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Summers Says Fed 'Let Us Down Quite Badly' and Still Unrealistic

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here it is in full:

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers issued one of his harshest criticisms yet of the Federal Reserve’s slowness in moving to raise interest rates, and warned that policy makers are still presenting forecasts that are unrealistic.

“In 2021, our central bank let us down quite badly,” hurting policy makers’ credibility, Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s “Wall Street Week.” “It made mistakes in the core functioning of a central bank,” including in its failure to lean in against fiscal stimulus last year, he said.

Among the errors has been a “repeated poor forecasting record -- and I have to say that it’s not something that’s been fully fixed,” Summers said. The June median Fed official predictions showed inflation coming back toward the 2% target but unemployment only reaching a high of 4.1% by 2024 -- a “highly implausible” result, he said.

“Frankly I think in 2021 our central bank lost its way. It was talking about the environment, talking about social justice in a range of things,” Summers, a Harvard University professor and paid contributor to Bloomberg TV, said. “It was confidently dismissing concerns about inflation as transitory.”

Turning to Japan, which has seen its currency tumble to the weakest since 1998 as the Bank of Japan declines to join its peers in tightening policy, Summers said it’s likely to be a challenge to exit the current zero-yield targeting regime.

Dollar’s Impact
“Sooner or later they’re going to leave the yield curve control strategy and I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen when they do,” Summers said. “In the meantime, the pressures are likely to build,” with the potential for “an even weaker yen,” he said.

While some emerging markets are also suffering from a strengthening dollar, Summers said that he didn’t see a “systemic” crisis along the lines of 1998. Still, countries with “particularly unsound policies” including Turkey and Argentina are a concern, he said.



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Gold: Dividing up our forecast

Thanks to a subscriber for this note from UBS which may be of interest. Here is a section:

Historically, gold prices have often come under pressure in the early stages of a slowdown as central bank policy is still tightening or is tight and real interest rates are rising. Of course, this dynamic reverses when policy rates are cut. We expect a further lift to real interest rates this year, particularly as inflationary risk fades in 2H22. As such, additional liquidation of exchange-traded funds can be expected. We advise protecting the downside to longer-term holdings in the yellow metal into year-end. However, we see opportunities to be more positive though 2023 as the Federal Reserve pivots to an easier stance and the US dollar weakens.  



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Email of the day on the Fed's balance sheet

You are sending out comprehensive information that I am not finding anywhere else, addressing multiple markets, which is quite helpful for me as an investor. So that brings up two questions: First, I wonder if you agree that the Fed has already reduced its balance sheet by about $1 trillion dollars? (As I heard recently from one analyst, which, given the rise in the dollar could explain the decline in values of multiple assets...) And, second, given the drop in so many assets: Bitcoin, gold, stocks, uranium recently, metals on the LME, to name a few, are we already actually in a recession, even though not officially labeled by the powers that be, is this, in fact a recessionary event we are proceeding through regardless on any official labeling, in your opinion?



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Email of the day on beneficiaries from a recession:

Your daily talks, now focusing on the probability of a recession, are as always full of interest. I never miss them, or if I have to, I at least read the Comments of the Day.

I've been struggling to decide on some "investments" that could profit from the recession scenario, and which could remain there for the medium term, without my having to watch them every day for sudden reversals. Any suggestions? Shorting a commodity ETF?  Shorting the US banking sector? I'm sure you have other ideas.



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Boris Johnson fights on but hit by new wave of resignations

This article from the BBC may be of interest. Here is a section: 

New chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has urged unity after his predecessor, the health secretary, and several junior ministers walked out.

But the prime minister has been hit by six further resignations, taking the total to 16 in the past day.

It comes as he prepares for PMQs later and a grilling by senior MPs.

Mr Johnson's premiership has been plunged into crisis following the dramatic resignations of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

They quit within minutes of each other on Tuesday following a row over Mr Johnson's decision to appoint Chris Pincher deputy chief whip earlier this year.

Their departures triggered a wave of resignations from more junior roles that has continued on Wednesday.

In six further departures ahead of PMQs, education ministers Will Quince and Robin Walker, Justice Minister Victoria Atkins, Treasury minister John Glen, and ministerial aides Laura Trott and Felicity Buchan have all walked out.



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A Battle of Inflation Versus Recession: Views on US Yield Curve

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

“The 10-year yield may have been depressed for a large part of the past 15 years or so because global central banks have increased their balance sheets substantially and have reduced the term premium at the long end of the curve. And so you can get around these possible distortions by focusing more closely on how the market is pricing central bank policy.”

