How The Banking Crisis And Covid Lockdowns Killed Money Velocity (Death Of King Dollar)

I have written numerous times about nothing has been the same since the housing bubble burst and ensuing financial crisis of 2008. The crisis led to bank bailouts (TARP) and banking legislation (Dodd-Frank) giving The Federal Reserve even more power. And then the COVID lockdowns led to even MORE power for The Fed. And a horrid decline in money velocity (the ability of printing money to increase economic growth … or GDP).

But let’s take one step backwards. One the causes of the housing bubble that burst was President Clinton’s infamous National Homeownership Strategy that encouraged “partners” with the Federal government to soften underwriting standards for mortgage lending, particularly for minority households. The intent was to increase the homeownership rate in the US and it worked! Too well. Along with increasing the homeownership rate came rising home prices, culminating with home price growth reaching 14.5% YoY in September 2005. Only to start slowing to a crash.

Of course, the housing bubble was associated with no/low documentation and subprime mortgage lending. But the relaxing of underwriting standards by the National Homeownership Strategy helped fuel the no/low doc and subprime lending crisis. But weakening underwriting standards to increase homeownership rates is a dangerous strategy.

Note the surge in M1 Money Velocity (GDP/M1) starting in 1994. M1 Velocity grew until Q4 2007, then crashed along with home prices. The second and more sudden crash in M1 Velocity occurred with the COVID outbreak in March 2020 and the ensuing economic lockdowns and the intervention of The Federal Reserve in terms of money printing. M1 Money surged 173% from October 2008 to February 2020 and then another 369% from March 2020 to today. THAT is a Fed Storm Surge!!

M2, the broader definition of money, has not grown as rapidly as M1, but it still grew at an alarming rate. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic blamed inflation on COVID but not The Fed’s insane money printing or government lockdowns. C’mon man!

Finally, the banking crisis (and TARP bailouts) along with COVID have made consumer purchasing power of King Dollar even worse.

Be careful of government strategies to make housing more “affordable” because they seem to make housing more expensive and can help crash the financial system.

Biden Picks Powell Over Brainard, 10-Year Treasury Yields Rise (10Y-3M Treasury Curve Rose From 83 BPS At End Of 2020 To 160 BPS Today)

President Biden nominated Jerome Powell for a second term as Fed Chair and nominated Lael Brainard as Deputy Chair to replace Richard Clarida. The US House of Overlords (aka, the US Senate) will hold hearings on the nominees (with Elizabeth Warren opposing Powell and supporting Brainard’s nomination).

Treasury yields jumped and U.S. index futures signaled a continued selloff in technology shares as traders pruned bets for a dovish-for-longer Federal Reserve after the renomination of Jerome Powell as its chair.

Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 Index fell 0.3% after Monday’s last-hour selloff in technology stocks. The subgroup was the worst performer in Europe Tuesday, sending the region’s benchmark to a three-week low. A currency crisis deepened in Turkey, with the lira weakening past 13 per U.S. dollar. Zoom Video Communications Inc. lost 9% in premarket trading on slowing growth.

Investors are reducing expectations for a deeper dovish stance by the Fed after Powell was selected for a second term. The chair himself sought to strike a balance in his policy approach saying the central bank would use tools at its disposal to support the economy as well as to prevent inflation from becoming entrenched.

Fed rate hike premium is added after Powell confirmed as next Fed Chair:

Change in Fed’s interest-rate target implied by overnight index swaps and eurodollar futures.

Fed Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said Monday the U.S. central bank may need to speed up the removal of monetary stimulus and allow for an earlier-than-planned increase in interest rates.

Translation: Markets are pricing in MORE hawkish Powell over uber-dove Brainard. The 10-year Treasury yield has risen from 1.52% to 1.65%

And the 10Y-3M Treasury curve has risen from 83 basis points at the beginning of 2021 to 160 basis points today. I will this the Biden Inflation Effect (BIE).

Let’s see if Powell & Company deliver on removing the excessive stimulus from the market, particularly with midterm elections approaching.

Home Sales Rose 0.8% MoM In October As Investors Rushed Into The Market (Inventory Remains Thin, Median Price +13.1% YoY)

Fools rush in … or at least investors rush into the US housing market. Investors made up 17% of existing home purchases in October.

