the "chart of the day" yesterday (posted here, with comments by Edward Harrison) and Paul concluded that this is not a good time to start buying gold. Obviously, with the rise in gold prices over the last decade, there was a great decade-long trade opportunity. But prices go up and down, and past performance does not dictate future results. - Ilene
How Investors Get Suckered Time After Time
Courtesy of Dr. Paul Price at Beating Buffett
The following chart was published on Clusterstock yesterday with commentary explaining how this proved that stocks were no longer a good place to invest…
As the S&P 500 was the only major asset class to have shown negative results over the past 10-years, they felt it was obvious that Gold, Long-term Bonds and Commodities would continue to be the best place for the next decade. In other wordsthe conclusion was that new money should be allocated to whatever had just finished going up the most!
I hear ads for gold every day shouting that, “I invested in gold 10 years ago and it’s the best decision I ever made.” “Gold has tripled since 2000. Get in now for the move to $3000 /oz.”
How many times have you made great profits buying something that just finished tripling? How did your real estate purchase in 2006 work out using that reasoning?
The same ‘Gold Bug’ ads were running in 1979 – 1980 sucking people in right at the top as Gold briefly broke through $800 /oz. for the first time. The second chart shows the disastrous results for those who took the bait.
See the longer-term chart below to learn that it took about 30 years for Gold to regain its 1980 highs (without adjusting for inflation). Even at this week’s new all-time nominal high Gold is still well below the old peak. So much for Gold as an inflation hedge.
I look at the first chart presented and draw the opposite conclusion from the Clusterstock article. If stocks suffered through 10 years of negative returns they might be quite cheap considering all the revenue, earnings and book value growth that took place.
I’d be avoiding bonds and…
Peak Everything
by ilene - September 12th, 2010 6:27 pm
Peak Everything: An Interactive Look At How Much Of Everything Is Left
Courtesy of Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
Scientific American has done a great summary of peak commodity levels as well as depletion projections for some of the most critical resources in the world including oil, gold, silver, copper, not to mention renewable water, as well as estimating general food prices over the next half century. Generally speaking, regardless of whether one believes in peak oil or not, the facts are that stores of natural resources are disappearing at an increasingly alarming pace. And instead of the world’s (formerly) richest country sponsoring R&D and basic science to find alternatives, the US government continues to focus on funding a lost Keynesian cause, debasing the dollar and perpetuating a system that will do nothing to resolve any of these ever more pressing concerns. Furthermore, as by 2020, the US will have around $23 trillion in debt (per CBO estimates), the government will be far too focused on using anywhere between 50-100% of tax revenues to cover just interest expense, than funding science and research. Then again it is probably only fitting that future generations will be saddled with not just $100 trillion in total sovereign debt, but will be running out of water, will see sea levels rising ever faster, will have no flat screen TVs, and will be using Flintstonemobiles to go from point A to point B. All so a few bankers and ultra-wealthy individuals don’t have to recognize total losses on their balance sheets filled with trillions in toxic debt.
Some key highlights from Scientific American, as well as the year in which a given resource either peaks or runs out:
Oil – 2014 Peak
The most common answer to "how much oil is left" is "depends on how hard you want to look." As easy-to-reach fields run dry, new technologies allow oil companies to tap harder-to-reach places (such as 5,500 meters under the Gulf of Mexico). Traditional statistical models of oil supply do not account for these advances, but a new approach to production forecasting explicitly incorporates multiple waves of technological improvement. Though still controversial, this multi-cyclic approach predicts that global oil production is set to peak in four years and that by the 2050s we will have pulled all but 10% of the world’s oil from the ground.
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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