Friday, November 20, 2009

The Great Recovery Hoax of 2009-2010

I love this article, despite how terrifying it is:

By Marin D. Weiss, Ph.D.

There can be no debate that, in each of these episodes, things did go up: The Nasdaq soared before it crashed. The median price of U.S. homes skyrocketed before it collapsed. And now, the U.S. economy has reversed course - from four consecutive quarters of contraction to at least one quarter of expansion.

There also can be no doubt that these trends do not end overnight. They can continue for months - often plowing over skeptics and even exceeding the expectations of believers.

Most important, however, there can be no question that all three of these episodes have had one key element in common that ultimately self-destructs: Massive intervention, support, and free money from Washington.

To get a solid sense of how that's unfolding this time around, pay close attention to these three independent economists:

Jim Grant, Founder and Editor,
Grant's Interest Rate Observer

Jim Grant, originator of the "Current Yield" column in Barron's and founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, demonstrates not only that today's recovery is bought and paid for by Washington ... but also that the relative size of Washington's intervention is even larger than you might think.

In the ten prior U.S. postwar recessions, the government responded, on average, with fiscal stimulus of 2.6 percent of GDP plus monetary stimulus of another 0.3 percent of GDP.
Combined stimulus: only 2.9 percent of GDP.

In contrast, during the current recession, the government has counter-attacked with fiscal stimulus amounting to an estimated 18 percent of GDP ... plus monetary stimulus of an estimated 11.9 percent of GDP.
Combined stimulus: a whopping 29.9 percent of GDP.
That's an unprecedented - and unimaginable - ten times more than the average stimulus of prior recessions.

Grant's comparison of today's government stimulus with that of the Great Depression is even more striking:

He points out that, in the early 1930s, GDP fell 27 percent, while the government responded with monetary and fiscal stimulus adding up to 8.3 percent of GDP.
Thus, using Grant's numbers, I calculate that, for each percentage point our economy contracted, the U.S. government came forward with 0.31 percentage points of stimulus.

In contrast, in the current recession, U.S. GDP contracted 1.8 percent (at the time of Grant's study) ... while, as we just noted, the government's stimulus has amounted to 29.9 percent of GDP.
Thus, for each percentage point that our economy contracted, the U.S. government has jumped in with 16.61 percentage points of stimulus.

Conclusion:

Relative to the disease, the government's "cure" for the Great Recession today packs 54 times more firepower than the government's response to the Great Depression of the early 1930s. And this does not even include trillions more in U.S. government guarantees to shore up the financial system.

Proponents of the government's intervention may try to convince you "this is what it takes to avoid another depression: We've got to attack the contagion with big guns!"

However, Grant worries, rightfully so, that the cure may be far worse than the disease:

"If it's taking this much to revive today's economy," he asks, "what kind of jolt might be necessary to succor tomorrow's? An even bigger shock, we surmise, if tomorrow's economy is no less encumbered than today's. But it's almost certain to be more encumbered, since the active ingredient of the Bush-Obama palliative is credit formation, the very hair of the dog that bit us. Skipping down to the bottom line, we renew our doubts as to the staying power of the paper currencies and to the creditworthiness of the governments that print them."1

John Williams, Founder and Editor,
Shadow Government Statistics

John Williams is the economist who has single-handedly and repeatedly poked big holes in the government's data that tracks price inflation, unemployment, money supply and the economy as a whole.

In his Shadow Government Statistics alert of October 29, he pokes an equally large hole in Washington's pitch that the third-quarter rise in GDP announced last week is "sustainable." His main points:

All U.S. recessions in the last four decades have had at least one positive quarter-to-quarter GDP reading, followed by a renewed downturn. This one could turn out to be no different.
The estimate of 3.5 percent annualized real growth for third-quarter GDP included a 1.7 percent gain from auto sales, a 0.6 percent gain from new residential construction, and a 0.9 percent gain from a largely-involuntary inventory buildup (caused by sales declines which are deeper than corporate planners expect).
In sum, these one-time stimulus or inventory items represented 92 percent of the reported quarterly growth.2 Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies Cato Institute

Chris Edwards - formerly a senior economist on the congressional Joint Economic Committee examining tax issues and currently a Director at the Cato Institute - exposes another gaping hole in the 3.5 percent growth reported by the government last week:

While the government's share of the economy has grown steadily ... the contribution from private investment has fallen through the floor.

He writes:

"The third quarter GDP numbers show that the economy is only starting to 'recover' because of growing government and expanding consumption, which has been artificially inflated by large government transfers.

"Business investment continues to be in a deep recession. Companies are simply not building factories or buying new machines and equipment.

"Why not? I suspect that many firms are scared to death of higher taxes, inflation, health care mandates, increased labor regulation, and other profit-killers coming down the road from Washington."3

Edwards goes on to say that it's too soon to speculate on underlying causes. But I would add that an equally bloody killer of private investment is the diversion of scarce credit from small and medium-sized businesses to wild-and-wooly Wall Street speculation, as Mike Larson has pointed out here week after week.

It's all part and parcel of the Great Recovery Hoax of 2009-2010.

Like the great bubbles of recent memory, it could continue. But it will ultimately end in disaster.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Will we ever learn?

