Tag Archives: fed

Inadequate Historical Valuation Measures and What Comes Next in This Monetary Bubble Investing Frontier

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  • Market analysts far and wide continue to pound their fists on the table daily about overstretched equity valuations (and many other assets for that matter) putting risk markets in dangerous territory ripe for an imminent sizable correction, or worse.
  • Indeed, global risk markets are tremendously overvalued by almost any historical measure. It takes a heroic effort of wishful thinking to believe otherwise.
  • If we take a look at the S&P500 as one prime example, 18 out of 20 of the most widely followed valuation measures are flashing “overbought” with red blinking lights. Four of the measures indicate an S&P500 at least 50% overvalued, historically speaking.

sp500 valuation metrics 052317

  • Therein lies the problems with historical valuation analysis: first, it is based on backward looking data only. Additionally, valuation alone has proven to be an inadequate timing mechanism.
  • Assist FX does not see the historically overstretched valuations currently witnessed in global equities, real estate, and bonds imminently leading to a near term risk-off crash as the base case, although that is always a possibility. Valuations will likely become even more stretched first. Additionally, the current bubble investing environment might lead to a different ultimate resolution than the traditional risk-off market correction/crash many are accustomed to witnessing. We see a different range of scenarios playing out involving capital eventually being less attracted to paper/fiat based financial assets and more attracted to physical-based assets and decentralized stores of value. Imbalances may very well be resolved via asset depreciation in real terms rather than in nominal terms. An occurrence of this nature is not likely to materialize for some time, but risks are building daily as global debt pressures become less and less reversible.
  • Key question: Is this time really different? Answer: yes and no. There has never been another time in history where global central banks have been this supportive of asset prices all at once. During a time marked by real estate bidding wars and new all time highs in global stock indexes, central banks still feel the need to create more than $200 billion dollars per month from thin air to buy mortgage bonds, stock ETFs, and government bonds. Markets are rigged, but they are actually rigged to rise in order to supposedly create a self fulfilling “wealth effect” of unrealized asset gains fueling greater economic activity and confidence.
  • You can’t skirt the basic laws of market supply and demand forever. Reference Venezuela as one of hundreds/thousands of unfortunate examples involving central planners throwing a grand party on borrowed time that ends in widespread misery as soon as the bill comes due. Today’s advanced economies are not being operated with the same extreme mismanagement as in Venezuela, but less severe policy errors are impossible to ignore when cumulatively compounded over time.
  • Current state of global monetary policy: The Fed, ECB, BOJ, PBOC, BOC, SNB, RBA, RBNZ, and other central banks have enabled massive asset price inflation to grow unchecked across several asset classes, particularly in real estate and equities. They do this in the name of fighting a phantom crisis of consumer price deflation which only seems to exist in heavily adjusted inflation index data conjured up by statisticians who know the entire political and industrial complex desires the lowest official readings possible. The appearance of low inflation makes GDP look higher, wages look stronger, and government transfer payments linked to inflation indexes lower. Understated inflation indexes are to politicians and executives what Photoshop editing is to swimsuit models.
  • What many well-meaning analysts have been getting wrong is just how long this type of central planning charade can go on before supply and demand imbalances are aggressively shocked back to reality in a reversion to the mean event. That is because this is not only a function of economic mathematics but also of mass psychology. Dispassionate valuation modeling alone is not enough for a prudent money manager. One must also have their finger on the pulse of market psychology to know when the music has stopped and isn’t coming back on for a very long time during the metaphorical musical chairs game also known as investing in a bubble environment. Assist FX research indicates the music isn’t quite ready to stop–we aren’t there yet. But don’t pile into expensive asset classes with huge leverage either. Stay vigilant and nimble.

Bottom Line: Assist FX has believed for some time, and continues to believe, that central banks have “doubled down” on a quasi commitment to keep asset prices elevated by doing “whatever it takes” as their primary strategy to minimize the onset and severity of cyclical recessions. This improves the appearance of macro economic activity in the near term while adding to dangerous systemic risks longer term. It is difficult for financial markets continually pumped with newly created money and ultra low interest rates to simultaneously crash and stay down. It tends to materialize with earnings multiple expansions in stocks, cap rate contractions in real estate, and overall suppressed volatility, making nearly all asset classes appear “overvalued” for a much longer period of time than many market observers believe can occur.

Make no mistake. We are in yet another central bank inspired asset bubble that was engineered to “fix” the aftermath of the last two central bank inspired asset bubbles. The imbalances grow more pronounced with each reflated bubble because instead of having moderate, occasional recessions where the most unproductive debt is reset via bankruptcies, you have massive unproductive debt imbalances augmented much further by artificially cheap credit and financial engineering. This dramatically increases systemic risk associated with major financial crises, economic meltdowns, and complete monetary system resets. Yet, bubble environments can exist for very protracted periods of time.

Nearly everyone who thinks about these types of economic topics knows at some level, whether more conscious or subconscious, that the current central bank driven free-lunch asset holders are enjoying today are creating the types of systemic risks that endanger the global monetary system tomorrow. This will push private citizens worldwide to increasingly seek alternative stores of value for their savings. That is why demand for decentralized, alternative stores of value such as block-chain technology-based digital currencies is set to accelerate. The block-chain trend is just getting started. As for traditional financial markets, we see a continuation of the type of slow grind, nearly dead volatility asset price levitation to continue for the time being.

Top 3 Takeaways From March FOMC Meeting

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1.) Dovish hike of 25bp – As expected, the FOMC hiked the benchmark target rate by 25 bps to a range of 3/4 percent to 1 percent. The hike was paired with cautious and dovish commentary by Fed Chair Yellen, as she is known to do. The balance of risks is neutral. There was no “reassessment” in the economic outlook but things are progressing in line with the Committee’s expectations for meeting the dual mandate soon. I actually believe the mandate was effectively achieved last year if measured more realistically. There were no notable hawkish surprises. Gold roared higher, bond yields were clobbered, the dollar was slammed, equities surged–with each asset class moving by more than 1% on the day (for a change).

2.) Is the Fed all of a sudden paying attention to asset bubbles again? – The dovish Fed Chair did reiterate during the question and answer session that higher financial asset prices, particularly equities, impact the Fed’s monetary policy expectations. This is a soft admission to keeping an eye on the asset bubbles the Fed’s policies have likely already inflated. In other words, further stock melt ups similar to those experienced in the past few months could cause the pace of tightening to increase in order to put a lid on even larger asset bubbles. One could be forgiven for being skeptical of this materializing given the Fed’s recent history of ignoring asset bubbles until it is too late. But this suggests it is perhaps on the radar more than it has been. Beware of single direction stock moves northward precipitating increased expectations for tightening, thus muting the magnitude of said moves.

3.) 10y Treasury Note had a blow torch lit underneath the bid –  The 10y yield plummeted below 2.5% from above 2.62%. Per my post yesterday, long TLT and BLV cranked out impressive reversals higher from the recent base lows. The move happened so rapidly that I’m keen on taking profit and reassessing. This is a short term bull move in bond prices within what I view to be a longer term bond bear market on tap.

10y plummet 031417