China is the biggest credit bubble in the world today | Crescat Capital

From Nils Jenson at Crescat Capital:

History has proven that credit bubbles always burst. China by far is the biggest credit bubble in the world today…….

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has identified an important warning signal to identify credit bubbles that are poised to trigger a banking crisis across different countries: Unsustainable credit growth relative to gross domestic product (GDP) in the household and (non-financial) corporate sector. Three large (G-20) countries are flashing warning signals today for impending banking crises based on such imbalances: China, Canada, and Australia….

The trouble with credit bubbles is they always burst. The problem is we don’t know when. “Imminent” could mean next week or it could mean in 3 years time. Keep a close watch on the PBOC for signs that it has run out of options. They will kick the can down the road for as long as possible, but the time will come when that is no longer viable.

Great Analysis, worth reading the entire report: Crescat Capital Quarterly Investor Letter Q2 2017 | Crescat Capital

Gold as ‘Trump insurance’

Yesterday’s solid blue candle on the gold chart [XAUUSD] confirms my view of the precious metal as a form of “Trump insurance”. After Trump and North Korea exchanged threats suggesting nuclear retaliation, gold gained 1.32%, breaking resistance at $1275/ounce. Follow-through above $1300 would signal a primary advance, with a target of $1400*.

Spot Gold

* Target calculation: 1300 + ( 1300 – 1200 ) = 1400

From the BBC:

US President Donald Trump says North Korea “will be met with fire and fury” if it threatens the US.

His comments came after a Washington Post report, citing US intelligence officials, said Pyongyang had produced a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside its missiles.

This would mean the North is developing nuclear weapons capable of striking the US at a much faster rate than expected.

The UN recently approved further economic sanctions against the country.

The Security Council unanimously agreed to ban North Korean exports and limit investments, prompting fury from North Korea and a vow to make the “US pay a price”.

The heated rhetoric between the two leaders intensified after Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in July, claiming it now had the ability to hit the US.

Mr Trump told reporters on Tuesday: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Odds of a recession appear low | Bob Doll

Sensible view from Bob Doll:

…The odds of a recession appear low, but so does a significant acceleration in growth. The regulatory environment is loosening, consumer spending appears solid and jobs growth remains strong. As such, we do not expect a recession any time soon. At the same time, however, we see no catalyst to push the economy into a higher gear unless the White House and Congress make progress on their pro-growth agenda.

Progress on tax reform would revive the bulls.

Source: Weekly Investment Commentary from Bob Doll | Nuveen

This oil price rally has reached its limit – On Line Opinion

Good summary of the oil market by Nicholas Cunningham – posted Friday, 4 August 2017:

There are several significant reasons why oil prices have regained most of the lost ground since the end of May….

  1. OPEC cuts;
  2. US shale expansion is slowing;
  3. Several OPEC members have promised deeper cuts; and
  4. Drawdowns in U.S. crude oil inventories suggest the market is finally rebalancing.

But inventories are still high, not just in the U.S. And the US (despite shale slowing), Libya and Nigeria are all expected to increase output.

Also, the recent rally is largely attributable to short-covering rather than hedge funds taking fresh long positions.

But there is a wild card:

The one variable that could upend all market forecasts is Venezuela, which has been in economic turmoil for quite some time but is entering a new phase of crisis. The involvement of the U.S. government, which is retaliating against Venezuela for what it argues is a step towards dictatorship, threatens to accelerate the oil production declines in the South American nation.

If Venezuela sees its exports disrupted in a sudden way, the ceiling for oil prices in 2017 could be quite a bit higher than everyone expects at the moment. Otherwise, there is not a lot of room on the upside for oil prices in the short-term.

…it could go up, it could go down, but not necessarily in that order.

Using fundamentals to predict short-term cycles is at best a 50/50 proposition. It’s normally best to stick to technicals (for short time frames). Looks like a secondary rally in a bear market.

Nymex Light Crude

Source: This oil price rally has reached its limit – On Line Opinion – 4/8/2017

Boris Johnson wrong to link Australia’s economic growth to the resources boom

In criticizing Boris Johnston, Ross Gittins at The Herald, unwittingly highlights the hubris of the economics profession:

When Boris Johnson, Britain’s Foreign Minister, visited Oz lately, he implied that our record 26-year run of uninterrupted economic growth was owed largely to the good fortune of our decade-long resources boom.

Johnson, no economist, can be forgiven for holding such a badly mistaken view – especially since many Australian non-economists are just as misguided. They betray a basic misconception about the nature of macro-economic management and what it’s meant to do.

It’s clear that Johnson, like a lot of others, hasn’t understood just why it is that 26 years of uninterrupted growth is something to shout about.It’s not that 26 years’ worth of growth adds up to a mighty lot of growth. After all, most other countries could claim that, over the same 26-year period, they’d achieved 23 or 24 years’ worth of growth.

No, what’s worth jumping up and down about is that little word “uninterrupted”. Everyone else’s growth has been interrupted at least once or twice during the past 26 years by a severe recession or two, but ours hasn’t.

