Edward Harrison, Dylan Ratigan & Bill Fleckenstein: Thoughts on FOOD
by ilene - February 26th, 2011 4:55 pm
Courtesy of EDWARD HARRISON, Credit Writedowns
Bill Fleckenstein was back talking to Dylan Ratigan about the source of rising oil prices. (See the last Fleckenstein video here). Clearly, supply constraints and increased demand in emerging markets play the central role in creating a supply demand imbalance for a commodity where demand is price inelastic. I am not just talking about natural disasters and riots, I am also talking about peak oil, of course. That means prices for oil soar until we hit a recession and the resulting demand destruction.
However, at the margin there are other factors at play, one of which is pro-inflationary central bank policy. I have mentioned this a couple of times in the past. For example, regarding food price inflation, I wrote in November:
[Morgan Stanley Chief Economist Richard] Berner sees four forces at play, pushing up food prices: strong global demand, weather, energy costs, low food stock inventories. You can read the full note at the link below.
My take is a bit different. The rise in food and energy prices should be taken into consideration by government officials conducting pro-inflationary policies. What should be of concern regarding commodity price inflation is how it represents a regressive tax on lower income workers and consumers in emerging markets and developing countries. Lower income consumers spend a much greater percentage of income on food and energy. So when commodity prices increase, it has a disproportionate effect on them. One reason we saw food riots in emerging markets in 2008 has much to do with this.
Read Edward’s full article here >
Bill Fleckenstein gives his take in the video below.
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The Next Two Years in the Financial Asset Markets – Emperadores en Fueg
by ilene - February 16th, 2011 3:07 pm
Courtesy of Jesse’s Cafe Americain
As Ozzie Osbourne says, "All Aboard!" lol
The good news is that it will not be as straight down as this.
Keep your hands and head inside the train at all times.
Don’t worry. Trust in Ben and Tim.
And meanwhile in the Mideast…
Note: Most people think of stocks as the be all and end all of dollar financial assets. In the case of a burst of inflation or a hyperinflation, the equity market will soar for a time, although its gains will be illusory. So stocks are an insurance but not so much as you might expect if that is the outcome. Try not to get in front of it, as phony as you might think it may be. But the stock market is of much less consequence as compared to the bonds and currency markets. It is the three card monte to the bond and currency numbers rackets. The stock markets are the pretty lights and buildings that the tourists stare at while the carnies pick their pockets.
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| "Higher and Higher. What Could Go Wrong?" |
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| "What a Beautiful View At the Top. We’re the King of the World." |
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| "Who Could Have Foreseen This? Remain Calm. All Is Well." |
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| "Mommy!" |
And if the Fed should make a mistake, the efficient electronic trading markets are designed to be self-correcting.
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DALIO: RECESSION ON THE HORIZON, NO INFLATION
by ilene - May 29th, 2010 7:20 pm
Ray Dalio was interviewed in this week’s Barrons. In case you missed my previous post about Ray Dalio’s life philosophy, Mark Ames wrote a scathing article "TOP BILLIONAIRE HEDGE FUNDER SEES HIMSELF AS A HYENA DEVOURING WILDEBEESTS" comparing Ray to a hyena. Ray fan, or not, Pragcap recommends reading the full interview (subscription required). Here are some important points, courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist. - Ilene
DALIO: RECESSION ON THE HORIZON, NO INFLATION
Great interview in this week’s Barrons with Ray Dalio of Bridgewater. For those who aren’t familiar with Dalio he is the founder of the largest hedge fund in the world with $75B in assets under management. I highly recommend reading the interview in its entirety, but for those just looking for some highlights I’ve done the legwork for you:
On the stock market rally:
“It caused the stock market to retrace about 60% of its decline, and it caused the U.S. economy to retrace 40% of its decline. But it did not produce new financial assets. There has been very little new lending. The stimulus produced very little in the way of economic activity.”
On the bailouts and potential for recession:
“There is a lot of criticism about saving financial institutions and running a big budget deficit, but if the government didn’t do those things we would be in a terrible situation. It will be impossible to stimulate that way in the future because politically it is untenable. That’s a risk because, between now and 2012, the economy will probably go down again, and it will be important for monetary policy and fiscal policy to be able to be stimulative, and for the Federal Reserve to be able to purchase assets again.”
How soon will the recession occur?
“It will probably come sooner than most recessions do. Usually, there is about five years between recessions, but for various reasons related to the size of the debt, the next recession is going to come sooner.”
