Jan 172014
 
 January 17, 2014  Posted by at 4:40 pm Finance Tagged with: , ,


National Photo Co. Federal Clothing Store, Washington, D.C 1925

The time has come. The Automatic Earth has been talking about the inevitability of deflation for years, but the concept only now goes mainstream. Which is a shame, because a lot could have been done to try and mitigate the damage it’s going to do.

Although it’s as inevitable as the laws of thermodynamics, the notion that record debts will always lead to record debt deflation is hardly discussed; you have Steve Keen, Mike Shedlock, and Nicole and yours truly here at The Automatic Earth, and that’s about it (I’m sure I miss one or two, apologies, but I can’t think of any). And although put together we have a reasonable readers base, blogs and websites are still no more than fringe sources compared to the main media where everyone lacks either the intelligence or the courage or both to even think about the notion, no matter how close its certainty may be to that of thermodynamics. They won’t have their world view disturbed by reality.

Well, reality is here. And we can have our 15 minutes of fun watching them try to explain away their expert blinders. Sure, Japan was recognized as being in deflation, but that’s far away, and moreover, no sooner does PM Abe play double or nothing all on red with another huge chuck of public debt, or everyone’s ready to claim he beat the deflation beast. Yeah, we’ll see about that. The next region the pundit choir, all in unison in case they need to claim everyone else was wrong too, declares to be “under the threat” is Europe. Nary a word yet about the US.

And moreover, the only way they think they can now see deflation is in consumer prices, which are nothing but a consequence of what deflation really is: a drop in the combination of money and credit supply, multiplied by the velocity of money. Or, if you will, you can broaden this to include GDP, and thereby arrive at the quantity theory of money: Inflation x Real GDP = Money x Velocity.

For money supply in the US, it’s best to look at John Williams’ Shadowstats, because as we know M3, the “really broad” money supply, is no longer published by the Fed. Here’s John’s latest update:



And since there is no reason to assume M3 velocity is shockingly higher than M2 velocity, it seems pretty safe to use a FRED graph for the latter:



What we see if we take the period since the start of Williams’ data, 2003, is that both M2 and M3 money supply have actually fallen a little, while M2 velocity has plunged by 25% or so. Yes, that means, admittedly painted in broad strokes, that the average American spends 25% less than they did in the late 90’s! If you insert that knowledge into the quantity theory of money, Inflation x Real GDP = Money x Velocity, it becomes clear that either GDP or inflation, and probably both, must have gone down quite a bit.

By the way, looking at Europe, it’s clear they, unlike the US, certainly tried to boost one side of the equation, as the other one crumbled. It’s almost funny.



And from a slightly different and more recent angle:



Whether we talk about Europe or the US or Japan (where wages have been falling even faster than prices – the true sting of deflation -, for many years): when people buy less stuff, there is less need for workers to produce it and sales(wo)men to sell it to them. So they will be out of work and have less money to buy stuff, which creates even less need for workers and sales(wo)men, and so on. Deflation really is, sorry but there is no better word, a bitch. And as Japan can tell you, one that’s very hard to get rid off. Deflation is a bitch that really makes herself at home. And Japan has had the luck until 5 years ago that they were suffering deflation in a world where there was still demand for their products. Europe and the US obviously won’t be so lucky.

But if people have less money to spend, they can borrow, right? After all, isn’t that what we’ve all done all the time? And hey, to be fair, it’s not for lack of trying by the head honchos. Over the past 5 years, governments, certainly in the US and UK, have tried very hard to get people to buy homes again (with debt). But that doesn’t fight deflationary forces, since it doesn’t really raise the velocity of money, it may even bring it down: In essence, it puts more debt on people’s shoulders (which will instead conveniently be labeled ‘assets’ as long as prices keep rising), and more debt means less spending elsewhere. Cristmas sales were, overall, gloomy again. And that when people can still buy with plastic.

Another example: QE doesn’t enter in to the real economy, so it doesn’t increase the velocity of money. A large part of QE creates reserves that banks hold at the Fed, with the emphasis on hold, while, as Professor Steve Keen recently suggested in private – dinner – conversation, the part that reaches the shadow banking system is pumped into the stock markets, because shadow banks don’t have accounts with the Fed and they need to put it somewhere. Still, that has little effect on the velocity of money, though one might argue resulting – temporary – higher valuations tempt more people to buy stocks.

