A Termite-Riddled House: Treasury Bonds

When termites eat your house, you don’t notice a thing. You don’t hear a thing, you don’t see a thing—you’re house stands there, silent and staid, while you and your family happily go about your days, without a care in the world—

—until your house crashes on top of your head.

Right now, we are at a stage where Treasury bonds are as weakened as a termite-riddled house. They look fine: Nice glossy coat of paint, pretty shingles, bright clear windows, sturdy-looking plankings on the open-aired porch.

But Treasuries are well on their way to a complete collapse. Why? Because of the way they have been mishandled and mistreated by the Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. Treasury. Whether by incompetence or by design, U.S. Treasury bonds have become the New & Improved Toxic Asset. The question is no longer if they will collapse—it’s when.

Let me explain why.

First of all, what exactly were Toxic Assets—does anybody remember? I do: They were bonds made out of bundles of dodgy real estate deals. They didn’t seem dodgy at the time. What’s that old expression, “safe as houses”? At the time they were made, those bonds seemed safe as houses. Now we call them “Toxic Assets”—because now, we know better. But back then—before they collapsed—they were called “Mortgage Backed Securites”, or “Commercial Mortgage Backed Securites”, or else “Collateralized Debt Obligations”.

Essentially, all these sophisticated-sounding terms were to emphasize that the bonds were secured loans—the houses and commercial real estate were supposed to back up these debts. If the payments failed, the properties could be confiscated and auctioned off. So the bonds would be repaid. So the bonds were safe—safe as houses. Or so it was thought.

Of course, we saw how that show ended.

For those who missed those exciting episodes, a recap: Sub-prime mortgages began to default first, as the economy slowed down. This in theory should not have affected Mortgage Backed Securities based on those sub-prime loans. But the real estate which had been purchased with sub-primes weren’t worth what they had been purchased for—they were worth much less. So the bonds backed by the sub-prime loans began to explode.

Soon after the sub-primes, alt-A loans and prime loans, and finally commercial real estate—their prices all began to collapse, and so the bonds manufactured out of these loans also began to explode.

All those banks holding all those “safe as houses” MBS’s and CMBS’s and assorted CDO’s all of a sudden found that those bits of paper were not safe as houses. They were so un-safe in fact, that the banks damned near went broke—they would have, too, if it hadn’t been for the Fed and the Treasury, who bailed them out: The Treasury with TARP (cash), the Fed with “liquidity windows” (more cash).

But even that didn’t work—so we got “extend & pretend”, whereby the accounting rules were suspended in order to create the illusion of solvency among the TBTF (Too Big To Fail) banks. (My discussion of that is here.) That’s how bad the Toxic Assets were.

The reason these debts became “toxic” was that it became obvious in 2007–’08 that those bonds would never be repaid. They couldn’t be repaid: The properties which backstopped the value of the bonds had fallen irretrievably in price—or more properly, the real estate bubble which had goosed the valuation of those properties to absurd, Tulipmania levels had finally burst.

So even if the real estate was foreclosed and sold at auction, the holders of these now-Toxic Assets would only receive a fraction of the nominal price of the bonds. What had once been worth 100 was now worth 80, 60, 40, and in some cases, Cop Snacks.

I’ve never liked the term “asset”, when discussing bonds. They’re not “assets”—they’re debt. They’re a loan. And a loan only has value so long as it’s being repaid. If the debtor defaults—or tries to pay back the loan with something of less valuable than what was originally lent out—then this “asset” becomes a loss.

So to prevent these catastrophic losses, Backstop Benny—Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve—essentially did the ol’ switcheroo on the Toxic Assets: In order to save the banks whose balance sheets depended so heavily on these now-dead turds, the Fed purchased the Toxic Assets at their nominal price. Then the banks—the so-called Too Big To Fail banks—took that cash and purchased U.S. Treasury bonds.

I have yet to find a better chart than this one here, that describes so succinctly how the Fed expanded its balance sheet to bail out the banks. (Hat tip Ashley Huston at WSJ.com: Alex Lowe designed the chart, based on reporting by Phil Izzo—extra-special kudos to them both.)

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury, in its attempts to finance bailouts, stimulus, health care, Social Security, and endless pointless wars, went into further debt—to the tune of $1.4 trillion dollars, roughly 10% of U.S. gross domestic product, for both 2009 and 2010.

Or to put it another way—a very scary way—in both 2009 and what’s projected for 2010, the Federal government has issued $1 of Treasury debt for every $1 of tax receipts. Between the actual budget deficit, plus Social Security liabilities, the U.S. Federal government is in the hole for about $13.5 trillion—or roughly 100% of GDP: That is what the Federal government owes. And if 2011 continues to be the same (as is almost certainly to be the case), then another $1.5 trillion or so (give or take a couple of hundred billion dollars) will be added to that tab.

