MIKE

Posts Tagged ‘US Dollar Collapse’

by Bud Conrad
October 17, 2011
Casey Research

Foreign central banks buy US Treasury and Agency debt through accounts at the Federal Reserve, where it is held in custody. Without these central banks buying our debt, the US federal government would have to find a new source of funds or the result could be higher interest rates. Looking at the data on a monthly basis (and then multiplied by 12 to give the annual rate), here is the dramatic picture of how foreign central-bank purchases of our debt have shifted, from buying $500 billion to selling off $1 trillion. At this rate of selling over several months, interest rates would go higher – if other things were equal. Of course, things are not equal because the Fed has been forcing rates lower with its massive QE2 and other programs. QE 2 was $600 billion over nine months, or an annualized rate of $800 billion per year. Since foreigners are selling off our government debt, Fed purchases of government debt are even more necessary.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here are the data on the amount of Treasuries purchased in the last quarter of the year at an annualized rate: Foreigners have decreased their holdings for the first time since 2007.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here’s another chart worth considering. This is a comparison to the ten-year Treasury, with the purchases of Treasuries inverted.

(Click on image to enlarge)

In my latest article in The Casey Report on interest rates, I discuss the above chart and cover the broader issues driving interest rates.

What could be the cause of all this? The Senate passed a controversial bill that threatens to punish China for “currency manipulation” which will bring mandatory tariffs. China’s opposition to the Senate action could be the power behind the big shift in direction of these custody holdings. In an election year, government action against Chinese imports may be seen as supportive for US jobs, thus garnering votes. But unintended consequences of decreasing liquidity in the credit markets will put pressure on financial markets. The movement shown in these charts could be the result of China’s reaction to some of those anticipated policies. We can’t tell what country is doing the selling until two months have gone by and the TIC data are published. In some senses, it doesn’t matter which country is behind the shift. If rates begin to rise rapidly, even in the face of continued Fed manipulation, it could call into question confidence in the Fed’s ability to keep supporting the economy. The rate on the ten-year Treasuries jumped from 1.8% to 2.2% in the last week. Foreign selling of this magnitude is dangerous for the dollar, and it could be very bad for US interest rates.

[Whether this shift is temporary or a long-term reversal remains to be seen – but the end of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency is all but certain. How can one prepare for such a life-changing move? Listen to the audio recordings of the recently held Casey Research/Sprott Summit, When Money Dies, to gain insights and actionable advice from experts including Adam Fergusson and Doug Casey on how you can not just survive what’s coming, but thrive. Order your set today.]

Additional Links and Reads

Banking Corporatism in 1912 (Ludwig von Mises Institute)

The Mises Institute dug up a great cartoon from 1912, representing what would happen to the US with the creation of a central bank. The picture says it all. That’s essentially what did happen.

Kinder Morgan to Buy El Paso for $21.1 Billion (Bloomberg)

In the biggest energy transaction of the year thus far, Kinder Morgan purchased El Paso Corp. to form the country’s largest national gas pipeline network. The natural gas market is an interesting beast. On the one hand, natural gas prices are dirt cheap. On the other, they can’t say low forever, but as Doug Casey says just because something is inevitable doesn’t mean that it’s imminent. There are some who have given up on investing in natural gas, while others are willing to put big bucks into it.

What I find interesting about the whole field is that involves so much hard science. Whether the general economy will go up or down is the realm of economics – not exactly a science. And of course, the economy will affect oil and gas prices, but natural gas requires making estimates of scientific facts. How much gas is left in the ground? What are the well decline rates? How damaging are fracking chemicals? While in economics we can argue back and forth without getting anywhere, these questions will have clear answers in the future. Someone will be right, and someone will be wrong.

Seven in Ten College Grads Are Employed Full Time for Employer (Gallup)

The second table of results from this poll, copied below, showed some particularly noteworthy findings which I’ve discussed before.  This table represents only workers and the unemployed who are searching for a job. At the top of the unemployment pile are workers aged 18 to 29 with 14% unemployment and 30% underemployment. That’s pretty crazy – only 56% are working full time. And of those 56%, how many do you think actually have a good, career-track job versus something like flipping burgers?

This relates to today’s intro. If one graduated college in 1998, one could get a job at Goldman Sachs. Graduate ten years later, and one will be lucky to find a position as an assistant accounting clerk with the exact same qualifications.

Read the entire article HERE.

by Tyler Durden
08/03/2011 14:50 -0400
ZeroHedge

The Treasury’s Borrowing Advisory Committee, chaired by such luminaries as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, which according to some (and by some we mean anyone who cares about such things) is the brains behind the decision-making process of US debt issuance has released its quarterly minutes, in which it has issued one of the most stark warnings about the fate of the US Dollar to date. While it is now a daily occurrence for China and Russia to bash the dollar, for the most part still powerless to provide an alternative (but rapidly gaining), the same warning coming from Jamie and Lloyd has to be taken far, far more seriously. Which is precisely what happened today. As Bloomberg reports, “The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee… said the outperformance of haven currencies and those from emerging nations has aided in the debasement of the dollar’s reserve status, according to comments included in discussion charts presented ahead of the quarterly refunding. The Treasury published the documents today. “The idea of a reserve currency is that it is built on strength, not typically that it is ‘best among poor choices’,” page 35 of the presentation made by one committee member said. “The fact that there are not currently viable alternatives to the U.S. dollar is a hollow victory and perhaps portends a deteriorating fate.””

But, wait a second… Isn’t Ben Bernanke debasing the dollar precisely for the benefit of the members of the TBAC? And considering that he has done such a tremendous job, is it a little hypocritical to be taking the USD devaluation in one hand, and complaining about it with another? Perhaps someone less jaded than us can answer. As for another important question looming over the US, namely the so called imminent US downgrade, the TBAC has spoken: “None of the members thought that a downgrade was imminent.” Which means that both S&P and Fitch have now been bribed with enough peas to keep their mouths shut. The status quo wins again.

