Retirement Options Dwindle

The recession, the housing crisis, increasing taxes and a turbulent employment landscape has made it nearly impossible for many people nearing retirement to do so comfortably, according to a recent study. The report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that employer-provided retirement plans and other savings vehicles will not be adequate to fund retirement even for those who have saved, and that the news is even worse in the black community. Moreover, it appears government is looking to cut retirement plan benefits further, which means the problem is only going to get worse. For more on this continue reading the following article from Economist’s View. 

The "news isn’t good" about the shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pension plans:

Declining Wealth Brings a Rising Retirement Risk, by Bruce Bartlett, Commentary, NY Times: ...[In] defined-benefit ... pension plans..., workers are promised a specific income at retirement, which the employer provides. The employer bears all the risk of market fluctuations. Under a defined contribution scheme, such as a 401(k) plan, the worker and the employer jointly contribute to a tax-deductible and tax-deferred account from which the worker will finance retirement. ...

Now the first generation of workers who have virtually all their pension saving in defined-contribution plans is nearing retirement, and the news isn’t good. According to a March 19 report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, only about half of workers nearing retirement have confidence that they have enough money saved for an adequate retirement.

Not surprisingly, retirement saving has taken a back seat to more pressing concerns – coping with unemployment, maintaining standards of living during an era of slow wage growth, putting children through increasingly expensive colleges and so on. ...

This problem is much more severe for black Americans. ... The wealth gap isn’t only racial, it’s generational...

What’s really depressing about these studies is the lack of solutions and the likelihood that the problem will only get worse.

Republicans in Congress have pressed for years to convert Social Security, a classic defined-benefit pension, into a defined contribution plan, and also to convert Medicare into a voucher program. These changes would shift even more of the financial risk in retirement onto families that have yet to adapt to fundamental changes in employer pensions and the economy over the last 30 years. The future doesn’t look pretty.

Members of Congress appear to be eager to cut retirement benefits even further to show they can make the hard choices (and the president seems to be on board). They should raise the payroll cap instead, but the "hard choice" that would hit the people who can afford it isn't under consideration. It's not hard to imagine why.
 

This blog post was republished with permission from The Economist's View.

Investors Becoming More Risk-Averse

The Great Recession triggered what appeared to be a significant response from legislators who enacted laws to curb the risky behavior of banks and lenders in an effort to instill more confidence in the U.S. financial system. Even so, investment patterns indicate many investors don’t believe much has changed at all and recent headlines bear out their concerns. As more big banks get drawn into the Libor rate-fixing scandal and shareholders reel from dangerous speculation at JPMorgan Chase and brokerage fraud in Iowa, taking on risk seems like a dangerous prospect for more and more investors. For more on this continue reading the following article from Iacono Research.

This Reuters report has a pretty concise summary of the many recent events that have combined to make investors skittish about taking on risk and turning a skeptical view of Wall Street and big banks into one of outright mistrust. That certainly helps to explain why Treasury prices were bid so high today that yields were pushed down to their lowest level since sometime in the 1800s (!?!).

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

After the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression almost took the global economy over a cliff, tough new regulations and stronger internal controls at the world’s major banks were meant to help restore confidence in the financial system.
But recent headlines have some top investors and strategists questioning whether there has been any progress at all.

The horror stories include the deepening scandal that big banks rigged Libor, the benchmark international lending rate; JPMorgan Chase’s mounting losses from disastrous credit bets and a possible cover-up attempt; and the disappearance of customer funds from Iowa futures broker PFGBest, discovered after its founder tried to commit suicide and left a note outlining a 20-year fraud.

Add in the problems surrounding the botched trading debut by Facebook as well as the insider trading scandal that led to the conviction of hedge fund managers and big name businessmen such as former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta — and the picture isn’t pretty.

It wouldn’t be so bad, save for the fact that, after the financial crisis and Great Recession, reforms were supposedly passed into law that would prevent reckless operators of the the Wall Street casino from again threatening the global economy. Historians will surely look back at the 2008-2012 period and shake their heads at the response to the crisis by policy makers around the world.

This blog post was republished with permission from Tim Iacono.

Silver Sees Another Interesting Day

The silver price approached $50 an ounce and then fell back dramatically indicating that there could be future fireworks sparking. Read more in this full post by The Mess That Greenspan Made.

Let’s see… Trading volume for the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSE:SLV) reached a stunning 189 million shares yesterday (seven times that of the QQQ ETF) and options trading reached similar lofty heights as the silver price approached $50 an ounce and then fell back, all in dramatic fashion. After hours it was disclosed that the “tonnes in the trust” at SLV reached a new record high at 11,390 tonnes after a massive 240 tonne addition.

It could be another interesting day ahead for the metal. Then again, markets may want to rest up a bit before tomorrow’s big press conference with Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, after which there may be some even bigger fireworks.

This article was republished with permission from The Mess That Greenspan Made.

Is silver unstoppable?

Silver surged today by more than a dollar and shows no signs of slowing. Is it unstoppable? Read more in this post by The Mess That Greenspan Made.

It looks like the silver price just won’t be stopped, earlier today surging by more than a dollar and breaching the $42 an ounce mark to “a fresh 31-year high”, a phrase that may finally be replaced with simply “a record high” in another week or two based on the 1980 high for the silver price of about $48 an ounce and its current trajectory.

As this is written, it stands almost alone in the commodities sector with gains for the day. I can’t help but share the thoughts of Mitsui Precious Metals analyst David Jollie who, last week, commented "There are good fundamental reasons supporting silver. What is difficult to know is the difference between those, and a normal investment flow, and an investment flow that is driven by the price."

This blog was republished with permission from The Mess That Greenspan Made.

One Investors Strategy For The New Year

Are you trying to figure out what to invest in this year? Well Toni Straka from Prudent Investor, knows what his investment portfolio will be made up of in 2011. Read the following post to learn more about Straka's strategies and predictions for the new year.

BONDS: The 20-year interest rate downtrend reversed in 4Q10: Short all government bonds (and hope your counter party will remain solvent.)

Rising rates will become the tightening noose for all debtors. Mortgage holders may find comfort by switching to fixed rate contracts as far out as possible.

SHARES: As inflation heats up, go long energy, food stocks (and convert ensuing profits into gold.) Underweight consumer (durables) products in a cool economic environment, short debt-laden financials, especially the "dumb money" insurance sector.

DERIVATIVES: Stay away from all OTC instruments as your contract will ultimately only be worth as much as your counter party can pay. Square all derivatives in disguise like ETFs.

COMMODITIES: Buy silver as it is still 70% away from its nominal high seen in 1980 and has a dual use as money and industrial resource. Take profits once gold:silver ratio has descended to 1:30 and reenter after technical consolidation. All other commodities have reversed and have overshot the mean by now.

CURRENCIES: Buy the real stuff - gold. All other fiat currencies are just a claim on some central bank counter party and historically they have all wrecked their product via inflation in the last 300 years.