All told, the United States will have a fiscal-debt-to-GDP ratio of 100% this year, and 110% next year—if not higher, depending on the tax receipts in 2011. A lot of wishful thinking is going on for 2012, but the way the numbers are playing out, another trillion dollars’ worth of debt is very likely in the offing—which would put the total fiscal-debt-to-GDP ration to 120%.

(Funny: That number—120%—reminds me of something . . . what was it? Oh! Right! Greece! This past spring, Europe had a medium-sized meltdown when Greece—roughly 2% of the EU as measured by GDP—revealed it was running a 120% fiscal-debt-to-GDP ratio. The Europeans and the IMF finally caved and bailed out Greece. Ah, the Greeks! But I digress, sorry—after all, the United States is not Greece. The United States has absolutely nothing in common with Greece—not at all! First of all, buddy, and for your freakin’ information, the United States is roughly 45 times the size of Greece, and . . . oh . . . wait a sec . . . )

Let 2012 take care of 2012—right now, September 2010, we have 100% fiscal-debt-to-GDP, in an environment of falling tax receipts and more strains on the various social safety nets. Right now, we have debt matching tax receipts dollar-for dollar. Right now, the interest on the outstanding debt, for 2010 according to government projections, is $375 billion—in other words, 25¢ of every dollar of tax receipts goes to pay interest. Right now, with recent economic numbers, the likelihood of a turn-around are unlikely—so because of the inevitable political pressure come the winter, more “stimulus” is likely in the offing.

Meaning more Treasury bonds, floating out into the market.

But who is buying all this new Federal government debt? Why, that’s very simple: The Federal Reserve.

The reason that the Federal government could go into the aforementioned massive spending spree was precisely because of the Federal Reserve’s bail-out: The Fed created money out of thin air (as is their power), in order to buy Toxic Assets from the Too Big To Fail banks. The banks, in turn, took this cash and bought Treasuries—which financed the Federal government’s deficit.

This is what I call Stealth Monetization: Unlike in some banana republics, which dispense with the niceties and simply turn on the printing presses whenever they need more money to spend, the U.S. Federal government and the U.S. Federal Reserve got creative, and used the TBTF banks to essentially hide the monetization of the fiscal debt in plain sight.

Many people complain that the bail-out money the TBTF banks received was never lent out—oh, but they’re wrong: The money was lent out. It was lent out to the Federal government.

After all, what did the TBTF banks do, with all that cash they got from the Federal Reserve for unloading all those Toxic Assets? Why, they went and bought themselves boatloads of Treasury bonds.

It’s been the Federal government that has been “mopping up excess liquidity”—mopping it up and spending it on stimulus that doesn’t work, wars that can’t be won, dodgy dinosaur-projects that aren’t going to do squat to improve people’s health. That’s why the TBTF haven’t been lending money to businesses and “getting the economy back on track”—they’ve been too busy lending to the Federal government.

Clever people call Treasuries “assets”—but like I’ve said, I’m just stupid: I just call it debt. When I look at all this Federal government debt—unprecedented amounts of fiscal debt—I can’t help but notice that it is all unsecured—because it is unsecured. At least Toxic Assets had something backing them up, even if they were worth much less than advertised. Treasury bonds, on the other hand, are based only—solely—on the “full faith and credit” of the United States Federal government.

Y’Know: The one in Washington. The same U.S. Federal government that is running 100% debt-to-GDP ratios this year, 110% next year, and likely 120% the year after that—if not more.

Mm-hmm . . .

What happens when a debtor becomes so over-extended that he cannot possibly pay back his loans? Naturally: They default—or they try to wriggle their way out of the debt, by giving you something less valuable than what you are owed.

It is not controversial to say—and indeed, it is widely discussed—that the U.S. Treasury has only two options: Default on Treasury bonds, or debase the currency by way of inflation, so that the nominal value of Treasuries is stable, but their real value decays by inflationary attrition.

Default is politically unacceptable—apart from pissing off foreign Treasury holders, it would cause havoc in America if the Federal government woke up one day, clapped its hands like a schoolmarm, and announced to the world, “Okay Treasury holders! Time for a haircut!” Default ain’t gonna happen.

So that leaves “controlled” or “induced” inflation—the only method for the Federal government to get out from underneath this debt.

Backstop Benny is doing his damnedest to bring about precisely this scenario: He is trying to print the economy out of this Global Depression. With QE, the recently anounced QE-lite, and the likely-to-be-coming-soon QE2, Bernanke is going to pump more and more money into the system—“Print ’til you puke!!” seems to be his motto.

Bernanke is being egged on by everyone, from Paul Krugman to the Republicans to Larry Summers and Tim Geitner—everybody wants him to print more: Either because they want more fiscal spending (Krugman, et al.), or because they want asset prices to be pumped up again to unnatural highs (Wall Street and their Washington lackeys).