Some other interesting observations:

• Primary Dealers expect a much smaller fiscal deficit in 2011 than either the CBP or OMB, at $1358BN compared to $1480BN and $1645BN respectively. Which means, if wrong, that Dealers will be on the hook to purchase up to $300 billion more debt than currently modelled. Will they be able to handle this extra load?
• PDs expect 2011 Marketable Borrowing to be between $980 and $2055 Billion. A rather wide range
• Bills as a percentage of the portfolio have plunged to decade lows, while coupons are at decade highs
• From the previous bullet point, the PDs expect the average maturity of debt to continue to increase. We disagree considering the hundreds of billions in Bills that will have to be reissued to make up for the 2 month non-rolling fiasco
• There is $1.8 trillion in debt refinancing needs in 2011; Just over $1.4 trillion in 2012, and just under $1.1 trillion in 2013. Good luck rolling all of this debt.

The TBAC’s conclusion is actually rather spot on:

• The benefits of extension do not come for free. Historical analysis suggests that shorter term funding has at many times been both cheaper and the volatility costs have not been high
• Recent cycles of rising rates have not lasted long enough for maturity extension to pay off
• It is possible, however, that “this time is different” because
  • Nominal rates are much closer to the zero bound than previous periods
  • Deficits are very high historically and rising interest expense less acceptable
  • Concentrated foreign ownership creates less reliable demand
  • The benefits of funding attributable to being the reserve currency may be fading
• While this presentation has focused exclusively on average maturity, a topic for future study is the impact of the distribution of maturities on total interest expense

That indeed would be an interesting analysis

Full must read presentation:

TBAC Prez

Read the entire article HERE.

by Eric King
King World News
July 11, 2011

With so many questions surrounding the U.S. dollar and rising inflation, today King World News interviewed internationally followed John Williams of Shadowstats to get his take on the U.S. dollar, Fed and hyperinflation. When asked about the current fiscal crisis the United States faces Williams stated, “Well, very simply I have very little respect for a political system that goes to the brink each time the debt has to be raised. They have to raise the debt ceiling because the government already is obligated to spend the money beyond what it can raise in taxes. I would be very surprised if the US actually defaults.

What they are doing now is the type of thing that has happened a number of times before, although there seems to be more of a serious challenge this time around and risk of an outright default on the US debt. This would be disastrous for the financial system. Indeed it likely would trigger very heavy selling of the US dollar, which would accelerate the inflation process and move us towards the hyperinflation scenario.”

John Williams continues:

“The actual deficit, including the increase in the unfunded liabilities for social security and medicare that we go through each year, have us looking at an annual deficit of four to five trillion dollars. So the small cut being proposed of four to five trillion dollars over ten years is not going to do much to bring the system into balance.

If you actually have a default in US Treasuries, you destroy the credibility of the dollar, you destroy the financial credibility of the US government. A lot of work has already been undertaken in that area in the last couple of years by the Federal Reserve and by the extremely irresponsible fiscal policies of both parties.

But an actual default takes you a quantum leap forward towards loss of credibility in the dollar and as I said before the general response to something like that would be heavy selling and dumping of dollar denominated assets such as US Treasuries. If you default, interest rates will go higher.

The economy is still in trouble. Whatever so-called recovery there was, was due largely to short-lived stimulus effects. We’re going to see some major downside revisions in the next month or so to the GDP.

Going forward, all of the happy forecasts in the stability of the banking system or projected budget deficit levels, those are all based on assumptions of underlying economic growth. If the economy contracts, which I think it will think it will be doing, and in fact is doing, all those numbers get blown apart. We’re still in the depths of the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

As activity begins to turn down again, you are going to see things get even worse, and the continued economic trouble is going to be very long and very deep. That puts the Fed in a circumstance where you virtually are assured of a quantitive easing three. That in turn will weaken the US dollar further.

We have borrowed short-term growth from the future through debt expansion. That’s what Greenspan encouraged over the last couple of decades, and that was behind most of the economic growth seen in recent decades. It was not strong income growth, it was strong debt growth. Now we’ve seen a debt collapse….

“and the debt expansion is not there for the average American consumer.

So at the moment you don’t have any way to get the economy going again, it’s going to get worse. The Fed and the Federal government are faced with an untenable circumstance. They can’t get the economy going and they are afraid of systemic collapse.

None of what you had following the Lehman crisis in 2008 has worked in terms of resolving the issues. You still have systemic solvency problems; you still have a very deep and protracted economic downturn. They did everything they could to prevent a systemic collapse in 2008. They’ll do whatever they can to prevent a systemic collapse now, but that requires spending money, creating money. That’s why you are going to see more easing by the Fed and the cost of that is inflation

When asked what King World News readers globally should be doing to protect themselves in this environment Williams had this to say, “One of the best bets I can give you over time is that the dollar is going to be much weaker than it is today, and you eventually are heading for a dollar collapse. It’s just a matter of when someone very major moves to get out of the dollar, and we already are seeing signs of that happening.

I’m looking for the dollar to collapse in terms of its purchasing power. For people who live in a dollar-denominated world, they need to look at taking some action to preserve their wealth and assets. This primarily involves holding some physical gold and silver and getting some money outside of the dollar, perhaps outside of the United States.

Things can be difficult enough here with a real hyperinflation that you want to be prepared for disruptions to the system. Have a store of basic goods and supplies as you would for any natural disaster, only in this case we are looking at a man-made disaster.”

