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What Black Swan can hit China?

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

We are now in 2012 and there are plenty of talks in the mainstream media about a possible hand-landing for the Chinese economy. In today’s article, we shall not go too deep into the details. This article by Paul Krugman explains the mainstream thinking very well. Nevertheless, despite the mainstream speculation of a possible hard landing, the financial markets are still pencilling in a soft landing. This may change as more data is released to indicate otherwise.

We don’t dispute Paul Krugman’s thesis of why a hard landing is coming. In fact, as we read his articles, we find his argument familiar- in fact, they seem to come from Michael Pettis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. We read his articles regularly for insights, along with Patrick Chovanec’s. Even our favourite contrarian, Marc Faber is echoing warnings that while all eyes are looking at Europe’s problems, China may surprise on the downside.

Now, from all these ample warnings, we can establish the fact a Chinese economic hard landing will be the most anticipated ‘surprise’. We say it is a ‘surprise’ because 12 months ago, most mainstream pundits will scoff at the idea of China facing a hard landing. Today, they are talking about it. But you have to bear in mind that despite all these talk about it, the mainstream consensus is that whatever is happening to China’s economy today are well within the designs of the Chinese government (or rather, the Chinese Communist Party). The fact is, the Chinese government are engineering some sort of a landing for the Chinese economy. Maybe they may overdo it and err towards the territory of hard landing, giving the economy an extra dosage of tough medicine. But at the end of the day, the belief is that the government is still in control.

Of course, we are not going to argue for or against that. In fact, any self-respecting contrarian should already be preparing for a possible Chinese hard-landing the same way airline passengers prepare for mishaps by putting on seat-belts. In other words, it should be a routine manoeuvre. But what will separate the average from the excellent will be the look out for unanticipated Black Swans. For us, we are trying to evisage what kind of serious mishaps that are outside the designs of the Chinese government that can happen. We shall call that mishap a ‘crisis.’

As we mentioned before in Warning: China MAY be near an economic crisis, we mentioned that

The question was put forth to Victor Shih on what he thought may be the trigger for a financial/economic crisis in China. The usual suspects of what the trigger may be usually comes in the form of an external shock (e.g. collapse of Euro-zone, global recession) that crunch China?s export industry. Surprisingly, that wasn?t his consideration. Victor Shih offered his favourite theory (though he emphasised that it is by no means a prediction) that when it comes to the point when China?s elite begin to pull its vast wealth out of China, that will be the thing that trigger a crisis. This could happen, for instance, when the elite find that the returns on/of their investments inside China is floundering.

Already, there are some anecdotal evidence that this is already happening as this article from the Financial Times reported. On the macro level, we saw this article recently,

China?s foreign-exchange reserves dropped for the first time in more than a decade as foreign investment moderated, the trade surplus narrowed and Europe?s crisis spurred investors to sell emerging-market assets.

For now, the decline in China forex reserves are blamed on hot speculative money pulling out of China i.e. foreigners. But if it comes a day when China’s own elite are pulling out their wealth out of China en masse in sufficiently large volume, it has the potential to develop into a crisis.

How? Let’s imagine this scenario.

Let’s say the Chinese government get spooked by Europe and the collapsing real estate bubble in China. And let’s suppose the Chinese government decide to print copious amount of money and loosen the credit spigot in an attempt to re-stimulate the economy. What if this does not work? Then firstly, the liabilities of the People’s Bank of China will increase. As we wrote in Is China allowed to use its US$2.4 trillion reserve to spend its way out of any potential crisis?,

According to the chart provided by Pivot Capital?s report, only a little over 20% of China?s total currency (plus gross external debt) are ?backed? by their US dollar reserves, which isn?t spectacular compared to other emerging economies. In fact, South Africa is the winner in this aspect because their reserve coverage ratio is almost 160% i.e. it has $16 of reserves for every $10 of currency.

That aritlce was written in 2010. We believe that today, even less than 20% of China’s today currency are ‘backed’ by US dollar reserves. If China prints money even further in 2012, that percentage may go even lower. Now, combine that with capital flight out of China from China’s elite. Then China can face with two stark choices: (1) maintain the peg and have a currency crisis or (2) let the RMB depreciate further and risking a trade war with the US by pissing off Congress.

Now, we have to make clear that this is just a conjecture, not a prediction. It may not happen. Even if it will happen, it may not happen in 2012. But it is something we keep at the back of our minds. If our conjecture turns out true, this is a real Black Swan. Make sure you tell people that you read about it here!