And Benny is obliging. The way Bernanke is doing this printing is by buying Treasuries. The Federal Reserve buys Treasuries and squirts some more dollars into the system—just as he propped up the prices of Toxic Assets by buying them up, when there was the need.

Yields of Treasuries are at absurd lows, there is a veritable T-bond rally every single day that equities drop even just a bit—in other words, Treasuries are in a bubble. Why? Because the market knows that Bernanke and the Fed will backstop Treasuries—

—backstop them right off the cliff.

The more the Fed prints, the more it encourages the Federal government to “stimulate”—id est, go further into debt in an attempt to grow the economy out of this Depression by way of fiscal spending. But as I said, right now, 25¢ of every dollar of tax receipts goes to pay interest on the fiscal debt. How long before 50¢ of every dollar goes to pay interest? 100¢ of every dollar? Is that when the fiscal debt finally becomes insurmountable?

Or will there be a Moment of Clarity in the markets? Will there come a day when the bond markets collectively realize that Treasuries will never ever be repaid—cannot be repaid? And when that day comes, when that Moment of Clarity falls on the markets, will it spark a panic?

In two previous posts, I essentially said “yes”: “Yes” to a collective Moment of Clarity, “yes” to a panic in Treasuries. I further argued that such a panic would lead—inexorably—to a flight to safety in actual, physical commodities, which would then result in a massive hyperinflation that would kill the dollar dead. Part I is here, Part II is here.

What is most important is, I do not know when such a Moment of Clarity will occur—but I have no doubt that it will occur. Inevitably, unavoidably: Treasury bonds are bound to collapse, triggering the sequence of events that I have described.

Plenty of people disagree with me. Actually, most people disagree with me.

Weirdly, plenty of people told me in no uncertain terms that, not only would there never be a panic in Treasuries—these people claimed that there couldn’t be such a panic. A couple of these people claimed (I swear to God) that it was systemically impossible for there to be a panic in Treasuries—“Because the government can just print its way out of a panic!”

Uh-huh. So no hyperinflation after a Treasury bond collapse, ’cause the government can—y’know—print all the money needed to shore up Treasuries and avoid hyperinflation. Okay.

The people who defended this insane argument are under the spell of MMT—Modern Monetary Theory. It’s currently the most fashionable dismissal of the importance of Treasury over-extension. People in this camp effectively say, “Treasury debt doesn’t matter!”, and explain how government debt is basically a numbers game.

According to this theory—which is just a modern-day retelling of the chartalist myth—all money is basically government chits, which are moved around within a game-board, said game-board being owned and controlled by the government. According to MMT, governments which issue their own currency may go into as much debt as they wish, certain and confident that nothing bad will happen because the government controls the currency. In other words, macroeconomically speaking, MMT claims that it’s a government’s world—we only live in it.

My objection to this, in snooty eccy terminology: I think that these MMT macro-economic theorists are purveyors of an interesting new meta-neo-Keynesianist world-view. It seems they are employing a closed-system, zero-sum proto-monetarist model. This model—though compelling—does present certain structural issues and disappointing limitations, vis-á-vis the uses of a reserve currency, which might make the theory less than apropos, were it to face a real-world scenario. Or not.

My objection to this, in just plain ol’ regular words? I think this MMT theory is full of shit, propagated by fucking idiots.

MMT is just a clever way to justify insurmountable levels of fiscal debt—it’s a rationalization of this insurmountable debt, using a veneer of economic terminology to cloak the purveyors’ political ideology of spend!-spend!-spend!-your way out of a recession or depression: In other words, Keynesianism-redux. Keynesianism on steroids—Keynesianism gone fucking in-sane.

(I’m going to write a detailed take-down of these MMT fools in a couple of weeks. But for now, let me limit myself to just a couple of paragraphs.)

These irresponsible peddlers of MMT claptrap—because that’s what they are, irresponsible buffoons for peddling such irresponsible, arrogant bullshit—simply do not understand what money is: It is a medium of exchange. The government—which controls this medium of exchange, especially in a fiat currency—is supposed to be the honest broker between economic participants who use this medium of exchange for their transactions.

A government issues the medium (the currency), and the government can debase it at will, for whatever reasons it deems worthy. But if the medium—the currency—is debased to a tipping point, then the economic participants will no longer believe in the currency’s worth. They will therefore run from the currency, and turn elsewhere to fulfill the need that money satisfies, which is: To store wealth, and to act as a medium of exchange.

If the dollar and Treasury bonds are pushed hard enough—that is, debased hard enough—there will come a point where people will lose trust in them both, and not want them. It’s one thing if a currency organically inflates by way of ordinary demand on consumables and expansion of credit—that’s just normal fiat currency wear-and-tear. It’s quite another if economic parties realize that a government is deliberately trying to debase the currency, in order to get out from under insurmountable debt.

