Category: Russia & Former USSR

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Markets move to Risk-Off

Bitcoin broke support at $64K, warning that financial markets are moving to risk-off . Traders and investors reduce their exposure to risk and focus on protecting their capital. Follow-through below $62K would confirm, warning of a sharp fall (in BTC) and a stock market correction.

Bitcoin

The 10-Year Treasury yield has climbed to 4.67%, confirming our target of 5.0%.

10-Year Treasury Yield

The Japanese Yen fell to 154 against the Dollar, increasing pressure on the Bank of Japan to loosen the cap on long-term JGB yields — to protect the Yen. The result of such a move would be an outflow of Japanese investors from the US Treasury market, increasing upward pressure on UST yields and downward pressure on the Dollar.

USDJPY

Fed Monetary Policy

From CNN:

The US economy’s enduring strength and a “lack of progress” on inflation means the central bank likely won’t cut interest rates at its upcoming policy meeting just two weeks away, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday.

“The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence” that inflation is headed toward the central bank’s 2% goal, Powell said during a moderated discussion hosted by the Wilson Center. Instead, he said, there are indications “that it is likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence.”

Stocks

The S&P 500 broke support at 5100, warning of a correction. Lower Trend Index peaks reflect selling pressure. Our target is 4950.

S&P 500

The Equal-Weighted Index ($IQX) continued its downward path after breaking support at 6650, presenting a target of 6250.

S&P 500 Equal-Weighted Index

US Consumers

Real retail sales ticked up in March to remain on trend.

Real Retail Sales

Light vehicle sales also remain reasonably strong, at 15.5 million units (annualized) in March.

Light Vehicle Sales

Gold & the Dollar

The Dollar Index climbed above 106, strengthened by safe haven demand and the appeal of higher long-term yields. Our target is the October 2023 high at 107.

Dollar Index

Gold is again testing resistance at our target of $2400 per ounce, currently at $2383. The Shanghai Gold Exchange continues to display a premium on its international gold contract (iAu99.99) at 558.3 Yuan which translates to $2399 per Troy ounce (31.10348 grams). The domestic contract trades at an even higher price of 569 per gram but is subject to capital controls. The price premium should ensure a constant inflow of physical gold from other exchanges to China for as long it is maintained.

Spot Gold

Silver retraced from resistance at $29 per ounce and is testing support at $28. The lower Trend Index peak warns of selling pressure. Breach of $28 would warn of a correction to $26. Breakout above $29 is less likely in the short-term but would signal a fresh advance, with a medium-term target of $34.

Spot Silver

Crude & Commodities

Brent crude is in a narrow consolidation (pennant) at $90 per barrel. Continuation is likely and would test resistance at $96 per barrel.
Brent Crude

Nymex crude has retraced to test short-term support at $85 per barrel. Respect is likely and would indicate an advance to our target at $90.
WTI Light Crude

Conclusion

Geopolitical risk dominates, with an Israeli retaliatory attack on Iran expected before the end of the month.

Rising crude oil prices are likely to increase inflationary pressure and the yield on long-term Treasuries, with the 10-year yield expected to test 5.0%.

Safe haven demand from investors is concentrated on Gold, with bond prices falling and stocks warning of a correction. We expect a short retracement to test support levels but respect is likely and would signal another advance.

Bitcoin is diverging from Gold as investors grow more risk averse. Breach of support at $62K would confirm a correction, with support expected at $52K.

Acknowledgements



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Eleven reasons for optimism in the next decade

This might seem more like a wish list than a forecast — there are always risks that can derail predictions — but we believe these are high probability events over the long-term.

Our timeline is flexible, some events may take longer than a decade while others could occur a lot sooner.

Also, some of the reasons for optimism present both a problem and an opportunity. It depends on which side of the trade you are on.

#1 US Politics

The political divide in the United States is expected to heal after neither President Biden nor his predecessor, and current GOP front-runner Donald Trump, make the ballot in 2024. The first due to concerns over his age and the latter due to legal woes and inability to garner support from the center. A younger, more moderate candidate from the right (Nikki Haley) or left (Gavin Newsom?) is likely to be elected in 2024 and lead the reconciliation process, allowing Congress to focus on long-term challenges rather than political grandstanding.