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Posted in Economics/Finance, Looking Forward, Market Observations | No Comments »

Warning: China MAY be near an economic crisis

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

More than a month ago, we were listening to a video interview with Victor Shih, of Northwestern University, and Carl Walter, co-author of Red Capitalism, on China?s banking system. It is a very interesting interview by experts who really know their stuff.

In this interview, one thing stuck in our mind. The question was put forth to Victor Shih on what he thought may be the trigger for a financial/economic crisis in China. The usual suspects of what the trigger may be usually comes in the form of an external shock (e.g. collapse of Euro-zone, global recession) that crunch China’s export industry. Surprisingly, that wasn’t his consideration. Victor Shih offered his favourite theory (though he emphasised that it is by no means a prediction) that when it comes to the point when China’s elite begin to pull its vast wealth out of China, that will be the thing that trigger a crisis. This could happen, for instance, when the elite find that the returns on/of their investments inside China is floundering.

Indeed, we notice that one of our favourite China experts, Patrick Chovanec is getting more and more nervous about China over the course of past several months. Today, we read from his latest blog post,

For the moment, I?m reminded of that song: “Something?s happening here; what it is ain?t exactly clear.” But ? and this is the real point ? something is happening, and people both inside and outside of China are right to be nervous.

…

My experience, talking to numerous investors and economists, is as follows: the closer you are to running an econometric model, the better you feel about the Chinese economy; sure, there may be bumps along the road, the models tell us, but fundamentally the momentum is so strong that growth will stay on track. The more you go out and look around, and listen to your gut, the more worried you become. Something?s happening here, what it is ain?t exactly clear ? but it feels bad, very bad. The problem with models, and the reason I?m inclined to stick with my eyes and my gut, is that models work very well when prior patterns of perception and behavior remain constant, but are very poor at noticing inflection points where the way people think and act undergo a shift. In other words, they are very poor at identifying moments of crisis.

Indeed, some sort of a credit meltdown is brewing in Wenzhou. If you have friends in China, you can ask them about Wenzhou because it is in the Chinese media lately. We are heard a story that the Bank of China is offering an extremely high overnight interest rate for high net-worth investors with a big sum of cash.

There is another interesting observation that is quite unusual. China’s RMB is widely perceived to be undervalued. This can be seen by the fact that the RMB is always bumping against the upper band of the government-imposed US dollar exchange limit. But today, the RMB is bumping against the lower limit of the band. It looks like the RMB ‘wants’ to depreciate against the US dollar.

Why?

As Patrick Chovanec wrote,

Presumably because the capital account had flipped, and speculators were now rushing to turn their RMB into dollars in order to take their money out of China.

…

What the new downward market pressure on the RMB does indicate, however, is that China ? for so long a no-brainer destination for investment ? has turned into a big question mark. And it suggests that at least some domestic Chinese investors who have been inclined to sock their money into empty villas and condos ? or big stockpiles of raw materials ? are now looking for a way out.

That’s exactly Victor Shih’s pet theory about a possible trigger for a financial/crisis in China. Although Patrick Chovanec reckons that this does not mean a collapse in the RMB because China’s vast hoard (US$3 trillion) of US dollar reserve can allow it to defend the RMB, we aren’t so sure.

Why?

As we wrote early last year at Is China allowed to use its US$2.4 trillion reserve to spend its way out of any potential crisis?

According to the chart provided by Pivot Capital?s report, only a little over 20% of China?s total currency (plus gross external debt) are ?backed? by their US dollar reserves, which isn?t spectacular compared to other emerging economies. In fact, South Africa is the winner in this aspect because their reserve coverage ratio is almost 160% i.e. it has $16 of reserves for every $10 of currency.

Since China had been printing copious amount of money too, the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) liabilities (RMB) far exceeds its asset (US dollars). If say 30% of China’s RMB wants to exit China, this could easily trigger a currency crisis for China. Is this too far fetched? We don’t know and we do not have the data to give a definitive answer. But this is something you have to watch out for.

It is no secret that Australia’s economy is highly reliant on China. In light of what’s happening in China, Australian investors better be prepared. By the way, in this Youtube video, Marc Faber advised that some sectors of China’s economy may crash.

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Posted in Looking Forward | 9 Comments »

Why bailouts and ‘stimulus’ crutch will screw up the US economy even more?

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

August is the most volatile month in the global financial market since the GFC. We had a near default of the US government (see What will happen if Uncle Sam does not raise the debt ceiling?), followed by the downgrade of the US government debt by S&P. On top of that, there’s worries about a double dip recession in the US and fears that the Europe sovereign debt crisis can cause a financial earthquake that can rival the panic triggered by the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Regarding the raising of the US debt ceiling, we have some things to say. President Obama said that if the US government’s debt ceiling is not raised, the US government will default on its debt. Dear readers, do you see what message the US is sending with this simple statement? Basically, he is saying that if the US is not allowed to borrow more money, they are going to default on the money already owed. In other words, they need to borrow more money to repay the monies (plus interests) that they are currently owing. As China is the biggest lender to the US, this is basically telling them that if they don’t lend more money to the US, they can kiss their existing money goodbye.

