The End Of Cheap Debt: The Fall & Rise Of Interest Rates

Perhaps the greatest single trend impacting the next decade

Total debt (public + private) in America is currently at a staggering $67 trillion.

That number has been rising fast over the past 47 years, following the US dollar's transformation into a fully-fiat currency in August of 1971.

Perhaps this wouldn't be such a big concern were America's income, measured by GDP, growing at a similar rate. But it's not.

Growth in debt has far outpaced GDP, as evidenced by this chart:

In 1971, the US debt-to-GDP ratio was 1.48x. That's roughly the same multiple it had averaged over the prior century.

But today? That ratio has spiked to to 3.47x, more than doubling over just 4 decades.

There are many troubling conclusions to draw from this, but here's a simple way to look at it: It's taking more and more debt to eke out a unit of GDP growth.

Put in other words: the US economic engine is seizing up, requiring increasingly more effort to function.

At some point -- quite possibly some point soon -- the economy will no longer be able to grow because all of its output must be used to service the ballooning debt load rather than future investment.

Accelerating this point of reckoning are two major recent trends: rising interest rates and the end of global QE.

Why? Because much of the recent explosion in debt has been fueled by central bank policy:

• Interest rates have been on a steady decline since the 1980s, making debt increasingly cheaper to issue and to service.
• Since 2008, central banks have been voracious buyers of debt. Countries/companies have been able to borrow $trillions, enabled (both directly and indirectly) by these "buyers of last resort".

But both of those trends are ending, fast.

Interest rates have been rising off of their all-time rock-bottom lows over the past two years. While still low by historic standards, the rise is certainly material enough already to make the US' $70 trillion in total debt more expensive to service, putting an even greater weight on America's already-burdened economy.

And all indicators point to even higher rates ahead; with the Federal Reserve expected to increase the federal funds rate another 50% by 2020:

These higher rates make the US debt overhang even more expensive to service, while also forcing valuations downwards for major asset classes like bonds, housing and equities (the prices of which are derived in part by interest rates, as explained here).

These higher expected rates also co-incide with the cessation of global quantitative easing (QE). The world's major central banks have announced that they will cease making purchases by 2020:

Without these indiscriminate buyers-of-last-resort, debt issuers will need to offer higher rates to entice the next marginal buyer. How much higher will rates need to rise as a result? It's pretty easy to make the argument for "a lot".

We've been talking quite a bit recently about the implications of hitting America's "Peak Debt" threshold with David Stockman in preparation for our upcoming seminar with him next week. He's extremely concerned. Here's what he has to say on the matter (4m:42s):

He also fears that we have the exact wrong expertise in place inside our financial markets to deal with the coming crisis, as there's an entire generation of Wall Streeters who have never seen rates as high as they are today. More than that, there's virtually no one left in today's financial industry with actual experience operating within a rising interest rate environment (2m:09s):

James Howard Kunstler, another co-presenter at next week's seminar, is similarly worried that the current state of the financial system is so fragile that a "convulsion" (i.e., a painful downdraft that violently reprices assets) is inevitable at this point (5m:46s):

If you're wondering what warning signs to watch for closely, or what steps to take in advance of the market convulsion predicted by Kunstler and Stockman, we'll be diving deeply into those at next week's Peak Prosperity New York City Summit on Sunday, Sep 16, 2018. You'll have the chance to meet these experts personally, spend the day with them, and ask them your most burning questions.

Fonte: qui

To learn more about this event, click here.

Creativa Images/Shutterstock

by Adam Taggart

It’s Not Just Turkey: There Is A Dollar Liquidity Storm Ahead Of Us

Experts are warning that 95 on the dollar index is the line in the sand, and we’re over 96 now. Here’s what experts say happens next…

by Brian Maher of Daily Reckoning

“It’s not just Turkey,” we are warned.

“The dollar liquidity storm is ahead of us — buckle up.”

Forewarned, we acknowledge Nedbank strategists Neels Heyneke and Mehul Daya for the advisory.

