Showing posts with label Weimar Republic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weimar Republic. Show all posts

Friday, January 17, 2020

Confluence Of Impeachment, Virginia State Of Emergency, Peter Schweizer Book Could Damage Stocks

With stocks soaring to even higher new record highs again on Thursday, there's little doubt over the levles of irrationality and exuberance being displayed by the hoi poloi investing elite, their magic money spigot at the Fed and their marvelous algorithms which interpret all news as positive for stocks.

It is precisely in conditions such as these (the Dow Jones Industrial Average has vaulted over 29,000 with ease and is up a stunning 3,219 points since October 3rd, a 12.3% gain in just three-and-a-half months. The time period in question coincides neatly with the Federal Reserve's stoking engagement into the repo market, pumping, by some estimates, over $1.5 trillion into the hands of primary dealers and hedge funds, ramping the Fed's own balance sheet by more than $413.7 billion since the end of August.

The Fed's particular brand of irrational exuberance is at a pace reminiscent of prior bouts of QE in 2009, 2010-11, and 2012-14, even though the Fed cutely insists this is "not QE." Balderdash.

Normally, nobody gets alarmed over gigantic gains in stocks, giving their overall pleasant scent (go ahead, you know you want to sniff your currency) and beneficial purchasing power, but this severe repricing of stocks is beginning to look Weimar-like, when stocks in 1920s Weimar Germany rose by obscene percentages, but cashing in hundreds of shares could only purchase a day's worth of food due to the overarching hyperinflation of the currency.

Not to say that the same is or will be happening in the United States, though signs of runaway inflation are prevalent, but something may go wrong at some point that tears the social construct and eventually affects stocks and currency.

Consider that a confluence of events are about to take place between now and Tuesday, January 21. Equity and security markets will be closed over the weekend and on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday. In the meantime, there's already a state of emergency declared in Richmond, Virginia with concern over the gun rights rally set up for Lobby Day on Monday.

On Tuesday, the impeachment trial of President Trump begins in the Senate.

Also on Tuesday, Peter Schweizer's new book, Profiles in Corruption drops. On the book's cover are the faces of Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and others. Uh, Oh, it's already at #3 on Amazon's Best Sellers list.

Tuesday may be too late to get out of positions, so if there's some quiet pullback on Friday, it could be a tell.

At the Close, Thursday, January 16, 2020:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 29,297.64, +267.44 (+0.92%)
NASDAQ: 9,357.13, +98.43 (+1.06%)
S&P 500: 3,316.81, +27.52 (+0.84%)
NYSE Composite: 14,141.78, +88.58 (+0.63%)

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Yellen's Congressional Testimony Fails to Inspire Confidence

As Janet Yellen testified to the House of Representatives (on Thursday, she speaks and takes questions from the Senate), stocks hung on her every, stuttering, stammering word, but eventually fell in late trading as the Fed Chair seemed a bit too concerned about recent data, stock declines and global tensions to allow congress or investors any happy talk on the now-stalled "recovery."

S&P: 1851.86, -0.35 (-0.02%)
Dow: 15914.74, -99.64 (-0.62%)
NASDAQ: 4283.59, +14.83 (+).35%)

As per this article, JP Morgan economists are now "not all that worried" about negative interest rates in the US, my response:

Of course, negative interest rates are the embodiment of absolute insanity, madness of the markets. Whats worse, perhaps, is that some commentators are touting that this will bring on hyperinflation, though none of them explain the mechanism.

Here at Money Daily, the widely-held belief is that if rates go any lower, we will have an outright deflationary depression, or, an extension of the deflationary depression which has been underway since 2008. We've been hearing about hyperinflation for years now, and, while there admittedly is some inflation, there's more deflation, especially when it comes to cash.

If the banks go NIRP and put on more capital controls (ban on cash not going to actually occur in some places), cash will surely be king, as it was in the Great Depression. Gold and silver should be worth even more, but that's not until the COMEX gets stung (still waiting on that one).

Anybody who's read "When Money Dies" by Adam Fergusson should recall that during Germany's Weimar, the farmers were barely affected until near the end when hordes of people came out from the cities and actually slaughtered animals and raided crop stores.

There's a free PDF, though this is not recommended for everyone - it's somewhat dense:

When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar …

In the meantime, farmers figure on getting started with seedlings in about three weeks here in (now, finally) snowy upstate NY. Then, investors with any sense should go long vegetable stands. If the banks want to charge money to hold cash, figure people will be more than willing to exchange it for FOOD.

The central bankers have lost their minds. Ask a farmer about storage costs for cash and you'll probably hear, after a long, sidewards stare, that he'd be happy to help you out, since he has plenty of storage for livestock, tools, equipment, produce, and his family (commonly known as a home or household).

People in a city or large town/village should be concerned. Out in the country, not an issue. Besides, this madness will only last - at best - a year. Donald Trump will be president and life will get better. We are (pun intended) banking on it.

This, from a poster called "The Continental," is apropos:

Positive interest rates cause capital to form. Negative interest rates destroy capital.

The banks are desperate to prevent the bond bubble from collapse and are extrapolating to negative interest rates. In short, it's game over for the dollar and its fiat currency brethren.

Central bank reserves were growing exponentially after 1948 up to mid 2014 whilst going vertical they suddenly stopped and plateaued. In the last year, ~$1 trillion of reserves have "disappeared" the collective balance sheets of the world. This means that cash/credit dollars are being created while counterbalancing bonds are being destroyed. This is monetization at its worst. The reserve base of the currency is slowly vanishing.

In the short run, cash dollars will become scarce and valuable. In the long run there is nothing, not even bonds, backing cash dollars and they will collapse (hyperinflate) when trillions of dollars return home looking for assets to convert to.

Buying physical gold (and silver) at any price is not only a no brainer vis-à-vis protecting capital; it is financial suicide not to buy gold.