If a private citizen comes to the point that he has to borrow more money to repay the ones already owed, it is no-brainer that he is on his way to bankruptcy! As we wrote back in October 2008 at? America?s balance sheet,

To make it easier for you to understand these colossal numbers, imagine owing $200,000 and earning $3640 per year on your job (that is, optimistically assuming that the economy can grow at 2% per year)! In other words, the earnings per year are only 1.82% of the total outstanding debt, which is far below the rate of price inflation. Based on market rate of interests (i.e. the long-term bond yield), the earnings will not be enough to even cover the interest payments.

So, the US government is in the same situation! Unless the US can? somehow create miraculous economic growth that will result in miraculous growth in tax receipts of the US government, the amount that the US government is going to owe will go up exponentially! And no, unlike private citizens, austerity measures will not solve the problem. Why? Thanks to the GFC, the government spent BIG on bailouts and ‘stimulus’ that does not stimulate, resulting in the government becoming a big part of the economy. So, slashing government spending will shrink the economy, which in turn will shrink tax receipts. As we wrote in August 2009 at Will governments be forced to exit from ?stimulus??,

In fact, the word ?stimulus? is the most misleading word in economics lexicon because it conveys the idea of a surgeon ?stimulating? a heart into self-sustained beating. In reality, what government interventions did was to put the economy on a crutch. The longer the economy leans on the government crutch, the more dependent it will be on the government. Eventually, the government will become the economy. For those who haven?t already, we encourage you to read Preserving jobs at all costs leads to economic stagnation and Are governments mad with ?stimulating??.

Do you see why we oppose ‘stimulus’ spending and bailouts in 2008? The government is going to have a colossal funding challenge in the first place (see Is the GFC the final crisis?). Spending big money in bailouts and ‘stimulus’ crutch is going to make the government the economy. Once the government becomes the economy, austerity measures becomes out of question. If austerity is out of question, then debt repayment becomes out of question. If debt repayment becomes out of question (i.e. default), then printing money is the only option. Yes, the US government can print money because the debt that they owe is denominated in their own currency.

Now, back to the real world. What are we hearing about the US economy today? We are hearing market chatter about a double-dip recession in the US. Bernanke had announced that he is going to keep short-term interest rates at zero for the next two years. There are talk about the coming lost-decade for the US where the economy will stagnate for the next 10 years.

Do you see the implication for this dismal forecast?

If we are right, the 2008 GFC is nothing compared to the coming US government debt crisis. That is why the message in our book, How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver bullion is so urgent and important.

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Posted in Looking Forward | 4 Comments »

What will happen if Uncle Sam does not raise the debt ceiling?

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Today, the financial markets are abuzz with chatter about the possible default of the US government due to Congress not raising the debt ceiling. A lot of investors are also interested in this topic and hence, this article.

First, what do we think will happen? We do not know what will happen in future. But our bet is that the debt ceiling will eventually be raised. If not by August 2, then it will be soon after. Maybe that will involve Obama invoking the 14th amendment clause in the Constitution to bypass Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Or maybe some other measures that we have not thought off. Or maybe there will be a surprise hugs and kisses in Congress as both Democrats and Republicans agree to raise the ceiling. Maybe… Anyway, this is not the first time this is happening. Every time, the debt ceiling is eventually raised. But because it was always raised eventually, it becomes like a game of crying wolf. So, each time it happens, the brinkmanship has to bring the country nearer to the edge in order to be taken more seriously.

But what if the unthinkable happens? What if the Uncle Sam fails to raise the debt ceiling and defaults on its debt?

US government debt is supposed to be the safest forms of cash in the world. It is supposed to be the debt that can never ever be defaulted. As a result, the yields on long-term US government debt become the benchmark to appraise every other investment, including stocks and bonds. The heart of value investing depends on the sacred safety of US government debt (see our series, Value investing for dummies). Now, there is talk that the US government may default on its debt. The fact that such a talk exists shows that it can happen. It hasn?t happen yet. But you can be sure that if it happens, it will throw chaos into the world of investing because if the world?s safest form of cash becomes unsafe, how do you value all the other investments?

So, what will happen?