Read the entire article HERE.

by JS Kim
Chief Investment Strategist
SmartKnowledgeU
June 6th, 2011

Please find below my interview with Max Keiser and our discussion regarding the Greek crisis and continued banker price suppression and manipulation schemes executed against gold and silver to prop up the US dollar and prevent a US dollar collapse. Max raises the issue of the European Parliament’s move to accept gold from EU nations as collateral as reported on Zero Hedge here, which I believe is a step towards making gold acceptable as money for the purposes of debt repayment. However, this step is nothing new as Bankers have long been known to make loans in weak currencies and demand repayment in much stronger currencies before, even when dealing with fiat currencies. For example, the World Bank, which has long dispensed loans in US dollars to struggling nations, started a program in the early1990s whereby it asked nations to repay their USD loans in local currencies, fully aware of the fact that the US dollar was falling against many global currencies very rapidly. The World Bank aggressively instituted this “we lend you money in junk US dollar fiat currency and repay us in better currency” program in 15 different currencies in the early 1990s and aggressively pushed it further in the 2000s. So it is no surprise at all that the European Parliament has extended and refined this World Bank program for their own use into a “collateralize your debt with real money (physical gold) but continue to take out loans in our junk fiat currencies”.

UPDATED:

I also discuss the shenanigans of the gold/futures silver market with Max. Here is the link to the evidence and the letter I sent to CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton in late summer of 2008 of Banker fraud in the gold futures markets and his reply to me. Mr. Chilton replied that the enormous arbitrage opportunities daily for several months in the summer of 2008 of $20, $30, $40 and $50 an ounce higher prices of gold futures in Asia versus the New York COMEX was due to Chinese banker manipulation of gold prices higher and not due to Western banker manipulation of gold prices lower. You can read, in that same article, my further line of questioning of Mr. Chilton’s response that went unanswered by the CFTC. Furthermore, I discuss with Max the recent shenanigans in gold and silver futures markets where nearly 99% of all daily transactions for the month of May, 2011 consisted of paper for paper swaps in the form of EFP (Exchange of Futures for Physical) and EFS (Exchange of Futures for Swaps). While at first the Exchange of Futures for Physical transaction may sound legitimate in name, all legitimacy disappears when one realizes that paper may be substituted for the “physical” component of this transaction.

Exchange Rule 104.36 enacted on February 18, 2005, which allows for the substitution of gold ETFs for physical gold, states that the “physical” part of the transaction “need only be substantially the economic equivalent of the futures contract being exchanged” and that “the purpose of this Notice is to confirm that the Exchange would accept gold-backed exchange-traded funds (‘ETF’) shares as the physical commodity component for an EFP transaction involving COMEX gold futures contracts, provided that all elements of a bona fide EFP pursuant to Exchange Rule 104.36 are satisfied. Thus, acceptable gold-backed and exchange-traded ETF funds include, but are not limited to, the iSharesCOMEX Gold Trust (ticker: IAU), which began trading on the American Stock Exchange on January 28, 2005.”

GATA’s Adrian Douglas first brought to my attention Exchange Rule 104.36 in his article, “Commodity Exchanges Can Dump Gold Debts on ETFs”, prompting me to search the CFTC database even further. My search revealed a further amendment to the “exchange of future for physical” transactions enacted onMarch 11, 2005. This amendment stated that “for purposes of this Rule 414, the term ‘Related Position’ [Physical] shall include, but not be limited to, a security [a group or basket of securities], an option, [or] any commodity as that term is defined by the CEA or a group or basket of any of the foregoing. The Related Position [Physical] being exchanged need not be the same as the underlying of the Futures transaction being exchanged, but the Related Position [Physical] must have a high degree of price correlation to the underlying of the Futures transaction so that the Futures transaction would serve as an appropriate hedge for the Related Position [Physical].” This amendment not only opens up PM ETFs as substitutes for the “physical” component of a gold/silver futures transaction but even other metal ETFs or physical metals that have a “high degree of price correlation” to gold and silver.

Furthermore, remember that an EFP transaction can be used to either initiate or liquidate a futures position. Thus, from this amendment, though not specifically mentioned, it is obvious that SLV shares could be used in an EFP transaction to represent the “physical silver” part of a futures transaction. If you look at my below diagram, this may also explain why a huge number of spread positions in the gold/silver futures markets are initiated from time to time in the COMEX. I have illustrated how an EFP in silver futures may work below:

(Click Image for a Larger View)

In recent months, the number of EFP transactions in silver AND gold, as opposed to the number of contracts settled in cash or settled in physical delivery, has exploded. When the majority of gold/silver futures transactions daily consist of EFP and EFS transactions versus cash settlement or physical settlement, this points to a pronounced manipulation of this market and an absence of any true price discovery in gold/silver futures markets.

ZeroHedge recently reported that JP Morgan was one of the largest owners of the likely bogus SLV ETF, holding 3,600,000 shares as of the end of the 2010 fiscal year calendar. ZeroHedge also reported that bullion banks, in early May, moved 20% of COMEX physical silver out of the registered category that is available to satisfy requests for physical delivery and into the eligible category that is not “eligible” for physical delivery. Scottia Mocatta followed this significant move by transferring 186,000 of their physical silver ounces from registered to eligible as well. JP Morgan, as of the May 27th CME report, held ZERO ounces of registered silver in the COMEX vaults.

In the meantime, selling of SLV shares reached an all time high in May. What does this all mean? I’m not quite sure I have the full answer yet as I keep digging, but I’m quite certain that whatever is going on in these paper for paper swaps in the gold/silver futures markets on the COMEX is not kosher and an attempt to hide physical shortages of precious metals that exist versus the open interest numbers in gold/silver futures. The CME makes it very difficult to compile stats regarding EFS and EFP transactions because while they provide a running total of month-to-date transactions for gold/silver futures contracts settled in cash and settled through physical delivery, they do NOT provide a running total of EFS and EFP transactions month-to-date in their daily metal reports nor do they respond to any requests for such information. When one of my staff members wrote the CME and inquired if running totals were available each month for EFS and EFP transactions in gold/silver futures, the CME staff answered no. Thus, one of my staff compiled the daily totals for EFS and EFP transactions for the month of May by pulling every daily report for gold/silver futures. This is what the totals looked like from May 2 to May 26, 2011.