Once you have done this handful of trades, turn off the charts, lean back, contemplate the world and check back here in January 2012.

This post was republished with permission from The Prudent Investor.

Phoenix Real Estate Market Showing Signs Of Life

The Phoenix real estate market was one of the hardest hit when the housing bubble popped, and it looks like it might be one of the first to rebound. Buyers are beginning to show heightened interested in the market, with one of the most attractive features being that buying is basically as cheap as renting. Typically when buying is cheaper than renting, people will buy — if they are able. However, with a tightened lending market, millions out of work and many with tarnished credit, the buyer pool is seemingly shrinking. Despite that, the Phoenix market appears to be on the right track, though, Tim Iacono cautions that this could be a small boom created by artificially low interest rates. Foreclosures are continuing to flood the market, and once interest rates go back up the new quasi-bubble could pop.

Evidence is mounting that when home prices tumble by more than 50 percent and the Fed keeps mortgage rates at freakishly low levels, people will buy houses. This report from the LA Times talks of a resurgence in home buying where prices have fallen the furthest.

After four years of renting because they were priced out of the real estate market, Jamia Jenkins and Scott Renshaw concluded the time had arrived for them to buy.

They saw that home prices had dropped so fast here -- faster than in any other big city in the nation -- that mortgage payments would be less than the $900 they paid in rent. The city is littered with foreclosed houses, so the couple figured they could easily snatch up something in the low $100,000s.

Three months later, they're still looking. They have submitted 13 offers and been overbid each time. "It's just pathetic," said Jenkins, 53. "Investors are going out there and outbidding everyone."

While many now cheer the arrival of a housing market bottom this year - more likely in real estate sales than in prices paid - you have to wonder what's going to happen in another year or two when long-term interest rates are much higher.

For example, at today's artificially low mortgage rates, you can get a 30-year loan of $170,000 for about $900, similar to what the couple above is planning. But at the far more typical rates of seven or eight percent, that payment moves up by one-third to about $1,200.

Stated another way, that same $900 payment only buys $130,000 worth of housing - not the $170,000 as indicated above - absent the freakishly low interest rates, something that is a near certainty in the years ahead.

Naturally, that doesn't stop people from buying, as the 2006 fever seems to have returned...

Phoenix's housing bust has turned into a quasi-boom, a sign that its market may have hit bottom and a sneak preview of what a national housing recovery could look like.

More homes are selling than at any time since 2006. Prices are slowly stabilizing. Buyers are once again finding themselves in frantic bidding wars -- only this time over foreclosed houses selling at deep discounts rather than ranch homes listing for vast sums.

"The free market is at work," said Shannon Hubbard, a real estate agent and blogger here. "Prices got driven down so much that people said, 'I'm going to come out and play.' "
Home prices continue to plummet or tread water in much of the nation, but there have been tentative signs of life. Pending home sales rose 3.2% nationally in April, the second month of increases after a record low in January.

John Burns Real Estate Consulting in February identified Phoenix as "the most unique market in the nation," where affordability was better than at any time since 1981 and buying a house was once again cheaper than renting.

It should be an interesting summer as waves of new foreclosures battle waves of new buying interest from a bargain hunting public that is still fearful of more job losses.

This post can also be found on themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com.

Could The Yuan Become The World's Next Reserve Currency?

The U.S. dollar has faced some serious attacks lately, and our economy here in the U.S. is struggling, but have things really gotten so bad that the USD could lose its place as the world's reserve currency? And even if it did, wouldn't the Euro be next in line to take its place? According to Nouriel Roubini, the next world reserve currency could in fact be the Chinese Yuan, and the transition could happen sooner than we think. For more on this, read the following blog post from Mark Thoma which looks at Roubini's recent article on the subject.

Nouriel Roubini is worried that the dollar will lose its status as a reserve currency if we don't change our ways:

The Almighty Renminbi?, by Nouriel Roubini, Commentary, NY Times: ...While the dollar’s status as the major reserve currency will not vanish overnight, we can no longer take it for granted. Sooner than we think, the dollar may be challenged by other currencies, most likely the Chinese renminbi. This would have serious costs for America, as our ability to finance our budget and trade deficits cheaply would disappear. ...

The... downfall of the dollar may be only a matter of time. But what could replace it? The British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc remain minor reserve currencies, as those countries are not major powers. Gold is still a barbaric relic whose value rises only when inflation is high. The euro is hobbled by concerns about the long-term viability of the European Monetary Union. That leaves the renminbi. ...

At the moment,... the renminbi is far from ready to achieve reserve currency status. China would first have to ease restrictions on money entering and leaving the country, make its currency fully convertible for such transactions, continue its domestic financial reforms and make its bond markets more liquid. It would take a long time for the renminbi to become a reserve currency, but it could happen. ...

We have reaped significant financial benefits from having the dollar as the reserve currency. In particular, the strong market for the dollar allows Americans to borrow at better rates. We have thus been able to finance larger deficits for longer and at lower interest rates, as foreign demand has kept Treasury yields low. We have been able to issue debt in our own currency rather than a foreign one, thus shifting the losses of a fall in the value of the dollar to our creditors. Having commodities priced in dollars has also meant that a fall in the dollar’s value doesn’t lead to a rise in the price of imports. ...

This decline of the dollar might take more than a decade, but it could happen even sooner if we do not get our financial house in order. ... For the last two decades America has been spending more than its income, increasing its foreign liabilities and amassing debts that have become unsustainable. A system where the dollar was the major global currency allowed us to prolong reckless borrowing.

Now that the dollar’s position is no longer so secure, we need to shift our priorities. This will entail investing in our crumbling infrastructure, alternative and renewable resources and productive human capital — rather than in unnecessary housing and toxic financial innovation. This will be the only way to slow down the decline of the dollar, and sustain our influence in global affairs.

This post can also be viewed on economistsview.typepad.com.

What Is The Likelihood Of The U.S. Losing Its AAA Credit Rating?

A few months back — after Moody's issued a warning — there was a lot of talk about the possibility of America losing it's AAA credit rating. Of course that never materialized. Now after a recent report on the health of Social Security and Medicare, the talk is resuming. The question still remains though of whether all this talk, is just talk, or if there is any merit to it. Kathy Lien looks closer at the question in her blog post below.

In today’s Financial Times, there is an op-ed article by David Walker, the CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation pondering the possibility of the U.S. losing its prized AAA credit rating. The paper focuses on a warning that was issued by rating agency Moody’s months ago. Moody’s has not issued a new warning, yet Walker and in turn, the FT has decided to re-inject uncertainty into the financial markets by resurrecting this fear. What has prompted this article is most likely the recent comments about the insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare systems. According to the trustees for the systems, the Social Security trust fund could be depleted by 2037 while Medicare could be insolvent by 2017. These dates of insolvency have been pushed up as the weak labor market reduces contributions. The Obama Administration has pressed the importance of gaining control of the growth in Medicare costs and their desire to tackle Social Security insolvency once health care reform is passed.