Obviously, the US dollar will go down. But go down relative to which currency? Euros? Nay, Europe has its own sovereign debt problems. Yen? Maybe yes, but Japan?s government debt as a percentage of GDP dwarfs even the Greeks. Chinese Yuan? Perhaps, but it is still not a fully convertible currency. Australian dollar? That sounds better, and that can explains why the AUD is surging. Gold and silver? Yes, if the sacred safety of Uncle Sam?s debt is no longer safe, then there?s no recourse but to return to what is historically money for thousands of years.

Next, what will happen to interest rates in the US? Imagine all the US government bond holders heading for the exits together. US government bond prices will tank, which means its yields will surge. That will then lead to surging borrowing rates in the US.

But wait! Will Ben Bernanke sit there and do nothing while interest rates sky-rocket? Of course not! We think the Federal Reserve will step in by conjuring up money from thin air to buy the bonds from the panicking herd in order to support US government bond prices. And Bernanke will surely be praying that this will turn the tide of the massive wave of selling. What if the herd saw Bernanke?s money printing and believes that he is going to unleash a tidal wave of money into economy. That?ll be hyperinflationary! But if Bernanke does not do what it takes to support the US government bond prices, it will be hyperdeflationary as the already weak US economy get crunched by oppressively high interest rates.

Remember two years ago when National Party Barnaby Joyce suggested that Australia must have a contingency plan for an US government debt default. The then Prime Minister Rudd denounced him as an irresponsible loony. Today, that loony looks to be saner than Rudd.

Interesting times lies ahead. Those who had read our book, How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver bullion and had already taken action have much less to fear. And by the way, our book is now also available in iTunes, for those who owns Apple’s iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.

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Posted in Currencies, Looking Forward | 11 Comments »

Is China’s electricity shortage be the trigger for a crash?

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

As you read the mainstream media, you will find that more and more attention are paid to the fundamentals of China’s economy. Recently, reports of Chinese ghost cities made its way to the newspapers and TV news reports. Attention are brought into the inflation problem that China is facing, and the efforts by the authorities to clamp down on the property bubble that are brought about by real estate speculation. Then we hear reports on the MSM of characters like Jim Chanos, who famously made the claim that China is Dubai times 1000. So, it is fair to say the mainstream is catching on the scepticism of China’s economic ‘miracle’.

While it is true that the mountains of bad debts, excesses, bubbles, corruption and price inflation in the Chinese economy are unsustainable in the long run, it is another matter to predict when this unsustainable trend will result in an almighty crash. As Professor Chovanec put it astutely, China’s bubble is “extremely persistent,” though he is careful to qualify that that it is by no means sustainable.

So, a week ago, when we saw this news article about electricity shortages, we wondered whether a hard landing for China is near? As that BBC article reported,

Offices and shopping malls in the Chinese city of Shanghai will be urged to close their doors on the hottest days of the year this summer.

The power rationing is necessary due to the country’s shortage of electricity.

The electricity grid serving China’s financial hub does not have the capacity to meet peak demand the authorities say.

China has been coping with power shortages since March, because of coal supply problems and a drought.

If you are curious about the answer to this question, our friend, Paul Adkins, from AZ-China had completed an in-depth study of the situation in China this summer, as the country runs out of electricity. (You can order this report by contacting them on their web site. And note that we do NOT receive any commissions for any sales of their report.) We have read the report and can only provide you with our interpretation of the most important facts…

This is not the first time China is suffering from power shortage. The last it happened was “especially in 2004, but also in 2006 and 2008.” Today, the primary reason for the electricity shortage is the high price of coal. Coal is the main input cost of producing electricity in China. Unfortunately for the power generator, the price of electricity in China is capped by government decree.

The result?

As AZ-China’s study reported,

High coal prices and relatively lower electricity price increases have combined to deteriorate the fiscal situation of power producers, making power plants lose motivation to increase capacity utilization.

Now, the current ‘shortage’ of electricity is not due to a real physical shortage. The power generators, in fact, have excess spare capacity. As the study continued,

The utilization of thermal generators has not reached the historical maximum point.

Utilization hours of thermal power equipment was 5,031 hours in 2010, 16% lower than 5,991 hours in 2004, indicating the [Independent Power Producers] IPPs can improve utilization. On a theoretical basis at least, they can fill the power supply gap; it should only be a matter of time before the National Development and Reform Commission releases policies for stimulating increased power generation.

And here is a very interesting dynamic that is happening in China. As Paul Adkins wrote in his blog article,

The electricity generation companies have been baulking at paying the high price, and running only on contract coal, which they purchase for a much lower cost.That?s on the surface, but there?s more to it. The power generation companies certainly buy coal at a lower price than the spot market. But here?s the rub. They are re-selling their coal back into the spot market. they take as much coal as the contracts allow, then sell ?surplus? coal. In some cases, their reported profits have come more from reselling than from power generation.