Where will it likely strike next?

Answer anon…

We begin with a brief excursion into the mysteries of the international monetary system… and the “Triffin dilemma.”

In 1959 Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin alighted upon a thumping paradox…

A nation boasting a global reserve currency carries a unique burden, he observed.

It must surrender partial control of its own monetary policy. It must also serve a global master.

That is, it must issue a superabundance of currency to lubricate the gears of global commerce.

Absent that continuous flow, the machinery could seize… and the world could sink into depression.

The issuing nation must therefore be willing to endure vast, sustained trade deficits.

The less wares the issuing nation buys from the world, after all, the less currency is available for global duty.

As the issuer of the world’s leading currency, this is precisely the burden the United States carries upon its shoulders.

Explains the IMF:

If the United States stopped running balance of payments deficits, the international community would lose its largest source of additions to reserves. The resulting shortage of liquidity could pull the world economy into a contractionary spiral, leading to instability.

The dollar accounts for some 87% of overall foreign exchange trades.

And over 60% of foreign exchange reserves are still held in dollars.

But the burden of global responsibility weighs with time…

The U.S. has endured an $11 trillion cumulative trade deficit with rest of the world since 1989.

Massive trade deficits are twinned with equally massive account deficits.

The United States ran a $466 billion current account deficit last year alone… accounting for 43% of all global deficits.

And its foreign debt swells to dimensions beyond all sustainability.

According to recent data from TreasuryDirect.gov, the government will shell out nearly a half trillion dollars for debt service this year.

A goodly portion of that amount it must pay to overseas creditors.

Thus what is “good for the world” eventually becomes a domestic bellyache.

As Investopedia notes:

[Ensuring global liquidity] causes a trade deficit for the currency-issuing country, but makes the world happy. If the reserve currency country instead decides to focus on domestic monetary policy by not issuing more currency, then the world is unhappy.

By this standard, the world is growing “unhappy.”

The world — especially emerging markets — fattened on record amounts of dollar-denominated debt during those heady days of zero interest rates following the Great Recession.

Atop this dollar debt these nations piled additional debt.

“This huge debt pyramid was fine,” Jim adds — “as long as… dollars were flowing out of the U.S. and into emerging markets.”

But that situation no longer obtains…

The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates since December 2015.

And, as of last October, reducing its balance sheet.

The great flow of dollar liquidity is therefore slowing… even going into reverse.

A stronger dollar means higher interest payments for nations that took on dollar-denominated debt.

And investors are fleeing softer emerging-market currencies for the mightier dollar.

Fewer dollars are therefore available to service the world’s mounting debt and support local economies.

The result is an emerging-markets crisis, as is unfolding in Turkey… and Argentina.

Argentina’s central bank just raised interest rates to a crushing 45% in order to relieve pressure on its peso.

Emerging-market woes began appearing late last year after the Fed began working down its balance sheet — a process that continues apace.

Coincidence?

Not according to Urjit Patel, head of the Reserve Bank of India:

Global spillovers did not manifest themselves until October of last year. But they have been playing out vividly since the Fed started shrinking its balance sheet.

The danger of course is that the dam busts… and the current crisis spreads beyond Turkey.

“Forget about Turkey’s woes,” warn the aforesaid Heyneke and Daya.

What is the next trouble spot, in their estimation?

Asia.

“Asia is the elephant in the room.”

“We believe Asia will be the next source of downside systemic risk for financial markets,” they continue.

Why Asia?

Asian nations assumed the greatest amount of dollar-denominated debt since 2009.

Stay tuned… as they say.

Watch the U.S. dollar index, warn these gentlemen, which tracks the dollar against competing currencies.

Ninety-five is the red line. Anything above 95 spells trouble, they warn:

We cannot stress enough the importance of the 95 level on the U.S. dollar index. A confirmed break above this level will mark the beginning of the next risk-off phase.

What is the dollar index’s present reading?

96.67.