For gold futures, from May 2, 2011 until May 26,2011, 0.01% of transactions settled in cash, 0.27% settled in physical, 78.22% consisted of EFP and 21.50% consisted of EFS (for a combined 99.72% of all gold futures transactions in EFP and EFS). For silver futures, from May 2, 2011 until May 26, 2011, 0.19% settled in cash, 0.93% settled in physical, 85.39% consisted of EFP, and 13.49% consisted of EFS (for a combined 98.88% of all silver futures transactions in EFP and EFS). Thus these paper for (possibly) paper swaps, if that is indeed what is happening in the EFP transactions, are casting huge distortions in the price of gold and silver to the downside.

Read the entire article HERE.

by Eric King
May 20, 2011
King World News Blog

With so many questions surrounding the U.S. dollar and rising inflation, today King World News interviewed internationally followed John Williams of Shadowstats to get his take on the U.S. dollar, Fed and hyperinflation. When asked about the tremendous inflation globally Williams stated, “The dollar has already been a factor for the major inflation that we are seeing now, and the weakness that we have seen in the dollar up to now has primarily been as a result of the Fed’s efforts to debase the dollar. A weaker dollar has spiked oil prices and we are seeing the highest inflation — as the government reports it — in the last 3 years, and it’s going to get a lot worse.”

When asked if the US dollar will collapse Williams replied, “If we end up in the hyperinflation that I think we’re going to see, then, no, the dollar won’t survive. They’ll probably come up with another currency at some point as they reorganize the global currency system. For this to work I expect it to have some backing of gold in order to sell this concept to the public, but the dollar in its current form would not survive a hyperinflation.”

When asked about the timing of hyperinflation in the United States Williams stated, “That’s the type of thing that could happen at any time, all of the fundamentals are in place. I do think we’re going to have a dollar crisis. I can’t give you the precise timing on it, but circumstances are negative for the dollar in terms of relative political stability. When you look at our government here we can’t control the fiscal conditions. Our trade deficit is continuing to deteriorate, that’s a negative for the dollar, inflation is rising on a relative basis, that’s a negative for the dollar.

The Fed although it is officially ending QE2, most likely is going to come back with a QE3 and that will debase the dollar and if we are going to debase the dollar the rest of the world generally is not going to want to hold it.”

When asked how quickly could we see a dollar collapse Williams responded, “It could happen very quickly, but they (the Fed) will try to forestall it as much as they can. When you do get a real panic it may not be containable. In terms of the hyperinflation I don’t think it will be held off beyond 2014. What we’re now seeing in the pickup in inflation here eventually will be seen as the beginnings of it.”

When asked what hyperinflation would be like in the U.S. Williams had this to say, “This is not going to be a happy circumstance in any event. You look at what happened in Zimbabwe, the terrible hyperinflation there, which is probably the worst ever seen in any country, it took place over a couple of years. The economy still continued to function to some degree, people still went to work, and the reason they were able to do that is they had a backup black market in US dollars. We don’t have anything like that here.

Efforts to introduce gold as a second currency would effectively provide that, but there’s nothing in place at the moment that would be a backup. So you have the likelihood of disruption to normal commerce. If the distribution chain to grocery stores gets interrupted, and the shelves are bare of food, that’s the kind of thing that can trigger rioting in the streets.”

When asked what people should do to protect themselves Williams said, “First you need to look to preserve your wealth and assets, and the primary hedge is physical gold, but silver is in that category as well. I’d look to get some assets outside the US dollar, outside the US if you can. Stronger alternative currencies are the Swiss Franc, Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar.

For people living inside of the U.S. if you are going to have a disrupted system, this is a manmade disaster, not a natural disaster, but it’s the type of thing you should prepare for as you would a natural disaster. Have several months of canned goods, other staples that you need to survive. And assuming that we see this evolve into some type of barter system, build up a stock of goods that you think are barter-able.”

Read the entire article HERE.

May 27th, 2011
Economic Collapse

A day is coming when the rest of the world will decide that it no longer has faith in U.S. dollars or in U.S. debt. When that day arrives, the game will be over. Traditionally, two of the biggest things that the U.S. economy has had going for it were the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries. The U.S. dollar has been the default reserve currency of the world for decades. All over the globe it was seen as a strong, stable currency that was desirable for international trade. U.S. government debt has long been considered the “safest debt” in the entire world. Whenever there was a major crisis, investors would flock to U.S. Treasuries because they were considered a rock. Sadly, all of this is now changing. Today the rest of the world is losing faith in the U.S. financial system. In fact, even the United Nations is now warning of the collapse of the dollar. But if the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries collapse, that will be an absolute nightmare for the U.S. economy. If the rest of the world does not want our dollars someday, then what are we going to give them in exchange for all of the oil and all of the cheap imported goods they send us? If the rest of the world does not want our debt someday, then how in the world are we going to be able to continue to consume far, far more wealth than we produce?

The rest of the world is watching the U.S. government run up record-setting budget deficits and they are watching the Federal Reserve print money like there is no tomorrow and they realize that the U.S. financial system is slowly imploding.

As mentioned above, now even the United Nations is warning that the U.S. dollar could collapse. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent news report put out by Reuters….

The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.

In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.

But it is not just the United Nations that is concerned about the U.S. dollar.

On April 18th, Standard & Poor’s altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from “stable” to “negative” and warned that the U.S. could soon lose its prized AAA rating.

At one time, it would have been unthinkable for Standard & Poor’s to do such a thing.

But today it is amazing that it has taken them so long to make such a move. U.S. government finances are falling apart.

When the credit rating of U.S. government debt starts declining, interest rates will go up. Just ask the government of Greece how painful that can be. Today, Greece is paying over 16 percent on 10 year bonds.

The following is what John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics recently had to say about why Standard & Poor’s issued such a warning about U.S. government debt….

S&P is noting the U.S. government’s long-range fiscal problems. Generally, you’ll find that the accounting for unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other programs on a net-present-value (NPV) basis indicates total federal debt and obligations of about $75 trillion. That’s 15 times the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt and obligations are increasing at a pace of about $5 trillion a year, which is neither sustainable nor containable. If the U.S. was a corporation on a parallel basis, it would be headed into bankruptcy rather quickly.