If people no longer trust dollars as a medium of exchange and Treasuries as stores of value, where will they go? They will leave both and go to something else—commodities, as I have argued. And when that day comes, people will do anything to get out of the dollar and Treasuries, and into something that is stable in terms of value storage and medium of exchange.

MMT doesn’t see this—it just sees spread-sheets and board-games. This story here, which giddily, girlishly describes Federal Reserve drones “printing money”—and how wonderful and magical that process is—is pretty indicative of the fundamental detachment from reality of this world-view.

It’s why MMT fails at describing both reality, and predicting the future. It’s why—among other reasons, which I will discuss more fully in another post—MMT is a big ol’ steaming crock of shit.

MMT is one theory as to why nothing bad will happen to Treasuries.

The other theory—much more sensible, and backed up with empirical evidence—is what I’d call the Japan Is Us theory of Treasury bond stability. It’s the only truly serious challenge to the argument of Treasury bond collapse which I am arguing. Therefore, it’s a challenge that must be met.

On the blogosphere, Michael “Mish” Shedlock is probably the smartest proponent of the Japan Is Us theory.

I have a lot of respect for Mish—he was one of the very few serious commentators who argued that the U.S. economy was going to experience deflation. He argued that position literally years before it caught on. People now—in 3Q of 2010—are wising up to deflation. Because of Mish’s insights, I was on to deflation as of 3Q of 2008—and was fortunately able to plan accordingly.

Mish also thinks I’m full of it, for claiming that there’ll be a Treasury bond collapse, commodity spike and then hyperinflation.

His rationale is, we are experiencing deflation (which I agree). This deflation has been brought about by destruction of credit (check again), brought by the bursting of the housing bubble and the concomitant reduction in mortgages and loans (check once again).

Mish further argues that, like Japan, the U.S. Federal government will spend-spend-spend on all sort of needless projects, but that the deflation is much stronger. Therefore, no matter how much the U.S. spends, there is no way to escape from a Japan-style Lost Decade (or two) of stagnant growth and systemic deflation.

This is where we part company.

Mish is convinced that through these deflationary years/decades, Treasuries will continue to be the only safe store of value. From a recent post, here’s a representative quote:

I do think corporate bonds, especially most junk is playing for the greater fool. regards to treasuries, there is going to be an exit problem for sure, but that could be years away. In Japan, yields stayed low for a decade. Why can’t it happen here?

Yields certainly might stay low for an extended period. Whether or not they do remains to be seen.

(The underlining is mine.)

Mish thinks that there’ll never be a Moment of Clarity, regarding Treasuries. He admits that there might be an “exit problem” in Treasuries, but vaguely posits that that might be “years away”. In the meantime, he thinks that Treasury yields will remain low, prices high (or go even higher), as companies and banks basically “keep money under the mattresses”.

Mish has a good case in arguing for the Japan Is Us theory—but he is wrong, on two fronts.

First, Mish doesn’t realize that Federal Governments’s deficit spending is rapidly approaching its limit. Because unlike Japan in 1990, when its deflationary death-spiral began, the U.S. Federal government started this depression already with a massive deficit. The eight years of Bush 43, to be precise, were all borrow-and-spend years: In those eight years, the fiscal deficit had already goosed the economy.

That’s why the massive stimuls Obama implemented hasn’t really helped—the economy is already hung-over from the Bush stimulus years.

Besides—and so obvious that it shouldn’t even be up for debate—yearly fiscal deficits of 10% of GDP per year are simply unsustainable. I don’t care what argument you make, deficits of this ever-increasing size will lead to a collapse in the economy. Certainly a blow-up in Treasuries—the instrument of this deficit—long before.

Mish further fails to realize that the Federal Reserve has abandoned both of its mandates—to fight inflation and to maintain full employment—in favor of its new mantra: Maintaining aggregate asset price levels. Whatever it takes. This means essentially inflating asset price levels back to pre-Depression levels.

Everything the Fed has been doing since September 2008 has been in the service of this goal. The MBS buys, the alphabet-soup of liquidity windows, QE, now QE-lite, QE2 soon to come—the Fed is hell-bent on maintaining the bubble it created between 1987 and 2007.

Since September 2008, the way the Fed achieved this goal was by effectively nationalizing private debt, and turning it into public debt—one look at the Fed balance sheet is enough to convince any skeptic. This means that all the bad debt accumulated during the last two-and-a-half decades have been effectively turned into Treasuries.

So Treasuries are getting squeezed and pulled two ways: By the U.S. Federal government, and by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Because of the massive fiscal debt of the Federal government, Treasury bonds will not be repaid, at least not in real terms. And because of the Federal Reserve’s constant goosing of their prices in order to both maintain low interest rates and prop up asset prices, Treasury bond prices have left planet earth altogether, and are in the realm of Bubble-land.