So, the power generator ran out of coal, but it becomes the Government’s problem.

Now, you may wonder, in an authoritarian country, why don’t the government order the power producers to produce more and solve the problem at a stroke?

Well, here is the power of incentive at work. As Paul wrote in his blog article,

Because the key people in every layer of management are measured by the Communist Party?s Organisation Department, using profit growth as the key measure. Careers are at stake, but they are built not by doing what is best for the country in some altruistic way, but through turning in a report card that shows you made money during your tenure in that job.

Once you understand the situation, you will be able to understand that the present electricity shortage is due to economic policy screw up, not due to an actual physical shortage.

Hence, the quickest remedy the government can make to alleviate the situation is to raise the price of electricity. But wouldn’t this result in rising price inflation? The short answer we can give you from reading AZ-China’s report,

A moderate power price rise won?t be a great influence on CPI.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this is a temporary fix for 2011. The problem is in 1 to 2 years time,

… as the failure to keep investing in thermal power generation creates an ever-larger gap with demand.

That’s when the real physical shortage will occur.

So, if someone’s going to short China today on the basis of the present electricity shortage, we wish them good luck!

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Posted in Looking Forward | 2 Comments »

Thinking of shorting Australian house price?

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Recently, we received an email from one of our readers:

Just wondering if you’d like to touch on possible investment ideas for hedging australian real estate?

I’ve had a look at puts on the banks before but the banks have mortgage insurance along with an implied guarentee from the gov so I was thinking that while their may be some correlation, it may not be as high as one would like when the chips are down.

As such any other possible hedging ideas would be appreciated, ideally it would have to be highly leveraged to act as a suitable hedge.

Looking at other places that suffered a debt/property collapse with a low housing supply may be a good place to start? (UK?)

Today, we will talk about this topic. We haven’t talked about Australian property for quite a long time. But you can read through our old archives and know where we stand on this topic. Also, please take note that nothing that is said in this blog should be construed as financial advice. Instead, we are just voicing out our ideas and suggestions for discussion and brainstorming. With that disclaimer, let’s dive into it.

It is no secret that Australian house price is heading for stagnation at best and a crash at worst. Even the most optimistic forecasts from the vested interests call for stagnation. Already, house prices in Perth have been falling for over a year already. There are reports of rising supply of homes for sale while at the same time, demand is weak and auction rates are weakening.

So, if you reckon Australia is heading for a house price bust, what are the ideas for shorting/hedging Australian house prices? Since there exists no financial instruments that can short Australian house prices directly, we can only do so indirectly through the side-effects of falling prices.

First, before we run off to take up short positions, it is helpful to envisage a few possible scenarios:

  1. Professor Steve Keen sees that we are facing a scenario whereby house prices fall 40 percent in nominal terms over a period of say, 15 years. That’s basically the Japanese scenario whereby the housing bubble deflate with a slow hiss. In this case, the fall in prices will be so slow (a few percent a year) that it becomes almost imperceptible.
  2. A rapid fall of say 10-15% followed by slow deflation.
  3. A big crash of say, 40-50% in a short period of time, say a couple of years.

In the first scenario, there is nothing much to short. The economy may be able to muddle through in stagnation for a very long time.

In the second scenario, the banks will suffer heavy losses but they will probably survive. The obvious idea is to short the bank shares. In this scenario, we can imagine consumer spendings will be depressed as well. Therefore, shorting retail related stocks is another idea. Property developers and builders will be shorting candidates as well. In this scenario, we imagine that the AUD will be weak as well, as the RBA will have to cut interest rates.

The third scenario will be the nightmare scenario. Such a precipitous fall in house prices will put the Australian banking system in serious trouble. For one, since property is the most popular collateral for lending in Australia, a house price crash will result in a credit crunch. As you can see what happened in the United States during the GFC, a credit crunch result will ultimately result in rising unemployment, which will in turn will feedback into a second round of effects into the economy through more mortgage debt defaults. If the entire banking and financial system falls into deep trouble, we will likely see an AUD currency crisis (see Will there be an AUD currency crisis?). In this scenario, we will not even bother to short Australian banking stocks. The financial and economic situation in Australia will be unpredictable and volatile. As we wrote in Protecting yourself against currency crisis.

Personally, we feel that the best way to protect yourself from a currency crisis is to leave the country before TSHTF. If not, stock up some physical cash (both foreign and local), physical gold and silver (see our book, How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver) and supplies- these will tide you over while the sh*t is hitting the fan. For the longer term, you may want to move some of your savings overseas- you may not be able to use them in the midst of the crisis, but when it is all over, the local currency may no longer exist (e.g. you may have to convert the old currency to a new one at unfavourable rates).