Nikki Haley
Gavin Newsom

Nikki Haley & Gavin Newsom – Wikipedia

#2 The Rise of Europe

Kaja Kallas

Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas – Wikipedia

Europe is expected to rediscover its backbone, led by the example of Eastern European leaders who have long understood the existential threat posed by Russian encroachment. Increased funding and supply of arms to Ukraine will sustain their beleaguered ally. NATO will re-arm, securing its Eastern border but is unlikely to be drawn into a war with Russia.

#3 Decline of the Autocrats

We are past peak-autocrat — when Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 23, 2022.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin announces invasion of Ukraine – CNN

Russia

The Russian economy is likely to be drained by the on-going war in Ukraine, with drone attacks on energy infrastructure bleeding Russia’s economy. Demands on the civilian population are expected to rise as oil and gas revenues dwindle.

Fire at an oil storage depot in Klintsy, southern Russia

Fire at an oil storage depot in Klintsy, southern Russia after it was hit by a Ukrainian drone – BBC

China

The CCP’s tenuous hold on power faces three critical challenges. First, an ageing population fueled by the CPP’s disastrous one-child policy (1979-2015) and declining birth rates after the 2020 COVID pandemic — a reaction to totalitarian shutdowns for political ends.

China's birth rate

Second, is the middle-income trap. Failure to overcome the political challenges of redistributing income away from local governments, state-owned enterprises and existing elites will prevent the rise of a consumer economy driven by strong levels of consumption and lower savings by the broad population.

Third, the inevitable demise of autocratic regimes because of their rigidity and inability to adapt to a changing world. Autocratic leaders grow increasingly isolated in an information silo, where subordinates are afraid to convey bad news and instead tell leaders what they want to hear. Poor feedback and doubling down on past failures destroy morale and trust in leadership, leading to a dysfunctional economy.

Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Wikipedia

Demographics are likely to triumph in Iran, with the ageing religious conservatives losing power as their numbers dwindle. The rise of a more moderate, Westernized younger generation is expected to lead to the decline of Iranian-backed extremism and greater stability in the Middle East.

#4 High Inflation

The US federal government is likely to avoid default on its $34 trillion debt, using high inflation to shrink the debt in real terms and boost GDP at the same time.

US Debt to GDP

#5 Negative real interest rates

High inflation and rising nominal Treasury yields would threaten the ability of Treasury to service interest costs on outstanding debt without deficits spiraling out of control. The Fed will be forced to suppress interest rates to save the Treasury market, further fueling high inflation. Negative real interest rates will drive up prices of real assets.

#6 US Dollar

The US Dollar will decline as the US on-shores critical industries and the current account deficit shrinks. Manufacturing jobs are expected to rise as a result — through import substitution and increased exports.

US Current Account

#7 US Treasury Market

USTs are expected to decline as the global reserve asset, motivated by long-term negative real interest rates and shrinking current account deficits.

Foreign Holdings of US Treasuries

Central bank holdings of Gold and commodities are likely to increase as distrust of fiat currencies grows, with no obvious successor to US hegemony.

#7 Nuclear Power

Investment in nuclear power is expected to skyrocket as it is recognized as the only viable long-term alternative to base-load power generated by fossil fuels. Reactors will be primarily fueled by coated uranium fuels (TRISO) that remove the risk of a critical meltdown.

TRISO fuel particles

TRISO particles consist of a uranium, carbon and oxygen fuel kernel encapsulated by three layers of carbon- and ceramic-based materials that prevent the release of radioactive fission products – Energy.gov

Thorium salts are an alternative but the technology lags a long way behind uranium reactors. Nuclear fusion is a wild card, with accelerated development likely as AI is used to solve some of the remaining technological challenges.

#8 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Scientific advances achieved with the use of AI are expected to be at the forefront in engineering and medicine, while broad productivity gains are likely as implementation of AI applications grows.

#9 Semiconductors

Demand for semiconductors and micro-processor is likely to grow as intelligent devices become the norm across everything from electric vehicles to houses, appliances and devices.

McKinsey projections of Semiconductor Demand

#10 Industrial Commodities

Demand for industrial commodities — lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite, battery-grade nickel, and rare earth elements like neodymium (used in high-power magnets) — are expected to skyrocket as the critical materials content of EVs and other sophisticated devices grows.

Expected supply shortfall by 2030:

Critical Materials - Expected Supply Shortage to achieve Net Zero by 2030

Prices will boom as demand grows, increases in supply necessitate higher marginal costs, and inflation soars.