According to Walker, if the health care reforms strains finances further or if the federal government fails to monitor spending, tax or budget control, rating agencies could strip the U.S. of its credit rating.

Is Losing AAA Rating that Big of a Deal?

But is losing the AAA rating that big of a deal? Yes. A credit rating reflects the risk of default. Therefore a lower credit rating means that a country is at greater risk of defaulting on their debt. Some global funds are mandated to invest only in AAA debt and therefore if the U.S. loses its AAA rating, we could see a massive outflow of foreign investment. Also, a credit rating downgrade is the perfect excuse to push through an alternative reserve currency to replace the dollar because it would strip the confidence of sovereign funds like China that have been buying dollars to prop up the U.S. economy. Yes, investors will still buy U.S. Treasuries, but their purchases will be less. It could also have a spillover effect on corporate debt and will raise the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government.

How Real is the Risk?

Now with the risk in mind, I think that ratings agencies talk a good game but they will face problems following through. The consequences of downgrading U.S. sovereign debt is huge both politically and economically. Therefore Moody’s or any rating agency for that matter may be reluctant to the first to pull the trigger. Downgrading the U.S. is very different from downgrading Ireland. Based upon how the rating agencies have handled the credit derivatives bubble, chances are they will be behind the curve once again.

With that in mind, U.S. finances are deteriorating significantly, raising the concern of Asian nations. However if President Obama is successful at turning around the U.S. economy, America will be well equipped to meet its debt obligations.

This post can also be viewed on kathylien.com.

Japanese Yen Could Be In For A Significant Slide

The Japanese Yen has performed well the past few days, but the USD/JPY could be approaching a wall. Currency expert Kathy Lien warns that the USD/JPY is trading at a critical level and could be in for a significant slide. For more on this, read her blog post below.

The U.S. dollar has sold off significantly against the Japanese Yen over the past 2 trading days. It is nearing a very important support level. If it breaks that level, we could see a test and potential break of 95. Given that equities are pressuring USD/JPY lower, a “break” of the 95 level would be contingent upon a top in equities. In my special report on FX360, I talk about the fundamental reasons behind the sell-off in USD/JPY.

On a technical basis, the chart below illustrates how USD/JPY is approaching very critical levels. We have a major head and shoulders pattern in place, the currency pair is attempting to enter the sell zone according to our Bollinger Bands and is approaching trend line support. For those of you that like Ichimoku clouds, it has also entered the cloud. Therefore a close below 96.80 would open the door for a significant slide.

Click on Chart to see Larger Version

This post can also be viewed on kathylien.com.

How The European Central Bank Is Different

The European Central Bank (ECB) made several important announcements today, and the reaction from currency traders was much different than how they have reacted to similar moves from other central banks. Currency expert Kathy Lien looks closer at the recent announcements, and talks a bit about what sets the ECB apart from the Bank of England and Federal Reserve, in her blog post below.

Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England announced asset purchases today, but the Euro skyrocketed while the British pound fell, leading many currency traders to wonder What Sets the ECB Apart from Fed and BoE?

Read Boris’ take on the Bank of England Rate Decision

Before talking about why the euro recovered, here are the 4 key announcements made by the ECB today:

1. Cut Repo Rate from 1.25 to 1.00%
2. Narrow Rate Corridor by 50bp (Marginal Lending Rate Cut by 50bp to 1.75%)
3. Extend maturity of refinancings to 12 months
4. Announced purchases of up to EU60 billion in euro-denominated covered bonds

There is no question that these are unprecedented measures for the European Central Bank. Everyone expected the quarter point rate cut to a record low of 1.00 percent, the decision to increase the maturity of refinancings to 12 months and also the narrowing of the rate corridor by 50bp, but the chance of purchasing euro-denominated covered bonds was low.

Nonetheless, Trichet has resorted to what many consider Quantitative Easing (even though he explicitly denied that this is QE) and rather than punishing the euro, currency traders are applauding the ECB for being flexible and realizing that there is no longer a stigma attached to asset purchases. Also, the amount of bonds that the ECB is purchasing is nominal compared to the rest of the central banks. The ECB plans on buying up to EU60 billion, which is less than half of the BoE’s Quantitative Easing program. More importantly however, Trichet suggested that they may sterilize the liquidity impact of bond purchases, which would limit the impact on the money supply and the pressure on the euro. The Fed and the BoE’s purchases are unsterilized. Finally, this is only an initial announcement. Further details on the bond plan will be released in June. Although rates are appropriate for the current time, the central bank could still take interest rates below 1 percent based upon Trichet’s comment that they have decided if rates have hit their lowest point.

This post can also be viewed on kathylien.com.

How Is The Economic Medicine Working?

The government has been injecting trillions of dollars into the economy, but how has it been working so far? James Picerno looks at recent events and attempts to answer that question in his blog post below. In addition Picerno takes a look at what lies ahead for the U.S. economy, and offers some words of wisdom for investors.

In late-March, we asked: Is the medicine working? By medicine we meant the massive injection of liquidity into the economy as a cure for fending off deflation and laying the groundwork for recovery. At the time, we were mildly encouraged, in part due to the rising inflation forecast as derived from the spread between the nominal and inflation-indexed 10-year Treasuries.

More than a month later, there's still reason for optimism, perhaps more so, thanks to the so-called green shoots that suggest better days ahead. Yet the rate spread, which is to say the market's inflation outlook, hasn't changed much since late-March. The current forecast is for inflation of 1.4% for the next 10 years, just barely up from around 1.3% from the end of the first quarter. In both cases, that's a healthy change from expecting flat pricing, as was the case at the end of 2008. Low inflation as far as the eye can see would be nice, but is that a reasonable expectation?

In the months ahead there will be a thin line between a healthy rise in inflation expectations and the potential for burdensome pricing pressures later on. Deflation is a hazard to be avoided for a number of reasons. Although we can't quite shut the book on the danger, the odds look increasingly in favor of mild inflation for the foreseeable future, as the chart above suggests. Behind this reasoning is the growing sentiment that the recession is at or near a bottom. Is it time for the Fed to begin tightening? Or are the green shoots still too tentative?

"We're seeing more indications of perhaps a bottoming in the economy," Bill O'Neill of LOGIC Advisors tells Dow Jones. "So there is an increasing—and it will continue to increase—concern surrounding inflation potential."

Gold, the perennial inflation hedge, seems to be considering the possibility, although this market hasn't quite made up its mind. The price of the metal has been hovering around $900 for much of this year, just below its all-time high of $1,033, set back in March 2008. The 10-year Treasury yield, meanwhile, has been climbing, recently bumping up against 3.2% on renewed worries that inflation may now be the bigger risk. Even so, a 10-year yield of 3.2% is still quite low.

None of the inflation anxiety is worrying the stock market, which has now reversed the selloff in the first quarter. Indeed, the S&P 500 is now marginally up on the year, as of last night's close, on expectations that by the end of this year the economy will be sitting up and prepared to get out of bed.