But it’s not about stocks, either, the velocity of money is something that takes place in the street, it’s not something that is controlled by 300 Wall Street bankers, but by 300 million Americans, the ones that make up 70% of GDP. Even if those bankers spend 100 times more on food and clothing than Joe No Blow, the effect will be negligible. It’s not about banks or bankers, it’s about what those 90 million Americans who are no longer part of the labor force spend on a daily basis on food and clothing and heat, and the 40-odd million on foodstamps, and the fast growing segment of the population that depends on incomes at the level of burger flippers and WalMart greeters. The lives all these people find themselves in, and let’s not forget the record low labor participation rate, drag down the velocity of money ever more.

It’s perhaps this complete lack of control the financial system has over the velocity of money that had former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer make the following utterly incredible remarks last July at CNBC. You really should hear this specimen. I guess it’s accepted “policy” that anything you don’t have control over, you just pretend doesn’t exist. As per Meyer: “The word ‘velocity’ doesn’t appear in my vocabulary; the issue is the amount of lending by banks”.

He also asserts that velocity is not a useful concept because it is “too variable”. What on earth is that supposed to mean? That we’re only supposed to take note of things that are constant? For some reason this reminds me of Homer Simpson’s stern declaration that “In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics”. Equally convincing at first bite, equally absurd two seconds on. It also reminds me of Steve Keen’s debate with Paul Krugman, in which the latter sought to entirely deny the role of banks in money creation. Sure, just pretend it doesn’t exist, that’s all you need.

Former Fed Governor Meyer: Velocity of Money Means Nothing

Former Federal Reserve Gov. Laurence Meyer told CNBC Tuesday [July 9, 2013] that velocity of money – the rate at which capital is transacted in an economy – shouldn’t concern markets, and he dismissed the metric as a guide in setting central bank policy. The concept is not very useful, Meyer said. “Monetary policy is about affecting rates, which affect financial conditions and affect aggregate demand.”

Velocity of money refers to the rate at which money in circulation is spent on goods and services, and economists use it to determine the expected rate of inflation. An economy with a higher velocity of money can expect a higher rate of inflation.

But Meyer, who now works with Macroeconomic Advisors, said that velocity is “just a definition” that doesn’t help predict much of anything. “Monetary policy is determined by basically a strategy that is embedded in policy rules. I can’t tell you what the money supply is or how fast it’s growing – I don’t care.” he said. “The word ‘money’ is never said in our office [and] probably not by the staff at the Fed,” he added. “Money doesn’t appear in any modern macro model. We have got to get over that, OK? We’re beyond that now.”

It’s not all that easy to silence me, but Larry Meyer managed to do it there for a minute or two. If this is how economic policy in America is decided, it’s no wonder there are 42 million people on foodstamps in what was once the richest nation on earth. Play that 6 minute video! Ben Bernanke is/was a little less absurd in this regard, but only a little, because as scared as he said he was of deflation, he’s always maintained he had it all under control. Sadly, there are debt levels at which debt deflation becomes like thermodynamics, events that can’t be stopped.

And pumping money into banks through QE does nothing to raise the money supply, only the monetary base (something I suspect Ben knows very well, which would mean he’s lied throughout his tenure about stimulating the economy), and Ben and Timothy and Jack Lew’s refusal to restructure bank debt hasn’t exactly helped either, to put it mildly. Bernanke’s claim, when seen in this light, that he had the deflation threat under control, is like saying he had the power to stop the waves from hitting the shore. And I think he’s known that, too, all along. The Buddha of banking my a**. I find it hard to believe he gets to leave as some sort of hero. The man should be under investigation.

But yeah, the press has en masse started to talk about deflation in the EU these days (good luck trying to spot a European politician who agrees, though). Try “deflation” as a search term in Google news, and you’re inundated with articles that include the term. Most still with pundits claiming “they” won’t let it happen, but it has certainly become a very popular word, almost overnight.

I don’t want to bother you with a long string of such pieces, but let me lift out some that I think are interesting. This morning, Royal Dutch Shell issued a strong profit warning, and cited “weaker refining conditions caused by industry overcapacity and weak demand”. The introduction of a new CEO is of course the ideal moment to announce bad news: he can’t be held responsible, he’s cleaning the slate. But I still smell deflation in this. Overcapacity, weak demand, money’s not rolling.

Shell issues shock profit warning as results plummet

Royal Dutch Shell’s new boss Ben van Beurden has admitted the oil firm’s performance was not what he expected from the group in 2013 as he issued a shock profit warning just two weeks after taking over at the helm. Van Beurden – who succeeded Peter Voser as chief executive on 1 January – said the firm’s fourth-quarter figures were expected to be “significantly lower than recent levels of profitability”.