#11 Stock Market Boom

Stocks are expected to boom, fueled by negative real interest rates, high inflation and productivity gains from AI and nuclear.



Conclusion

There is no cause for complacency — many challenges and pitfalls face developed economies. But we so often focus on the threats that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the glass is more than half full.

Our long-term strategy is overweight on real assets — stocks, Gold, commodities and industrial real estate — and underweight long duration financial assets like USTs.

Acknowledgements

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Alexei Navalny – the irresistible power of non-violent opposition

The Russian prison service reported that opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died “after falling ill on a walk today,” a few weeks after being transferred to a remote prison in the Arctic circle. Almost dying in 2020, after being poisoned with Novichock by the GRU, Navalny faced a difficult choice. Give up his struggle and live a comfortable life as an exiled dissident in the West or return to Russia where he would almost certainly be arrested and imprisoned on trumped up charges. He chose the latter. A mark of personal courage.

He was no doubt murdered by the regime ahead of the March presidential elections — where he had succeeded in orchestrating non-violent opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin from his prison cell.

Here is Navalny’s message to fellow Russians, from the documentary bearing his name:

President Biden’s response to his death:

Russia has a long history of non-violent resistance to oppression, including:

  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — historian and author who raised global awareness of political repression in the gulags in the Soviet Union, awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970;
  • Andrei Sakharov — nuclear physicist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his efforts in the struggle for human rights in the Soviet Union and for nuclear disarmament; and
  • Another physicist, Boris Nemtsov, who led political opposition to Vladimir Putin until his assassination in 2015.

Alexei Navalny joins the list of global leaders who have dedicated their lives to non-violent opposition to oppression for the betterment of their fellow man:

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
Martin Luther King Jr.
Nelson Mandela
Bishop Desmond Tutu
and many others, including Aung San Suu Kyi (currently imprisoned in Myanmar) and Vladimir Kara-Murza (imprisoned in Russia), whose courage we should honor.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. That is the paradox: what is soft is strong.

~ Lao Tzu/Laozi, the Tao Te Ching (circa 400 BC)

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Russia | Putin in Crisis

From Foreign Affairs, June 24th:

On Friday night, political infighting in Moscow spilled out into the open, with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, accusing the Russian military of attacking his forces and vowing to retaliate. In messages published on his official Telegram channel, Prigozhin also claimed that all of the Kremlin’s publicly stated reasons for launching the war in Ukraine were lies. Following these developments, Russia’s state security agency, the FSB, opened a criminal case against Prigozhin, accusing him of calling for an armed rebellion….

Russian TV

Prigozhin has seized control of Rostov-on-Don, the major logistical hub for the war in Ukraine, with vast stockpiles of munitions and supplies. He now has complete control of Russia’s ability to continue the war in Ukraine, giving him a strong negotiating position to settle his dispute with the Kremlin.

Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don Interview

At this stage, an advance on Moscow seems unlikely.

It is dangerous to predict how events will unfold. Already the window for negotiations is closing.

Rostov-on-Don

There are reports of Wagner seizing a second major city on the road to Moscow, meeting little opposition.

Voronezh

Tom Nichols in The Atlantic:

“Think of this conflict not as a contest between the Russian state and a mercenary group, but a falling out among gangsters, a kind of Mafia war…..

But no matter how this ends, Prigozhin has shattered Putin’s narrative, torching the war as a needless and even criminal mistake. That’s a problem for Putin that could outlast this rebellion.”

Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Moscow under the Obama administration, in the Journal of Democracy, February 2023:

Putin’s luck ran out in 2022. By launching a full-scale, barbaric invasion of Ukraine one year ago, Putin has caused horrific bloodshed and suffering in Ukraine, hurting the very “brothers and sisters” he supposedly seeks to “protect” while also failing to achieve most of his war aims. But Putin’s war in Ukraine has also triggered deep damage to his own country, especially to Russia’s armed forces, the economy, society, and, in the long run, to his own regime. Ironically, Putin’s destruction of democracy in Russia decades ago created the conditions for this disastrous decision in 2022 — a decision that may eventually unravel the very autocracy that he constructed and has been consolidating for so long.

Conclusion

Autocracy has two major flaws. First, no one wants to give an autocrat bad news. Dictators only get told what they want to hear, leaving them badly out of touch. Poor decision-making is the inevitable result.