Even if the AUD is to survive, we may witness rising interest rates as the RBA sought to defend the AUD from speculative sell-off.

Now, some people may ask, what if the Commonwealth government bail out the banks? Will that avert a crisis?

The problem with this question is that the word “bail out” is too vague. Does that question ask whether the government will bail out depositors? We imagine the government will do that. But does it mean that the government will bail out depositors and bank bond holders? Or even better still, will the government bails out depositors, bank bond holders and bank stock holders? Obviously, the more stakeholders the government bail out, the more expensive it is going to be. Will the government be able or willing to fork out that much?

With that, we turn to our readers. What are your thoughts and ideas?

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Posted in Looking Forward, Property | 20 Comments »

China is slowing down

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Many things happened since we last wrote. The earthquake in Japan was the biggest news of the day. As Japan’s nuclear crisis unfolded, stock markets around the world panicked amidst screams of “nuclear meltdown.” Today, the nuclear situation in Japan seemed to be stabilising, even though the long-term radiation impacts are still unclear at this moment.

To help you keep things in perspective, please note one thing about Japan’s nuclear crisis: despite screams of “nuclear meltdown,” there is ZERO chance of a nuclear explosion. A nuclear reactor is NOT a nuclear bomb. Our guess is that this nuclear crisis is just a blip in the economic big picture, even though in some localised areas in Japan, it is the end of the world (e.g. some areas may not be habitable for a long time). Therefore, contrarian investors may use this opportunity to buy Japanese stocks (we know it is probably too late to do so now).

However, do not let the nuclear crisis distract you to a more important development that is already brewing for quite some time- the coming slowdown in China. This development is far more important than the Japanese nuclear crisis, which by now is no longer a crisis. Remembered we wrote in January last year at Chinese government cornered by inflation, bubbles & rich-poor gap,

By not allowing the yuan to appreciate, the Chinese government shows that at least for now, they fear unemployment and excess capacity more than inflation.

But there will be a day when they have to tackle the inflation problem. As long as the inflation problem is not solved, there will be rising prices and bubbles in the asset markets.

Today, we can say that the Chinese government are tackling the inflation problem. 2009 and 2010 was the year when they pumped in steroids into the economy. Today, they are dealing with the effects of the steroids- price inflation. China is tightening monetary conditions (e.g. rising interest rates, increasing bank reserves requirements) for quite some time already. They are serious about dealing with price inflation, at least for now. Premier Wen Jiabao had already declared that China’s target for economic growth will be lower (see China lowers growth rate target in sustainability drive), from 8% to 7%. Incidentally, the lower target of 7% is pretty close to Gary Shilling’s (a respected bear on China) definition of a ‘hard landing’ in China, which is a growth rate of 6% or less.

So, it should be extremely obvious by now that China’s economy will slow down this year. In other words, China is aiming for a soft landing.

The big question is, when the slowdown begins to bite, will China step on the accelerator again? Our belief is that there’s too much vested interests in China to keep the growth going and to prevent the bubble from bursting spectacularly. Also, the central bank in China is not independent. Thus, as we wrote in Why should central banks be independent from the government?, without an independent central bank, the bias in China is towards more inflation.

The risk for China (and by extension, Australia- see Turkeys fattened for slaughter in the Chi-tralia bubble) is that the control freaks in Beijing may stuff up and either turn the soft landing into a hard landing or losing control of inflation.

Watch this space.

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Posted in Economics/Finance, Looking Forward, Market Observations | 1 Comment »

Why you have to change your idea of ‘investing’ in the coming years to come

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

The global economy is in a diabolical dilemma right now. If the world economy is paralysed by deflation (which is Bernanke’s nightmare), prices of many things will fall. For example, as we wrote in How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver bullion,

In the second half of 2008, the world experienced unprecedented asset and commodity price deflation. As noted earlier, oil prices fell from a high of almost US$150 to just over $30 over the space of months. Base metals and agricultural commodities plunged along with a panic in the stock market. The US dollar and US Treasury bonds surged (at one point, short-term US Treasury bonds had a negative yield). Statistically (in terms of price volatility), the panic in 2008 was worse than the crashes of 1929 and 1987.

Despite the mainstream commentary screaming “Disaster,” we believe such extreme deflation wasn’t that evil in the bigger scheme of things.

Why?

If you believe that burning fossil fuels causes climate change? or that Peak Oil is one of the greatest threat to humanity, wouldn’t such extreme deflation give planet Earth an urgently needed respite? Wouldn’t the collapse of global demand for goods and services save planet Earth for the sake of the next generation? Since 2008, the world witnessed a ‘recovery’ (that was brought about by massive money printing).