Its fourth quarter underlying earnings are now expected to almost halve to around $2.9 billion. This is set to leave full-year results 23% lower at $19.5 billion. Shell blamed lower oil and gas prices and “weak industry conditions” in downstream oil, as well as higher exploration expenses and lower upstream volumes. Its recent third-quarter figures were badly hit by a 49% drop in downstream profits as a result of weaker refining conditions caused by industry overcapacity and weak demand.

On Wednesday, the incomparable Ambrose Evans-Pritchard took it upon his genius mind to link oil to deflation as well, in his own equally incomparable style (when he starts venting his opinion, you know it’s time to go walk the dog. Ambrose makes a lot of sense here:

Coming ‘oil glut’ may push global economy into deflation

One piece of the jigsaw puzzle is missing to complete the deflation landscape across the West: a slide in oil prices. This is becoming more likely each month. Turmoil across the Middle East and parts of Africa has choked supply over the past two years, keeping Brent crude near $110 a barrel despite a broader commodity slump. Cotton and corn prices have halved, as has the UBS index of industrial metals. Such anomalies rarely last. “We estimate that crude oil is now the mostly richly priced commodity in the world,” says Deutsche Bank in a fresh report.

Michael Lewis, the bank’s commodity strategist, said markets face an “new oil supply glut” as three forces combine. US shale will add 1 million barrels a day (b/d) to global supply for the third year running; Libya will crank up shipments after a near collapse in 2013; and Iran will come out of hibernation. “This will push OPEC spare capacity to levels last seen in the depths of the financial crisis in 2009,” he said.

America is on track to overtake Saudi Arabia as the top global producer of oil by 2016. It will account for more than half of non-OPEC world supply this year. The US Energy Department says US oil imports will drop to 5.5 million b/d by next year, half the level a decade ago. This turns the world’s 89 million b/d market upside-down.

Deutsche Bank said Saudi Arabia may have to slash its output by a quarter to 7.5 million b/d this year to stop the bottom falling out of the market. The Saudis no longer have such money to spare. They are propping up an elephantine welfare nexus to keep a lid on explosive tensions in the Eastern Province, home to Saudi oil and its aggrieved Shia minority. A cut of this size would push the budget into deep deficit.

This comes as Iran makes its peace with the West. Its 30-year vendetta with the US – Iran’s natural ally in many ways – no longer makes sense. President Hassan Rohani is no doubt pushing his luck by describing the nuclear deal as a “surrender” to Iran by the great powers, but let him have his flourish to save face. “It does not matter what they say, it matters what they do,” retorted the White House. [..]

Meanwhile, Libya is picking itself up from the floor after separatist militia forces reduced the country to anarchy last year, blockading key export terminals. The oil minister said this week that crude output has tripled since the summer to more than 600,000 b/d as the El Sharara field comes back on stream. Libya may add 1 million b/d to global supply this year.

Bank of America says a simultaneous return of Iran and Libya could add up to 3 million b/d. Just a third of this “positive supply shock” could shave $20 off the world oil price, unless OPEC’s fractious cartel can slash output quickly enough to offset it. We should expect hot words at OPEC summits, and plenty of cheating. [..]



Oil bulls says global economic recovery is strong enough to soak up any rise in supply. Perhaps, but Simon Ward at Henderson Global Investors says the world money supply rolled over in November and is now flashing amber warnings.

His key gauge – real six-month M1 – for the G7 rich states and E7 emerging market economies has slowed to 2.3% from 3.7% last May. It acts as an early warning indicator, six months ahead. This suggest that global growth may soon fade. “Global risks are rising. The cycle already looks mature by historical standards,” he said. The growth of broad M3 money in the US has slowed to 4.6% even before Fed tapering cuts off stimulus. In the eurozone it is has been near zero for the past six months.

The latest data from China are very weak, with M2 growth falling to 13.6% in December from 14.2% in November as the authorities tighten. It is the change in pace that matters. China looks eerily like the US in 2007 when broad money buckled. The sheer scale of money creation in China has worldwide implications. Zhang Monan from the China Foundation says the money supply is 200% of GDP, and 1.5 times larger than the US money supply in absolute terms. She said debt deflation is now setting in as the central bank tries to rein in credit.

