Central banks and the next bubble
Central bank balance sheets are expanding at what some say is an alarming pace. Can this cause the next bubble to form and burst?
JP Morgan estimates G4 (U.S., Japan, euro zone and Britain) balance sheets are now around 24% of GDP combined, with around 11% of GDP comprising bonds held for monetary purposes.
“The recent pace of balance sheet expansion is the fastest since the immediate aftermath of Lehman, largely down to the ECB. The increased BOJ purchases, more QE in the UK, and 200 bln euros upwards of increased ECB lending from this month’s LTRO together point to a further $600bln+ rise in G4 central bank balance sheets this year, to around 26% of GDP.”
Outside G4, Switzerland is a country which saw a massive expansion in its central bank balance sheet. And because of its huge holdings, its balance sheet has been very volatile.
The Swiss National Bank suffered a loss of 21 bln francs last year — its biggest ever — due to currency interventions to weaker the Swiss currency. It expects to swing back to a profit of 13 bln francs this year.
Its acting chairman Thomas Jordan himself admitted: “Our profits have been and will be very volatile … because our balance sheet is four to five times as big as it was five years ago.”
Sparring with Central Banks
Just one look at the whoosh higher in global markets in January and you’d be forgiven smug faith in the hoary old market adage of “Don’t fight the Fed” — or to update the phrase less pithily for the modern, globalised marketplace: “Don’t fight the world’s central banks”. (or “Don’t Battle the Banks”, maybe?)
In tandem with this month’s Federal Reserve forecast of near-zero U.S. official interest rates for the next two years, the European Central Bank provided its banking sector nearly half a trillion euros of cheap 3-year loans in late December (and may do almost as much again on Feb 29). Add to that ongoing bouts of money printing by the Bank of England, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Japan and more than 40 expected acts of monetary easing by central banks around the world in the first half of this year and that’s a lot of additional central bank support behind the market rebound. So is betting against this firepower a mug’s game? Well, some investors caution against the chance that the Banks are firing duds.
According to giant bond fund manager Pimco, the post-credit crisis process of household, corporate and sovereign deleveraging is so intense and loaded with risk that central banks may just be keeping up with events and even then are doing so at very different speeds. What’s more the solution to the problem is not a monetary one anyway and all they can do is ease the pain.
Low interest rates and liquidity schemes can’t solve what ails the developed world. Societies must accept that in order to alter their current perilous course they must undergo great change, moving away from entitlements to which they have become accustomed. The alternative is weak economic growth, a loss of competitiveness and negative external balances — a loss of face and place in the global hierarchy.
As if to reinforce the underlying point that the developed world faces a protracted reform period that tests political, economic and social priorities, credit rating firm Standard & Poors’ — not the most popular company in corridors of power over the past year — warned on Tuesday that it may downgrade the debt of “a number of highly-rated” Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to ageing populations.
For Pimco, the political and social resistance to this sort of change is already showing itself to be significant both in Europe and the United States. People clearly don’t want to see pensions and benefits cut but politicians have already grown government and sovereign indebtedness close to their maximum. Accommodative central banks that helped them get there only ended up fueling credit, consumption and housing bubbles and distorting the balance of the economy away from production and into an increasingly bloated financial sector. That, clearly, ended in tears as finance itself needed bailing out and compounded the sovereign debt burden.
So if harder, longer-term choices and reforms are now needed, central banks ability to continually reflate the world economy by monetary means alone is at best uncertain, Pimco argues. The risk of major upheavals along the way in Europe, for example, has the potential for major market volatility and economic seizures.
from Mike Dolan:
Sparring with central banks
Just one look at the whoosh higher in global markets in January and you'd be forgiven smug faith in the hoary old market adage of "Don't fight the Fed" -- or to update the phrase less pithily for the modern, globalised marketplace: "Don't fight the world's central banks". (or "Don't Battle the Banks", maybe?)