But what do we get out of that ‘recovery’?

Surging price inflation that threatens the poor with starvation and pushed many from middle-class to poor.

For example, as Food prices at dangerous levels, says World Bank reported,

The World Bank says food prices are at “dangerous levels” and have pushed 44 million more people into poverty since last June.

This, our dear readers, is just the beginning of a more serious global food crisis. Australia’s CSIRO scientist, Julian Cribb wrote a very sobering book, The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid it. As this New York Times book review wrote,

Like many other experts, he argues that we have passed the peak of oil production, and it?s all downhill from now on. He then presents evidence that we have passed the peaks for water, fertilizer and land, and that we will all soon be made painfully aware that we have passed it for food, as wealthy nations experience shortages and rising prices, and poorer ones starve.

This is the price that the this and the next generation will have to pay if we keep up the current way of exploiting planet Earth for the sake of economic ‘growth.’ Hardly surprisingly, a recent Wikileaks revealed that Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices.

Dear readers, don’t you see that this economic ‘recovery’ is an illusion?

The ultra-rich, on the other hand, have less to worry about starvation and more to worry about how to preserve the purchasing power of their existing surplus wealth. Some of them will rush to hoard agricultural land and commodities, which will exacerbate the plight of the poor.

The middle-class will see their standard of living being eroded by rising food and energy prices. As we wrote in April 2007, Smart money in alternative energy?Part 1: current energy quandary,

The most important ingredient that drives the efficiencies, comforts, automation and wonders of today?s modern way of life is energy. The trains, cars, ships and aeroplanes that transport massive quantities of people and goods over vast distances quickly require energy in the form of fuel. The heavy machines that do heavy physical work far beyond the scope of human labour require energy too. The powerful computers that process and store vast amount of data and information as well as automate mental labour requires energy in the form of electricity. The heating in winter and cooling in summer of our abode requires energy too. Take energy away and our modern way of life will very much grind to a halt and bring us back to the hard life of our ancestors. In fact, contemporary life rests on the premise of abundant and cheap energy. Therefore, whoever controls the supply and provision of energy controls power and wealth.

When energy prices go up, the prices of everything else will go up. When the prices of everything else go up, your standard of living will go down.

Some of the poor, who are already spending a large portion of their income on food, will have to starve. But before that will happen, we will witness increased incidence of revolutions, wars and conflicts. What we see in Tunisia and Egypt is just the beginning- there will be more.

Dear readers, after reading all these, wouldn’t you come to the realisation that this will have grave implications on the idea of ‘investing.’ Normally, investing is associated with ‘making’ money. But in the context of surging price inflation, ‘making’ money becomes meaningless as the value of money diminishes.

In the next article, we will talk more about this implication. In the meantime, have a think about it.

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Posted in Advertising/Affiliates, Commodities, Food, Looking Forward, Oil | 6 Comments »

Marc Faber: correction coming

Monday, January 31st, 2011

In a recent interview (about a week ago), Marc Faber warned of a coming correction in asset prices. In this correction, he reckoned that emerging markets (e.g. China) will fall harder than the markets of the developed world (e.g. US, Europe).

As he elaborated further, for the past two years, the emerging markets and commodities were doing very well. In fact, so well that there’s talk that China’s economic/political model is superior to the model of the Western liberal democracies because it managed to dodge the GFC and thrived in the aftermath while the developed economies were going nowhere and being plagued by sovereign debt crisis.

However, Marc Faber reckoned that for the next few months, this trend can reverse for a change. The implication is that US Treasuries, US dollar may do very well, while US stocks may outperform emerging market stocks by falling less. So, the S&P500 may correct by say, 10% while Chinese stocks may correct by say, 20-30%.

For investors, it is easy to get lost in the minute details and lose sight of the forest for the trees. For one, it is clear to us that even though the massive money printing exercise of the Federal Reserve is not showing up in the US, price inflation is rearing its ugly head in the emerging economies. In other words, we believe that the US is exporting its price inflation to the emerging economies. This is because all nations are engaging in competitive devaluation of their currencies (to protect their exports in order to ‘stimulate’ their economies). However, since the US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency, the US is able to export the resulting price inflation to the emerging economies.

The price inflation had been growing for the past two years. At first, it seems benign and even seen as a badge of vindication for countries like China. And if you read our article, Turkeys fattened for slaughter in the Chi-tralia bubble, the growth and inflation is fueled by a massive credit bubble and monetary inflation. Since it is an axiom that all bubbles deflates/bursts eventually, there are speculation of when the bubble in the Chinese economy is going to burst.