As readers know, my view is that China is riding a $24 trillion credit tiger that it cannot control. Fresh data show that fixed investment surged to $5 trillion last year, more than in the US and Europe combined. This implies yet more excess capacity, transmitting a deflationary impulse worldwide.

A sudden slide in oil prices against this background may not be entirely benign. [..] The risk is that it will “unhinge” inflation expectations as the headline rate keeps dropping. Half of Europe already has one foot in deflation, with prices falling over the past five months once austerity taxes are stripped out. Any shock at this point could start to frighten the horses. [..]

To avoid confusion, let me be clear that the dangers of dwindling oil supplies in the long-run have not gone away. Easy reserves of crude are being depleted. New fields are more costly. Peak oil may have the last laugh. Yet this should not be confused with the short-term risks of deflationary shock.

I recently attended a Transatlantic Dialogue on Energy Security with senior military officers in London and Washington. The message was that shale will come and go – with US tight gas peaking by 2017 – creating a false sense of security as the deeper strategic threat continues to build. That is broadly my view as well. Much drama can intrude along the way.

Sorry for the long quote (the original is quite a bit longer still), but I think Ambrose had something in just about every word I quoted. He even made sure to include that shale oil is no more than a short-term fad, albeit with the potential (and this is because of speculation) to disrupt an entire industry (re: Shell’s losses announced today and its $2.1 billion write-down of shale “assets” last year).

And it’s good for people to ponder the notion that lower gas prices are not – only – a good thing. With the potential to drag down even CPI (consumer inflation) numbers below zero, they can create panic, a huge loss of trust in both political and economic systems, and a severe slide in markets. Shell accounts for close to 19% of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), to name an example. In general, seeing deflation as beneficiary is not a very smart thing to do.

Albert Edwards had a noteworthy take on deflation as well, as quoted by Business Insider.

We’re On The Cliff Of Deflation And Markets Don’t Seem To Care

Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards has warned for some time that we are on the precipice of deflation. But in his new note to clients, he seems utterly bemused. Markets just don’t seem to care. “Markets remain stoic about the risks of outright deflation in the US and eurozone for one very simple reason,” he writes.

“They simply do not believe a recession that would trigger outright deflation is on the horizon. Quite the reverse – they believe with all their heart that we are at the start of a self-sustained recovery. That is despite the fact that the US recovery is already noticeably longer than average, and that the classic signs of old age, such as rapidly slowing productivity growth and stagnant corporate profits, can clearly be seen.”

Market expectations of inflation — via the 10-year bond market — have “remained entrenched” above 2% for more than a year, Edwards writes. “A chasm is growing between reality, both on a core and headline basis, and expectations,” he says. “If investors begin to doubt the economy recovery then they will no longer be able to ignore the lurking deflationary threat. Rapid market moves would ensue.”

There’s only one reason for stocks to be as high as they are at present, and it’s obviously not to be found in the real economy it allegedly reflects, but in stimulus from governments and central banks (Greek stocks were up 19% in Q4?!). Take away QE et al and all stock prices will be reflecting is unemployment numbers and foodstamps. I’m quite amused by people who say that since QE has had little effect on the real economy, tapering can’t possibly do much damage. You think? I say: take it away, Janet!

In the end, central banks are powerless when it comes to fighting deflation. Certainly when they have become so politicized and bought up by industry, as the Fed has, that they refuse to restructure debt. When that’s accepted policy, it’s merely a matter of time before the debt drags everything down that’s not bolted fast. The only sensible thing to do when there’s too much debt is to restructure it. But yes, I know, that would sink a too big bank or two, and a bunch of properties in Connecticut and St. Barth’s. And if you got the power to sink an entire nation instead and save your friends, hey …

Of course the reason the Fed does no restructuring and defaulting is to provide more time for private debt to be transferred to the public. If one thing defines Ben Bernanke’s tenure, it’s that. And when that process is deemed to be no longer sufficiently beneficial, we all better make sure we found ourselves adequate shelter from the storm.

I’ll close with a piece Zero Hedge posted from Phoenix Capital Research, where they don’t belive in mincing their words:

Three Points That Refute All Talk of Recovery

For well over five years now we’ve been told that the US was in recovery and that as most the biggest risk was a potential double dip or worse a slow down to the recovery. The reality however was that the US never experienced a real recovery (unless you work at one of the “chosen” firms on Wall Street). Housing has re-entered a bubble driven by liquidity, not first time homebuyers entering the market.

