Category: Invest with Alex

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How The US Government Guarantees Full Employment

BusinessWeek Writes: The U.S. Job Market Won’t Be Normal Until 2017, Says Goldman

 labor market inveswithalex

Two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City concluded recently that at the current rate of progress, the U.S. labor market won’t get back to normal until the summer of 2015. That’s bad enough. But Goldman Sachs (GS) economists, examining the same data, conclude in a report today that normal might not arrive until the beginning of 2017.

Either way it’s pretty depressing, considering that the recession began in December 2007. The financial markets are betting that the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee will start tapering purchases of long-term bonds sometime in early 2014. But the FOMC has said that the purchases will continue“until the outlook for the labor market has improved substantially in a context of price stability.” If the FOMC sticks to that commitment, bond purchases could continue longer than many people expect.

I really have no idea how they come up with these numbers. Maybe they have a supercomputer in their office churning out billions of calculations per second or maybe they just throw darts at the calendar. I think the latter is more plausible.

The problem with their analysis is they are discounting continual economic growth over the next 5 years. Well, let me ask you something. What if instead of economic growth our financial markets and our overall economy go through another severe contraction as I constantly argue? Are we going to normalize by 2017 or will the chart above take another dive? I think you know the answer to that.

The labor market in the US is facing strong headwinds. I think the situation we have today is the new norm and even that will continue to deteriorate.  With our economy, financial markets, Obama care, outsourcing, robotics and higher productivity rates all putting negative pressures on full time employment, the labor market picture going forward is not pretty. 

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Why The Rich Are Hording Cash

CNBC Writes: Rich families are hoarding cash: Citi

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A new survey of family offices by Citi finds that the wealthy are cash heavy-meaning they may fall short of the investment returns they’re expecting.

Wealthy families have about 39 percent of their assets in cash, according to a recent poll of more than 50 large family office representatives from 20 countries conducted by Citi Private Bank.

Most of the families surveyed expected interest rates to rise. About 60 percent projected long-term market rates to rise 50 basis points and 17 percent said they would increase 100 basis points or more. Just 2 percent expected U.S. rates to fall.

Read The Rest Of The Article Here

While not always the case, the rich are typically more savvy when it comes to investing and/or managing money. They typically have a better understanding of the economy and the financial markets.  So, why are they hoarding so much cash?

Maybe they are following my advice (to accumulate as much cash as possible) or maybe they are simply aware of what is going on in our economy and our financial markets. They look around and they realize that all major asset prices (stocks, bonds and real estate) are way overpriced.  Maybe they have a hunch that the only direction interest rates can go is up. Maybe they have a clear understanding that when the interest rates do go higher, it will have a severe negative impact on the overall economy.  As such, they hoard as much cash as possible to A. Prevent downside and to B. Have it available when lower prices present themselves.

Don’t believe me? Find the richest person you know and ask them. 

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Warning: The Bear Makret Is Coming. Top In Early 2014

Bloomberg Writes: Stock Funds Lure Most Cash in 13 Years as Market Rallies

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Investors are pouring more money into stock mutual funds in the U.S. than they have in 13 years, attracted by a market near record highs and stung by bond losses that would deepen if interest rates keep rising.

“The timing of retail investors tends to be terrible,” said Jonathan Pond, an independent financial adviser in Newton, Massachusetts, who oversees $200 million. The deposits may be a contrarian indicator of a market near a top, he said.

Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist at Boston-based money manager Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co., told clients in a letter this week, “We will have the third in the series of serious market busts since 1999.” BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink said this month that stocks may decline as much as 15 percent because of political risks in China, Japan, France and the U.S.

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As the melt up in the stock market continues, retail investors are the last ones to join the party. As always. As the article indicates, last time we had similar inflows was at the end of 1999 and early 2000 or right before the tech collapse and the subsequent recession.

I would go even further and suggest that today’s investor psychological backdrop is identical to that of 2000 top.  For example, even though multiple high performing investors did spot the technology bubble and have tried to warn the others, for the most part they were completely ignored until it was too late.  It was the “NEW” economy the old guard did not understand.  Today’s environment is identical, except one fact. Instead of it being the NEW economy, today most markets participants believe that the FED can control the economy and its interest rates. That is of course a mirage that they will pay for dearly. Overall, the bullish sentiment is off the charts. As always, retail investors will lose the most as soon as the bear market kicks in.

As I have stated so many times before, the bear market will start in March of 2014 and will take 3 years to complete. While it will not be a violent move to the downside, it will shave off about 30-50% from today’s market prices over the next few years.  You have been warned.  

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PIMCO Shares a Valuable Tip

CNBC Writes: Gross: The stock market and asset prices are ‘bubbly’

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Bill Gross, the co-chief investment officer of Pimco, said he thinks the stock market and “all asset prices are bubbly.”

“Bond prices, stock prices … and profit margins are bubbly to the extent that [if] any of them can be sustained, I guess, is the ultimate test,” Gross said on CNBC Wednesday.