In tandem with this month's Federal Reserve forecast of near-zero U.S. official interest rates for the next two years, the European Central Bank provided its banking sector nearly half a trillion euros of cheap 3-year loans in late December (and may do almost as much again on Feb 29). Add to that ongoing bouts of money printing by the Bank of England, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Japan and more than 40 expected acts of monetary easing by central banks around the world in the first half of this year and that's a lot of additional central bank support behind the market rebound. So is betting against this firepower a mug's game? Well, some investors caution against the chance that the Banks are firing duds.
According to giant bond fund manager Pimco, the post-credit crisis process of household, corporate and sovereign deleveraging is so intense and loaded with risk that central banks may just be keeping up with events and even then are doing so at very different speeds. What's more the solution to the problem is not a monetary one anyway and all they can do is ease the pain.
Low interest rates and liquidity schemes can't solve what ails the developed world. Societies must accept that in order to alter their current perilous course they must undergo great change, moving away from entitlements to which they have become accustomed. The alternative is weak economic growth, a loss of competitiveness and negative external balances -- a loss of face and place in the global hierarchy.
As if to reinforce the underlying point that the developed world faces a protracted reform period that tests political, economic and social priorities, credit rating firm Standard & Poors' -- not the most popular company in corridors of power over the past year -- warned on Tuesday that it may downgrade the debt of "a number of highly-rated" Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to ageing populations.
For Pimco, the political and social resistance to this sort of change is already showing itself to be significant both in Europe and the United States. People clearly don't want to see pensions and benefits cut but politicians have already grown government and sovereign indebtedness close to their maximum. Accommodative central banks that helped them get there only ended up fueling credit, consumption and housing bubbles and distorting the balance of the economy away from production and into an increasingly bloated financial sector. That, clearly, ended in tears as finance itself needed bailing out and compounded the sovereign debt burden.
So if harder, longer-term choices and reforms are now needed, central banks ability to continually reflate the world economy by monetary means alone is at best uncertain, Pimco argues. The risk of major upheavals along the way in Europe, for example, has the potential for major market volatility and economic seizures.
The Big Five: themes for the week ahead
Five things to think about this week:
HOLDING UP — FOR NOW - A good run in equities has so far been helped rather than hindered by U.S. company results. Some are questioning how long the upward momentum can be sustained given cost-cutting rather than improved revenue streams flattered profit margins. The European earnings season, which cranks up a gear this week, and the release of U.S. Q2 GDP data could be potential triggers for a pullback, but the sensitivity to bad news may depend on how much money is chasing the latest push higher.
EARNINGS - European earnings flooding out in the coming weeks may paint a less rosy picture of the banking sector than seen on the other side of the Atlantic. While investment and trading activities should be supportive, bad loan provisions will be particularly closely scrutinised, as will the central and eastern Europe exposure of the likes of Erste. The supply/demand outlook for key commodities plans will also be in the limelight given the battery of oil and chemical firms reporting in Europe and the U.S.
CORRELATIONS - There are signs of some breakdown in the lockstep moves that financial markets had become accustomed to seeing in FX/stocks or stocks/bonds. Calyon research shows correlation between the bank’s proprietary risk aversion barometer and exchange rates has been less robust in the past month. While this correlation nevertheless remains stronger than that between FX and interest rate differentials, the markets’ thoughts are turning to new linkages that might prove better trading guides.
RESISTING CARRY TRADES - The interest in carry trades has grown as investors have become more willing to venture out of the most liquid markets in the quest for returns but the subsequent appreciation in currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollar is provoking a push back from the central banks concerned. This suggests that others could be, or have been, tempted by tactics deployed by the Swiss National Bank, whose latest reserves data shows how actively it has sought to keep the Swiss franc in check. Australian reserve data suggest the Reserve Bank of Australia is already taking a leaf out of the SNB’s books, which will keep the market on toes in the coming weeks, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand meeting this week will offer another chance for central bank rhetoric to counter the prevailing market trend.
U.S-CHINA TALKS - FX reserves, U.S. and Chinese foreign exchange policy, who should do what to correct global imbalances, and trade issues will be on traders’ minds as the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue kicks off early in the week. Chinese officials will be keen to avoid sending any signals that would jeopardise the value of the U.S. holdings in their $2 trillion-plus reserves but markets are alert for clues on how Beijing plans to play its medium-term drive for a multi-polar reserve universe.