In a couple of private e-mails, Mish objected to—and dismissed—my Treasury-run/commodity-moonshot/hyperinflation scenario altogether. According to him, I was arguing for a Shazaam! moment: When all of a sudden—for no reason whatsoever—people would collectively panic and—Shazaam!—they would exit Treasuries en masse.

Mish is actually right—that’s what I’m saying. I pompously call it a “Moment of Clarity”, Mish more cuttingly calls it a Shazaam! moment.

But that is, in essence, what I am arguing: Because in a termite-riddled house, no one can predict when the house will collapse—but we all know deep in our bones that it will collapse. So the second you hear a creak in the plankings, what do you do? You run for the exits.

I have no idea when that Shazaam moment will happen: Tomorrow, next month, next year. But it will occur—because everybody knows that Treasury debt cannot be repaid. So it’s not a question of if—the damage has been done, and is irreparable. It’s now just a question of when.

I hope I have explained why.

Please have a look at this Yen Aug 2010 to 2011 

GOLD  

Long term I do not believe the market has topped. For one thing let’s consider other commodity markets’ tops, whether it’s gold in 1980, crude oil in 2008: the last wave up is always the steepest as wave 5 of a commodity rally is always driven by panic due to lack of supply. There are fears in the market, but I don’t think we have seen panic at all. Panic will come after the Euro is disbanded, if Japan defaults, or the USD loses 10% in one week, but certainly not on fear of inflations with a CPI which is still going to be negative YoY by December (I do not give any credibility to CPI when it comes to measuring real inflation, but it’s the benchmark…).

Support is at hand time to start adding a bit more to the gold holdings  . . . 

Quote of the month: Bob Hoye

“In noting the exceptional corruption of central banking, it is always ironical to consider that in this bizarre financial world the worst thing that can happen is an “outbreak of sound money”. 

China

Of the Middle Kingdom’s 1.3 billion citizens, only 60 million earn a $20,000 middle class annual income, while 440 million make $3-$6/day and 600 million take in under $3/day.

S&P

Think we are going lower . . . say 800 on the S&P ?

Is it Time?

Shorting the world’s most overvalued asset, the 30 year US Treasury bond, should be the big trade from here. What will be different with this meltdown is that it will be the first collapse in history of a bond market in a non-inflationary environment.

It is not soaring consumer prices that will execute the long bond. It will be the sheer volume of debt issuance. The Federal Reserve have to sell nearly $2.5 trillion of debt to cover a massive budget deficit and refund maturing paper, easily the largest cash call in history. Bring in a double dip recession and a second, larger stimulus package, and those numbers take off considerably.

Pile on top of that trillions more in offerings from states and municipalities that are also hemorrhaging debt issuance. By the end of 2010, total government debt from all sources will rocket to a staggering 350% of GDP. Throw in private debt requirements, like the rolling over of a trillion dollars worth of commercial real estate financing and your garden variety corporate offerings. The rush to borrow has started overseas too, with hundreds of billions of dollars more in Eurobonds floated by cash strapped sovereigns like the PIIGS. It’s clear that the bond markets of all descriptions are going to become very crowded places, driving rates irresistibly higher.

At some point, the world runs out of buyers, and the long bond yields will begin their inexorable climb from the current, ridiculously low 4.10% to 5.5%, 6%, and higher. Even Moody’s is talking about a ratings downgrade for the US debt, not that we should give that disgraced institution any credibility whatsoever.

ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury or TBT is a 200% bet that long bonds are going down. It has clawed its way back up from $34.80 to $37.15 since has fallen to a low of 29.77, compared to the $70 it traded at in 2008. Falling interest rates have a silver lining in that the annual cost of carry for this leveraged ETF has dropped appreciably, from about 10% to around 8%.

If short interest rates double from the current levels, a virtual certainty, so does America’s debt service, from the current 11% to 22% of the budget. This could happen as early as 2014.

If I’m wrong on this and the 30 year yield surges under 2.5% in some sort of second Great Depression scenario, the TBT will drop down to the mid $20’s. If I’m right, the final target could be as high as $200, when long rates top 13%. That’s where they were in 1981. If you want more then take a look at the 3X short ETF (TMV) with its higher cost of carry.

Let me run some numbers here. If the yield on the 30 year Treasury bond runs up to last year’s low of 3%, the TBT will fall to a new all time low of $27. If I’m right, and we move back up to the 2010 high of 5.05%, the TBT pops back to $51.50. Running a downside risk of 11% to capture a potential gain of 68% sounds like a pretty good risk/reward ratio to me. But it might get better. Don’t forget that our long term, multi-year target for this ETF is $200.

If the futures players get this right, a move in the December long bond (ZBZ0) on the CBOT from today’s high of 134.5 to this year’s low of 111.50 multiplies your minimum margin requirement from $3,375 to $23,000, a 6.8 fold return.

But wait, there’s more! If you don’t feel like making big bets until you figure out what the new normal looks like, try a limited risk position through the TBT options. The March $30 strike calls are trading at $4. A run up by the ETF to this year’s high puts these babies at $21 at expiration, a net profit of $17, a gain of 425%.