Look, the rest of the world is not stupid. They know that the U.S. government is hurtling towards financial disaster. The appetite among foreigners for U.S. government debt is decreasing rapidly.

In fact, according to Zero Hedge, foreigners are dumping U.S. debt at a very rapid pace right now.

In addition, the cost to insure U.S. debt has risen sharply in recent days.

Right now, the Federal Reserve has been buying up most new U.S. government debt with dollars that it has created out of thin air. This is a giant Ponzi scheme, and it is a major contributing factor to the decline of faith in the U.S. dollar.

The dollar has fallen by 17 percent compared to other major national currencies since 2009. What makes that fact even sadder is that all major currencies have been rapidly losing value compared to hard assets over that time period. The dollar is just sliding faster than almost all of the other global currencies that are constantly losing value as well.

Anyone with half a brain could have seen that this would be the end result of reckless government borrowing, but unfortunately our politicians have been ignoring this problem for decades.

Now a day or reckoning is fast approaching and it is going to be very painful.

The U.S. government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Just consider a few shocking facts about this unprecedented debt….

*If the U.S. national debt (more than 14 trillion dollars) was reduced to a stack of 5 dollar bills, it would reach three quarters of the way to the moon.

*The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour.

*If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.

*It is now being projected that by the year 2021, interest payments on the national debt will amount to $1.1 trillion dollars a year.

In a previous article on The American Dream, I detailed some more absolutely horrifying statistics about U.S. government debt….

#1 If you divide the national debt up equally among all U.S. households, each one owes a staggering $125,475.18.

#2 The federal government has borrowed 29,660 more dollars per household since Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus law two years ago.

#3 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#4 In the new budget that the Obama administration has proposed, the U.S. government would spend 3.7 trillion dollars in 2012 and by 2021 the U.S. government would be spending a whopping 5.6 trillion dollars per year.

#5 The U.S. government currently has to borrow approximately 41 cents of every single dollar that it spends.

#6 The total compensation that the federal government workforce earned last year came to a grand total of approximately 447 billion dollars.

#7 The U.S. national debt is currently rising by well over 4 billion dollars every single day.

#8 The U.S. government is borrowing over 2 million more dollars every single minute.

#9 The U.S. national debt is over 14 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.

#10 Unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are estimated to be well over $100 trillion, and nobody in the U.S. government seems to have any idea how we are actually even going to come close to meeting all of those obligations.

#11 If you were alive when Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. But this year alone the U.S. government is going to go about 1.6 trillion dollars more into debt.

#12 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

So have our politicians learned anything from the mistakes of the past?

No.

The U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the most ridiculous things imaginable. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services has just announced a brand new $500 million program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.

Isn’t it good to see the government investing our hard-earned tax dollars so wisely?

Of course if our kids weren’t being constantly fed foods packed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup and aspartame we wouldn’t have to spend 500 million dollars to deal with this problem.

When it comes to government waste, nobody seems to do it any better than the U.S. government.

Our politicians continue to assume that the rest of the world will always want our dollars and our debt, but that is simply not the case.

Over the past couple of years, global leader after global leader has publicly talked about the need for a new world reserve currency.

In fact, globalist institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank have been very busy discussing what the world is going to use as a global reserve currency after the death of the dollar.

The rest of the world is not sitting around waiting to see if the U.S. financial system is going to recover. They are already making plans for the demise of the dollar. They are increasingly using other currencies to trade with. They are becoming more hesitant to buy more of our debt. They are realizing that the days of U.S. dominance are coming to an end.

So what is that going to mean for us?

It is going to be a complete and total disaster.

Right now, we live far, far beyond our means. We borrow gigantic piles of money to make up the difference between what we produce and what we consume. We are absolutely dependent on the fact that the rest of the world will take our dollars in exchange for the things that we need.

The current situation is not sustainable.

It will come to an end.

When it does, our standard of living is going to feel like it has changed overnight.

Read the entire article HERE.

Road To Hyperinflation: James Turk

Part 1

Part 2

By Patrick Worsnip
Reuters
May 25, 2011 – 2:17 PM ET
Updated: May 26, 2011 8:15 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.

In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.

The report, an update of the UN “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011” report first issued in December, noted that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the 1970s.

This trend, it said, had recently been driven in part by interest rate differentials between the United States and other major economies and growing concern about the sustainability of the U.S. public debt, half of which is held by foreigners.

“As a result, further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency, which would put the entire global financial system at risk,” it said.

The 17-page report referred at another point to the “still looming risk of a collapse of the United States dollar.”

Rob Vos, a senior UN economist involved with the report, said if emerging markets “massively start selling off dollars, then you can have this risk of a slide in the dollar.

“We’re not saying the collapse is imminent, but the factors are further building up that we could quickly come to that stage if other things are not improving quickly on other fronts — like the risk of the U.S. not being able to service its obligations,” he told Reuters.

UN economists have for some time queried whether the dollar should continue to be the world’s sole reserve currency. Others have also expressed concerns about U.S. finances.

Standard & Poor’s threatened on April 18 to downgrade the United States’ prized AAA credit rating unless the Obama administration and Congress found a way to slash the yawning federal budget deficit within two years.

A downgrade would erode the status of the United States as the world’s most powerful economy and the dollar’s role as the dominant global currency.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the U.S. government would “never default on its obligations.”

ASSET BUBBLES

Assessing the broader global economy, the UN report said recovery from the 2008 financial crisis continued to be led by China, India and Brazil, but that their growth outlook was moderating due to fears of inflation and domestic asset price bubbles.

It took a slightly more optimistic view of world growth prospects than it did six months ago, forecasting 3.3% expansion this year and 3.6% in 2012, compared with 3.1% and 3.5% respectively.

The United Nations uses a different exchange rate calculation than the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, making its global growth figures slightly lower.

It boosted its forecast for U.S. gross domestic product growth this year from 2.2% to 2.6% but kept next year’s estimate steady at 2.8%.