The key relationship for housing is home prices relative to income, NOT nominal prices. Stocks are valued relative to earnings. Homes have to be priced relative to incomes. Today, the median US income is $51K. The median home price is $328K. So homes are priced at 6.4X incomes. To put this into perspective, in 2007, the housing bubble was only marginally higher than this with homes priced at 6.8X incomes. So housing, which is alleged to be in a recovery, is not much more affordable today than it was in 2007… at a time when home prices were more overpriced than at any point in the last 100 YEARs.

Speaking of incomes, they remain WELL below their 2007 peaks… which were in fact below the 2000 peaks. In fact, the median income in the US today is effectively the same as back in 1987.



Again, NO recovery to be seen here. Indeed, the number of people of working age who actually HAVE jobs is back to levels not seen since the 70s. Gotta love that recovery… when the percentage of people working is the same as it was back when the US was in a recession four decades ago!



At the end of the day, the entire economic landscape is very simple to understand. The economy grows when people make more money and spend that money on things including homes. Lower incomes= lower spending= lower economic activity. Sure, you can reflate a credit bubble in which spending rises briefly due to people having easy access to credit… But at the end of the day, all this does is set the stage for another economic collapse when people once again default on their credit card payments/ mortgage payments.

That day of reckoning is coming… It’s just a matter of time.

Amen. Deflation is here to stay, and it’s going to hurt you much more than you care to think.


This article addresses just one of the many issues discussed in Nicole Foss’ new video presentation, Facing the Future, co-presented with Laurence Boomert and available from the Automatic Earth Store. Get your copy now, be much better prepared for 2014, and support The Automatic Earth in the process!

Home Forums The Beast Unleashed : Deflation Is Here To Stay

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  • #10544

    National Photo Co. Federal Clothing Store, Washington, D.C 1925 The time has come. The Automatic Earth has been talking about the inevitability of def
    [See the full post at: The Beast Unleashed : Deflation Is Here To Stay]

    #10547
    Variable81
    Participant

    Don’t forget Martin Armstrong!
    Just got into his blog recently. Found this link there for us Canadian TAE’ers:

    Forget house prices and debt, deflation is Canada’s new bogeyman

    #10548
    Professorlocknload
    Participant

    This is going to be a very expensive tact if the timing of the cycle is miss read, and we have already passed the Deflation phase and are heading directly into the Crackup Boom.

    I mean, the very headline, as cocksure as it sounds, might stampede the more vulnerable into doing some rash things with their scarce resources, maybe?

    Folks, I don’t mean to sound in defiance of the meme here, but it is not wise to jump to conclusions based on punditry, mine included.

    But, could it be the “D” scare has already been exercised? The Fed is shaking in it’s boots? It has, so far been pouring money into the bucket faster than it is running out? If shocked enough, it will fill the well to the point money is running back up through the holes in the bucket, and it floats away on a green tide?

    Lot of questions here? ??

    Meanwhile, I’ll wait for that new car to deflate to under $12k and the price of a cart of groceries to fall from $300 to $100. And a movie with popcorn to fall back under a buck, six bits again, before I congratulate such a confident call here.

    Y’all do what you will, I’m hedged for several possibilities, and will adjust strategy as the cards fall.

    #10549
    KDI
    Participant

    The cream of the crap rises in our parasitic trickle-up economy. Psychopaths that have studied normal interactions all of their lives are now adept at hiding amongst us in plain sight. They can be very charming at first. But wait until they attain the privileges they seek. That’s when the honeymoon is over and unimaginable horrors will probably take its place. After all, war is the greatest wealth transfer system ever invented by mankind. The Psychopaths miss Bush because he was nothing more than an intellectually impaired faulty meat suit with simian wet ware to them. Oil majors have profitability concerns ? NP – just get some regional wars to boil over. Not the first time blood sacrifices have been made to ensure their profitability.

    Arguably the real issue facing us today is the increasing equality — albeit an equality of suffering. I see more and more people in the middle class whose lives are collapsing, and that means the American Empire’s collapse is not far behind. And who are they turning to for answers? Most of them turn to Fox, Glenn Beck, talk radio, right-wing religion, etc. They’ve never want to hear what anyone else has to say. Empires have never gone gentle into that good night. The troubling aspect of that fact is that today’s empires have nuclear weapons.

    #10550

    .. could it be the “D” scare has already been exercised?

    First of all, it’s not ”the “D” SCARE”, it’s simply called deflation. But pray tell, what signs are there that D has been around yet at all, let alone “already exercised”?