I’ll tell you some key targets to watch for to determine the timing on this: when the yen approaches \80, the S&P 500 touches 950, the 30 year yield tickles 3%, and the ten year yield slams into 2%, it will all be over but the crying. I’m still keeping my powder dry for taking another shot at this trade, but my trigger finger is getting mighty itchy.  So is it time, no not yet but it is something to watch as this will be a great trade at the correct entry point. . . which is coming soon.

RARE EARTH METALS:  

Bloomberg reports that China is cutting back 72% of its exports of Rare Earth metals. China has said that environmental issues are the reason for the cutbacks.

72% drop in availability of any commodity is important. RE’s are important. I am no expert in this but I believe that RE metals are needed in most things we make and consume. From cars to cell phones. Some more informed comments on the importance of RE would be most welcome.

Japan and the US are already protesting the ban. The rest of the world’s manufacturing base will soon follow. This could become an interesting row.

And all those folks were saying that China would be the world’s economic growth engine. Humm not so sure.

 Call to find out how these can all be added to your portfolio 03 5724 5100

Best things to own are a good manged futures hedge fund and precious metals – like gold!   For the ideal fund contact Banner info@bannerjapan.com . . .

#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.

#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.

#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.

#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.

#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.

#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.

#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.

#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.

#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.

#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.

#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.

#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.

#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.

#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.

#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.

#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.

#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.

#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.

#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.

#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.

#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.

#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.

#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.

#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.

#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.

#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars.

#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.

#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.

#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.

#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.

#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.

#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.

#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.

#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.

#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.

#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.

#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.

#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).

#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.

#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.

#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.

Warren Buffet is a great example of how to avoid these two emo­tions in our investing decisions and has two great quotes regarding this topic that I think are very appropriate, given our current market conditions.

The first quote goes like this:  “Unless you can watch your stock holdings decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.”

And the second one:“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Deflation Next?

One of the concerns of both the financial markets and the Fed is the prospect for near term deflation in the economy.  Deflation can occur when consumers begin to forgo current consumption due to their expectation that prices will fall in the future.  This in turn can lead to lower investment by companies that refuse to commit capital to their businesses because of their expectation of a low rate of return due to lower prices.  This creates a vicious cycle of both falling consumption and falling investment known as the “deflationary spiral.”  This cycle can become very difficult to break out of once it takes hold, as evidenced by Japan in the ‘90s.  The Fed clearly understands this and the potential downside risks of deflation.  In addition, the market will begin to look for signs of deflation and will anticipate steps that the Fed will need to take in order to prevent it.  This, we believe, is one of the reasons why the U.S. Treasury market has rallied so strongly and will continue to do so in the near term.  While the initial move in May could be attributed to a short term flight to quality, the most recent move lower in yields appears more long term in nature.  One explanation for this is that the market is becoming aware that the economy may be entering a deflationary spiral and that the Fed may move long term rates lower through additional Quantitative Easing (“QE”).  Since short term rates are already hovering near zero, QE is one of the few mechanisms left that will allow the Fed to provide further monetary stimulus.

Global Warming

NASA has found that methane is 33 times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming.

Many scientists have said that methane releases have caused past warming spells. See this, this, this, this and this. Indeed, methane has such a powerful effect on climate that scientists believe that woolly mammoth farts gaseous emissions are responsible for warming the Earth 13,000 years ago.

Guess what is streaming into the Gulf of Mexico along with the OIL. . . Tremendous quantities of methane are being emitted by the Gulf oil spill.  The methane could kill all life in large areas of the Gulf. However, rumors being spread widely around the Web claiming that the methane could bring on a doomsday catastrophe are not credible. 

Yet . .  only time will tell.

     if you have Yen sitting in the bank, it is time to move and take advantage of the current exchange rate  . . . call 03 5724 5100 we can help.

The market in quick format:

Gold ETF GLD – Daily Chart
Gold has formed a large cup & handle pattern. It has held up well during the recent weakness.

But zooming into the intraday charts I do have some concerns about a sharp sell-off in the very near future.

 Silver ETF SLV – Weekly Chart
This is a weekly chart and goes all the way back to 2008 showing a very large cup & Handle. We could technically still see silver trade sideways for several months before it reaches the apex and is forced to breakout in either direction. The upside potential for a cup and handle pattern is 100- 300% of the height of the cup. So this means $1450 gold and $29 silver using the minimum potential.

Crude Oil Fund – Weekly Chart
Oil formed a triple top over the past 10 months and has started to head south. We have seen selling volume drop during the test of resistance which is not a good thing.

SP500 ETF SPY – Weekly Chart
The SP500 along with several other indexes have formed a head & shoulders patter and appear to be in the process of breaking down through the necklines. If this unfolds then we are looking at much lower prices for stocks.

