Tag: debt crisis

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UK & Europe: Closer to the breach

Europe inches closer to the point when the artificial levee, built to protect European banks from market forces, is breached. Germany and France delay the inevitable while they attempt to restore bank balance sheets — by widening interest margins at the expense of depositors and transferring risky bonds to the European Central Bank . They do their utmost to avert a Greek default, because of contagion risk to the rest of the euro-zone, but their actions merely encourage more strident demands from Greece. If the levee breaks, damage will be that much greater because of the build-up of market forces behind the artificial barrier.

Spain’s Madrid General Index broke support at the 2009 low of 700, signaling another primary decline with an immediate target of 600*. Reversal of 13-week Twiggs Money Flow below zero reinforces the signal.

Madrid General Index

* Target calculation: 750 – ( 900 – 750 ) = 600

Italy’s MIB Index broke primary support at 13000, confirming the earlier signal from 63-day Twiggs Momentum and offering a long-term target of 10000*. Recovery above 13500 is unlikely but would warn of a bear trap.

Italy MIB Index

* Target calculation: 13500 – ( 17000 – 13500 ) = 10000

Germany’s DAX broke support at 6500 and is testing the rising trendline. Support remains strong, with 13-week Twiggs Money Flow holding above zero, but breach of the rising trendline and breach of short-term support at 6200 would indicate a test of primary support at 5400.

Germany DAX Index

France’s CAC-40 is also headed for a test of primary support at 2800. Reversal of 13-week Twiggs Money Flow below zero warns of selling pressure. Failure of primary support would offer a long-term target of 2000*.

France CAC-40 Index

* Target calculation: 2800 – ( 3600 – 2800 ) = 2000

The FTSE 100 found short-term support at 5300 but breach of the rising trendline and 63-Day Twiggs Momentum below zero warn of a primary down-trend. Failure of primary support at 5000/5050 would offer a long-term target of 4000*.

FTSE 100 Index

* Target calculation: 5000 – ( 6000 – 5000 ) = 4000

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EconoMonitor : EconoMonitor » Europe’s Depressing Prospects: Two Reasons Why Spain Will Leave the Euro

Michael Pettis: I think Spain [and all the peripheral European countries are similarly uncompetitive] will leave the euro because it seems to me that the country has already started on the self-reinforcing downward spiral that leads to a crisis, and there is no one big enough to reverse the spiral.

How does this process work? It turns out that it is pretty straightforward, and occurs during every one of the sovereign financial crises we have seen in modern history. When a sufficient level of doubt arises about sovereign credibility, all the major economic stakeholders in that country begin to change their behavior in ways that exacerbate the problem of credibility.

Of course as credibility is eroded, this further exacerbates the behavior of these stakeholders. In that case bankruptcy comes, as Hemingway is reported to have said, at first slowly, and then all of a sudden, as the country moves slowly at first and then rapidly towards a breakdown in its debt capacity.

via EconoMonitor : EconoMonitor » Europe’s Depressing Prospects: Two Reasons Why Spain Will Leave the Euro.

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Europe's nuclear brinkmanship with Greece is a lethal game – Telegraph Blogs

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Polls show that 70pc or even 80pc of Greeks still wish to stay in the euro, while at the same voting in large numbers for hard-Left and hard-Right parties committed to tearing up the Memorandum – a course of action that will take them straight out of the euro.

I do not wish to reproach the Greeks for cognitive dissonance. We all do this, and besides, euro membership is more than just a currency for Greece. It is the anchor of identity for an isolated Balkan nation living cheek by jowl with the Ottoman nemesis……..

The chief danger is not for Greece. It is for the rest of the eurozone. If the German political establishment is unwise enough to force Greece out of EMU on the assumption that the country is a special case, it will be disabused of this illusion very quickly.

via Europe’s nuclear brinkmanship with Greece is a lethal game – Telegraph Blogs.

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German Adjustment – NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman: Germany believes that its successful adjustment was the result of its own virtue, but in reality it was successful in large part because of an inflationary boom in the rest of Europe.

And here’s the thing: the Germans are now demanding that the European periphery replicate its achievement (and actually surpass it, because the required adjustment is much bigger) without providing a comparably favorable environment — they’re demanding that Spain and others do what they never did, which is deflate their way to competitiveness.

This is a road to disaster.

via German Adjustment – NYTimes.com.