    .. If shocked enough, it will fill the well to the point money is running back up through the holes in the bucket

    It hasn’t given any indication at all of any intent to do that, while deflation has now settled in and picked her favorite chair, it’s only been busy handing your money to the primary dealers. The Fed has not been”printing” anything whatsoever, it’s only been taking money away from people, who will therefore have less to spend, which will sink the velocity of that money.

    What was the question again?

    #10551
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Deflation should be the natural order of things. As people become more productive, prices should fall. But they haven’t, and they haven’t because they’ve been artificially propped up by cheap money, lots of leverage, speculation, accounting changes (mark to fantasy), blah.

    As Ilargi says, QE was to bail out the banks, to get their bad assets off their books and onto the public’s books. Look at the crap MBS the Fed has taken from the banks.

    These are psychopathic thinkers, used to shifting blame and losses whenever and wherever possible (have had a lot of experience with these types of people).

    I pray deflation comes because I think the Earth is about near the end of her rope.

    #10552
    Professorlocknload
    Participant

    On Velocity. Where does Velocity go from all time record lows? Especially if massive reserves begin pouring into a system suddenly sparked by “Animal Spirits?”

    Helped along by pent up demand for dilapidated plant, equipment and rolling stock, a “New Deal” or three, along with bank’s change of heart from hoarding to being afraid of missing the boat?

    How fast could the rate of change in Velocity move to the inverse of the rapid fall on the chart above, when the creators of the currency, and most all credit, pull out all the stops?

    Reminds of a sign an old friend put on his ranch gate. “My dogs can make it to this gate in 20 seconds. Can you?”

    And who knows what will trigger the inevitable perception that the train might soon leave the station?

    Feel lucky at timing?

    Is “Luck” a sound investment philosophy?

    #10553
    Professorlocknload
    Participant

    Raleigh,

    couldn’t agree more. Deflation is a natural process of Free Markets, much along the lines of Natural Selection. It creates real prosperity, increasing purchasing power and wealth. I have yet to find a nation destroyed by it.

    However, the nemesis of Free Association is, of course, Authoritarian Control. Therein, is the problem. Central Planning always ends in this sort of thing because it distorts natural process.

    They never learn, those who grant absolute consent to authority.

    #10554
    Professorlocknload
    Participant

    Ilargi,

    Disinflation is enough to drive Central Bankers to panic. We have most definitely experienced that these last few years.

    Indications they will do the monetization dirty? From the get go, TARP, Twist, QE 1,2,3,,,that we know about. Unless you have had a peek at the Feds balance sheet, what’s in there we don’t know about? And the big question, “What more are they willing to put onto that secrete ledger.” Junk car loans? Mastercard balances? Municipal debt? The sky is the limit!

    It’s not recommended one waits bated breath, for the Central Bankers of the world to step forward and announce capitulation, close up shop and go home. It’s just not what they do. It is my book here that they have gone too far over the falls now to back pedal.

    #10555
    Professorlocknload
    Participant

    I’ll try and stay with the debate, but hard to do with outdoor temperatures in the 80’s here this week.

    The only thing I see at this point that can help avert this disaster from it’s ultimate destructive end game, is a re-backing of the currency with something real, and an admission the debt must be allowed to clear by natural process, default.

    Since as many have looked at the inside of the vaults at Ft. Knox as have looked into the Feds inner workings, I’m not banking on that kind of solution.

    There is only one other way that will prolong the Status Quo long enough to allow it’s maintainers to stay in charge, and to set up off shore havens. Print, by any name it’s assigned, PRINT!

    #10565
    Golden Oxen
    Participant

    Hi Professor, I am on your side of the coin my friend; but this was an exceptionally persuasive article.

    Going to raise some more cash as soon as the markets open, it’s China that has me worried the most. Getting real bad vibes about the situation there, and I don’t scare easily.

    #10579
    Andrewp111
    Participant

    A decline in oil prices is actually inflationary – for oil importing countries. Think of it this way. Money spent on oil consumption leaks out of your country and goes to the exporters. High oil prices act like a tax and a decline in those prices acts like a tax cut. Now, for a country like the USA where domestic production has been soaring, the picture is kind of muddled. An oil price cut will stimulate the consumption centers of metro areas and depress places like North Dakota.

    #10582
    Chris
    Participant

    PLNL (Isn’t that the name of Hornady’s reloading machine? I’m a Dillon man myself),

    One of the bloggers I follow, Charles Hugh Smith, uses the following tactic when analyzing such things. Cui bono or, who benefits? High inflation helps debtors and hurts debt holders. While the USG is a large debtor, who are the holders of all that debt? Forget foreigners for the moment as they can’t vote. Domestically it’s insurance companies, pension funds, banks, corporations, etc. Those entities own the USG.

