David Rosenberg on Deflation

Rosenberg on the deflation question:

The question is when will we ever move from deflation to inflation. Everyone looks at the Fed’s bloated balance sheet but the problem is that the reserves the central bank has created are sitting as cash on banking sector balance sheets and not being re-circulated into net new credit creation which suggests that velocity is still contracting. Not only is velocity contracting, but so are the broad monetary aggregates.

From a labour market standpoint, there cannot be inflation without accelerating wages, and the economy is now operating at a level that is equivalent to 10 million jobs short of full-employment. So basically, what this means is that we are anywhere from five to 10 years away from seeing any sustained increase in inflation. Indeed, the article on page A2 of today’s WSJ cites a Rutgers study suggesting that we will not see 5% on the unemployment rate again until the end of 2017; Global Insights has a 5.75% jobless rate occurring no sooner than 2019 (see It Will Be Years Before Lost Jobs Return – and Many Never Will).

In turn, this implies that the chances that we get to $83 on S&P operating EPS, which the equity market is in effect now discounting a doubling from current levels, could take at least that long to occur (five to 10 years). Again, this means that income-focused investment strategies are going to remain critical in terms of generating adequate real risk-adjusted returns for the foreseeable future.

To repeat, the employment/population ratio (the “employment rate”) has fallen to a quarter-century low of 58.8%; it peaked at 63.4% in 2007. To get back to a cycle high, we need to create more than 10 million jobs. Before that happens, deflationary pressures are going to trump whatever inflationary risks arise from the Fed, Congress and the White House.

The last time the ratio was this low was back in December 1983. Back then, household debt per capita was $9,900; today it is six times larger at $58,000. At the margin, one has to wonder what is going to be paid for first. The debt-service payments coming out of the paycheck are looking increasingly vulnerable. Default rates are extremely likely to worsen for the foreseeable future; groceries will not be sacrificed; however, credit will.

THE U.S. CONSUMER IS IN HUNKER-DOWN MODE

While thrift is still considered a ‘bad thing’ by most economists who crave a consumer-led revival, we would be happy to open that for debate. It would be much more heartening to see a revival fuelled by capital investment but when over one-third of manufacturing capacity is sitting idle, that may be a stretch; and considering that exports comprise little more than 10% of GDP, the foreign sector is hardly going to be adding a whole lot of torque to the GDP data, at least over the intermediate term. Looks like we are left with government.

This secular frugality theme was on our minds when we saw Flat Holiday Sales? Retailers Say They’ll Take It on page B1 of the Saturday NYT. Is this what a 65% surge in the S&P retailing index from the lows has priced in? A flat sales growth at the most important time of the year. And this would be flat over a 2.0% YoY decline in 2008, which was the weakest holiday showing in 40 years. A holiday study just published by Nielsen found that 85% of Americans are going to be spending the same or cutting back this year compared to what was the worst holiday season since the late 1960s. This is incredible and shows how the near-60% surge in the equity market over the past five months has been totally divorced from economic reality.

The NYT article hit home because it concluded that “people are also continuing to nest in their homes.” We were on top of this about two years ago. And here we are, and the article says that the best-selling item this holiday shopping season is expected to be – get this – “cookware and other kitchen sundries.” Can there be any worse news for the restaurant sector? Husbands are going to be buying their wives a new roasting pan for Christmas and wives are going to be giving their hubbies a fryer.

Luxury goods are expected to fare poorly (jewellery, sporting goods, vacations), and it looks like we may see some very deep discounting in the apparel space (NPD Group is calling for a 4-5% YoY decline this year – see Sales Hanging on By a Thread on page A8 of the Investor’s Business Daily). Ditto for toys, the specials are starting early – Wal-Mart is bringing back its $10 toy section back to all its stores and we’re not even close to Halloween yet. Moody’s reported last week that the holiday shopping period “may be more promotional than anticipated, as consumers have learned to delay shopping in anticipation of higher markdowns”. Now that is definitely a deflationary mindset.

Bill Gross Bets On Deflation

Via Bloomberg:

Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said he’s been buying longer maturity Treasuries in recent weeks as protection against deflation.

“There has been significant flattening on the long end of the curve,” Gross said in an interview from Newport Beach, California, with Bloomberg Radio. “This reflects the re- emergence of deflationary fears. The U.S. is at the center of de-levering as opposed to accelerating growth.”

