Anterograde amnesia refers to the inability to remember recent events in the aftermath of a trauma, but recollection of events in the distant past in unaltered.
Retrograde amnesia is the inability to remember events preceding a trauma, but recall of events afterwards is possible.
"To slightly modify Alexis de Tocqueville: Events can move from the impossible to the inevitable without ever stopping at the probable."
David Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, in John Mauldin' "Outside the box" on the 26th of October 2009
The market moved dramatically tighter following the announcement of the 750 billion euros package and bank share rallied massively in double digits on the Monday.
"Monday, in fact, saw the biggest one-day change in the history of the Markit iTraxx Europe index – tightening from 142bp to 102bp."
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/05/14/232156/cds-report-volte-face/
Well, the euphoria did not last very long...
Itraxx Main CDS 5 year has move again at around 110 bps. Corporate default risk as measured by the Itraxx index is on the rise again after a strong respite:
"The Markit iTraxx Financial Index of swaps on the senior debt of 25 banks and insurers jumped 15 basis points to 147 and the subordinated index rose 19 to 215, JPMorgan prices show."
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-14/greece-leads-surge-in-credit-risk-as-ackermann-doubts-debt-plan.html
It is very interesting to see that the Itraxx Financial index senior is trading wider than the Itraxx Main Europe as historically, it should trade tighter. Corparate debt is seen safer than bank debt for the time being.
You just can't get rid of a problem by throwing money at it and Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann did not help our politicians by raising doubt on Greek debts currently being snapped up on the secondary markets by European Central banks in a concerted effort.
As a result the Euro currency took another massive beating Rocky Balboa style and broke through a very important support at 1.2450 against USD from March 09 lows:
Euro did fell to lowest level since Lehman Brothers collapse as finally people envisage the probability of a Euro break up:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqquuYOAN_sE&pos=2
Sounds familiar does it? Be nice, please rewind...
I discussed this exact subject on the 9th of December last year in my post The importance of being earnest, about the Eurozone in general and the Euro in particular.
http://macronomy.blogspot.com/2009/12/importance-of-being-earnest-about.html
I stated at the time:
"The virtues of joining a single currency doesn't coincide with the vices of some European governments, who issued more debt and ran larger and larger budget deficits. It is a game you cannot play forever unless you can devalue and make your own citizens poorer in the process, which used to be a regular tool used by Italy before joining the Euro."
Looks like Volcker shares my views...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=a8CjGqGASv9E
“You have the great problem of a potential disintegration of the euro,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, 82, said yesterday in London. “The essential element of discipline in economic policy and in fiscal policy that was hoped for” has “so far not been rewarded in some countries.”
Quizz time:
In the above quote, Paul Volcker was thinking about which country?
A. Greece
B. France
C. Spain
D. Portugal
E. Italy
F. All of the above
In this previous post as well I indicated the possibility of a Euro break up. You will find the links to the analysis which had already been made by Nouriel Roubini and Macro Research house Gavekal.
But back to this week price action.
By tearing up the sacred rule book and resorting to the Nuclear Option of Quantitative Easing (the politically correct definition for what really means "screwing your currency"), the Euro could only go down from there. There was the same result for the GBP when the Bank of England resorted to "Quantitative Easing" (I hate these two words).
VIX is now much higher than in my previous post on the 10th of April:
And Gold? New record high as well. The only way is up now that the US, UK and now Europe are all equal in the "Debasing Currency Club".
On the employment front in the US you have the following:
Source Creditsights.com:
https://www.creditsights.com
"There are a total of 10 million claimants receiving some type of unemployment benefits. Furthermore, there are a growing number of individuals (referred to as ‘99ers” in some circles) who have exhausted all 99 weeks of benefits and are waiting for tier 5."
290,000 increase in NFP (Non Farm Payrolls) for April.
But unemployment is still rising and you have, as Creditsights mentioned a growing number of 99ers.
Clearly deleveraging is still in full play which means further headwinds for employment levels in the near future in the US
So much for the "anticipated" V recovery...
Update on the bond vigilantes: FLIGHT TO QUALITY (at least perceived quality...)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3uJ_8cLNk.A&pos=3
"U.S. two-year notes had their first three-week winning streak since January as demand for the safest assets rose on speculation Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis will damp growth and lead to disintegration of the euro."
BONDS PRICE YIELD (Bloomberg)
10-Year UK 108.13 3.75 yield
10-Year German 101.20 2.86 yield
10-Year French 103.23 3.12 yield
10-Year Italian 101.12 3.90 yield
Bund is the safe haven in Europe.
Spreads of German 10 year Bund versus other European countries 10 years government bonds is on the rise:
Spread BUND VS French OAT 10 year (Bloomberg):
Spread BUND VS Italian BTP 10 year (Bloomberg):
Spread BUND VS Spain 10 year (Bloomberg):
Spread BUND VS Greek 10 year (Bloomberg):
And good old TED spread is moving up as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TED_spread
"The TED spread is the difference between the interest rates on interbank loans and short-term U.S. government debt. The TED spread is an indicator of perceived credit risk in the general economy."
"
When the TED spread increases, it is a sign that lenders believe the risk of default on interbank loans (also known as counterparty risk) is increasing. Interbank lenders therefore demand a higher rate of interest, or accept lower returns on safe investments such as T-bills."
No need to panic yet given long term average of TED is around 30 bps but definitely something to watch.
The theme is still the same deflation then inflation down the road as we are still ongoing the painful deleveraging process which goes with the reduction of public spending and tackling the debt burden. GDP growth will be slow, and slightly positive to negative in some European countries.
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