    Next, high inflation can ONLY be created by Congress. Yellen cannot send $10,000 checks to everyone in the country. All of the money that the Fed has “created” is all debt-backed. Very little of that has found its way into the system. As for lending, it takes two to tango. Banks must be willing to lend and consumers or businesses must be willing to borrow. Low interest rates have spurred many to borrow but even that is running out of gas. Witness the horrible Christmas shopping season. So large amounts of money won’t enter the economy that way.

    This brings us back to Congress. Do you really think that today’s Congress would launch a huge stimulus program? They can’t even agree on unemployment insurance. It would also require them to admit we aren’t really in a recovery and politicians will do anything to avoid admitting a mistake.

    Here’s how I think this will go down. We will essentially follow the 1930’s playbook (and also the current European periphery). Something will happen to crash the stock market. We’ll have a classic deflationary crash with liquidity drying up. Cash will be king. The President will come out and talk about how the US will never default on their debts that we’re trustworthy and we all have to do our duty and fulfill our obligations and on and on. This will be “resource grab” by the elites that Nicole has talked about. Eventually the populace will become fed up with the depression and elect either a madman or “chicken in every pot” populist. This person will crank up the printing presses and start showering the people with money, jobs, etc. That is when we’ll see high inflation.

    Bottom line is that the shift will not happen overnight. Those of us paying attention will see the swing. Keep your wits about you and your powder dry.

    #10585
    Inglorious Investor
    Participant

    One must be careful when reading charts. From what I see, growth RATES in M1, M2 and M3 may be flat or declining, but they are still POSITIVE. This means all three money metrics are expanding, not contracting. Thus, there is no deflation in these three money aggregates.

    There is now enough “money” in the system to cause a massive inflationary crack-up if the banks open up the money spigots. We’ve dealt with cost-push inflation in consumer prices for many years. While incomes, on average, stagnated and velocity declined. That’s stagflation.

    But North America now has an abundant supply of oil and gas. Energy is THE fundamental input for, well, everything. Including the economy. So, if energy can become “cheap” relative to incomes, this, combined with technological advances that increase productivity (and there are huge advances in tech coming to market) could drive a huge economic boom, as incomes play catchup to prices.

    The deflationary pressures would still be there as debts are paid down, but flooding the real economy with money would go a long way to making those debts easier to service. Those with savings could be decimated. Sacrificial lambs, as it were, for the greater good. Which in this case could mean staving off wide-spread revolts.

    Not a prediction, but a potential scenario.

    Do you think it’s just coincidence that suddenly the US is becoming more energy independent? The oil and gas has always been there in places like North Dakota, the Barnett et al, and I’m guessing the US geological survey knew it all along. It’s just now (barely) economical to extract it. While, the boom could be short lived, it could have a massive impact.

    So the energy is there. The “money” is there. The people are getting fed up. Let the money flow, let wages rise, let debts be paid down with devalued money. And in ten years a 2 million dollar bungalow in the burbs will be commonplace, gold will be $20,000 per ounce, and Wal-Mart workers will be earning $80,000 per year.

    Possible? I dunno. Look at what happened from the late Sixties through the Seventies. And some used to cal that The Great Inflation. Sounds quaint today. But that’s the game. In fact, that’s the only game they got.

    #10615
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Ilargi,

    Like Ing Inv above, I’m having trouble interpreting the ShadowStats US Money Supply Growth plots in the same way that you have. It looks to me that, over the ’03 – ’14 period, the M3 line puts at least as much area above the +5% mark as it does below, and more so in the M1 and M2 cases. Does this not imply something in excess of 70% expansion of the M3 measure during this period?

    At the same time, the fall in velocity of M2 looks to be around 18%, so my overall interpretation of these graphs would be that the Inflation x GDP product has increased by roughly 40% during this time. Or have I misunderstood something?

    That’s not to say that I don’t support the deflationary argument, and the D word is something I never thought I’d hear being uttered by Christine Lagarde. It’s also interesting that here in the UK we’ve magically achieved our ‘target’ 2% inflation figure after years of overshooting it. I wonder if this is seen as good or bad news by those that matter.