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Ex-Fed Kohn: 'Huge Risk' US Won't Take Steps On Debt, Deficit By Year End

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones) – There is a real danger U.S. authorities won’t take the necessary steps to fix the country’s debt and deficit problems between the elections and the end of this year, former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said Monday. “What’s required to put the fiscal deficit on a sustainable path are some difficult decisions having to do with entitlement spending and taxes in the United States,” Kohn said at the Europlace forum……. Kohn added the U.S. political system has become “soap opera-ized” with such a huge gulf between the country’s political parties there is a real risk debt and deficit will continue to grow past the end of this year.

via Ex-Fed Kohn: ‘Huge Risk’ US Won’t Take Steps On Debt, Deficit By Year End.

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Sowing Seeds of the Next Major Crisis – WSJ News Hub

Francesco Guerrera: “Prolonged intervention by the authorities is creating fundamental distortions in the financial markets. They are in my view going to create the next crisis.”

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John Mauldin: Hoisington Q1 Review and Outlook

John Mauldin: Lacy Hunt kicks things off with a bang in Hoisington’s Quarterly Review and Outlook, this week’s Outside the Box:

“The standard of living of the average American continues to fall.”

The reason, in a word: debt. Lacy explains what happens:
“Efforts by fiscal and monetary authorities to sustain growth by further debt accumulation may produce some short-term benefit. Sadly, these interludes fade quickly as the debt becomes more destabilizing. The net result of increased indebtedness then becomes the opposite of what policymakers intend when they promote economic growth by either borrowing funds for increased government expenditures or encourage consumers to borrow with artificial and temporary incentives.”

In other words, you can’t get to real, sustained growth of an economy by growing debt after a certain point — one that, sadly, we have already reached.

John Mauldin: Hoisington Q1 Review and Outlook.

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Europe’s Economic Suicide – NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman: If European leaders really wanted to save the euro they would be looking for an alternative course. And the shape of such an alternative is actually fairly clear. The Continent needs more expansionary monetary policies, in the form of a willingness — an announced willingness — on the part of the European Central Bank to accept somewhat higher inflation; it needs more expansionary fiscal policies, in the form of budgets in Germany that offset austerity in Spain and other troubled nations around the Continent’s periphery, rather than reinforcing it. Even with such policies, the peripheral nations would face years of hard times. But at least there would be some hope of recovery.

What we’re actually seeing, however, is complete inflexibility. In March, European leaders signed a fiscal pact that in effect locks in fiscal austerity as the response to any and all problems. Meanwhile, key officials at the central bank are making a point of emphasizing the bank’s willingness to raise rates at the slightest hint of higher inflation.

via Europe’s Economic Suicide – NYTimes.com.

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"The Big Easing" by Daniel Gros | Project Syndicate

The banks that are parking their money [about €1 trillion] at the ECB receiving only 0.25% interest are clearly not the same ones that are taking out three-year loans [€1.15 trillion] at 1%. The deposits come largely from northern European banks mainly German and Dutch, and LTRO loans go largely to banks in southern Europe mainly Italy and Spain. In other words, the ECB has become the central counterparty to a banking system that is de facto segmented along national lines. The real problem for the ECB is that it is not properly insured against the credit risk that it is taking on. The 0.75% spread between deposit and lending rates yielding €7.5 billion per year does not provide much of a cushion against the losses that are looming in Greece, where the ECB has €130 billion at stake.

via “The Big Easing” by Daniel Gros | Project Syndicate.

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EconoMonitor » All Feasts Must Come to an End: China’s Debt & Investment Fuelled Growth

Satyajit Das: New lending by Chinese banks in 2009 and 2010 was around 40% of GDP. New bank loans in 2009 and 2010 totalled around $1.1-1.4 trillion, an increase from $740 billion in 2008. Total outstanding loans in the economy have jumped by nearly 50 per cent over the past two years.

Around 90% of this lending was directed towards investment in building, plant, machinery and infrastructure by State Owned Enterprises (“SOE”). In 2010, China allocated over $2.6 trillion to investment expenditure – the highest proportion of GDP of any major economy in the world. According to the World Bank, almost all of China’s growth since 2008 has come from “government influenced expenditure”.

via EconoMonitor : EconoMonitor » All Feasts Must Come to an End: China’s Debt & Investment Fuelled Growth, Part 1.

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