Second, suppression may quell dissent but leaves no release for the buildup of underlying pressures, creating the illusion of stability but fueling the potential to explode into violence at any time.

A breakdown of law and order in Russia, while it may have long-term benefits, is a dangerous situation that could easily spiral out of control. With disastrous consequences not only for the people of Russia but for surrounding regions within Russia’s “sphere of influence”. Belarus, Georgia, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan….. all are at risk of unrest as opposing factions attempt to take advantage of a distracted Kremlin.

It also increases the risk of high-risk behavior in Ukraine from the Kremlin.

Zaporizhzia

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Nouriel Roubini: “We are in a debt trap”

Nouriel Roubini was mocked by the media — who christened him “Dr Doom” — because of his prescient warnings ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis.

He has now published a book identifying 10 mega-threats to the global economy.

First and foremost is the debt trap. Private and public debt has expanded from 100% of GDP in the 1970s, to 200% by 1999, 350% last year — advanced economies even higher at 420%, China at 330%. Inflation forces central banks to raise interest rates. High rates mean many debtors will be unable to repay.

If governments print money to bail out the economy they will cause further inflation — a tax on creditors and savers [negative real rates threaten collapse of the insurance and pension industry].

We face prolonged high inflation.

Central Banks hiking rates is misguided, economic crisis will be so damaging they will be forced to reverse course.

Supply shocks from pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war and China zero-COVID policy.

Fiscal deficits will rise due to increased spending on national security and reducing carbon emissions.

Twenty years of kicking the can down the road [short election cycle incentivizes this], with politicians unwilling to support short-term costs for long-term gain because they are unlikely to be in power to reap the rewards. Older voters are also unlikely to support change as they may not be around to reap the benefits.

Carbon emissions are increasing due to the energy crisis from Russia-Ukraine war. Carbon tax of $200/tonne required, currently $2.

We need to reduce our energy consumption.

Also increase productivity. Technology is the only solution. AI and automation could lift GDP growth, providing sufficient income to fund the changes needed.

But technology is also a threat. It provides more dangerous weapons which risk greater destruction in the next conflict.

Democracy is still the best system. Autocracies are often corrupt and way too much concentration of power [echo chamber] leads to mistakes. They also increase inequality and political instability.

Nouriel seems bullish on gold because of geopolitical tensions. Also “green metals” because of the need to reduce CO2 emissions.

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Putin’s war

“The economy of imaginary wealth is being inevitably replaced by the economy of real and hard assets”.

Vladimir Putin gave some insight, last week, into his strategy to force Europe to withdraw its support for Ukraine. It involves two steps:

  1. Use energy shortages to drive up inflation;
  2. Use inflation to undermine confidence in the Euro and Dollar.

Will Putin succeed?

There are plenty of signs that Europe is experiencing economic distress.

When asked whether he expected a wave of bankruptcies at the end of winter, Robert Habeck, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, replied:

Robert Habeck

Belgian PM Alexander De Croo also did not pull his punches:

“A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest.” (Twitter)

Steel plants are shutting down blast furnaces as rising energy prices make the cost of steel prohibitive. This is likely to have a domino effect on heavy industry and auto-manufacturers.

Europe: Steel Production

Aluminium smelters face similar challenges from rising energy costs.

Europe: Aluminium

How is the West responding?

Europe is reverting to coal to generate base-load power.

German Coal

And increasing shipments of LNG. Germany is building regasification plants and has leased floating LNG terminals but there are still bottlenecks as the network is not designed around receiving gas from Russia in the East, not ports in the West.

Europe LNG

Also, extending the life of nuclear power plants which were scheduled to be mothballed.

The new British prime minister, Liz Truss, is going further by lifting the ban on fracking. But new gas fields and related infrastructure will take years to build.

The President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement of increased investment in renewables will also be of little help. It takes about 7 years to build an offshore wind farm and the infrastructure to connect it to the grid.

Energy subsidies announced are likely to maintain current demand for energy instead of reducing it. A form of government stimulus, subsidies are also expected to increase inflation.

Price cap

The G7 has also responded by announcing a price cap on Russian oil. The hope is that the Russians will be forced to keep pumping but at a reduced price, avoiding the shortages likely under a full embargo.

Vladimir Putin, however, will try to create an energy crisis in an attempt to break Western resolve.