Inventory of homes remains depressed and with investors picking up 17% of homes for sale, the median price of existing homes rose to 13.1% YoY.

While existing home sales rose 0.8% MoM, they fell -5.79% on a YoY basis as M2 Money slowed.

It is lonesome town for inventory. But it will be a poor little fool for those buying into this thin inventory market if home prices correct.

President Biden has decided to nominate Fed Chair Jerome Powell for a second term in an effort not to rock the boat. Lael Brainard is nominated for Deputy Chair.

Is The US At Full (Realistic) Employment? If So, Why Isn’t The Fed Raising Rates?

Is the US at full employment? That is, is the US at REALISTIC full employment? And if the US is at realistic full employment, why is The Federal Reserve keeping rates at 25 basis points??

Let’s start with the “quits” data. An estimated 3% of American workers quit their jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week.1That’s the highest percentage since the BLS started keeping track two decades ago.

Front-line and low-wage workers are leaving at rates higher than historical norms while higher-paid office workers aren’t. College-educated workers haven’t been quitting or dropping out of the workforce at higher rates than before the pandemic, but less-educated workers have.

The quits rate in professional and business services was just 0.4 percentage points higher in September than before the pandemic in February 2020. In financial activities it was unchanged. In the information sector, made up of telecommunications, publishing, broadcasting, motion pictures, software and most internet companies, the quits rate was down 0.3 percentage points.

The biggest increases in quit rates were in sectors such as leisure and hospitality where office workers are few, working remotely seldom an option and wages low. Within manufacturing, the quits-rate increase has been much bigger in lower-paying nondurable goods (of which food manufacturing is the biggest part) than in higher-paying durable goods.

In particular, fast food restaurants are offering above minimum wage salaries to attract workers. Burger King was even offering college tuition (not to University of Chicago, but to the local community college).

Labor force participation crashed with COVID and has struggled to recover, despite the staggering monetary stimulus. If this a sign that the US is at full employment (or very difficult to entice workers to enter and stay in the labor force)?

Speaking of colleges, business schools in particular, here are the top 85 business schools in the US according to Bloomberg/Business Week. I had the honor of teaching at University of Chicago in the 1990s which is currently ranked at #4.

I saw this headline this morning: “More Americans Than Expected File for Jobless Benefits.” Odd since so many jobs are available.

I guess Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” is the new national anthem under Biden.

October Country! US 1-Unit Housing Starts Decline -10.6% YoY As Housing Sentiment Crashes (High Housing Price Inflation Is Hurting)

US housing starts for October were less than expected. A 1.5% increase MoM was expected, but housing starts actually fell -0.7% MoM.

5+ unit (multifamily) starts were up 6.82% MoM. 1-unit single family detached units were down -3.89% MoM. Permits to build were up 4% MoM.

On a YoY basis, 1-unit start declined -10.6% as M2 Money growth continues to fall.

And 1-unit housing starts have fallen with the rapid decline in home buying sentiment.

1-unit starts have slowed to pre-COVID levels, thanks in part to The Federal Reserve’s money printing bonanza which may never end.

As housing sentiment crashes (due to rapid home price growth), we are seeing the demand for multi-family housing rise. 5+ unit (multifamily) starts were up 6.82% MoM in October.

It is October after all as winter sets in.

Slipping Into Darkness? Inflation + Growing Recession Probability = Stagflation?

Is the US slipping into darkness?

The smoothed US recession probability just rose to 44.40%. Meanwhile, the CPI YoY rose to 6.24% YoY.

The Fed has been lowriding rates since late 2008.

Why can’t The Fed be friends with the middle class instead of just the top 1%?

Playing “Cisco Kid” to chill.

Reverse Repos Parked Overnight At Fed Remain Near $1,418 BILLION As UBS Warns Of Stagflation And 50% Stock Plunge

When something is wrong with the economy.

Banks park funds at The Federal Reserve in an attempt to soothe themselves.

Nothing has been the same since the housing bubble of the 2000s, the resulting banking meltdown and the takeover of the economy by The Federal Reserve.

And since the 2000s housing bubble and financial crisis, The Federal Reserve has taken control of the economy resulting in M2 Money Velocity crashing to historic lows.

