GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND POLITICS

Leo Haviland provides clients with original, provocative, cutting-edge fundamental supply/demand and technical research on major financial marketplaces and trends. He also offers independent consulting and risk management advice.

Haviland’s expertise is macro. He focuses on the intertwining of equity, debt, currency, and commodity arenas, including the political players, regulatory approaches, social factors, and rhetoric that affect them. In a changing and dynamic global economy, Haviland’s mission remains constant – to give timely, value-added marketplace insights and foresights.

Leo Haviland has three decades of experience in the Wall Street trading environment. He has worked for Goldman Sachs, Sempra Energy Trading, and other institutions. In his research and sales career in stock, interest rate, foreign exchange, and commodity battlefields, he has dealt with numerous and diverse financial institutions and individuals. Haviland is a graduate of the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa) and the Cornell Law School.

 

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CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE: US STOCKS © Leo Haviland, April 13, 2020

“Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
You’d think by now at least that half my brain would get the message…
Nothin’ ever happened ain’t happened before
I see it all through flashes of depression”. “Crawling from the Wreckage”, a Dave Edmunds song

“We’ve not seen anything of the sort before, that’s all. Personally, I find it interesting, yes, definitely interesting.” A character in Albert Camus’ novel “The Plague” (Part I)

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CONCLUSION

Everyone knows that the coronavirus pandemic and political (medical) responses to it have wreaked widespread and deep economic carnage around the globe. The coronavirus of course was not the only bearish phenomenon preceding and influencing the disastrous economic situation. The ultimate extent of the damage and the timing and extent of the recovery remain conjectural. 

Given the importance of the United States to the international economy, both Wall Street and Main Street spend much attention and energy focusing on America. Widely-watched American stock indices such as the S+P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are benchmarks which to some extent probably reflect the overall health of and potential for the American economy. Thus in the current situation, levels and trends for these American equity marketplaces attract and sustain international fascination.  

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To many, the biological (medical) problem of the coronavirus makes it a poster child for the viewpoint that “this time is different” in its consequences for economic (financial, commercial) trends and outcomes. Obviously, disease playing a critical role in a terrible downturn is very rare. Yet economic history (including recessions and bear and bull trends in stock marketplaces) involves all sorts of “causes” with supply and demand consequences, so observers should not neglect or dismiss past periods as being unimportant to an analysis of the current economic situation. So arguably there are parallels between prior marketplace history and that of nowadays, even if “the past” did not involve a deadly virus. 

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Wall Street, politicians, and Main Street pray that the monumental monetary interventions by central banks such as the Federal Reserve and its partners (money printing and so forth) and dramatic fiscal actions not only will rescue the international economy from its current dire troubles (reduce the magnitude of a recession), but also will restore acceptable economic growth relatively quickly. The prior success in dealing with the appalling worldwide economic disaster of 2007-09 encourages widespread faith that these (and perhaps further) efforts and a “whatever it takes” policy attitude ultimately will succeed. 

Recall the glorious bull move in the S+P 500, sparked by sustained monetary easing (money printing; yield repression) and deficit spending, which ran for over ten years since 3/6/09’s major bottom at 667. Perhaps US stocks over some long run horizon (or even sooner) even will achieve new record highs! 

But maybe this time will be different for the global economy and stocks in comparison with the years following from the 2007-09 bloodbath. A satisfactory recovery (including moderate unemployment levels) may be very difficult to achieve anytime soon, even if more easing and deficit spending occur. 

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The S+P 500’s fearful collapse from 3394 on 2/19/20 to 3/23/20’s 2192 was 35.4 percent and lasted just over a month. Following its March low, the S+P 500 ferociously rallied 28.6 percent in two weeks to 2819 (4/9/20). A review of previous major bear trends for the US stock marketplace going back in time about 125 years does not show a single trend which ended in one month. Will this time be different? 

Will the extraordinarily accommodative policies of the Federal Reserve and its central banking comrades (assisted by gargantuan global deficit spending) make this time different, so that the bear trend for American stocks which commenced in mid-February 2020 endures only one month? Or, will instead the 3/23/20 S+P 500 low eventually be broken?

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this article as a PDF file.
Crawling from the Wreckage- US Stocks (4-13-20)

SHAKIN’ ALL OVER: MARKETPLACE FEARS © Leo Haviland August 13, 2015

China’s recent shocking currency devaluation underscores not only that country’s ongoing growth slowdown, but also its leaders’ fears that real GDP expansion rates will ebb further. China of course is not the only emerging/developing nation nervous about insufficient output or even recessions. Trends in the broad real trade-weighted US dollar, emerging stock marketplaces, and commodities “in general” signal (confirm) slowing growth in both emerging and OECD economies. Moreover, recent pronouncements by the International Monetary Fund regarding the central bank policies of key advanced countries manifest widespread worries about growth in these well-developed territories. Despite about seven years of highly accommodative monetary policies such as yield repression and money printing (and frequently bolstered by hefty deficit spending), the foundations of worldwide growth increasingly look shaky.

China’s devaluation assists the long-running bull charge in the broad real trade-weighted US dollar (“TWD”). China represents about 21.3 percent of the TWD (Federal Reserve, H.10).

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Are central banks and politicians always devoted to so-called “free markets”? To what extent do they restrict themselves from entering into and manipulating marketplaces?

In any case, the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and Bank of England have long been married (roughly seven years) to highly accommodative monetary policies. They do not seem to be in a rush to change them substantially anytime soon. The Fed’s apparent willingness to make a minor (gradual) boost in the Federal Funds rate in the near term is not a dramatic shift in its highly accommodative policy.

Inflation (and interest rate) and unemployment targets are not divorced from opinions regarding what constitutes sufficient (appropriate; desirable) real GDP growth levels and trends. An economic boom currently does not exist in the OECD in general. So if substantial “normalization” of monetary policy is not imminent among key advanced nations, then arguably central bankers believe that prospective growth GDP probably will remain rather feeble for at least the near term.

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Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan coined the phrase, “irrational exuberance” (Speech, “The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society, 12/5/96). About two decades later, this financial guardian proclaimed (Bloomberg Television interview, 8/10/15): “I think we have a pending bond market bubble.” Of course, as in 1996, defining and identifying a bubble and predicting when (and why and how) it will pop and the consequences of such an event remains challenging.

Flights to quality can play a role in creating low interest rate yields, particularly in the safe haven government debt securities of countries such as the United States and Germany. However, sustained yield suppression by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and others, which motivates avid searches for yield (return) in assorted financial playgrounds (including stocks), surely encourages low interest rates in both government and many other debt arenas. Think of corporate bonds. In any case, suppose there is a bond price bubble (“too high” or “overvalued” bond prices; too depressed yields) in the United States. So presumably as various marketplaces interconnect in today’s global economy, if American bond prices are at bubble levels, then arguably prices in other realms, as in the S+P 500, some real estate sectors, or the art world (painting), consequently could be inflated.

Were the S+P 500, US real estate, and art at the end of the Goldilocks Era in 2007 rather lofty?

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Shakin' All Over- Marketplace Fears (8-13-15)