The Breaking Point Is Upon Us

Signs of collapse are suddenly everywhere around the world

by Chris Martenson

Executive Summary

• Why despite winning battle after battle, the central banks will lose the war
• The viscious cycle is already underway in the Emerging Markets
  • Turkey
  • Argentina
  • Brazil and Mexico (not to mention Venezuela)
• Italy is dragging Europe into crisis
• The weaker segments in the US are already in collapse

Suddenly everywhere we look in the emerging markets, we're seeing things quickly get out of hand. EM currencies are plunging and their bonds are being sold hard. It’s a broad-based sell-off. 

Expect similar disruptions in the EM equity markets soon. The collapse progression is always the same: currency first, bonds second, then equites.

Our view of what’s happening in the EM universe is that the carry trades are unwinding. What this means is that the big piles of money unleashed on the world by the OECD central banks are turning tail and running away from the periphery (EMs)  and back towards the core (US, EU).

The virtuous part of this cycle for the EM countries was that big funds would borrow in a major currency, like the dollar or euro, and then buy a particular EM currency (causing that currency to strengthen) as well as its debt (causing those bond prices to rise).

The opposite and unhappy part of that story is when that whole things gets reversed. A vicious cycle is initiated which causes the bonds of the EM country to be sold, jacking up EM interest rates, and then the currency is sold (weakening it), and then dollars/euros are bought again causing those major currencies to strengthen.

That’s the pattern we're seeing right now and it’s consistent with the falling global liquidity markets are experiencing, which indicates that a big problem is brewing.

For several EM countries, as well as weaker players in Europe and the American lower and middle classses, that problem has already arrived.

We see clear evidence of it in...

Fonte: qui

The End Of Stimulus? (And The Start Of The Crash?)

What the most important chart in the world is predicting

by Chris Martenson

Back in January of 2016 we saw what appeared to be, and in my opinion should have been, the end of the Everything Bubble blown by the word's central banking cartel.

The carnage started in the emerging markets. Highly-leveraged positions and carry trades began to unwind. That's a fancy way of saying that all the big, sophisticated investors -- who were busy borrowing heavily in countries with cheap money (the US, Japan, and Europe) and using that debt to speculate in markets offering higher yields (junk debt, emerging markets, stocks, etc.) -- began to reverse their trades.

It quickly devolved into a “Sell everything!” scramble. We saw the dollar spike and stocks fall -- with emerging markets taking the full brunt of the carnage as their stock markets rapidly fell into bear territory, their currencies fell, and their bonds were destroyed.

Until...

Very early one morning in February of 2016 everything U-turned and rocketed higher. Suddenly and magically, the panic was over. This wasn’t the invisible hand of the market at work; it was the very-visible hand of central bank intervention. 

With the benefit of hindsight, we now have a clear picture of what happened. The central banks huddled together, a bold (desperate?) plan was hatched, and key printing presses around the world were sent into overdrive.  In the months to follow, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) went on a record-breaking money printing spree:

(Source)

The red arrows in the charts above mark this moment when the “markets” were saved.

Or, more specifically, when the portfolios the ultra-wealthy were "saved", as the assets within were boosted higher (yet again) by the central banks printing money from thin air:

(Source)

Addicted To Money Printing

So what caused the weakness in early 2016 that spooked the system so much? The central banks themselves.

After many years of force-feeding stimulus into the global economy to create a "recovery", the central banks have become increasingly concerned that asset prices have become too dependent on said stimulus. So in late 2015, the banks took their feet off of their monetary gas pedals for a bit to see what might happen.

They were hoping that the markets could be gradually weaned off of their stimulus dependence with few ill effects. They wanted to engineer a "soft landing", where if priced declined, they'd come down gradually and not too much.

That didn't happen.

Instead, the cheap-money-addicted markets instantly started expressing massive withdrawal complications.