The big question is whether all the renewed hope that the worst is over is really just the byproduct of a bear market bounce in markets and inflation expectations? Given the extreme waves of selling last year and into March, a rebound was all but assured if the world economy didn't collapse. As we now know, it didn't. There are still lots of problems, but we'll all be here next year and so it was time to reprice assets upwards to reflect a humbled but otherwise enduring economic climate.

Investors have cheered the signs that the U.S. economy no longer seems to be contracting at an accelerating pace. Given the fears of what could have happened, that's certainly a reasonable response. Deciding that you're not going to fall into the abyss is always encouraging. But that's still a long way from arguing that growth is imminent, or that the economy won't tread water for a year or two.

The first phase of the post-apocalyptic visions that prevailed six months ago may be over. If so, now we're faced with the more difficult chore of deciding how to repair and rebuild the economy to foster growth while containing inflation. The hardest days are yet to come. Unless you're expecting a seamless transition, keeping some cash at the ready still makes sense, albeit less so than in past months. Volatility isn't banished, it's only hibernating, which suggests another round of value-oriented pricing opportunities in the major asset classes.

This post can also be viewed on capitalspectator.com.

More Gold News...

The World Gold Council just released the newest Gold Investment Digest, and it contains a lot of great information about Gold, and the Gold market. Tim Iacono walks us through some of the main points, and adds his own insight, in his blog post below.

Always a sucker for a good chart, particularly when it involves precious metals, the one below in the most recent Gold Investment Digest from the World Gold Council is a doozy.
The trade group's first quarter report on gold has some rather interesting statistics related to the quickly changing supply and demand situation.

As shown above, inflows to the many gold ETFs around the world have been brisk:

Investors bought 469 tonnes of gold via this channel, dwarfing the previous record, of 145 tonnes, set in the third quarter of last year. SPDR®Gold Shares (“GLD”) enjoyed the bulk of the inflows. The total amount of London Good Delivery bars held by the Trust increased to 1127 tonnes at the end of Q1 09, from 780 tonnes at the end of last year. The two Swiss listed gold ETFs (the ZKB Gold ETF and the Julius Baer Physical Gold Fund) enjoyed the next strongest inflows, rising by 37 tonnes and 32 tonnes respectively. Inflows into the gold ETFs continued to grow throughout the quarter, despite the downward correction in the gold price, indicating that, as in past price corrections, ETF holdings tend to be “sticky”.

It's kind of ridiculous just how big the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSEArca:GLD) has become when compared to the nine other funds and they have certainly characterized the inventory correctly in light of recently faltering prices - "sticky" is the right word.

As noted here yesterday, just 23.2 tonnes of the almost 350 tonnes added earlier in the year have exited the trust as the gold price declined from almost $1,000 an ounce in early February to current prices of just over $900.

They had this to say about the many and varied rumors about trading on the COMEX:

The quarter was beset with stories either urging investors to take delivery of, or claiming investors had taken delivery of, large amounts of gold from COMEX, driven by widespread shortages of gold in the spot market. Some claimed that the COMEX warehouses might therefore run out of gold.

The reality was quite different. While there were (at times severe) shortages of coins and small bars during the quarter, there was no shortage of London Good Delivery Bars, the main trading vehicle in the global over-the-counter market. And with respect to COMEX stocks, both registered stocks on COMEX (gold which meets the standards for delivery and for which a receipt from an exchange-approved depository or warehouse has been issued) and eligible stocks (gold which meets the delivery standard but for which no receipt from an exchange-approved warehouse has been issued) increased over the quarter, to 2.94 million ounces and 5.94 million ounces, from 2.83 million ounces and 5.71 million ounces respectively. This took total COMEX stocks as a percentage of long positions to 38%, which is high by historical standards, rather than indicative of stocks that have been depleted by a run on physical gold at COMEX.

Geez... The folks at the World Gold Council should really get a hold of some of the officials over at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to see how an industry trade group is really supposed to operate.

Here's a perfect example where they could add to the fervor over rising gold prices by citing some shoddy statistics about how the supply of gold is limited and "it's a good time to buy" but, instead, they pour cold water on one of the biggest stories this year in the gold community about the goings-on at the CRIMEX.

Maybe former NAR chief economist David Lereah could be hired as a consultant to help out.

The Gold Investment Digest goes on to discuss such important topics as gold's correlation with other asset classes, jewelry demand, mine supply, and central bank sales.

If you've never thumbed through this quarterly report, it really is worth a look.

Registration is required at the World Gold Council website to get a copy, but it's free.

This post can also be viewed on themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com.

Hong Kong Set To Take Off Thanks To Bernanke

Thanks to the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve — Ben Bernanke — Hong Kong is about to take off. It might seem a little weird that Bernanke could impact Hong Kong so drastically, but because Hong Kong's currency is so closely linked to the U.S. dollar they are forced to follow the Fed's every move. That — coupled with the fact Hong Kong's stocks are undervalued — is creating a perfect storm for Hong Kong's market. For more on this, read the following article from Dr. Steve Sjuggerud at Daily Wealth.

Ben Bernanke has cut short-term interest rates in the U.S. to essentially zero... the lowest rate we've ever seen.

He's doing this, of course, to "juice" the economy – to give it a jumpstart. He doesn't know (or care, actually) that this action will inadvertently (but undoubtedly) cause one particular stock market to go absolutely nuts.

This stock market I'm talking about is Hong Kong. Today, we have the ultimate recipe for stocks in Hong Kong to skyrocket. The Fed has cut interest rates to essentially zero (causing Hong Kong rates to be next to zero in its unique money system). And yet Hong Kong stocks are incredibly cheap. They bottomed a month ago at a single-digit price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio.

We've seen this before:

• In 1992-1993, the Hang Seng Index shot from 5,500 to 12,000. At that time, the Fed had cut interest rates below the rate of inflation. So "real" interest rates were below zero.
• The Fed did it again from 2003-2005. And in that time, the Hang Seng Index jumped nearly 7,000 points, from a low of 8,600 to 15,500. (It continued to rise... peaking over 30,000 in 2007. That's four times your money from 2003 to 2007.)

And it's happening again, right now... The Fed has cut interest rates to zero, and the uptrend in Hong Kong has arrived. It's time to get in.

While Ben Bernanke is trying to help the U.S., he's unwittingly creating havoc on the other side of the globe...

Hong Kong is quite an incredible place... With no natural resources, the standard of living has gone from subsistence wages to one of the highest in the world in just a few decades.

I believe two things contributed to Hong Kong's boom... 1) Hong Kong has been for decades one of the "freest" markets in the world, allowing entrepreneurs to succeed or fail. And 2) Hong Kong has had a stable currency, thanks to its unique currency system. For the last 25 years, the Hong Kong dollar has been worth about US$7.80, give or take a few pennies.

Hong Kong's unique currency system is called a currency board. A country that has a true currency board has one U.S. dollar in the bank for every dollar of its own currency that it prints. How does it keep the exchange rate equal? Through interest rates...