He said the Federal Reserve‘s QE program is a “rather blunt instrument in terms of elevating, and perhaps, bubbling stock prices.”

“Margin debt is at historic levels to the extent that they want to simmer down equity prices [but] they don’t have to attack it through tapering … they can raise margin requirements.”

“The bond market is bubbly because the policy rate at 25 basis points is artificially suppressed. Investors and savers are not receiving what they have historically … in historical terms would probably be around 2 to 2.5 percent,” he said.

I have very little to add here. Mr. Gross is right on the money. I have been saying this for a while as well, everything is overpriced. Big time. The only thing I will add into the mix is my timing and mathematical work. Once again, it is predicting the beginning of a severe Bear Market that will only end  in 2016. There is no stopping it. 

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Warning: The Markets Can Easily Be Predicted

Bloomberg Writes: The Enduring Mystery of Financial Markets

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Unfortunately, decades after the three economists had their groundbreaking insights, the crucial question remains unanswered: Can policymakers know with any certainty when markets are dangerously out of line, and is there anything they can do about it?

Economists can’t be expected to predict the future. But they should be able to identify threatening trends and to better understand the conditions that can turn a change in prices into a financial tsunami.

Read The Rest Of The Article Here

Once again, I do not understand why everyone claims that it is so hard to do. The Economy and its bubbles are very easy to see and predict.  For example, you could have looked at 2002-2007 period and have easily determined or came to a conclusion that there was a huge real estate and mortgage finance bubble developing.  When it would collapse, it would take down the entire economy, multiple financial institutions and our financial markets.

No crazy or complicated economic models needed. This is fairly basic and common sense stuff. Same thing applies to today’s environment. While the majority of the economist do not see any present issue either in the economy or the financial markets, they are there.  The majority of economic growth and market recovery over the last couple of years has been driven by an insane amount of credit pumped into our economy by the Fed through a multitude of channels.

Now the economy and the financial markets will have to pay for such a mismanagement by dropping over the next few years (as my timing work indicates). As the Fed perpetuates this cycle of boom and bust by dumping a lot of credit into the economy I remain puzzled why it is so hard to see by most economist and others participating in the financial markets. If you take conflict of interest out of the picture, this becomes very basic. 

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Warning: The Markets Can Easily Be Predicted 

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Warning: The US Dollar Is About To Surge

Daily Ticker Writes: Why the Dollar Will Always Be the Reserve Currency for the World

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On Friday morning the U.S. dollar came close to its lowest point of the year against the euro, according to The Wall Street Journal, on expectations that the Fed will have to continue its easy money policies for longer than first forecast thanks to the government shutdown.

“I’ve never been very worried about this,” he asserts. “The reason for that is there really is no alternative. The Chinese are not going to offer – and they cannot, given where they are in development, I think, for a decade or more – a genuine competitor for the dollar.”

Read The Rest Of The Article Here

I tend to agree with the premise of this article. As of right now there is no clear alternative to the US Dollar. The Chinese Yuan cannot be that alternative as it is technically not even a freely traded currency.  It will be decades before Chinese Yuan approaches the point of even being considered as an alternative to the US Dollar. The Euro? Well, there are too many structural issues in Europe.

There is a real possibility that Euro won’t even survive over the next decade. The majority of European economies (well, almost everyone except Germany) are in a big fiscal mess that is not getting any better. If anything, it is getting a lot worse. With the upcoming worldwide recession over the next few years (I discuss in my previous blogs posts) there is a real possibility that it might force some countries out of the EU and out of the Euro.  

That is one of the reasons of why I am so bullish on the US Dollar for the time being. No doubt that the US has some serious economic and structural problems. Yet, that in itself doesn’t determine the value of its currency.

It is quite possible for the currency to appreciate significantly even under dark economic circumstances and that is what I foresee for the US Dollar. Be aware of that.    

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Warning: The US Dollar Is About To Surge 

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Why Is Warren Buffett So Upset?

Reuters Writes: Buffett calls threat to not raise U.S. debt limit a ‘political weapon of mass destruction

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway (NYS:BRK-A – News), said Wednesday that the threat of not raising the U.S. debt ceiling is a political weapon.

The idea that Congress could fail to raise the $16.7 trillion U.S. borrowing limit is a “political weapon of mass destruction,” Buffett told cable television network CNBC.

Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway owns short-term Treasury bills and is “not worried” about the bills being paid, despite concerns about the U.S. debt ceiling.

Of course Mr. Buffett is correct. What happened in Washington over the last couple of weeks is nothing short of a disaster. An absolute disaster. What Mr. Buffett forgot to mention is that this “political weapon of mass destruction” has already gone off.

Surely, the US will not default on its debt. In my previous posts I have clearly stated that neither the market nor should you care about that. The damage has already been done and will be eventually felt on a different front.  This front has to do with our creditors.  I bet you my left leg that this situation was very closely watched and analyzed by both Japan and China (two of our biggest creditors). 