The report cut Japan’s growth outlook this year by more than a third to 0.7% following March’s catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant crisis. It put damage to buildings and infrastructure at about 25 trillion yen (US$305-billion) or 5% of GDP.

Despite a recent surge in oil prices, it predicted that barring major disruptions from political unrest in the Middle East, they would level off at an average $99 a barrel this year — close to the price of U.S. crude on Wednesday — and fall to an average of US$90 next year.

“Supply and demand conditions do not warrant a continued upward trend,” it said.

Food prices have also been soaring but the report said better harvests were expected to moderate them in the second half of this year.

Read the entire article HERE.

By SHAI OSTER
MAY 9, 2011
Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG—Wages are rising in China, heralding the possible end of an era of cheap goods.

For the past 30 years, customers would ask William Fung, the managing director of one of the world’s biggest manufacturing-outsourcing companies, to make his products—whether T-shirts, jeans or dishes—cheaper. Thanks to China’s seemingly limitless labor force, he usually could.

Now, the head of Li & Fung Ltd. says the times are changing. Wages for the tens of thousands of workers his Hong Kong-based firm indirectly employs are surging: He predicts overall, China’s wages will increase 80% over the next five years. That means prices for Li & Fung’s goods will have to rise, too.

(Click for a Larger Image)

“What we will have for the next 30 years is inflation,” Mr. Fung said. “A lot of Western managers have never coped with inflation.”

The issue is likely to hover behind talks Monday, between Chinese and U.S. leaders in Washington at their annual Strategic Economic Dialogue. Currency and debt issues are expected to dominate the agenda. But there are signs that the low labor costs—and cheap currency—that led to China’s huge trade surplus with the U.S. could be reaching a tipping point. This comes amid pressure from rising wages as China’s working-age population begins to decline.

For decades, plentiful Chinese labor kept down costs of a range of goods bought by Americans. Even as politicians in Washington accused China of hollowing out the American manufacturing sector, cheap DVD players, sweaters and barbecue sets were a silver lining for consumers who grew accustomed to ever-lower prices. China also kept down the value of its currency, giving domestic exporters a competitive edge.

“Inflation has been damped pretty dramatically in the U.S. because it exported work to China and other places at 20% or 30% of the cost,” said Hal Sirkin, a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. The years of dramatic reductions in costs are over, the firm says.

Li & Fung traces the start of rising wages to the “Foxconn Effect.” Foxconn is the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., maker of iPads for Apple Inc., and computers for Hewlett-Packard Co., among others. After a string of worker suicides last year at one of its China plants spurred Foxconn to defend its treatment of employees, the company raised wages 30% or more in a bid to improve worker conditions. That raise came as workers at other factories, including staff at a Honda Motor Co. parts plant, went on strike for higher pay.

Since then, the Chinese government has supported higher wages in part to address labor unrest, but also as way to boost domestic consumption and reduce reliance on exports to expand the economy. The rising wages affect both foreign and domestic companies.

Other factors besides rising wages are pushing up the price of goods. Chinese workers, for one, are starting to buy more with their higher salaries. That’s contributing to higher prices for commodities such as cotton and oil, which are already climbing in part because of a weaker dollar. Rising living standards in developing economies like China will keep prices of natural resources high as demand outpaces supply.

China’s move to let the yuan slowly appreciate in value—something eagerly sought by its Western trading partners—adds fuel to the fire. A stronger yuan makes it cheaper for China to import the raw materials it needs, such as iron and soybeans, helping tame domestic inflation. But it makes its exported goods more expensive for other countries to buy.

“This idea that we have moved from an era of easy deflationary environment to one of inflation is correct,” said Jeffrey Sachs, economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

During China’s 30 years of economic growth, hundreds of millions of factory and urban jobs soaked up surplus rural farm labor. In the past three or four years, he says, that extra labor has been exhausted.

Many analysts predict that China’s vast labor force will begin declining in the next year or two, the result of family-planning policies. Others say there’s already a shortage of the most active members of the factory floor, workers aged 15 to 34. That group has been steadily declining since 2007, according to Jun Ma, Deutsche Bank’s chief economist for Greater China. A shrinking work force will need higher salaries to support an expanding population of elderly.

There’s some debate about the impact and extent of these wage increases on foreign markets. The pace of inflation for U.S. imports is running around 7% this year, but it doesn’t account for a big enough portion of spending to significantly affect overall low inflation rates of about 1.6%, Morgan Stanley’s China strategist Jonathan Garner said. Still, with real wages stagnant for decades, many Americans who have grown dependent on cheap imported goods such as polo shirts or power tools could see their purchasing power decrease.

China still has cheap labor in its interior, away from its developed coastal cities, and productivity gains could mitigate higher wage costs. For example, Foxconn announced it was expanding operations to inland areas near Chengdu, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou, away from its coastal base.Li & Fung is encouraging its suppliers to invest more in their factories to increase worker productivity and raise the quality of goods.

There are limits to what those measures will achieve. Some analysts say that the wage increases will sharply outpace any productivity gains. Moving inland means lower wages, but higher transportation costs on China’s crowded highways and railroads. Furthermore, locating the factories in China’s hinterland puts them in a better position to service China’s growing domestic consumer market instead of exporting to consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Faced with rising wages within China, some companies are shifting resources elsewhere to keep costs down. Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd., the world’s biggest shoe maker, has started moving manufacturing of low-cost shoes from China to countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia. Li & Fung has been hired a prominent Chinese sneaker brand, Li Ning Co., to help it search for cheap production outside China.

But the wage gap between China and other developing countries will shrink, said Mr. Fung, echoing views shared by Boston Consulting Group, because “China was the thing that kept the price low,” he says. “China was the benchmark. With the China price rising, everyone else wants to raise prices.”

As factories relocate to other countries, local wages will rise faster than they did in China because the potential pools of surplus labor are smaller. In addition, because no other country can replicate the massive scale of China, logistics will become a larger part of costs as companies are forced to slice up their manufacturing over several countries, analysts say.

