Category: Italy

Turkish Lira Freefall Accelerates Despite Central Bank Intervention (Turkey’s 10Y Yield At 21.50%, Very Venezuela-Like With Inflation At 21.31%)

Turkey (the nation, not the bird) is now the Venezuela of Europe/Middle East, where insane government policies are destroying both nations.

(Dow Jones) — Turkey’s central bank intervened to arrest the plunge in the country’s currency, which lost as much as 8% of its value against the dollar on Friday in an ongoing crisis that is straining the country’s financial system.

The crash followed another decision by the central bank on Thursday to cut interest rates under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who favors lower rates as a part of a vision to grow the Turkish economy. Mainstream economists have urged the government to raise interest rates to control Turkey’s rising inflation, which reached more than 21% last month, according to official statistics.

The ongoing plunge is putting increasing pressure on ordinary Turks who have seen their savings evaporate, and adding to pressure on the banking system which has high levels of foreign-currency-denominated loans to repay within the next 12 months.

Wow. Turkey’s 10-year sovereign yield rose 42 BPS today to 21.590%. Turkey is looking like the Venezuela of Europe and the Middle East.

The Turkish sovereign curve in their home currency is humped.

But the Turkish yield curve (in US Dollars) looks more like the US Treasury actives curve.

The Turkish Lira is crashing against the US Dollar.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Turkey is cutting their repo rate as inflation soars. WTF???

I love this ZeroHedge headline: “Turkey Halts All Stock Trading As Currency Disintegrates, Central Bank Powerless To Halt Collapse.” Yes, it would help if Turkey’s Central Bank was RAISING rates rather than cutting them in order to stem the tide of inflation. It is like Turkey’s Central Bank is steering their ship of state INTO an F5 tornado.

Then again, US Fed chair Powell seems to be taking his time in cooling US inflation by … doing nothing.

Here is Turkish President Erdogan meeting with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. “Together we can destroy both economies!”

Powell Says Foreign Buyers Distorting Yield-Curve Readings (Gold Rises On Powell Head Fake As US Dollar Declines)

Like John Belushi from The Blues Brothers, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is saying that the markets lackluster response in terms of bond yields to his “hawkish” announcement yesterday “isn’t his fault.”

(Bloomberg) Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell appears unperturbed by the fact that longer-term bond yields remain low even as officials lay the ground work for tighter policy and inflation is ticking higher.

While the drop in longer-term rates may be viewed by some as indicative of where so-called terminal rates for U.S. policy might ultimately lie, Powell on Wednesday emphasized the impact of ultra-low yields in places like Japan and Germany in helping to keep them anchored. 

“A lot of things go into the long rates and the place I would start is just look at global sovereign yields around the world,” Powell said at a news conference following the Fed’s final scheduled policy meeting for the year, which saw officials ramp up the pace of stimulus withdrawal and boost predictions for rate hikes in 2022. The Fed Chair noted that rates on Japanese and German government bonds are “so much lower” than those on Treasuries and that with currency hedging taken into account American debt provides investors with a higher yield. “I’m not troubled by where the long bond is,” he said. 

This stands as something of a contrast to the view expressed back in 2005 by one of Powell’s predecessors. Back then, Fed chief Alan Greenspan described a decline in long-term bond yields even in the face of six policy rate increases as a “conundrum.” 

Or it could be that no one REALLY believes that Central Banks will ever cut interest rates, despite surging inflation.

The US Treasury 10-year yield dropped 7 basis points overnight and remains just south of 1.50%. The Eurozone remains below 1% (with Germany at -0.358% and France at -0.009% at the 10-year mark). Japan is at 0.039%. This is what Powell means by low global rates keeping US long-term rates down.

The 10-year Treasury term premium (measured before Powell’s head fake on raising rates) has returned to pre-Biden levels.

Meanwhile, global equities futures are up across the board (well, except for Mexico).

Gold rose on Powell’s “Tomorrow” talk while the US Dollar fell.

The Fed could have raised their target rate if they were REALLY interested in cooling inflation. The Taylor Rule remains at 14.94% while The Fed is stalled at 0.25%. Even if you don’t like the Taylor Rule, it still highlights how ridiculous Fed Stimulypto is.

Well, we do have a government-propelled economic recovery, but at a cost of declining REAL wages thanks to the highest inflation rate in 40 years.

Transitory? US Export Prices Soar By 18% YoY (Exporting Inflation To The World!)

I wonder if Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki will argue that inflation is transitory … again?

Well, the US is exporting inflation to our trading partners. US Export Prices by end use rose 18% YoY.

Of course, with the Biden Administration shutting down energy pipeline and drilling, it is not surprising.

Then we have the advance retail sales numbers for October. Growing at 16.3% YoY with massive monetary stimulus still in play.

Then we have Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard saying that the central bank should speed up its reduction of monetary stimulus in response to a surge in U.S. inflation.

You mean like what Mankiw’s specification of the Taylor Rule model suggests??

ECB’s Lagarde Sees Higher Inflation; Pushes Back On Rate-hike Bets (ECB Keeps Foot On Monetary Gas Pedal Despite Inflation)

Its the same all over the world … insane central bank policies and resulting inflation.

I have discussed the US Federal Reserve in depth, but its time to focus on Europe’s European Central Bank (ECB) and their President Christine Lagarde.

FRANKFURT, Oct 28 (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde acknowledged on Thursday that inflation will be high for even longer but pushed back against market bets that price pressures would trigger an interest rate hike as soon as next year.

With central banks around the world signalling tighter policy amid rising prices, Lagarde said the ECB had done much “soul-searching” over its stance but concluded that inflation was still temporary, so a policy response would be premature.

Soul-searching? The ECB is just doing what Powell and the Fed (aka, Jerome Jett and the Blackhearts) are doing. Keeping the foot on the monetary gas pedal in the face of inflation.

Let’s start Eurozone inflation. It is now sitting a 4.10% YoY. And core inflation is sitting at 2.10% YoY. Inflation is now the highest since 2009 while core inflation is at the highest since 2001.

Like the Federal Reserve, the ECB still has its foot on the monetary accelerator pedal despite booming inflation.

So, Christine, 19 nations in “Europe” having negative 2-year sovereign yields isn’t low enough for you?

The ECB’s platform in Frankfurt reminds me of a bad TV quiz show where participants try to guess prices next year. Call it “The Price Is Wrong.”

Unless, of course, the ECB sees a massive depression ahead.

U.S. Bonds Sink as Yields Spike Higher (Treasury And Dollar Swap Curves Steepen As European 10Y Sovereign Yields Range Breach)

U.S. 10-year yields are spiking upwards in what was supposed to be a sleepy day before the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference. The 2s10s curve is the steepest in two weeks. Eurodollar yields too have risen sharply and are up 6-7 bps in the blue and gold packs.

Over the last week, we have seen a steepening in the US Treasury Actives curve and the US Dollar Swaps curve.

This may be linked to the range breach in German 10-years and Italian 10-years. In fact, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and Greece has all seen 6 bps leaps in 10-year sovereign yields today.

Does this mean that Chairman Mao Powell is likely to announce the paring-back of Fed monetary stimulus at J-Hole?