To re-acquaint you with how quickly things were devolving back then, these are news headlines pulled from an article I wrote back in the middle of January 2016:

• Wal-Mart closing 269 stores, 154 in the US.
• Business inventories to sales at new cycle highs
• U.S. freight volume falls for first time in almost three years
• US retail sales fall 0.1% in December
• Empire State index weakens to recession lows.
• South African rand hits new all-time lows in 2016
• Brazil’s Real Falls Sharply Against Dollar
• Brazil Unemployment Rate Rises to 9%
• Canadian Dollar Hits 13 Year Low Against US Dollar
• U.S. Energy Junk Bond Spreads At Record Width
• Nigeria’s Currency Plummets On Open Market
• Mexico’s Peso Hits New All-Time Low
• Chinese Stocks Enter Bear Market (again)
• European Stocks Enter Bear Market

Sound familiar at all?  It should. These sound exactly like the headlines in the news today, here in May of 2018.

We are still paying the price from 2008, when the central banks committed a massive error by not allowing the markets and their bad debts to actually clear. Yes, it would have been acutely painful; but we would have been through the worst within a year or two and in the process restored the system to a much healthier and sustainable state.

Instead, the bad actors were protected (and rewarded!) and the root fundamental problems were literally 'papered over', left to continue to fester unobserved ever since. Similarly in early 2016, the central banks once again committed the same sin by rescuing everything with another wall of fresh, thin-air money.

To drive home how much, below is a chart showing the yearly change in world central bank balance sheets. The relative ‘area under the curve’ of each major period of money printing gives us a sense of the scale.  To help you eyeball it, I’ve placed similar-sized orange rectangles in each area.  Key to note is that central money printing has been increasing -- not decreasing -- the further out we've gotten from the Great Financial Crisis:

(Source)

If we've been in "recovery" for years now, as the central banks have been touting, then why has 2016-2108 seen the most stimulus ever injected into the system?

History has taught us that we should trust or leaders' actions far more than their words. And their actions at this time indicate panic.

What is it that has them so worried?  We should all ponder that question long and hard.  I’m convinced that they know as well as we do that, once the over-inflated ““markets”” created by the central banks can no longer be sustained at their current nose-bleed heights, the damage will be extraordinary and unstoppable.    

The End Of Stimulus? (And The Start Of The Crash?)

The pain of the 2008 crash will seem like a mere flesh wound compared to the devastation the next deflationary wave will wreak. 

Of course, the central banks have no interest in seeing that happen and will, once more, do all they can to "rescue" the markets.  

But will they act in time?  More to the point, given all of their very public commitments to raising rates and reducing their balance sheets, will they allow a market correction to happen in the near term? (presumably, so they can ride to the rescue soon after as "saviors")

Politically, the prospect of showering even more wealth on the 0.001% is going to be a tough sell. This is especially true in Europe -- in Italy, Greece and Spain where the populace is suffering mightily already and is in no mood to further enrich the ultra-wealthy.

So it would seem that the central banks, at least publicly, have to stick to their stated plans to reduce their levels of money printing/balance sheet expansion. 

As of right now, they are on track to end worldwide simulus in early 2019, w,hen their collective net change in assets will dip below $0 for the first time in many years:

(Source)

Given the importance of central bank purchases and market interventions, the above chart is probably the most important one in existence for divining where financial asset prices are headed.

If global monthly stimulus indeed drops to $0, then Watch out below!

Who know if the future will plays out anything like the projections given above? The central banks have proven weak-kneed at every tiny moment of market wobbliness.  To date, they've chosen to print and pent and then print some more at every opportunity where the "“markets”" might have corrected.  

But we all know that this charade cannot continue forever.  Sooner or later it has to stop.  Given the blow-ups we're now seeing in the emerging markets, there’s clearly serious trouble brewing somewhere in the system.

In Part 2: The Breaking Point Is Upon Us we provide plenty of data to support that claim.

The currencies and bonds of five countries are now in the danger zone, and many more teeter on the edge. My analysis is that the central banks will resort to their usual money printing to resolve the issue, but for reasons I explain in Part 2, these efforts will fail at some point in the next year -- and spectacularly so.