Interest rates in Hong Kong dollars are always higher than in the U.S. Depositors are willing to "take the risk" on the Hong Kong dollar for the slightly higher yield.

As a result, Bernanke essentially controls interest rates in Hong Kong. Whether Hong Kong is in a boom or a bust, he doesn't care. So Bernanke could be raising or cutting interest rates at precisely the wrong time in Hong Kong's business cycle.

Therefore, Hong Kong's stock market is subject to wild booms and busts, based on what the U.S. Fed is doing with interest rates.

As I said, today we have the ultimate recipe for stocks to skyrocket in Hong Kong. Interest rates are next to zero. And Hong Kong stocks are cheap, hitting single-digit P/E ratios a month ago.

I have two nearly guaranteed "rules" for making money in Hong Kong...

First is the "Hong Kong Can't Help It Rule." That's when the U.S. Fed cuts interest rates below the "market" rate. This means "real" interest rates are below zero. When this happens, buy Hong Kong... It can't help it. It soars.

The second rule is the "20/10 Rule." In short, you want to be a buyer of stocks in Hong Kong when the P/E ratio falls below 10. And you want to be a seller when the ratio rises above 20.

Hong Kong stocks often soar by hundreds of percent after they fall below a P/E of 10. And often they lose half their value soon after they rise above a P/E of 20.

Right now is an extraordinary moment... both rules are in play... AND we have an uptrend in Hong Kong stocks that started last month.

You should consider buying Hong Kong shares now... Triple-digit gains are possible... and you can limit your downside risk by using a trailing stop. Those are my kind of odds!

Dailywealth.com offers a free daily investment newsletter which focuses on contrarian investment opportunities.

Is $250,000 A Year Really "Wealthy?"

President Obama keeps saying he plans to pay for much of his new spending with taxes on the wealthy, but what should be considered "wealthy?" According to Obama's campaign speeches "wealthy" means families earning more than $250,000 a year, but $250,000 isn't worth as much in New York City as it is in Des Moines, Iowa. Many of these families are challenging Obama's assessment of what should be considered "wealthy," saying how they make more than that but are struggling to get by. Tim Iacono doesn't offer these families much sympathy, but looks closer at the situation in his blog post below.

There have been more than a few comments left here by readers over the years about families with big salaries and/or bonuses carping about how tough it is to get by on just a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in income.

Always of modest means, never having had to foot the bill for little ones around the house, and having avoided living and working in the Bay Area, my view of things is probably a bit slanted in the other direction but, to me, a quarter million dollars a year looks to be a huge opportunity to sock money away for retirement.

Via the Wall Street Journal comes this tale of the difficulty some have in making ends meet.

Ellen Parnell and her husband, Donald Parnell Jr., seem like the kind of well-off couple President Barack Obama has in mind when he suggests raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year. A surgeon at Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center in Sevierville, Tenn., he drives an Infiniti. They vacation at a beach resort every year.

Yet, right now he is working seven days a week. The car is more than a decade old, the vacation home in Sandestin, Fla., comes at a moderate weekly rate because members of Ms. Parnell's extended family own it. Her family of five would like more room than they have in their 2,500-square-foot home, yet they can't afford anything larger. The downturn has them skittish about paying for renovations.

While not familiar with the local real estate market at all, clearly, you can get a lot of house for not too much money in Sevierville.

The story continues:

"I'm not complaining, but the reality is Obama may call me wealthy, but I thought we were just good old middle class," says Ms. Parnell. "Our needs are being met, but we don't have a load of cash to cover wants."
...
Wealth and comfort "depends on where you're coming from," said Lois Avitt, a sociologist and founding director of the Institute for Socio-Financial Studies in Charlottesville, Va. To a family earning $50,000, $250,000 is well off, but for the family earning $250,000, rising college and medical costs and dropping home values make the perception debatable.

The reasons for the insecurity are that net worth is declining at the same time that expenses like education and health care, two of the biggest concerns cited by members of that income group, are going up faster than wages and income, says Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. "Those are the biggies. They are huge parts of the set of middle-class aspirations, and the prices of those have increased way faster than income." The bursting of the housing bubble makes that more stark.
...
San Jose, Calif., Mayor Chuck Reed calls a family living in Silicon Valley earning $250,000 "upper working class." That is about what two engineers working at a technology firm can expect to make, but "a family earning $250,000 a year can't buy a home in Silicon Valley," he said.

James Duran owns a human-resources company in Silicon Valley and is president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in California. He supported Mr. Obama, but is worried about the tax proposals. He has laid off some employees in recent months and has been wondering how he can fund an extension of those workers' health-care benefits.

Mr. Duran said he and his wife earn about $400,000 annually, but "I'm barely getting by." They have high property and state taxes, as well as college tuition and savings to cover. "I'm an Obama man, but this side of him is a difficult pill for me," he said.
...
For the Parnells, their perception of themselves is based on the math. The value of their house is down $60,000. Ms. Parnell says the couple's gross income last year was about $260,000. Taxes, premiums for medical care and deductions for Social Security and their 401(k) contributions cut the gross to about $12,000 per month. The family tithes $1,300 a month at their church. Their mortgage, second mortgage and payment on land they bought is nearly $4,000 a month. Other expenses, including their family car payment, insurance and college funds, as well as basics like food, utilities and donations to charities, leave them with about $1,200 left over each month.

"I'm not after sympathy. We are blessed. What I want is a reality check on what rich means," Ms. Parnell says. "I can pay my mortgage and I can buy some clothes. I'm not going without, but I'm not living a life of luxury."

The Parnells should probably take a basic personal finance class or two and many of their problems might quickly be solved - that $4,000 a month in mortgage payments for a house that's too small, and some other property, should have set off alarm bells long ago.

Also, that top line of $260K that erodes to $144K after 401k contributions, medical care premiums, and taxes sounds a bit excessive - you can quickly get to about $40K for the first two items leaving their tax hit at $75K.

Does that sound right?

It's a good thing Ms. Parnell is not asking for sympathy because she's not likely to get any.

This post can also be viewed on themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com.

Roubini Says Financial Gloom Not Going Anywhere

There has been a lot of positive momentum lately in the markets, and people are starting to think that the end is near for the financial crisis. However, Nouriel Roubini warns that this optimism is not based on facts. The facts say that we still have much longer to go with this recession, and getting one's hopes up that the end has arrived will just lead to disappointment, and likely a loss of capital. For more on this, read the following blog post from Mark Thoma that looks at Roubini's latest article.

Nouriel Roubini cautions not to get your hopes up too high:

End of economic gloom?, by Nouriel Roubini, Project Syndicate: Mild signs that the rate of economic contraction is slowing in the United States, China and other parts of the world have led many economists to forecast that positive growth will return to the US in the second half of the year, and that a similar recovery will occur in other advanced economies. ...