“Things will be more expensive and people will buy less,” Mr. Fung warns. That means that the West will have to adopt new consumption trends.

Read the entire article HERE.

March 28, 2011 (Bloomberg) — Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year yields to the highest in more than two weeks, on speculation the Federal Reserve may end its debt-purchase program early as the world’s biggest economy shows signs of a sustained recovery.

Five-year U.S. notes fell for an eighth day, the longest streak since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said on March 26 policy makers should review whether to complete $600 billion of Treasury purchases, a policy known as quantitative easing. Reports this week will show consumer spending rose in February, while the economy added more jobs last month, according to surveys of economists by Bloomberg.

“The market is concerned about how soon QE2 will be terminated, or whether they will even stop short of implementing the full package,” said Philip Marey, a senior market economist at Rabobank Groep in Utrecht, Netherlands. “It’s going to be difficult for yields to go much lower when the longer-term perspective is that the U.S. economy is recovering, inflation is rising and there’s talk of an early exit for QE2.”

Benchmark 10-year yields rose four basis points to 3.48 percent as of 11 a.m. in London, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. The 3.625 percent note maturing in February 2021 fell 10/32, or $3.13 per $1,000 face amount, to 101 6/32. The note yielded as much as 3.48 percent, the most since March 9. The five-year yield was at a 2 1/2-week high of 2.22 percent.

No Deviation

The decline in five-year is the longest streak since April 2008, as investors awaited a $35 billion sale of two-year debt today in the first of three auctions this week. The 2.125 percent note due February 2016 fell 8/32, or $2.50, to 99 18/32.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has given no indication that the central bank will deviate from its plan to buy bonds through June to spur economic growth and reduce the 8.9 percent unemployment rate. Bullard, who in July became the first policy maker to call for Fed purchases of Treasuries, has said the Federal Open Market Committee should review the plan at every meeting and, if necessary, continue it indefinitely.

“The economy is looking pretty good,” Bullard told reporters in Marseille, France. “It is still reasonable to review QE2 in the coming meetings, especially this April meeting, and see if we want to decide to finish the program or to stop a little bit short.”

The Fed is scheduled to purchase between $5.5 billion and $7.5 billion of government debt today.

Yield Forecast

Treasuries have handed investors a 0.1 percent loss this quarter even after accounting for reinvested interest, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities gained 8 percent so far this year, while the MSCI All Country World Index of stocks returned 2.8 percent, including reinvested dividends.

The 10-year yield will advance to 3.91 percent by year-end, according to a Bloomberg survey of banks and securities companies with the most recent forecasts given the heaviest weightings.

The two-year notes being sold today yielded 0.78 percent in pre-auction trading, compared with 0.745 percent at the prior sale on Feb. 22. Indirect bidders, the category of investors that includes foreign central banks, bought 31.3 percent of the notes last month. Direct bidders, non-primary dealers buying for their own accounts, purchased 6.8 percent, the least since November 2009.

Spending Data

The Treasury is scheduled to follow today’s two-year sale with a $35 billion five-year auction tomorrow and a $29 billion seven-year offering on March 30.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, rose 0.5 percent in February after a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Personal income rose 0.4 percent, a separate survey showed.

Payrolls climbed by 195,000 this month, the most since May, after a 192,000 gain in February, the surveys show.

The worldwide recovery is continuing, especially in Asia and the U.S., and remains vulnerable, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said March 26.

The first coordinated intervention in foreign-exchange markets by the Group of Seven nations in more than a decade will combine with rising oil prices to support Treasuries, some investors said.

‘Death Spike’

Oil at more than $100 a barrel may temper economic growth at the same time developed nations from Germany to Japan sell yen and buy U.S. debt with the proceeds. Every $10 per barrel increase in crude cuts U.S. growth as much as 0.3 percentage point, UBS AG estimates. Japan will need to reinvest the estimated $25 billion acquired as it drove the yen lower on March 18 after the nation’s worst earthquake on record.

“I don’t think the Treasury market has had the death spike put into it,” said Mark MacQueen, a partner at Austin, Texas- based Sage Advisory Services Ltd., which oversees $9.5 billion. “The market’s extremely sensitive to perceptions of future economic growth. Any time that comes into question, the Treasury market’s the place to be.”

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, said investors should avoid long-term fixed-income bets in U.S. dollars because the currency’s purchasing power will decline.

“I would recommend against buying long-term fixed-dollar investments,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said March 25 in New Delhi. “If you ask me if the U.S. dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not.”

An index of investor sentiment toward Treasuries fell last week, based on a survey by Ried Thunberg ICAP Inc. The end-of- June gauge slipped to 46 from 47 for the week ended March 25, according to a survey of 19 money managers. A figure less than 50 indicates investors expect prices to decline.

–With assistance from Susanne Walker, Daniel Kruger and Andrew Frye in New York, Pooja Thakur in Mumbai and Unni Krishnan in New Delhi, Scott Hamilton in London. Editors: Keith Campbell, Daniel Tilles.

Read the entire article HERE.

Thursday, March 24, 2011
Gonzalo Lira

So back in September 2008—in the throes of the Global Financial Crisis—the Federal Reserve under its chairman, Ben Bernanke, unleashed what was then known as “Quantitative Easing”.

They basically printed money out of thin air—about $1.25 trillion—and used it to purchase the so-called “toxic assets” from all the banks up and down Wall Street which were about to keel over dead. The reason they were about to keel over dead was because the “toxic assets”—mortgage backed securities and so on—were worth fractions of their nominal value. Very small fractions. All these banks were broke, because of their bad bets on these toxic assets. So in order to keep them from going broke—and thereby wrecking the world economy—the Fed payed 100 cents on the dollar for this crap.

In other words, the Fed saved Wall Street by printing money, and then giving it to them in exchange for bad paper.

Time passes, we move on.