On the recovery:
“But it is a fragile recovery, and credit growth is not picking up very much, and it goes back to the fact we still have too much debt. We have not reduced our debt burdens in any way significantly. What we’ve done is to largely roll them to the vicinity of 2012 to 2014. Corporate balance sheets are much, much better because
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Finance’s Euphoria: The Epilogue — What Record High Dollar Volume of Trading Says About Confidence
by Chart School - November 11th, 2009 11:55 am
Finance’s Euphoria: The Epilogue — What Record High Dollar Volume of Trading Says About Confidence
The following article was adapted from the November 2009 Elliott Wave Financial Forecast and reprinted with permission here.
By Steve Hochberg and Pete Kendall, courtesy of Elliott Wave International
When Wall Street’s total value of assets rose to a “mind-boggling 36.6 percent of GDP” in late 2006, The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast published a chart of U.S. financial assets literally rising off the page.
The Financial Forecast observed that financial engineers had “found a new object of investor affections—themselves” and asserted that “the financial industry’s position so close to the center of the mania can mean only one thing; it is only a matter of time” before a massive reversal grabbed hold. Financial indexes hit their all-time peak within a matter of weeks, in February. The major stock indexes joined the topping process in October 2007 and in December 2007 the economy followed. Subscribers will recall that one of the most important clues to the unfolding disaster was the level of financial exuberance relative to the fundamental economic performance.
This chart of the value of U.S. trading volume (courtesy of Alan Newman at www.cross-currents.net) reveals that the imbalance is far from corrected.
Incredibly, total dollar trading volume is even higher now than it was in 2007 when the economy was humming along. In June 2008, dollar trading volume also defied an initial thrust lower in stocks and the economy, eliciting this comment from the Financial Forecast:
The chart of dollar trading relative to GDP shows how much more willing investors are to trade shares in companies that operate in an economic environment that is anemic compared to that of the mid-1960s. A basic implication of the Wave Principle is that the public will always show up at the end of a rally, just in time to get clobbered. This chart shows that it is happening in a big, big way now because the market is at the precipice of the biggest decline in a long, long time.
Total dollar volume continues to rise despite further fundamental financial deterioration. Yes, GDP experienced a one-quarter, clunker-aided uptick of 3.5 percent in the third quarter. But the economy is in far worse shape than it was when we made the above statement. In fact, its recent performance on top of the decades-long economic underperformance…
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WHY ISN’T THIS ON THE COVER OF EVERY NEWSPAPER?
by ilene - July 25th, 2009 10:12 pm
WHY ISN’T THIS ON THE COVER OF EVERY NEWSPAPER?
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
Okay, I can see how this story might not be a headliner, but we’ve heard practically nothing in the mainstream media about the upcoming battle between FASB and the financial industry with regards to accounting changes. According to Bloomberg FASB is expected to expand the use of fair value accounting after the drastic changes that took place in Q1 – the same changes that have helped so many of the banks in the near-term. FASB knows they made a mistake and got pressured by politicians and the Treasury to change the rules in the middle of the game. Well, now they’re considering changing them back (kind of). The rule change would have sweeping effects on the banks and as regular readers know, I believe would have an enormously positive impact on the long-term well being of the country. Bloomberg reports:
The scope of the FASB’s initiative, which has received almost no attention in the press, is massive. All financial assets would have to be recorded at fair value on the balance sheet each quarter, under the board’s tentative plan.
This would mean an end to asset classifications such as held for investment, held to maturity and held for sale, along with their differing balance-sheet treatments. Most loans, for example, probably would be presented on the balance sheet at cost, with a line item below showing accumulated change in fair value, and then a net fair-value figure below that. For lenders, rule changes could mean faster recognition of loan losses, resulting in lower earnings and book values.
The board said financial instruments on the liabilities side of the balance sheet also would have to be recorded at fair-market values, though there could be exceptions for a company’s own debt or a bank’s customer deposits…
Differing Treatment
While balance sheets might be simplified, income statements would acquire new complexities. Some gains and losses would count in net income. These would include changes in the values of all equity securities and almost all derivatives. Interest payments, dividends and credit losses would go in net, too, as would realized gains and losses. So would fluctuations in all debt instruments with derivatives embedded in their structures…
Imagining the Impact
Think how the saga at CIT Group Inc. might have unfolded if loans already
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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 site