That’s the other, and better way to put it: we’ve gone for a record 26 years without a severe recession.But now note that little word “severe”. As former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens often pointed out, we did have a mild recession in 2008-09, at the time of the global financial crisis, and earlier in 2000-01.

So, yet another way to put the Aussie boast is that we’ve gone for a period of 26 years in which the occasional increases in unemployment never saw the rate rise by more than 1.6 percentage points before it turned down again.

What you (and Boris) need to understand about macro-economic management is that its goal isn’t to make the economy grow faster, it’s to smooth the growth in demand as the economy moves through the ups and downs of the business cycle.

This is why macro management is also called “demand management” and “stabilisation policy”. These days, the management is done primarily by the Reserve Bank, using its “monetary policy” (manipulation of interest rates), though both the present and previous governor have often publicly wished they were getting more help from “fiscal policy” (the budget).

When using interest rates to smooth the path of demand over time, your raise rates to discourage borrowing and spending when the economy’s booming – so as to chop off the top of the cycle – and you cut rates to encourage borrowing and spending when the economy’s busting – thereby filling in the trough of the cycle.This is why the economic managers find it so annoying when the Borises of this world imagine that the decade long resources boom – the biggest we’ve had since the Gold Rush – must have made their job so much easier.Just the opposite, stupid. Introducing a massive source of additional demand in the upswing of the resources boom made it that much harder to hold demand growth steady and avoid inflation taking off.

But then, when the boom turned to bust, with the fall in export commodity prices starting in mid-2011, and the fall in mining construction activity starting a year later, it became hard to stop demand slowing to a crawl.

We’re still not fully back to normal.This is why the macro managers’ success in avoiding a severe recession for 26 years is a remarkable achievement, and one owed far more to their good management than to supposed good luck (whether from China or anywhere else).

But what exactly is the payoff from the achievement? Twenty-six years in which many fewer businesses went out backwards than otherwise would have.

Twenty-six years in which many fewer people became unemployed than otherwise, and those who did had to endure a far shorter spell of joblessness than otherwise.

The big payoff from avoiding severe recessions – or keeping them as far apart as possible – is to avoid a massive surge in long-term unemployment that can take more than a decade to go away – and even then does so in large part because people give up and claim disability benefits or become old enough to move onto the age pension.

Dr David Gruen, a deputy secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has demonstrated that, though the US economy had a higher proportion of its population in employment than we did, for decades before the global crisis, since then it’s been the other way around.”The key lesson I draw from this comparison is that the avoidance of deep recessions improves outcomes in the labour market enormously over extended periods of time,” he concluded.

“What you (and Boris) need to understand about macro-economic management is that its goal isn’t to make the economy grow faster, it’s to smooth the growth in demand as the economy moves through the ups and downs of the business cycle.”

Well how’s that been working for ya, Ross, over the last three decades. Attempts at smoothing the global economic cycle (primarily led by the US Fed) have achieved two of the most severe recessions in the last century. Smoothing out the natural creative destruction of the capitalist system allows imbalances to build. Periods of uninterrupted growth may be longer, but when the dam wall breaks, as it did in 2008, the severity of the backlash when the economy tries to restore equilibrium (or “balance” as us non-economists like to describe it) threatens to break the very foundations of the financial system.

Not exactly a time for high-fives and self-congratulation for the economics profession. To me economics should focus on the study of unintended consequences, of which there are many examples in the last 30 years.

The presumption that macro-economists can improve on the performance of an economy by constant intervention has clearly been demonstrated to be a fallacy.

Mechanical engineers in the 1800s were confronted with a similar problem when building large steam engines that worked under variable load. Attempts to smooth the load using a governor, adjusting braking in response to detected acceleration or deceleration was the obvious solution. But these governors created a feedback loop — highlighted by James Clark Maxwell in his famous 1868 paper On Governors to the Royal Society of London — that made these giant steam engines prone to self-destruct.

Constant interference with market forces in an effort to smooth economic growth has a similar effect on the economy. The lag between an actual event and its measurement, reporting and subsequent monetary policy response is susceptible to creating a feedback loop that amplifies the cycle instead of smoothing it, causing the system to self-destruct.

Economists on graduation should be required to make a pledge similar to the Hippocratic oath of the medical profession which starts: “First do no harm….”

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

~ Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Source: Boris Johnson was wrong to link Australia’s economic growth to the resources boom

Nasdaq and S&P500 meet resistance

July labor stats are out and shows the jobless rate fell to a 16-year low at 4.3%. Unemployment below the long-term natural rate suggests the economy is close to capacity and inflationary pressures should be building.

Unemployment below the long-term natural rate

Source: St Louis Fed, BLS

But hourly wage rates are growing at a modest pace, easing pressure on the Fed to raise interest rates.

Hourly Wage Rates

Source: St Louis Fed, BLS

Fed monetary policy remains accommodative, with the monetary base (net of excess reserves) growing at a robust 7.5% a year.

Hourly Wage Rates

Source: St Louis Fed, FRB

Our forward estimate of real GDP — Nonfarm Payroll * Average Weekly Hours — continues at a slow but steady annual pace of 1.79%.