Russian Oil

Putin responded to the price cap at the Asian Economic Forum, on Wednesday, in Vladivostok:

“Russia is coping with the economic, financial and technological aggression of the West. I’m talking about aggression. There’s no other word for it…….

We will not supply anything at all if it is contrary to our interests, in this case economic. No gas, no oil, no coal, no fuel oil, nothing.”

Ed Morse at Citi has expressed concerns about the price cap, calling it “a poor judgement call as to timing.” His concerns focus on the political implications of Winter hardship in Europe, especially with upcoming elections in Italy, the potential effect of lower flows out of Russia, and the impact increased demand for US oil would have on domestic prices.

The Dollar

Attempts to undermine the Dollar have so far failed, with the Dollar Index climbing steadily as the Fed hikes interest rates.

Dollar Index

While Gold has fallen.

Spot Gold

Conclusion

The West is engaged in an economic war with Russia, while China and India sit on the sidelines. War typically results in massive fiscal deficits and soaring government debt, followed by high inflation and suppression of bond yields.

We expect high inflation caused by (1) energy shortages; and (2) government actions to alleviate hardships which threaten political upheaval.

The Fed and ECB are hiking interest rates to protect their currencies but that is likely to aggravate economic hardship and increase the need for government spending to alleviate political blow-back.

We maintain our bullish long-term view on Gold. Apart from its status as a safe haven — especially when the Dollar and Euro are under attack — we expect negative real interest rates to boost demand for Gold as a hedge against inflation. In the short-term, breach of support at $1700 per ounce would be bearish, while recovery above the descending trendline (above) would signal that a base is forming. Follow-through above $1800 would signal another test of resistance at $2000.

Acknowledgements

Brookings Institution: Discussion on the Price Cap
FT Energy Source: How Putin held Europe hostage over energy
Alfonso Peccatiello: Putin vs Europe – The Long War
Andreas Steno Larsen: What on earth is going on in European electricity markets?

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Fiona Hill | Putin is pushing our buttons

British-born Fiona Hill is an expert on Russia and Vladimir Putin and served as security adviser to US Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Her take on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that Vladimir Putin still thinks he is winning. The Kremlin has a far higher tolerance for troop losses than Western governments and Putin believes that he can grind out a victory of sorts. He thinks he has the upper hand in terms of leverage, through his influence on energy markets and food shortages, and is prepared to wait out the West — waiting for them to lose patience and attempt to force a negotiated settlement.

“Putin is a contingency planner. If one thing doesn’t work, he’ll try another. If things get dire, expect more nuclear sabre-rattling. They already rhetorically deployed nuclear weapons, and used them, on national television.

Bear in mind they take a very careful read of us and how we react. Think about when they moved through the Chernobyl exclusion zone into Ukraine….People said they wouldn’t possibly do that but they did. This scares the heck out of everyone….Same thing with Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. They deliberately shelled it. Think about the timing. It was just when Germany and Japan were considering recommissioning their nuclear power plants. All this happens because Putin knows he can push our buttons. He knows our fears and can play to those fears.”

The West has to get ahead of this. But we always tend to do things too late. Earlier action in Ukraine — in terms of supplying weapons — may have deterred Putin.

“Putin and the Kremlin have a major advantage: continuity. They have been in power for a long time and have no effective opposition.

The West, by contrast, has no continuity. This is the main obstacle to getting ahead of the game. Democracies tend to lose focus over time…..The more domestic problems you have, the more likely you are to lose focus.

….Putin’s business is to find points of leverage.

Political donations. Corruption. Germany’s pact with the devil — it’s economy is built on reliance on cheap Russian gas. We have to wind this all back.

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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

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War in Europe

If the West thought that the conflict would remain safely contained in Ukraine, they had better think again. There has long been signs that Putin’s ambitions cover more than just Ukraine.

Sweden & Finland

Twitter: Finland

Norway

Undersea fiber-optic cables to Svalbard Island were cut in two places.

Twitter: Norway

The Black Sea & Moldova

Twitter: Black Sea

Rostov, Russia

War is even spreading to within Russia itself, with Ukraine attacking a military airfield in Rostov Oblast (adjacent to the Donbas). Attacks on staging posts in Belarus are also likely.

Twitter: Rostov

NATO Article 5

Francois Heisbourg at the the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) warns that Putin may test NATO directly.

Twitter: Francois Heisbourg

Twitter: Francois Heisbourg

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