    OldE

    #10638
    Chris
    Participant

    Ing Inv,

    I agree that there is a lot of “money” in the system, but my question to you is HOW will this money enter the economy? You talk about “turning on the spigots” but how would this work in practice? The money that the banks are sitting on are loans from the Fed so the banks will not simply drop $10,000 in everyone’s checking account. They could loan the money but if that was profitable they would have done it already. They cannot find credit-worthy borrowers who are willing to take on debt.

    So again, only Congress can gift money to the people. Now I will grant you that the monster deficits they have been running have added money into the economy and had some inflationary effects. I think many of us have been caught off guard by how long they have been able to keep the machine cranking.

    Again, all the money the Fed has “printed” has to be paid back. If they can’t loan that money out and get the fractional reserve money multiplier machine going that money will be extinguished when the loan is paid back to the Fed.

    But I have to say that I’m not 100% confident in what will happen. That is why I hang out here as well as inflationist sites to try and get a clue. In the end we just need to keep our heads up and stay flexible.

    #10678
    Inglorious Investor
    Participant

    Chris,

    First, I’d like to say that, like you, I am by no means certain as to the future. And anyone who claims they can predict what will happen is naive or just full of it.

    That said, one mistake people often make is to look at the economy as a homogenous whole. But from what I see, there is something of a bifurcation taking place in the US. Partly, this because the economy is being restructured. There are those who are going along for the ride, and there are those who are being left behind. For example, I predicted years ago that, due to cheap labor, cheap real estate and abundant energy, the US South could very well be the epicenter of a manufacturing renaissance. However, I did not foresee a 1960’s or 1970’s type of manufacturing sector, but rather a tighter, leaner, high-tech approach that relied far less on human labor. This kind of change requires new skills and technologies that are part of the adjustment.

    As for money, while so many people talk about deflation, you must be careful about what kind of “deflation” you mean. Debt deflation? Price deflation? Asset deflation? Wage deflation? Now that we are passed the GFC, where is the deflation in any of these? Don’t look at averages, like average income, because these figures can include those who are not working, thereby driving down the average.

    The money that the Fed prints to monetize US government debt is not really where the inflation comes from on the government side. It comes from the government in the form of debt issuance. And they have no intention of ever paying that back. All they care about is paying the interest. And they now even do that with borrowed money. If the US did not issue its own currency and service its debt in that currency, then deflation would be an assured outcome. But the US does “print” its own currency, and that currency is still the most widely used reserve currency, backed by the strongest military. They can never repay the debt, but they can try to inflate it away in cooperation with other nations (many of whom by the way are in worse shape than the US).

    Inflation is the only major tool they have. It’s a fundamental part of the banking system and the economy. Inflation is the source of bank profits and a huge generator of hidden taxes for the government. As long as they can manage the decline in the value of dollar without upsetting the other stakeholders (e.g. the bond market) they will severely devalue the dollar for many years in order to keep the debt service manageable.

    I believe that the main reason we are seeing the recent energy boom in the US is because it’s something of a last-ditch attempt to spur the economy, attract capital to the US, and shore up the dollar (relative to other currencies). It also can relieve pressure on the military to control the flow of foreign oil. Furthermore, it might signal the beginning of the end of the petrodollar regime.

    If we look at US assets, stocks, housing, oil, natural gas are all rising. This could result in an economy that grinds higher and perhaps goes through a cyclical boom period. That’s not to say that everything will be fine. The overriding theme here is that we’ve collectively spent too much of our future income. So even with very high inflation in wages, most people will still be falling behind. And the government will be hunting down every dime and imposing higher taxes and more of them. We could see a money paradox. Workers earns a lot more money, but are still poorer than we were before. So any economic boom would be a bit of an illusion, but if they can manage, it, they can achieve a slow burn economy where the reality sets in over a long period of time of financial repression.

    Sorry if this seems a bit rambling and disjointed. It’s late and I’m not really editing my thoughts. Just keep in mind that the government and the banks LOATHE monetary deflation. We had a deflationary episode in 2008-09. It looks lik that may have caught them off-guard. But now they are going to fight tooth-and-claw to prevent another such episode. They are printing and printing, adding more and more fuel in the hopes that soon the economy will catch fire
    . I think that if your job is pretty secure and you have lots of savings, that is actually the last thing you would want. But barring an all-out collapse, it looks like it’s already baked in the cake. I mean, you gotta think that, even if the end game is total collapse, we could go through several more economic fits and spurts. Given all the oil and gas in North America, I see no reason why that could not happen in the world’s largest and most advance economy.

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