 Get in touch if you have any questions 03 5724 5100

Ever Wonder…

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?  Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains? Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?  Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?  If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

This is what Brandeaux own   http://www.libertyliving.co.uk/gallery.php

Fund has a 6 month notice period to redeem but deals on a monthly basis; one can enter this via a life companies fund range.

Brandeaux was a pioneer in providing private student accommodation in the late 1990s, and is now one of the largest investors in the sector. The Fund has a geographically diverse portfolio across the UK, which totals over 15,000 beds in residences located in 18 major university towns and cities.

Brandeaux has developed strong university relationships and now has more than 60% of total rents secured under university nomination agreements.

Brandeaux has achieved 100% occupancy for the 2009/10 university year, as it has had for the last two years. The accommodation is marketed under the Liberty Living brand, which is synonymous with high quality and excellent levels of service. This has engendered good relationships with both universities and students.

Average rent increases across the portfolio for 2009/10 on a like for like basis compared to 2008/09 are in excess of 8.6%, compared with 6.8% for the previous year.

1 YEAR+10.05%

5 YEARS+34.64%

3 YEARS+59.60%

SINCE LAUNCH+141.00%

All returns are shown net of Brandeaux charges.

BRANDEAUX STUDENT ACCOMMODATION FUND (STERLING)

Percentage Growth Total Return

BSAF(Sterling)factsheet_May2010

Returns quoted are net of Brandeaux charges Source: Lipper Hindsight

Investment Minimum GBP 25,000 for a one time lump sum or with a Regular savings plan where you save a bit every month. For full details on how to enter this fund please get in touch with us at Banner.

The end game for Japan? Thoughts from The Absolute Return Letter  

The first country to really feel the pinch could very well be Japan; in the bigger context, Greece is just the appetizer. Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio has grown from 65% in the early 1990s when their crisis began in earnest to over 200% now. Fortunately for Japan, the high savings rate has allowed shifting governments to finance the deficit internally with about 93% of all JGBs held domestically. This is the key reason why Japan gets away with paying only 1.3% on their 10-year bonds when other large OECD countries must pay 3-4% to attract investors.

Now, predicting the demise of Japan has cost many a career over the years. Despite the ever rising debt, and contrary to many expert opinions, the yen has been rock solid and bond yields have remained comparatively low. I often hear the argument from the bulls that the Japanese situation is sustainable because they, unlike us, are a nation of savers. Wrong. They were a nation of savers.

It is evident that the demographic tsunami has finally hit Japan. The savings rate is in a structural decline and the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo may soon be forced to go to international capital markets to fund their deficits. I very much doubt that non-Japanese investors will be as forgiving as the Japanese, and that could force bond yields in Japan in line with US and German yields. Herein lies the challenge. Japan already spends 35% of its pre-bond issuance revenues on servicing its debt. If the Japanese were forced to fund themselves at 3.5% instead of 1.3%, the game would soon be up.

So if you have Yen sitting in the bank, it is time to move and take advantage of the current exchange rate  . . .

call us 03 5724 5100

Mary Williams Walsh of the NYT reports, In Budget Crisis, States Take Aim at Pension Costs:

Many states are acknowledging this year that they have promised pensions they cannot afford and are cutting once-sacrosanct benefits, to appease taxpayers and attack budget deficits.

Illinois raised its retirement age to 67, the highest of any state, and capped the salary on which public pensions are figured at $106,800 a year, indexed for inflation. Arizona, New York, Missouri and Mississippi will make people work more years to earn pensions. Virginia is requiring employees to pay into the state pension fund for the first time. New Jersey will not give anyone pension credit unless they work at least 32 hours a week.

“We can’t afford to deny reality or delay action any longer,” said Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, adding that his state’s pension cuts, enacted in March, will save some $300 million in the first year alone.

But there is a catch: Nearly all of the cuts so far apply only to workers not yet hired. Though heralded as breakthrough reforms by state officials, the cuts phase in so slowly they are unlikely to save the weakest funds and keep them from running out of money. Some new rules may even hasten the demise of the funds they were meant to protect.

Lawmakers wanted to avoid legal battles or fights with unions, whose members can be influential voters. So they are allowing most public workers across the country to keep building up their pensions at the same rate as ever. The tens of thousands of workers now on Illinois’s payrolls, for instance, will still get to retire at 60 — and some will as young as 55.

One striking exception is Colorado, which has imposed cuts on its current workers, not just future hires, and even on people who have already retired. The retirees have sued to block the reduction.

Other states with shrinking funds and deep fiscal distress may be pushed in this direction and tempted to follow Colorado’s example in the coming years. Though most state officials believe they are legally bound to shield current workers from pension cuts, a Colorado victory could embolden them to be more aggressive.

