What Putin Got Wrong About Ukraine, Russia, and the West | Stephen Kotkin

Interesting audio interview with Stephen Kotkin in Foreign Affairs.

“We tend to exaggerate the influence that our policies have in Russian behavior, Iranian behavior, Chinese behavior….They’re ancient civilizations that preexist the United States by many, many centuries. And there are internal dynamics there that are deep, profound…. It’s not to say that there weren’t major policy mistakes. Of course there were policy mistakes. In retrospect one can criticize many things that the West did. You just can’t get that to be the prime driver or explanation for where we are with Russia today…”

“In many ways, systems select for leaders. You can get into power randomly through some accident, if you’re appointed, or there’s a death—you name the cases where there’s an accidental rise to power of a figure. But you can’t stay in power for 20 plus years accidentally. You actually have to sustain yourself in power, and that’s much harder, more complex. And so the random characters who might get in are not there 20 years later. But then they’re transformed by being in that position.

The argument of Stalin….. is that he wasn’t a fully formed personality before he got to the position of being the despot of the Kremlin. It was being in that position that made him the figure that we know. Something happened to Putin as well…..”

Funding both sides of the war | Thomas L Friedman

Our continued addiction to fossil fuels is bolstering Vladimir Putin’s petrodictatorship and creating a situation where we in the West are — yes, say it with me now — funding both sides of the war. We fund our military aid to Ukraine with our tax dollars and some of America’s allies fund Putin’s military with purchases of his oil and gas exports.

~ Thomas L Friedman, NY Times, May 17, 2022

Michael Every | Commodities and the US Dollar are key

This is a follow-on to — A New World Order — posted yesterday. The first 13 minutes are worth listening to.

Michael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank, says commodities and the US Dollar are key investments in the coming decade.

It’s a bear market

The S&P 500 broke primary support at 4170 to confirm a bear market. A Trend Index peak at zero warns of strong selling pressure.

S&P 500

The Nasdaq 100 similarly broke support at 13K, confirming the bear market.

Nasdaq 100

Dow Jones Industrial Average, already in a primary down-trend, confirmed the bear market with a break below 32.5K.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Transportation Average lags slightly, testing primary support at 14.5K. Follow-through below 14K would be the final nail in the coffin.

Dow Jones Transportation Average

A plunging Freightwaves National Truckload Index warns that we should not have long to wait.

Freightwaves Truckload Index

Conclusion

All major US stock market indices now warn of a bear market. Weak retracement, to test new resistance levels, should not be confused with a buy-the-dip opportunity.

S&P 500

Michael Every | A new world order

Michael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank, predicts the coming decade will be very different from those in living memory.

Stocks: Winter is coming

GDP grew by a solid 10.64% for the 12 months ended March ’22 but that is in nominal terms.

GDP

GDP for the quarter slowed to 1.58%, while real GDP fell to -0.36%. Not only is growth slowing but inflation is taking a bigger bite.

GDP & Real GDP

The implicit price deflator climbed to 1.94% for the quarter — almost 8.0% when annualized.

GDP Implicit Price Deflator

Growth is expected to decline further as long-term interest rates rise.

10-Year Treasury Yield & Moody's Baa Corporate Bond Yield

Conventional monetary policy would be for the Fed to hike the funds rate (gray below) above CPI (red). But, with CPI at 8.56% for the 12 months to March and FFR at 0.20%, the Fed may be tempted to try unconventional methods to ease inflationary pressures.

Fed Funds Rate & CPI

That includes shrinking its $9 trillion balance sheet (QT).

During the pandemic, the Fed purchased almost $5 trillion of securities. The resulting shortage of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) caused long-terms yields to fall and a migration of investors to equities in search of yield.

The Fed is expected to commence QT in May at the rate of $95 billion per month — $60 billion in Treasuries and $35 billion in MBS — after a phase-in over the first three months. Long-term Treasury yields are likely to rise even faster, accompanied by a reverse flow from equities into bonds.

S&P 500 & Fed Total Assets

S&P 500 breach of support at 4200, signaling a bear market, would anticipate this.

Conclusion

Fed rate hikes combined with QT are expected to drive long-term interest rates higher and cause an outflow from equities into bonds.

A bear market (Winter) is coming.

Bill Dudley: A soft landing will be hard to achieve

Bill Dudley, former FRBNY Pres and Goldman Sachs Chief US Economist says the Fed will have to drive up unemployment to keep inflation in check. When the Fed has done that in the past it has always resulted in a recession. Bond yields will have to rise and stocks will have to fall in order for the Fed to succeed in taming inflation.

Hat tip to Joseph Wang.

Job openings warn of higher inflation

Job openings came in at a seasonally-adjusted 11.27 million for February, compared to unemployment of 6.27 million. A shortfall of 5 million workers.

Job Openings & Unemployment

Conclusion

An excess of 5 million job openings, above the unemployment level, is expected to maintain upward pressure on wage rates as employers compete for scarce workers. Inflationary pressure is likely to continue.