“What you will see is, three to six months from now, most if not all of these recession-probability metrics that we get from the yield curve will begin to start flashing at least orange, if not red.”

No Sense
“The Fed is telling us that they want to go to 3.8% sometime in early 2023; the two-year yield is over 100 basis points below that level right now,” noted Jim Caron, chief fixed-income strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

“This doesn’t make any sense whatsoever -- unless one of two things: one, the market just doesn’t believe that the Fed is actually going to be able to hike in the way that they’re saying they will, or, something’s going to happen along the way.”

More broadly, “the markets are right now are surrendering to the fact that we’re likely to have a hard landing or a recession,” he said.



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Euro Tumbles to 20-Year Low, Putting Parity With Dollar in Sight

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

“It is hard to find much positive to say about the EUR,” said Dominic Bunning, the head of European FX Research at HSBC. “With ECB sticking to its line that we will only see a 25bp hike in July – at a time when others are hiking much faster – and waiting for September to deliver a faster tightening, there is also little support coming from higher yields.” 

Money-market traders are betting ECB will deliver around 140 basis points this year, down from more than 190 basis points almost three weeks ago. The repricing gathered pace after a string of weak economic data last week, with traders trimming bets again on Tuesday after French services PMI was revised lower. 

Investors have also been more cautious on the euro due to the risk of so-called fragmentation, when economically weaker nations see unwarranted spikes in borrowing costs as financial conditions tighten. The ECB is expected to deliver further details of a new tool to backstop more vulnerable countries’ debt at their policy meeting later this month.

The losses Tuesday were compounded by poor liquidity and selling in euro-Swiss franc, according to three Europe-based traders. The euro fell as much as 0.9% against the Swiss franc to 0.99251, the lowest level since 2015. 

“The FX market is not back up to full liquidity given the US holiday,” said Mizuho’s Jones. “Any given size of trade is likely to have a greater impact on market movement.”



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US 10-Year Yield Slips Back Below 3% as Recession Fears Grow

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

The latest leg of the bond-market rally came after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the risk of harm to the economy from higher rates was less important than restoring price stability. Traders continue to expect another 75-basis-point rate increase in July, and swaps referencing Fed policy
meeting dates price in a peak rate near 3.5% in March 2023, followed by a drop to about 3% by year-end.

“The market is digesting increasing odds of recession,” said Janet Rilling, senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, which manages $541bn in assets. And it’s likely that “inflation will stay pretty elevated. So the Fed will continue to be aggressive” raising rates. 

In turn, she said the extent of the recent drop in Treasury yields means shifting to a more defensive posture. “Watching today’s movement, this could be presenting an opportunity here
to reduce duration.”

The market added to gains, amassed before the US trading day began as European bond markets rallied, after the release of personal income and spending data for May. Spending rose 0.2%, half the expected increase. The price index for purchases rose 0.6% versus an expected 0.7%, supporting the view that an
inflation peak is being established. 



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Email of the day on real yields

Could you please explain how the Fed US Treasury H15 Constant Maturity 10 Yr Real Yield (H15X10YR Index) is calculated?



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Markets Are Losing the Anchor of a Generation

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

There was one necessary condition underlying the bond market’s ability to shrug off the worst inflation numbers in a generation after only a week; nobody is really sure if they believe the Fed. Credibility is vital to central banks, and I argued for Businessweek on Thursday that it is indeed as important an anchor to the monetary system as gold used to be. A round trip like this showed extreme hesitance to accept the Fed’s guidance; arguably, the currency of its forward guidance has been adulterated.

That said, the Fed can’t have lost all credibility. The rebound in bond yields started Thursday morning as Jerome Powell began taking his second day of questions from Congress. Unlike on Wednesday, he said that his commitment to get inflation back down to 2% was “unconditional.” That, like many central banking pronouncements in the past, had an effect. But it's still concerning that the Fed needs to be more shrill to get its message across; it does look as the coinage of forward guidance is being debased:

Meanwhile, a telling indicator of how far sentiment has swung back toward bracing for a (disinflationary) recession comes from inflation breakevens. German inflation expectations have receded after a dramatic surge over the last 12 months, although they still remain higher than they were at the beginning of the year. The same is not true of US breakevens for average inflation over the next 10 years, and for the five years starting five years hence. Both are now lower than they were in May last year — an extraordinary fact given the extent of the inflationary shock since then, and the new geopolitical drivers for inflation that have arisen this year. If you’re convinced that much higher rates of inflation are on the way, along with higher interest rates to combat them, then the market is still making it very cheap for you to bet on that outcome



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