When today's Everything Bubble bursts, the effect will be nothing short of catastrophic as 50 years of excessive debt accumulation suddenly deflates.

Given the dangers involved, you should expect the central banks to 'go nuclear' in thier deflation-fighting efforts by sending “money to main street” -- likely in the form of a universal basic income, or a check from the Treasury refunding your last 3 years of tax payments, or maybe even an electronic deposit directly from the Federal Reserve into your bank account.

That's when the inevitable fiat currency crisis will begin in earnest. At that time you’ll need to run, not walk, to buy anything with intrinsic value that can't be inflated away -- before your currency becomes worthless.

Fonte: qui

Nomi Prins: 'Dark Money' Runs The World

Few people know financial markets’ biggest secret...

For the last 40 years, most people believed the stock market always goes up. Simply buy and hold long enough, the theory went, and you could sit back and watch the money accumulate in your account. No thought or hard work needed.

It was a nifty strategy — until the idea burned most investors in 2008. Almost a decade later, the scar tissue is still fresh for many investors.

Even today, after the U.S. stock market has rallied by 271% since the bottom on March 6, 2009 — nearly tripling investors’ money — only about half of Americans are invested in the stock market, according to NPR. That’s down from two-thirds compared to a decade ago.

The rest are in cash on the sidelines. Maybe that’s been you.

And who can blame you? “Fool me once, shame on you,” the saying goes. “Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Last June, Fortune surveyed readers. 71% of respondents said “the economic system in the U.S. is rigged in favor of certain groups.”

A few years earlier, the Los Angeles Times reported “Poll finds 64% of voters believe stock market is rigged against them…”

They’re not wrong.

Somebody’s made gains from all of those sectors in the stock market. It just hasn’t been Main Street.

Since I’ve left the world of big banking, I’ve made it my mission to change that. That leads me to the catalyst for my new project…

Dark money.

Dark money is the #1 secret life force of today’s rigged financial markets. It drives whole markets up and down. It’s the reason for today’s financial bubbles.

On Wall Street, knowledge of and access to dark money means trillions of dollars per year flowing in and around global stock, bond and derivatives markets.

I learned this firsthand from my career on Wall Street. My first full year working on Wall Street was in 1987.

I wasn’t talking about “dark money” or central bank collusion back then. I was just starting out.

Eventually, I would uncover how the dark money system works… how it has corrupted our financial system… and encouraged greed to the point of crisis like in 2008.

When I moved abroad to create and run the analytics department at Bear Stearns London as senior managing director, I got my first look at how dark money flows and its effects cross borders.

The “dark money” comes from central banks. In essence, central banks “print” money or electronically fabricate money by buying bonds or stocks. They use other tools like adjusting interest rate policy and currency agreements with other central banks to pump liquidity into the financial system.

That dark money goes to the biggest private banks and financial institutions first. From there, it spreads out in seemingly infinite directions affecting different financial assets in different ways.

Yet these dark money flows stretch around the world according to a pattern of power, influence and, of course, wealth for select groups. To be a part of the dark money elite means to have control over many. How elite is a matter of degree.

These is not built upon conspiracy theories. To the contrary, alliances make perfect sense and operate publicly. Even better, their exclusive dealings and the consequences that follow are foreseeable — but only if you understand how the system works and follow the dark money flows.

It’s easy to see how this dark money affects the stock market at a high level, because we can monitor its constant movement.

Here’s the smoking gun:

The red line shows you how much “dark money” the Federal Reserve has printed since 2008.

The blue line shows you the S&P 500.

They move together — more dark money drives the market higher. Much higher.

There are dark money charts from around the world, just like the one I showed you for the Federal Reserve and U.S. stock market.

Look at this “dark money” chart from Japan, for example:

The blue line shows the dark money created by their central bank, The Bank of Japan. The red line shows Japan’s major stock index, the Nikkei 225, going up as well. The dark money drove the market much higher over the past eight years.