Investors are talking of 'green shoots' of recovery... As a result, stock markets have started to rally... This consensus optimism is, I believe, not supported by the facts. Indeed, I expect that while the rate of US contraction will slow ... in the last two quarters, US growth will still be negative .... in the second half of the year... Moreover, growth next year will be so weak ... and unemployment so high ... that it will still feel like a recession.

In the euro zone and Japan, the outlook for 2009 and 2010 is even worse... Given this weak outlook for the major economies, losses by banks and other financial institutions will continue to grow. My latest estimates are $3.6 trillion in losses for loans and securities issued by US institutions, and $1 trillion for the rest of the world. ...

By this standard, many US and foreign banks are effectively insolvent and will have to be taken over by governments. The credit crunch will last much longer if we keep zombie banks alive despite their massive and continuing losses. ... So, while this latest bear-market rally may continue for a bit longer, renewed downward pressure on stocks and other risky assets is inevitable.

To be sure, much more aggressive policy action (massive and unconventional monetary easing, larger fiscal-stimulus packages, bailouts of financial firms, individual mortgage-debt relief, and increased financial support for troubled emerging markets) in many countries in the last few months has reduced the risk of a near depression. That outcome seemed highly likely six months ago, when global financial markets nearly collapsed.

Still, this global recession will continue for a longer period than the consensus suggests. There may be light at the end of the tunnel -- no depression and financial meltdown. But economic recovery everywhere will be weaker and will take longer than expected. ...

Let's hope the end is near, but if you are a monetary or fiscal policymaker, it's far to soon to let down your guard and declare victory. You have to assume it won't be over for some time yet, and plan accordingly. If things turn out better than expected the plans can stay on the self, and existing programs can be scaled back accordingly, but that can't happen until we are certain that recovery is around the corner and we are nowhere near that point yet.

[Also see the commentary surrounding the IMF's World Economic Outlook from Yves Smith, Dani Rodrik, and Real time Economics.]

This post can also be viewed on economistsview.typepad.com.

Treasury Yield: What Does The Future Have In Store?

A lot of people have been turning to Treasuries as the investment of choice in these unpredictable and rough economic times, but will it ultimately prove to be a good move? While widely considered "risk free" investments, that is far from the truth. There are many things that perspective Treasury investors need to keep in mind when weighing their investment options. The following blog post from James Picerno offers some insight into what is going on right now in the Treasury market, and hopefully will help investors make an a better informed decision.

It's hard to dismiss the ongoing news about China's anxiety over its massive holdings of American debt. What's worrisome for China is ultimately a concern for the U.S., with fallout that may come sooner than we think.

“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried," Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said last month. It was a rare public admission of apprehension by a high-ranking Chinese official on the delicate and increasingly precarious lender-borrower relationship that describes the U.S. and China.

Yesterday came word that China's purchases of U.S. bonds slowed in the first two months of this year, according to new data from China's central bank, The New York Times reports. "Chinese reserves fell a record $32.6 billion in January and $1.4 billion more in February before rising $41.7 billion in March, according to figures released by the People’s Bank over the weekend," the Times notes. The trend may now be reversing, although the notion that a pivotal point in the U.S.-China financial relationship may be near remains intact.

The fear is that China will slow (cease?) buying new Treasuries, a decision that's likely to force up interest rates in the U.S. For the moment, there's no reason to dismiss that scenario, at least when it comes to the recent trend in the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury Note. As the chart below shows, the march upward to the 3% mark is alive and well.

What makes the rising yield in the 10-year so striking is that it comes in the wake of the Federal Reserve's announcement last month that it would directly target lowering rates on long Treasuries. The market's initial reaction was to buy Treasuries, which resulted in one of the biggest one-day drops in interest rates on record. For a time it looked like Bernanke and company had struck gold. But confidence that the central bank has complete control over the long end of the curve has been evaporating in recent weeks.

As the above chart shows, the 10-year yield collapsed by around 50 basis points on March 18, down to around 2.5%. As of April 9, the 10-year's yield had climbed by to roughly 2.9%, just under the level where when the Fed made its bombshell announcement last month.

High interest rates in the U.S. necessarily make the dollar more attractive, at least for a time. No wonder, then, that the buck's value is rising in forex markets in recent weeks, in sympathy with higher interest rates on the 10-year. The U.S. Dollar Index is just about at the highest level since the Fed's March 18 disclosure, a news event that had initially sent the buck tumbling. Meanwhile, commodity prices generally have been inching higher as well, as per the CRB Index. Commodities are generally priced in dollars, so it's no surprise that a strong dollar equates with higher commodity prices.

Higher interest rates are almost surely the path of least resistance in the years ahead, in part because the U.S. deficits are sure to be large in the wake of all the monetary and fiscal stimulus of late. The problem is that the arrival higher interest rates now, this week, next month, next quarter come at an especially inopportune time: before the economy has sufficiently recovered. The Fed surely seeks to keep long rates below 3% for the rest of the year, or so one might speculate. But it's not clear that the markets are willing to go along for the ride.

In the old days, the Fed's powers were such that it had more control over keeping interest rates low and thereby providing the economy with ample monetary stimulus until the forces of growth rose anew. Engineering that scenario this time may be tougher, much tougher. One reason is that much of the control over future rates has been transferred to foreigners, courtesy of holding large quantities of U.S. debt. That may not be fate that rates will rise. Indeed, China surely wants to keep U.S. rates low in order to boost growth here, which will promote imports of Chinese goods. But no one really knows how these forces will play out.

Perhaps the cycle will be salvaged if the economy rebounds quicker than the crowd expects. Alternatively, the Chinese and other foreigners decide to buy large quantities of Treasuries in the months and quarters ahead. There are solutions to the current dilemma, but no one should expect that they're a forgone conclusion.

This post can also be viewed on capitalspectator.com.

Why Dropping "Mark to Market" Rules Won't Solve Anything

In an effort to shore up the balance sheets of banks the government decided to drop the "mark to market" rules that have been causing so much trouble in the financial industry. As Peter Schiff points out in his article, though, this won't solve anything. The rule was created in order to give investors a better idea of the true value of bank assets — basing the valuations on market activity rather than arbitrary assessments by the bank's accountants. Letting the banks decide how much their assets are worth, rather than the market, is a recipe for deception and ultimate failure. Read about what Schiff has to say in the article below from Money Morning.

When elementary school kids want to escape the confines of their circumstances, they pretend to be pirates, princesses and Jedi knights. Now, with the relaxation of "mark to market" valuation rules announced by the accounting trade’s self-regulatory body, our bankrupt financial institutions can escape their own reality by pretending to be solvent.

The unraveling of our fairytale economy over the last few months has not yet convinced us that the time has come to put away childish things. The applause that greeted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) ruling on Wall Street is a clear sign that we still have some growing up to do.

The imaginative conceit that lies behind the accounting change is that the toxic assets polluting bank balance sheets are not really toxic at all. They are in fact highly valuable assets that for some irrational reason no one wants to buy.