Gross had said during the midst of the credit crunch that Treasuries offered little value as investors seeking a refuge from turmoil in global financial markets drove yields to record lows in December. He boosted the $177.5 billion Total Return Fund’s investment in government-related bonds to 44 percent of assets, the most since August 2004, from 25 percent in July, according data released earlier this month on Pimco’s Web site. The fund cut mortgage debt to 38 percent from 47 percent.

…Officials at Pimco have forecast a “new normal” in the global economy that will include heightened government regulation, lower consumption and slower growth. The economy will likely expand at a 2 percent to 3 percent rate going forward, Gross said.

The world’s largest economy shrank at a 1.2 percent annual rate from April to June, more than the originally reported 1 percent contraction, according to a Bloomberg News survey before the Commerce Department’s Sept. 30 report. The jobless rate climbed to 9.8 percent this month, from 9.7 percent in August, according to a separate Bloomberg survey before the Labor Department reports figures on Oct. 2.

Read the full article here

Mauldin: Unemployment Was NOT a Green Shoot

From John Mauldin’s weekly Thoughts from the Frontline. We’re not out of the woods yet:

Let’s look at today’s unemployment numbers. This was not the way one would want to celebrate Labor Day. Unemployment rose to 9.7%. Some take comfort in that unemployment in the Establishment Survey (where they call existing business and poll them) was only down by 216,000, which admittedly is better than 600,000 but is still a very bad number. Rising unemployment is not the stuff that inflation is typically made of. And there are reasons to think the picture may be worse than that. Here are a few thoughts from David Rosenberg:

“What was really key were the details of the Household Survey, which provide a rather alarming picture of what is happening in the labor market.

“First, employment in this survey showed a plunge of 392,000, but that number was flattered by a surge in self-employment (whether these newly minted consultants were making any money is another story) as wage & salary workers (the ones that work at companies, big and small) plunged 637,000 — the largest decline since March (when the stock market was testing its lows for the cycle). As an aside, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also publishes a number from the Household survey that is comparable to the nonfarm survey (dubbed the population and payroll-adjusted Household number), and on this basis, employment sank — brace yourself — by over 1 million, which is unprecedented. We shall see if the nattering nabobs of positivity discuss that particularly statistic in their post-payroll assessments; we are not exactly holding our breath.”

The ISM numbers came out this week and, while manufacturing is up, the service industry (which is far larger) is still contracting, and the employment elements in the surveys show employers are still planning to cut jobs. Think about almost 11% unemployment next summer in the middle of the political season. Watch the competition among politicians to demonstrate they care and “get it.” And watch as they spend your money to show how much they care.

And from the above mentioned Liscio Report: “As we outlined back in May, financial crises hammer employment, resulting in average losses of 6.3% followed by a long flat line. We hate to point it out, but we’re currently down 4.8% from the December 2007 onset, and if US job losses in this recession stay in line with the major financial recessions in “advanced” countries studied by the IMF, we stand to lose another 1.8 million jobs. Some of those will likely be taken out in upcoming benchmarks, stimulus money has some clout, and no one has a reliable crystal ball, but we need to remember where we are in a painful cycle if we see some hopeful flickers.”

That would take us to well over 11% unemployment.

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Bill Gross: On the “Course” to a New Normal

A grim investment outlook from Bill Gross. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“I could go on, reintroducing the negatives of an aging boomer society not just in the U.S., but worldwide. Increased health care may be GDP positive, but it’s only a plus from a “broken window” point of view. Far better to have a younger, healthier society than to spend trillions fixing up an aging, increasingly overweight and diabetic one. Same thing goes for energy. Far easier and more profitable to pump oil out of the Yates Field in Texas or even Prudhoe Bay than to spend trillions on a new “green” society. Our world, and the world’s world, is changing significantly, leading to slower growth accompanied by a redefined public/private partnership.”

The investment implications of this New Normal evolution cannot easily be modeled econometrically, quantitatively, or statistically. The applicable word in New Normal is, of course, “new.” The successful investor during this transition will be one with common sense and importantly the powers of intuition, observation, and the willingness to accept uncertain outcomes.

Gross sees global policy rates remaining low for extended periods of time. The extent and duration of quantitative easing, term financing and fiscal stimulation efforts are keys to future investment returns across a multitude of asset categories, both domestically and globally. Investors should continue to anticipate and, if necessary, shake hands with government policies, utilizing leverage and/or guarantees to their benefit. Asia and Asian-connected economies, including Australia and Brazil, will dominate future global growth.  Lastly, Gross notes that the US Dollar is vulnerable on a long-term basis.

You can read his full outlook after the jump…

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