Or, look at this “dark money” chart from the U.K.:

Again, the blue line shows the “dark money” created since 2009 by the U.K.’s central bank, The Bank of England. The red line shows how the FTSE 100, their stock index, has followed higher in lock-step.

To invest profitably in financial markets, you need to understand the hidden power relationships that drive financial and political events. Ideologies and personal associations among elites are oblivious to political party lines and international boundaries. So is dark money.

Authored by Nomi Prins via The Daily Reckoning

This Time Is Different, It Just Ends The Same

This past weekend, I was in Florida with Chris Martenson and Nomi Prins discussing the current backdrop of the markets, economic cycles, and future outcomes. A bulk of the conversations centered around the current “everything bubble” that currently exists globally. Elevated valuations in stock prices, extremely low yields between in “junk bonds,” or intense speculation around “cryptocurrencies” all suggest we have entered once again into “bubble” territory.”

Let me state this:

“Market bubbles have NOTHING to do with valuations or fundamentals.”

Hold on…don’t start screaming “heretic” and building gallows just yet. Let me explain.

Stock market bubbles are driven by speculation, greed, and emotional biases – therefore valuations and fundamentals are simply a reflection of those emotions.

In other words, bubbles can exist even at times when valuations and fundamentals might argue otherwise. Let me show you a very basic example of what I mean. The chart below is the long-term valuation of the S&P 500 going back to 1871.

First, it is important to notice that with the exception of only 1929, 2000 and 2007, every other major market crash occurred with valuations at levels LOWER than they are currently. Secondly, all of these crashes have been the result of things unrelated to valuation levels such as liquidity issues, government actions, monetary policy mistakes, recessions or inflationary spikes. However, those events were only a catalyst, or trigger, that started the “panic for the exits” by investors.

Market crashes are an “emotionally” driven imbalance in supply and demand. You will commonly hear that “for every buyer, there must be a seller.” This is absolutely true. The issue becomes at “what price.” What moves prices up and down, in a normal market environment, is the price level at which a buyer and seller complete a transaction.

In a market crash, however, the number of people wanting to “sell” vastly overwhelms the number of people willing to “buy.” It is at these moments that prices drop precipitously as “sellers” drop the levels at which they are willing to dump their shares in a desperate attempt to find a “buyer.” This has nothing to do with fundamentals. It is strictly an emotional panic which is ultimately reflected by a sharp devaluation in market fundamentals.

Bob Bronson once penned:

“It can be most reasonably assumed that market are sufficient enough that every bubble is significantly different than the previous one, and even all earlier bubbles. In fact, it’s to be expected that a new bubble will always be different than the previous one(s) since investors will only bid up prices to extreme overvaluation levels if they are sure it is not repeating what led to the last, or previous bubbles. Comparing the current extreme overvaluation to the dotcom is intellectually silly.

I would argue that when comparisons to previous bubbles become most popular – like now – it’s a reliable timing marker of the top in a current bubble. As an analogy, no matter how thoroughly a fatal car crash is studied, there will still be other fatal car crashes in the future, even if the previous accident-causing mistakes are avoided.”

He is absolutely right. Comparing the current market bubble to any previous market bubble is rather pointless. Financial markets have already studied and adapted to the causes of the previous “fatal crashes” but this won’t prevent the next one.

I previously discussed George Soros’ theory on bubbles which is worth reviewing at this juncture:

“First, financial markets, far from accurately reflecting all the available knowledge, always provide a distorted view of reality. The degree of distortion may vary from time to time. Sometimes it’s quite insignificant, at other times it is quite pronounced. When there is a significant divergence between market prices and the underlying reality the markets are far from equilibrium conditions.

Every bubble has two components:

1. An underlying trend that prevails in reality, and; 
2. A misconception relating to that trend.

When a positive feedback develops between the trend and the misconception, a boom-bust process is set in motion. The process is liable to be tested by negative feedback along the way, and if it is strong enough to survive these tests, both the trend and the misconception will be reinforced. Eventually, market expectations become so far removed from reality that people are forced to recognize that a misconception is involved. A twilight period ensues during which doubts grow, and more people lose faith, but the prevailing trend is sustained by inertia.