Using the "mark to market" accounting method, mortgage-backed securities were valued relative to the latest prices fetched by the sale of similar assets on the open market. Currently, those bonds are being sold at deep discounts to their original value. By "marking" their unsold bonds down to those prices, the insolvency of our financial institutions had been laid bare. But the new accounting changes will allow the nervous owners to assign more "appropriate" (i.e. higher) values. Problem solved.

It is important to note that the FASB made its rule modifications only after both Washington and Wall Street applied intense pressure. In their heart of hearts, I can’t imagine that there are too many bean counters happy with the outcome.

The banks and the government have argued that the assets should be valued based solely on current cash flow. Most mortgages, after all, are not delinquent. Therefore, a few bad apples should not spoil the whole bunch, and those that are not yet delinquent should be valued at par. This method assumes we have no ability to look into the future and make assumptions about what is likely to happen, which is presumably what the market is already doing by valuing the assets lower than the banks wish.

All kinds of bonds (corporate, government and municipal, etc.) that are not in default frequently trade at discounts. In fact, the reason agencies such as Moody’s Corp. (MCO) and Standard & Poor’s rate bonds is to assess the probability of default. The higher that probability, the lower the value placed on the bonds, regardless of their current cash flow.

For example, General Motors Corp.’s (GM) 10-year bonds currently trade for only 8 to 10 cents on the dollar, despite the fact that GM is current on all interest payments. The 90% discount reflects investor awareness that GM will likely default long before the bonds mature. By the new logic, financial institutions with GM bonds on their balance sheets should be able to ignore the market and value these bonds at par.

Some argue that the comparison is invalid because GM’s bonds are liquid while mortgage-backed securities are not. However, if sellers of GM bonds were holding out for 70 or 80 cents on the dollar, those bonds would be illiquid too. The reason GM bonds are trading is that sellers are realistic.

The same should apply to bonds backed by mortgages. To assume that a 30-year, $500,000 mortgage on a house that has declined in value to $300,000 has a high probability of remaining current to maturity is ridiculous. The borrower could lose his job, his adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) might reset higher, or he may simply tire of paying an expensive mortgage for a house that is unlikely to be sold at a profit.

Any bond investor with half a brain will factor in these probabilities and look for deep discounts. The only way to accurately assess a real present value is to let the market discover the price.

Despite the pleas from bankers and politicians, mortgages are not plagued by a lack of liquidity but a lack of value. If sellers would be more negotiable, there would be plenty of liquidity. Who knows, at the right price I might even buy a few. The problem is that putting a market price on these assets would render most financial institutions insolvent, which is precisely why they do not want to let that happen.

Simply pretending that all these mortgages will be repaid does not solve the underlying problems. It may keep some banks alive longer, but when they ultimately do fail, the losses will be that much greater. In the meantime, solvent institutions are deprived of capital as more funds are funneled into insolvent "too big to fail" institutions - hiding their toxic assets behind rosy assumptions and phony marks.

Going from the sublime to the completely ridiculous, in a speech at the just-concluded Group 20 summit in London, President Barack Obama urged Americans not to let their fears crimp their spending. It would be unwise, he argued, for Americans to let the fear of job loss, lack of savings, unpaid bills, credit card debt or student loans deter them from making major purchases.

According to the president, "we must spend now as an investment for the future." So in this land of imagination (where subprime mortgages are valued at par), instead of saving for the future, we must spend for the future.

I guess Ben Franklin had it wrong too – apparently a penny spent is a penny earned.

This post can also be viewed on moneymorning.com.

Bahrain's Economy Is Holding Up Well

Not many Americans have even heard of Bahrain, let alone thought about investing in the country, but while Dubai has been faltering badly, Bahrain is holding up well. Investors interested in the Middle East might want to give Bahrain a closer look, especially if they are considering investing in Dubai. For more on this, read the following article from Overseas Property Mall.

Bahrain has long been the forgotten little brother of glittery Dubai in the housing investment industry. For years we have been told countless stories on why we had to buy property in Dubai and all the while Bahrain has quietly sneaked up in the housing stakes.

Since reports of a falling Dubai have become stronger every month, Bahrain has only suffered “small damage”. After having spent many years in its bigger brothers shadow, Bahrain is ready to raise the stakes and claim back some of its past status as a strong and reliable financial business center in the Arabian world.

The Bahrain Economic Development Board’s chief operating officer Kamal Ahmed said:

“In tough times, people want to be in the most stable place. Of course, nobody is immune to the crisis, but we have certainly shown we are less exposed.”

The CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain) has established itself as one of the better regulators if we are to believe the latest news reports from the Middle East due to the lack of available finance overall. Some even say that Dubai’s loss has resulted into being Bahrain’s gain but clearly it is early days at the moment. Signs are positive though and industry watchers are positive that Bahrain might attract more investors in the next year due to its stable economy despite the global crisis elsewhere.

Ahmed further stated that it wasn’t the banks fault that Bahrain has lacked the attention it supposedly deserves but more so the lack of media attention overall.

The World Bank also helped to establish Bahrain as a strong business center by ranking it 18th in the world for doing business with last year. Another encouraging sign of a stable economy is the number of new lending institutions licensed in 2008. There were a total of 44 new start ups compared to 38 start ups in 2007.

Bahrain’s financial specialty if one could say that is Islamic finance. The launch of the Bahrain Financial Exchange in 2010 will also see the position of this small emirate strengthened overall.

But even so Bahrain’s economy is relative stable, the emirate has experienced plenty of heartache in the banking sector too. Profit margins of banks declined by 17.6 percent in 2008. During the same time, retail banks saw a surge of 112 percent in loan to deposit ratios.

Some financial organizations are also being scrutinized by the Bahrain government. With over 400 institutions in the country, there are too many right now to satisfy the lack of demand while showing healthy growth over time so eventually some of them will take the fall for sure.

This post can also be viewed on overseaspropertymall.com.

Why March's Rally Does Not Mean We Already Hit Bottom

March was certainly an interesting month. The stock market rally was of historic porportion, and investors seem to have a new since of optimism. Once reality sets in, though, that optimism may soon be lost. Tim Iacono points out why March's rally probably doesn't signify a market bottom in his bog post below.

It has been quite a month.

The newspapers were full of stories last week about how March was the best month for stock markets in six years and that the last four weeks were the best stretch for equities since either 1933 or 1938, depending upon the source.

The distinction is unimportant as investors have gotten the message - stocks are on a tear.
Broad indexes have risen between 20 and 30 percent over the last month and recent reports have shown a deceleration in the rate of decline for some economic indicators and tentative signs of a bottom for others, leading many to believe that the worst is now behind us.

The move up in equity markets since the early-March low has officially entered "bull market" territory after a flurry of government actions, pronouncements of profitability from Wall Street firms, and optimism that global leaders at the G20 meeting are taking steps to tackle the financial crisis. All of this has convinced more than a few investors and traders that this is the time to buy riskier assets with the potential for a greater return and stock prices have been bid higher.