Colorado pruned a 3.5 percent annual pension increase to 2 percent, concluding that was the fastest way to revive its pension fund, which was projected to run out of money by 2029. The cut may sound small, but it produces big results because it goes into effect immediately. State plans vary widely, but many have other costly features, like subsidized early-retirement benefits, which could likewise be trimmed for existing workers.

Despite its pension reform, Illinois is still in deep trouble. That vaunted $300 million in immediate savings? The state produced it by giving itself credit now for the much smaller checks it will send retirees many years in the future — people who must first be hired and then, for full benefits, work until age 67.

By recognizing those far-off savings right away, Illinois is letting itself put less money into its pension fund now, starting with $300 million this year.

That saves the state money, but it also weakens the pension fund, actually a family of funds, raising the risk of a collapse long before the real savings start to materialize.

“We’re within a few years of having some of the pension funds run out of money,” said R. Eden Martin, president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a business group that has been warning of a “financial implosion” for several years. “Funding for the schools is going to be cut radically. Funding for Medicaid. As these things all mount up, there’s going to be a lot of outrage.”

Joshua D. Rauh, an associate professor of finance at Northwestern University who studies public pension funds, predicts that at the current rate, Illinois’s pension system could run out of money by 2018. He believes the funds of other troubled states — including New Jersey, Indiana and Connecticut — are also on track to run out of money in less than a decade, unless they make meaningful changes.

If a state pension fund ran out of money, the state would be legally bound to make good on retirees’ benefits. But paying public pensions straight out of general revenue would be ruinous. In Illinois’s case, it would consume about half the state’s cash every year, bringing other vital state services to a standstill.

Mr. Rauh said he thinks any state caught in that trap would have little choice but to seek a federal bailout. Bigger pension contributions and higher taxes can go only so far.

Many state officials, hoping for a huge recovery in the markets, say that such projections are too pessimistic, and that cutting benefits for future workers must suffice, given laws and provisions in state constitutions that make membership in a state pension fund a contractual relationship that cannot be breached.

Lawyers, though, are raising the possibility that those laws are being misinterpreted.

“It makes no sense to suggest that an employee who works for the state for a single day has acquired a right to have future pension benefits calculated for the next 20 to 40 years under whatever method was in effect on that single first day of service,” states a legal memorandum prepared for the Commercial Club of Chicago, which is concerned that a public pension collapse would badly damage the city’s business climate.

The club’s members include senior executives of big companies, like Boeing, Aon, Kraft, Motorola and I.B.M., that have frozen pensions or slowed the rates at which their workers build up benefits.

Some of those cuts set off titanic battles. The most famous was at I.B.M., which changed its pension plan just when many of its older workers were about to earn sharply higher retirement benefits. Aggrieved workers sued, but after a long battle, a federal appellate court found that the cuts were legal.

“An employer is free to move from one legal plan to another legal plan, provided that it does not diminish vested interests,” or the benefits workers have already earned, wrote Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. He did not distinguish between corporate employers and states.

Colorado is basing its legal defense, in part, on a 1961 state supreme court ruling that said pension cuts for current workers were allowed if “actuarially necessary,” and will argue that it applies to retirees as well. Other states may not have such legal tools.

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone a different route, bargaining with the 12 unions that represent public employees. Last week four of them agreed to let the state cut its own contributions by requiring current workers to pay sharply more for the same pensions. The workers will contribute 10 percent of their pay, in some cases double the previous rate, to the state pension fund. Some other states are raising employee contributions as well, though less sharply.

In New Jersey, the administration of Gov. Christopher J. Christie recently imposed pension cuts on future hires, but has been quietly looking into whether it could also reduce the benefits that current employees expect to accumulate in the coming years.

“Can they change the benefit formula going forward? Sure. It’s not etched in stone,” said Edward Thomson III, an actuary and trustee of the New Jersey pension system who was asked to offer an opinion on whether New Jersey could adopt the federal pension law — the one that covers companies — as its governing statute.

A state assemblyman, Declan J. O’Scanlon Jr., recently introduced a bill to ratchet back a 9 percent pension increase that the state gave most workers in 2001.

“I think this will pass constitutional muster,” Mr. O’Scanlon said. “Otherwise, I fear the whole system will fall apart. Nine years — we’re out of money.”

Politics & pensions are never a good mix. And if you think this is just a US problem, think again. In Ireland, Fiona Reddan of the Irish Times reports that three-quarters of defined-benefit pension schemes in red. In England where Chancellor George Osborne just announced draconian 25% budget cuts, Tim Shipman of the Mail reports, Prepare for war of strikes over pay freeze and pensions say the public sector brothers.

I’ve been warning all of you to prepare for global pension war. It will hit private and public sector pensions, ruining retirement dreams, forcing workers to work longer than they planned for, solidifying deep antipathies that common workers have with the financial oligarchs who got away with billions in bonuses and bailouts. Politicians at the G20 be warned: hell hath no fury like a pensioner scorned.

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