UBS ran a simulation that shows stocks could lose up to 50% under rare stagflation scenario.

And The Fed says “Hold on, we’re coming!”

My reaction to Biden’s Build Back Better spending spree and The Fed keeping rates repressed.

JOLT! Job Openings Changed Little (10.4 Million In September) As UMich House Buying Sentiment Declines Even Further (To 62 From 144 Last Year On This Date)

The Federal Reserve continues to JOLT markets with excessive monetary stimulus despite numerous reasons why they should back off.

For example, today’s JOLT report (US job openings) revealed that 10.4 million jobs were open in September. This is the fourth consecutive month of 1 million plus job openings, yet The Fed refuses to raise their target rate.

At the same time, the University of Michigan survey revealed that buying conditions for houses dropped to 66 (baseline of 100). To show how bad this is, buying conditions for houses was at 144 this time last year.

UPDATE: UMich revised their number downward to 62, the lowest since 1981.

In The Fed’s mind, they are still chasing at least 3.5% unemployment, the lowest rate under President Trump prior to COVID. But with perpetual million plus job openings GOING UNFILLED, trying to get to pre-COVID unemployment rate of 3.5% is a fool’s errand.

Of course, with The Fed helping to pump up house prices to largely unaffordable levels, it makes sense that enthusiasm for buying expensive homes has crashed.

Meanwhile, The Fed continues to JOLT the economy with excess stimulus.

Overall inflation fears are leading to lowest consumer confidence since 2011.

PLEASE stop JOLTING US!!

The Shadow Knows! The Xu-Xia Fed Shadow Rate Is -1.7021% (US Effectively Has Negative Interest Rates And Inflation Is Expected To Continue And NOT Be Transitory)

The Shadow Knows!

Wu-Xia employs an approximation that makes a nonlinear term structure model extremely tractable for analysis of an economy operating near the zero lower bound for interest rates. It can be used to summarize the macroeconomic effects of unconventional monetary policy (ZIRP + QE). The Shadow Rate is now -1.7021%.

And you wonder why we have inflation and house prices going into orbit?

With inflation also going into orbit, we see that breakeven 10 year inflation rate rising above the 5Y5Y (nominal forward 5 years minus US inflation-linked bonds forward 5 years). In other words, the US has abnormally high inflation and is expected to grow and NOT be transitory.

The Shadow knows … that the US is hyperstimulated. And inflation isn’t going away anytime soon.

Thanksgiving Dinner Staples Are Low in Stock Thanks to Supply-Chain Issues And Federal Policies (Foodstuffs UP 36% From Last Year)

Combine vaccine mandates that lower the workforce and the flood of economic and monetary stimulus by the geniuses in Washington DC, and we have a Thanksgiving problem.

The supply-chain crunch is about to hit another part of American life: Thanksgiving dinner.

Supplies of food and household items are 4% to 11% lower than normal as of Oct. 31, according to data from market-research firm IRI. That figure isn’t far from the bare shelves of March 2020, when supplies were down 13%.

For grocery shoppers this holiday season, it means that someone with 20 items on their list would be out of luck on two of them.

Although U.S. supermarket operators started purchasing holiday items early, aiming to avoid shortages, many holiday essentials are already in short supply.

Turkeys are very low in stock. By the end of October turkeys were over 60% out of stock—lower than the same time last year by more than 30 percentage points. A spokesperson for Butterball LLC, one of the largest U.S. turkey processors, said the company has been experiencing similar labor and supply challenges as other organizations and industries.

Even if you can find a turkey, prices on foodstuffs in general are up 36% from last year.

And to get to the grandparents’ house of Thanksgiving, gasoline prices (regular) are up 24.5% from last year.

You can always shop at Neiman Marcus for a half Thanksgiving dinner for … $376 + $32 shipping. Not for the average American, more for NYC and DC elitists like Biden’s OCC nominee Saule Omarova who wants to bankrupt energy companies.

Biden could lower inflation by 1) stop mandating vaccines, 2) stop shutting off energy pipelines and oil exploration, 3) stop spending trillions of dollars other than Social Security, Medicare and defense.

Frankly, Thanksgiving has gotten so expensive due to Biden’s Reign of Error that I am thinking of alternatives to turkey. Like a Jersey Mike’s turkey and provolone sub.