The important question becomes, "Is this a sucker rally with lower lows ahead or is this an enduring new bull market?"

That is the question that some people have been asking over the last few weeks, however, with each passing day of stock market gains, fewer and fewer people seem to wonder about it, opting instead to go with the flow, to add to the momentum.

In my view, recent lows for U.S. stocks are likely to be retested again this year, probably making new lows in the process, and equity markets around the world will likely move down with them.

It really boils down to two factors - the U.S. economy and corporate earnings.

The question of decoupling - the idea that emerging markets can ignore recessions in developed economies such as the U.S., Europe, and Japan - will be addressed in a subsequent update as it is deserving of its own lengthy consideration. There is more and more promise that growth in China, Brazil, India, and elsewhere can continue despite continuing troubles in developed nations and this is a critical factor in anyone's investment approach.

For now, the discussion will be limited to the United States.

The U.S. Economy

As has been the case for most of this decade, the future of the U.S. economy is dependent on housing. While financial markets and commerce may be dependent on the banking system and credit flows, the U.S. economy is soundly based on consumer spending and consumer spending, today, is driven in large part by the value of peoples' homes. Until home prices stabilize, consumers will not reemerge in big numbers to borrow and spend and, despite all the recent government initiatives, home prices are going to continue to fall this year. There is simply too much inventory in the pipeline.

As noted last week when discussing the latest report on existing home sales, it is a straightforward predicament, "the red curve and the blue bars in the nearby chart must draw much closer to each other before the downward pressure on prices abates".
Despite what the NAR (National Association of Realtors) might say or what the talking heads on CNBC might offer, that is not likely to happen anytime soon as foreclosure rates continue to break records, more and more homeowners throwing in the towel, walking away from homes where they owe more than the homes are now worth. Banks continue to struggle with their growing inventory of properties and, importantly, the bulk of these bank owned properties have not yet been listed for sale.

In the most recent data from both the NAR and the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home price declines continue to accelerate, largely driven by distressed property sales which, in many areas, account for more than half of all sales.

The foreclosure market is the market in many areas and defaults are now increasing fastest among prime loans made to borrowers with strong credit. The next wave of mortgage defaults will be the Alt-A and Option ARM loans where borrowers bought property with little or no documentation of income or assets, often times making only minimum payments that did not even cover all the monthly interest due. In contrast to the subprime debacle in 2007 and 2008, many of the Alt-A and Option ARM loans were used to purchase higher priced homes, a good example of this being the area where my wife and are I moving to next month - Bend, Oregon.

This is an area that, for years, has been regarded as overpriced since buyers from Portland and Seattle bid up home values earlier in the decade when the second-home buying frenzy was in full swing. In Bend, during the first quarter, notices of default almost tripled from the level of a year ago. This is in contrast to other parts of the country where foreclosure rates have leveled out at historically high levels over the last year as many of the low-priced homes with subprime mortgages have already been repossessed. Real estate prices in New York City are now starting to tumble and defaults are moving up the socio-economic ladder.

Interestingly, the expected increase in distressed sales at higher prices may have a big impact on some of the median home price statistics to be reported this year. Remember that the median price is highly dependent on the "mix" of home sales and that the sale of more higher priced homes will push up the median price even if these sales occur at steep discounts to what was paid for the same house a year or two ago. This will likely be misinterpreted as a sign of recovery.

With loan modifications souring quickly as job losses mount, housing is in no position to begin a recovery this year. While new and existing home sales may make a bottom by year-end, prices will continue to tumble and, absent any wholesale move by the government to buy up tracts of houses and bulldoze them into the ground, the supply/demand picture will not normalize until prices are much lower, probably sometime in 2010, perhaps not until 2011. Clear signs of this stabilization in prices are a prerequisite for the economy to reach a bottom and we have yet to see that.

Corporate Earnings

Reports last week indicated delinquencies increased to record highs in almost all consumer loan categories as falling home prices have now combined with job losses to create a vicious cycle downward. This only adds to the distress in the consumer sector and while both retail sales and automobile sales have shown signs of stabilizing, they remain at very low levels. Simply stabilizing at these depressed levels is not enough to support an economic rebound.

Commercial real estate defaults are now beginning to appear in large numbers, delinquent loans increasing some 41 percent from $46 billion in the fourth quarter of last year to $65 billion in the first quarter of 2009. In Los Angeles alone there are now almost $8 billion in distressed properties, nearly triple the level of late last year, and Las Vegas recently saw a 54 percent increase to $6 billion.

All of this will weigh on equity markets in the weeks and months ahead as first quarter earnings are announced.

Based on the number of warnings that have been issued thus far, bottom lines for the first quarter are likely to be almost as bad as the abysmal results seen in the fourth quarter when operating earnings for the S&P 500 overall were in the red. Importantly, there may be some big improvements in the banking sector due to "mark-to-market" changes approved last week which allow "significant" judgment in valuing assets, including mortgage-backed securities.

Total operating earnings for the S&P500 are expected to be down almost 40 percent from a year ago but it is the outlook for the future that is more important for stock prices than last quarter's results.

It will be comments by company officials about business conditions and projections of future earnings that investors will look to in order to value their shares.

Since stock prices are "forward looking" - taking into account both estimated future earnings and the health of the economy from which those earnings derive - it will be the prospects for the economy later in the year that will most influence stock prices in the near-term.

Conventional wisdom over the last fifty years or so is that, during recessions, stocks make a bottom at around the same time that monthly job losses peak and, in some cases during the second half of the 20th century, stocks put in their lows in advance of the worst of the labor market downturn.
If past is precedent and if the recent January decline in nonfarm payrolls of 741,000 turns out to be the peak for this cycle, then it is reasonable to believe that the March low in equity markets could be a lasting bottom.

However, if either of those are untrue - that this downturn will be different than previous recessions or that job losses have not yet reached their peak - then we are more likely to see new lows sometime later this year. In my view, that is the most likely scenario - one of those two conditions will not be met.

It wouldn't be the first time that stock market investors came too early to the party.

This post can also be viewed on themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com.

Profiting From Reflation: A Bet On Economic Recovery

I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this morning that I thought I should share. There are a lot of people who have been making a great deal of money during this economic crisis by shorting the economy, or specifically betting that it would get worse. Many of these same traders are now making a different bet. They are betting that not only are these exorbitant stimulus measures going to stimulate the economy, but they are also going to lead to high inflation.

Right now the Federal Reserve is so concerned with preventing the dreaded D words (Deflation and Depression), that they are basically ignoring the threat of inflation. Once the economy gets going again, though, they are going to have to react incredibly fast in order to prevent a massive run up in inflation. Chances are the government will be slow to react, and if anything they prefer to error on the side of inflation — opposed to prolonging the recession.

What this means is that as the economy starts to recover those investments which typically do well in inflationary environments, stand to do very well. Commodities specifically have proven to be the investment of choice for many successful investors.

To read the full Wall Street Journal article click here.