Then, in November 2010, the Federal Reserve—still under Ben Bernanke—unleashed what is colloquially known as QE-2: The Fed announced that it would purchase $600 billion worth of Treasury bonds over the next eight months.

The rationale was so as to stimulate lending. But really, it was so that the Federal government wouldn’t go broke. The Federal government deficit for fiscal year 2011 is $1.6 trillion—the national debt is beyond 100% of GDP, at about $14 trillion. The Federal government issues Treasury bonds in order to fund this deficit. Ergo, by way of QE-2, the Federal Reserve bought roughly 40% of the Federal government deficit for FY 2011. Add on other Treasury bond purchases by the Fed via QE-lite (the reinvestment of the excedents of the toxic assets on the Fed’s books), and the Federal Reserve is buying up half the deficit of the Federal government, as I discussed here in some detail.

In other words, the Fed saved Washington by printing up money, and then giving it to them in exchange for—well, not bad paper, but at least questionable paper.

So! . . . let’s see now . . . Fed money printing—check! Saving someone’s bacon (even though they shoulda known better)—check! Taking on dodgy paper—check!

Did it in 2008 for Wall Street, then did it again in 2010 for Washington.

But the key difference between these two events is, the banks didn’t have any more toxic assets, once they sold them all to the Fed.

But the Federal government will still have more Treasury bonds it will have to sell, once the Federal Reserve ends QE-2 this coming June.

The fiscal year 2012 deficit will be on an order of 10% of GDP—roughly $1.5 trillion. And 2013 and 2014? Around the same range.

Over at Zero Hedge, they are past masters at timing the funding needs of the Federal government. But we don’t need to go into the monthly figures of POMO purchases and Treasury auctions and all the rest of it. All due respect to Tyler and his wonderful team at ZH, all that is merely the mechanics of Federal Reserve monetization.

What we should look at is the simple, macro question: If the Fed ends QE-2 in June as they have said they will, who will take up the slack? Who will purchase between $75 and $100 billion worth of Treasury bonds at yields of 3.5% for the 10-year?

Is there someone?

Anyone?

The answer is, No one will take up the slack.

Who, Japan? They’ve got some well-known troubles of their own—they’re all about selling Treasuries and buying up yens, both now and for the foreseeable future.

The Chinese? They’ve been quietly exiting Treasuries for a couple of years now, and going into every commodity known to man.

Europe? Are you serious—Europe? Please don’t make me laugh that hard—it hurts.

The fact is, there is no one outside the United States that I can think of who would willingly buy Treasury bonds—not to the tune of +$75 billion a month.

Therefore, if no one outside the United States would willingly give money to Washington to fund the deficit, then someone inside the U.S. will have to step up.

The obvious-obvious-obvious solution to this mess is for the Federal government to stop spending its way to oblivion—but does anyone realistically see this happening?

Therefore, as Spock always sez, if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

If foreign sources of funding will not cover the Federal government’s deficit after June 2011, and Washington will definitely not cut spending in any sort of realistic sense, then there really are only two—and only two—possibilities:

• The indefinite continuation of QE by the Federal Reserve.

• Or the requisitioning of private retirement accounts and pension funds.

Don’t dismiss the second possibility out of hand—think it over.

What pool of money is just sitting there, not doing much, while being legally barred from its owners? What pool of money is easily accessed, yet is large enough to fund the deficit?

The retirement accounts of the American people: Both individual private accounts, and pension funds.

After all, the total for all pension monies is roughly 100% of GDP (this includes Social Security). And the Federal government has already raided the “Social Security lock box”—that box is stuffed with Treasury IOU’s.

So the Federal government might well turn to the private sector for cash. The Federal government might conceivably claim that ongoing funding needs require that every single 401(k) and IRA divest from its portfolio of stocks and bonds, and be fully invested in Treasuries.

This could be accomplished very easily, from a practical standpoint—just inform banks, and have them turn over to the Federal government all your mutual funds and stocks you agonized over, and get long-term Treasury bonds of nominal equal value in exchange.

401(k)’s and IRA’s would be the first ones the Federal government would go after—for the obvious reason that union pension funds have the union’s political muscle. But individuals? They have no political machine. So they’re screwed.

Anyway, the language used for this maneuver by the Treasury department would make it difficult for a lot of (unaffected) people to get upset over the situation: The Treasury department wouldn’t call this process “retirement account confiscation”. They’d call it something innocuous, like “retirement asset swap”—or better yet, throw in some patriotic bullshit (indeed, the last refuge of the scoundrel) and call it “Americ-Aide Asset Swap”—or even better: Call it “Help America Retirement Treasury Bond Program”—otherwise known as HART-bonds. (Awww!!! Probably maudlin enough to get Geithner an appearance on fucking Oprah.)

There might be short-term political damage, but like losing your virginity or carrying out state-sponsored torture programs, it would be the necessary start for a slide that will never end. After this first “retirement asset swap” carried out on the 401(k)’s and IRA’s, the Treasury department would start doing more of this to ever-bigger pension funds, until eventually all retirement assets would be converted into Treasury bonds.

Hey, they did it in Argentina. And as Yves Smith always sez, America has become Argentina, but with nukes.

Now, this is one possibility, of the only two which I can see.

The other possibility, of course, is that the Federal Reserve will not end Quantitative Easing-2 come June. The Fed will extend the deficit monetization indefinitely. The Fed will be under the mistaken impression that this will somehow save the U.S. economy. (The best metaphor I’ve been able to come up with for this situation is, the Federal government is like a junkie who’s already OD’ed—and the Federal Reserve is trying to “save” him by shooting him up with even more heroin.)

So between these two possibilities—confiscating retirement accounts and forcing some sort of Treasury bond asset swap, or an endless continuation of QE—which is easier?

Obviously QE-three.

Therefore, that’s what I think is going to happen: QE money-printing as far as the eye can see.

Well, look on the bright side: At least you’ll get to keep your ever-shrinking retirement nest egg. Bully for you!

Read the original blog post HERE.