Judging from the chatter in the blogsphere and mainstream news article, it seems that the spotlight is shifting towards the price inflation and asset price bubble in China. More and more articles like Crouching tiger, soaring cranes, rumbling doubts are telling us that there’re growing doubts on the Chinese economy. As we wrote 12 months ago in Chinese government cornered by inflation, bubbles & rich-poor gap,

But there will be a day when they have to tackle the inflation problem. As long as the inflation problem is not solved, there will be rising prices and bubbles in the asset markets.

Indeed, price inflation is turning into a serious problem in China. As Patrick Chovanec wrote,

China used to be cheap.? According to figures the World Bank uses to calculate Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), in 2003, a dollar?s worth of currency bought nearly five times as much in China as it did?the U.S.? A?bag of groceries,?or a hairdo, or a hotel room?that would have cost $50 in the U.S. cost only RMB?90, or roughly $11, in China.

Talk to anyone in China, though ? local or expatriate ? and they?ll tell you that, lately, things have been getting a lot more expensive.? When I went back to the U.S. a few months ago, I had the?strange sensation ? for the first time ? that a lot of things were actually cheaper there than in Beijing.

We are increasingly seeing signs that the Chinese government are taking more and more actions to attempt to control price inflation via administrative measures. But with money supply increasing 50% over the past two years, such measures are mere pin-pricks. The exploding supply of money is the root of China’s price inflation problem. And the reason why the money supply is exploding is the peg of the RMB towards the USD (see Why is China printing so much money?).

Unfortunately for the Chinese people, there are too many vested interests (e.g. corrupt officials, provincial governments, big businesses with links to government) in China who wants to keep the credit and asset price bubble going. Since asset price bubbles and price inflation are the symptoms of a common course (monetary inflation), the bias of the Chinese government (and for most governments in the world for that matter) is towards more inflation. Once the root cause of the price inflation is tackled, the asset price bubble will deflate/burst as well. With that, the massive wealth of many vested interests will deflate/disappear as well. Since we doubt those vested interests want that to happen, the price inflation problem will continue to rage in China.

Now, here comes a crucial point. As long as the masses in China believe that the government is working towards ‘solving’ the inflation problem, there are still hope. Indeed, a friend in China told us that her country (i.e. government) is “working its brains” to solve the inflation problem. Unfortunately, this is something that has yet to be dawned on her. As Patrick Chovanec wrote,

I find it incredibly ironic that the two hot populist issues among Chinese citizens these days are the high price of housing and U.S. pressure for a stronger RMB.? People are hot under the collar about both issues, but they never draw stop to think that China?s position on currency (maintaining a weak RMB) might be fueling inflation in the form of?rising housing and other living costs.? ?Of course, I don?t expect average citizens to draw the connection, but economists should.

However, the truth is this: the vested interests who control the government are NOT serious about solving the price inflation problem. The danger is that once the masses realise this, hyperinflation begins. As we quoted Ludwig von Mises in What is a crack-up boom?,

But then finally the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A breakdown occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against ?real? goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few weeks or even days, the things which were used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything against them.

So, as it becomes increasingly clear that the current trends in China is unsustainable, investors should watch the reaction of the Chinese government.

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Posted in Economics/Finance, Looking Forward, Market Observations | 3 Comments »

Will there be a surprise rally in the USD?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Everyone knows that the US Federal Reserve is going to print money (quantitative easing) in November. Hence, the financial markets have already priced that in. To them, this is a foregone conclusion. Surely, Bernanke is going to print trillions of dollars right? There?s no way he?s not going to do that right?

At this point, investors should be alert. When almost everyone thinks that a future outcome is a slam-dunk certainty, it?s the time when the market is most vulnerable to a significant setback. Since everyone is expecting that Bernanke is going to print so and so amount of money, and if it turns out that he is not printing as much as expected, the reaction by the financial markets can be savage. Any hints of dithering by Bernanke will be very negative for asset prices in the very short term.

Surely it wouldn?t happen right?

Well, who knows.

As the Americans accused the Chinese of manipulating their yuan, the Chinese will be accusing the Americans of manipulating their dollar through money-printing devaluation. Perhaps behind the scenes, both sides are negotiating a middle road. Maybe the Chinese will promise the Americans that they will appreciate their currency a little more than expected and the Americans will promise the Chinese that they will print a little less than expected. That way, the Chinese can cool their economy and pop their speculative property bubble while the Americans can benefit from a sell-off in gold and commodity prices and trigger a mad scramble for US Treasuries, which the US government will happily oblige because they are in need of cash to borrow.

Be ready for surprises!

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Posted in Looking Forward, Market Observations | 8 Comments »

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