As Chuck Prince, former head of Citigroup, said, ‘As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We are still dancing.’ Eventually, a tipping point is reached when the trend is reversed; it then becomes self-reinforcing in the opposite direction.”

Typically bubbles have an asymmetric shape. The boom is long and slow to start. It accelerates gradually until it flattens out again during the twilight period. The bust is short and steep because it involves the forced liquidation of unsound positions.

The chart below is an example of asymmetric bubbles.

The pattern of bubbles is interesting because it changes the argument from a fundamental view to a technical view. Prices reflect the psychology of the market which can create a feedback loop between the markets and fundamentals.

This pattern of bubbles can be clearly seen at every bull market peak in history. The chart below utilizes Dr. Robert Shiller’s stock market data going back to 1900 on an inflation-adjusted basis with an overlay of the asymmetrical bubble shape.

There is currently a strong belief that the financial markets are not in a bubble. The arguments supporting those beliefs are all based on comparisons to past market bubbles.

The inherent problem with much of the mainstream analysis is that it assumes everything remains status quo. However, the question becomes what can go wrong for the market?

In a word, “much.”

Economic growth remains very elusive, corporate profits appear to have peaked, and there is an overwhelming complacency with regards to risk. Those ingredients combined with an extraction of liquidity by the Federal Reserve leaves the markets more vulnerable to an exogenous event than currently believed.

It is likely that in a world where there is virtually “no fear” of a market correction, an overwhelming sense of “urgency” to be invested and a continual drone of “bullish chatter;” markets are poised for the unexpected, unanticipated and inevitable reversion.

As Chris Martenson recently penned:

“I hate to break it to you, but chances are you’re just not prepared for what’s coming.

These bubbles – blown by central bankers serially addicted to creating them (and then riding to the rescue to fix them) – are the largest in all of history. That means they’re going to be the most destructive in history when they finally let go.

Millions of households will lose trillions of dollars in net worth. Jobs will evaporate, causing the tens of millions of families living paycheck to paycheck serious harm.

These are the kind of painful consequences central bank follies result in. They’re particularly regrettable because they could have been completely avoided if only we’d taken our medicine during the last crisis back in 2008.  But we didn’t. We let the Federal Reserve –the institution largely responsible for creating the Great Financial Crisis — conspire with its brethren central banks to ‘paper over’ our problems.

So now we are at the apex of the most incredible nest of financial bubbles in all of human history.”

I am not trying to scare the “bejeebers” out of you, but he is right.

“All financial assets are just claims on real wealth, not actual wealth itself.  A pile of money has use and utility because you can buy stuff with it.  But real wealth is the “stuff” — food, clothes, land, oil, and so forth.  If you couldn’t buy anything with your money/stocks/bonds, their worth would revert to the value of the paper they’re printed on (if you’re lucky enough to hold an actual certificate). It’s that simple.

But trouble begins when the system gets seriously out of whack.

‘GDP’ is a measure of the number of goods and services available and financial asset prices represent the claims (it’s not a very accurate measure of real wealth, but it’s the best one we’ve got, so we’ll use it). Look at how divergent asset prices get from GDP as bubbles develop.

“What we see in the above chart is that the claims on the economy should, quite intuitively, track the economy itself.  Bubbles occurred whenever the claims on the economy, the so-called financial assets (stocks, bonds, and derivatives), get too far ahead of the economy itself.

This is a very important point. The claims on the economy are just that: claims.  They are not the economy itself!”

Take a step back from the media, and Wall Street commentary, for a moment and make an honest assessment of the financial markets today. If our job is to “bet” when the “odds” of winning are in our favor, then exactly how “strong” is the fundamental hand you are currently betting on?

This “time IS different” only from the standpoint that the variables are not exactly the same as they have been previously. Of course, they never are, and the result will be “…the same as it ever was.”

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com