0% interest rates...it's no wonder the markets are doing so well...

But I still am not buying (unless it's a Manny Backus or Flag Trader short term long.)

Larry Levin edited this Wall St. Journal article for us...and, all I can say is, I might consider buying some way OTM, cheap puts. This is worth reading, especially since this is supposed to be a Forex blog:

For many investors, in fact, the cost of money is effectively less than zero, as economist Nouriel Roubini likes to point out. If you borrow dollars at near zero percent interest in the United States, exchange the dollars for Thai bhat, and invest the bhat in government bonds paying 4 or 5 percent, you not only get the benefit of the interest rate arbitrage but you also gain when you sell the bond and exchange the bhat back into dollars that have since depreciated. Roubini calls it "the mother of all carry trades," and in recent months he calculates that it has been generating annualized returns for investors of 50 to 70 percent.

This carry trade is now so widespread that it has become a major factor driving down the value of the dollar against many other currencies and driving up the flow of hot money into a number of developing countries. Not only has it spawned stock, bond, or real estate bubbles in those countries, but it's also driven up the value of their currencies to the point that their exports are less competitive relative to countries, including China, that peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar. To counteract these trends, central banks in Thailand, South Korea, Russia and the Philippines have intervened in currency markets, buying up dollars and selling their own currencies. Hong Kong has tightened up on lending rules, while Brazil has put a 2 percent tax on capital inflows. Taiwan has banned foreigners from making certain types of bank deposits.

There's no way to know how long all this can continue before one of these bubbles finally bursts, the dollar spikes upward and investors all rush to unwind their trades at the same time. But it is a good guess that it will last as long as the Fed and other central banks indicate there is no end in sight for the current cheap-money regime. The longer they wait, the bigger the bubbles, and the bigger the mess to clean up.

All of which is why the recent statements by policymakers were so disappointing -- and so dangerous.

Despite the junk-bond and real estate bubbles of the late 1980s, the tech bubble and Asian financial crises of the 1990s and the credit bubble of recent years, the Fed stubbornly clings to an outmoded way of thinking and talking about the economy and monetary policy. Fed officials tend to give little weight to such "extraneous" factors such as asset prices, currency movements and capital flow, at least in public, and fear that focusing on them will cause them to lose sight of their core inflation-fighting mission. Moreover, like his predecessor, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke still believes central bankers aren't smart enough to tell when a bubble has developed -- and even if they could, it would probably cause more harm than good to try to do something about it.

New possible trades

9:28 a.m. Looking to short sell SPWRA at or close to $23, and to buy MRVL at or close to $16

Monday, November 16, 2009

Real Trading techniques

I keep telling all my readers how great the accounts in this blog are doing in large part to Adam Hewison and Market Club...AND I'M EXHAUSTED!

So, I decided to let Adam do the talking about something that is near and dear to my heart:


First of all I want to thank you for having me as a guest today!

My name is Adam Hewison. You might want to Google Me to confirm what I am about to share with you.

There are plenty of people out there that create “exclusive email courses” with little or no credentials to actually backup their teachings. So, I think it’s right that I share a little bit about myself with you before we even start.

I was a former floor trader on the IMM, IOM, NYFE and LIFFE as well as a risk manager of a large, multinational corporation in Geneva, Switzerland. I also have written books on forex trading and trend following. In 1995, I founded INO.com and later co-founded MarketClub. I’ve been in the trading biz for over three decades and have seen it all. I created this course as a way to give back and share trading tips and techniques that I still use in my trading today.

In my Free Mini Email Course, I will show and explain the tools and strategies you need to increase your success rate in the marketplace.

(1) The importance of psychology in price movement

(2) How to spot mega trends

(3) Understanding of technical price objectives

(4) How to picture price objectives

(5) How to trade with moving averages

(6) How to use point and figure trading techniques

(7) How to use the RSI indicator

(8) How to correctly use stochastics in your trading

(9) How to use the ADX indicator to capture trends

(10) How to capitalize on natural market cycles.

Plus, you will you will learn all about fibonacci retracements, MACD, Bollinger Bands and much more.

Just fill out the form and we’ll get you started right away.

Every success,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com & Co-Creator, MarketClub

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Is the Party Over in Oil?

Fundamentally...all I ever hear on CNBC is how much inventory there is in oil. It's stored 'here' and 'there'...and then you hear stories about how a huge part of the Chinese coastline is dotted with tankers full of oil.

Then today Market Club came out with a new DOWN arrow in oil on the weekly. Weekly indicators are much more valuable. Guys...it's free for 30 days...try it. This blog's accounts are doing great, and a lot of that is due to Market Club.


This is the kind of email I get every few hours....

MarketClub Smart Scan Alert for CL.Z09.E Weekly Trade Triangles CRUDE OIL Dec 2009 (E) (NYMEX_CL.Z09.E) is trading at 76.94 +0.59 (+0.77%) and has triggered a new LOW for a Red Weekly Trade Triangle.

CL.Z09.E Streaming Chart
http://www.ino.com/info/191/CD3603/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=8
CL.Z09.E Chart Analysis Details
http://www.ino.com/info/191/CD3603/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=8