Their conclusion will be very simple. Washington is being run by idiots who have no problem putting the wealth and the future of our countries at risk. Therefore, we should diversify.  I bet you my right leg that these countries will start to lessen their US Debt exposure (if they haven’t started already) as soon as possible. Interest rates will go up and that will cause a significant slow down in the US Economy and a substantial DROP in the financial markets.

BOOM. Thank you Washington.  


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Are You As Stupid As The FED Wants You To Be?

Bloomberg Writes: BlackRock’s Fink Says There Are ‘Bubble-Like Markets Again’

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BlackRock Inc. (BLK) Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink, whose company is the world’s largest money manager with $4.1 trillion in assets, said Federal Reserve policy is contributing to “bubble-like markets.”

“It’s imperative that the Fed begins to taper,” Fink said today at a panel discussion in Chicago, referring to the central bank’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases. “We’ve seen real bubble-like markets again. We’ve had a huge increase in the equity market. We’ve seen corporate-debt spreads narrow dramatically.”

“We have issues of an overzealous market again,” Fink said at the event, which was sponsored by the Paulson Institute and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. 

He is of course absolutely right. The markets have been distorted by the FED to an amazing degree. The situation is truly unprecedented as we have never seen anything even close to that.

I would go even further and argue that we have backed ourselves into a corner from which no easy exit is possible. As I have mentioned before the velocity of $85 monthly QE is slowing down drastically as all of that money no longer has as much of a impact as it did in the past. Simply put, as the velocity slows down, the overall economy/markets follow and interest rates go higher. On the flip side, should the FED cut back by any amount (even a small one) the impact to the downside will be as described above, only much more severe. There is no easy answer, we will all have to suffer.

Not that I would know, but it is like going through a cocaine withdrawal. Your normal dose no longer has the kick, yet if you decrease the dose….withdrawal symptoms begin to show up.

Either way, only two outcomes are possible. Going through a withdrawal or ODing. Not a pretty picture for the US Economic future either way you look at it.   

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Does NSA Know Everything About Your Sex Life?

Bloomberg Writes: Banning Spying Would Be as Effective as a Ban on Sex

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The uproar in Europe over spying by the U.S. National Security Agency has led to calls for a treaty or code of conduct to limit espionage. To understand why this is naive, imagine a treaty to ban sex. It would be honored in the breach. States, too, have an overwhelming natural impulse: to spy.

Spying is (or was until Edward Snowden) largely covert; no one freely admits to doing it. It is also one of the last preserves of the absolute sovereign, unconstrained by law — think Louis XIV in a trench coat. This is one reason why there are international laws for trade, travel and warfare, but almost none governing espionage, except the one that allows spies to be shot if captured in civilian clothes.

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It is mind boggling to me that we live in a country that has a massive surveillance program that essentially spies on everyone in the world, yet this same country can’t put together a working healthcare website after spending $500 Million on it. Something doesn’t add up. Either way, let’s take a look at this issue from a different perspective. 

The question is, why does the US need to spy at all?

Of course a certain level is of spying in necessary, but to do it to the extent that NSA does it is absolutely crazy. For example, I am sure the NSA will scan this blog post, identify various keywords (like NSA), assign it to my profile and probably run it through some sort of a filter to determine if someone needs to look into it further. Okay, but why?

Powerful nations or people do not do this. They are confident enough in their abilities to control their environment. Only those who are scared (politically and economically), reserve to these types of behaviors. Unfortunately, somehow the US became the nation of fear propagated by its own government.

The upcoming Bear Market will only make things worse. Oh, and of course they know everything about your sex life as well. 

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What Jim Rogers Thinks You Should Know About Gold

Daily Ticker Writes: Jim Rogers Forecasts a Drop to $900

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Commodities investor Jim Rogers tells The Daily Ticker that gold, having lost its luster as a safe haven, could drop to $900 or $1,000 in the next 1-2 years. Longer term, he has a very different forecast. Gold will soar to “well beyond $1,900 an ounce,” topping its record $1,920 high reached in September 2011, says Rogers, author of Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets. The reason: “massive currency debasement” around the world. “Every major central bank in the world is printing a lot of money plus war, chaos, riots in the street, governments failing,” says Rogers.

Despite that forecast, Rogers warns investments not to consider gold – or any other investment — safe. “I would never use the word ‘safe’ when I’m speaking about investing.”

There are only a few investors that I listen to when they speak. Jim Rogers is one of them. A brilliant and very interesting guy.  So, when he says something you better listen. I highly recommend that you click on the link and listen what he has to say. The video is just 2 minutes long. 

My stock market timing work kind of confirms his thesis on gold. I already talked about gold in one of my previous posts CLICK HERE and the fact that I don’t really understand it or know how to value it properly.

Jim mentions that he anticipates gold to decline further over the next few years to shake out the bulls before resuming its bull market due to currency debasement and inflation. My work confirms this as a highly probably scenario. 

As the markets and the economy decline over the next few years in a deflationary environment, so should the gold.  As we bottom in 2016 and begin the inflation cycle I talked about before, gold should start appreciating. Perhaps significantly. Just my two cents. 

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