Real GDP compared to Nonfarm Payroll * Average Weekly Hours

Source: St Louis Fed, BLS & BEA

The Nasdaq 100 has run into resistance at 6000. No doubt readers noticed Amazon [AMZN] and Alphabet [GOOG] both retreated after reaching the $1000 mark. This is natural. Correction back to the rising trendline would take some of the heat out of the market and provide a solid base for further gains. Selling pressure, reflected by declining peaks on Twiggs Money Flow, appears secondary.

Nasdaq 100

The S&P 500 is also running into resistance, below 2500. Bearish divergence on Twiggs Money Flow warns of moderate selling pressure but this again seems to be secondary — in line with a correction rather than a reversal.

S&P 500

Target 2400 + ( 2400 – 2300 ) = 2500

Australia: Housing, Incomes & Growth

A quick snapshot of the Australian economy from the latest RBA chart pack.

Disposable income growth has declined to almost zero and consumption is likely to follow. Else Savings will be depleted.

Disposable Income & Consumption

Residential building approvals are slowing, most noticeably in apartments, reflecting an oversupply.

Residential Building Approvals

Housing loan approvals for owner-occupiers are rising, fueled no doubt by State first home-buyer incentives. States do not want the party, especially the flow from stamp duties, to end. But loan approvals for investors are topping after an APRA crackdown on investor mortgages, especially interest-only loans.

Housing loan approvals

The ratio of household debt to disposable income is precarious, and growing worse with each passing year.

Household debt to disposable income

House price growth continues at close to 10% a year, fueled by rising debt. When we refer to the “housing bubble” it is really a debt bubble driving housing prices. If debt growth slows so will housing prices.

House price growth

Declining business investment, as a percentage of GDP, warns of slowing economic growth in the years ahead. It is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve productivity growth without continuous new investment and technology improvement.

Business investment

Yet declining corporate bond spreads show no sign of increased lending risk.

Corporate bond spreads

Declining disposable income and consumption growth mean that voters are unlikely to be happy come next election. With each party trying to ride the populist wave, responsible economic management has taken a back seat. Throw in a housing bubble and declining business investment and the glass looks more than half-empty.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

~ Eric Hoffer

Gold responds to crude strength and Dollar support

The Dollar Index is testing primary support between 92 and 93. Breach of support would offer a long-term target between 83 and 84* — a bullish sign for gold.

Dollar Index

*Target: 93 – ( 103 – 93 ) = 83

Crude continues to test resistance at $50/barrel. Respect would indicate another test of the lower trend channel, around $40/barrel, continuing the primary down-trend. Follow-through above $50 would suggest that a bottom has formed and the next correction is likely to be higher than the last low at $42.

Nymex Light Crude

Gold retraced to test support at $1250/ounce — in line with crude strength and Dollar support. Respect of support is more likely and would indicate another test of $1300. Reversal below $1250 is unlikely but would warn of another test of primary support at $1200.

Spot Gold

Silver also retraced and is likely to test primary support at $15.50. Rising Twiggs Trend Index suggests that another test of resistance at $17 remains likely. Breakout above $17 would be bullish for gold.

Spot Silver

China holds its head above water

A quick snapshot from the latest RBA chart pack.

Manufacturing is holding its head above water (50 on the PMI chart) and industrial production shows a small upturn but investment growth is falling, as in many global economies including the US and Australia. Retail sales growth has declined but remains healthy at 10% a year.

China

Electricity generation continues to climb but steel, cement and plate glass production all warn that real estate and infrastructure development are slowing.

China

Interest rates remain accommodative.

China

Real estate price growth is slowing but remains an unhealthy 10% a year. Real estate development investment rallied in response to lower interest rates but is clearly in a long-term decline.

China

There are no signs of an economy in immediate trouble but there are indications that the real estate and infrastructure boom may be ending. Through a combination of fiscal stimulus and accommodative monetary policy the Chinese have managed to stave off a capitalism-style correction. But failure to clear some of the excesses of the past decade will mean that the inevitable correction, when it does come, is likely to display familiar Asian severity (Japan 1992, Asian Crisis 1997).

ASX banks spoil the iron ore party

I underestimated the strength of iron ore which has now broken resistance at 70, suggesting that a bottom is forming. Strength of the latest rally indicates that the next correction is likely to find support at 60.

Iron Ore

The Resources sector responded, with the ASX 300 Metals & Mining index headed for a test of its February high at 3200 after recovering above support at 3000.

ASX 300 Metals & Mining

Banks have been on the receiving end, however, with the ASX 300 Banks index testing short-term support at 8500. A Twiggs Money Flow peak below zero warns of strong selling pressure. Breach of 8500 would signal another test of primary support at 8000.

ASX 300 Banks

The ASX 200 continues to form a narrow line, consolidating between 5600 and 5800. Declining Twiggs Money Flow, with a peak below zero, warns of selling pressure. Breach of support at 5600 remains likely, despite the iron ore rally, and would signal a primary down-trend.

ASX 200