Welcome to ZIRP
The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2008-12-16 14:45
by Karl Denninger
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Welcome to ZIRP
 

It doesn't take any more description than that.

There's nothing bullish about this folks.  Nor is there any common sense behind this.

Bernanke clearly thinks (from the FOMC statement) that he can "restart borrowing."  After all, that's what he really means when he says "The Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth."

Again, the graph:

From 1980 The Federal Reserve has defined "economic growth" as "borrow faster than you grow output."  This, as I have repeatedly shown, leads to declaring growth that never really happened.

Bluntly - Bernanke and the rest of the FOMC need their lithium dose increased.

We are here because of excess credit creation which The Federal Reserve caused, and their solution is more borrowing?

That gives new life to the statement "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Unfortunately the impact of this decision was a total implosion in the TNX (or 10 year Treasury); in other words, a total flattening of the yield curve.

And since banks borrow short to lend long, this means that the very foundation of that which allows banks to make money is being systematically destroyed at the same time.

Worse, this is causing the dollar to get slammed - at least for a little while.  Japan suddenly looks prudent compared to us, and the Yen is screaming.

What comes next?

Do you really want to know?

These sorts of actions ignite wars.

Choose between a trade war (about 75% chance) and a shooting war (the other 25%)

The dollar weakness, by the way, won't last.  Either sort of war puts every other nation in the world in worse shape than us, which over time leads to the same place - "we're screwed but they're screwed worse."

The only nations that won't be are those who are intelligent enough to repudiate this stupidity in public and back up their mouth with acts.

That's likely to be a short list.

Bernanke needs to be removed from office and Congress needs to grow a pair and shut this crap down while we still have an economy left to save.

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Wisc-xc
Posts: 5524
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outside chicago
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I'm no rocket scientist but I know that it's a flat out contradiction for the disease to be the cure.

God help us.
Nobody
Posts: 1089
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Nowhere
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Damn you sure can type fast.
Solffegio
Posts: 297
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Gold
Texas
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The Fed is skulled!

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Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair. ~Sam Ewing

O Gold! I still prefer thee unto paper,
Which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.~Lord Byron
Weezie
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Gold A True American Patriot!
Caution: Congress at Work
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Can't help myself:


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The election is not a way to have a voice in government, but rather an impotent declaration if we prefer ketchup or mustard on our **** sandwich.
Cjworkman
Posts: 7948
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he's all but written a bond crash in stone now...

only question is when....

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Wisc-xc
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outside chicago
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ZIRP hasn't exactly done wonders for the auto industry? Why would the general economy be any different?
Cjworkman
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They are trying to get people to buy houses...

problem is that 70% of whats on the market is a short sale or foreclosure...

only way you can buy those is to have 20% down plus earnest money up front. if you down payment is in your current equity.. you cannot buy a short sale or foreclosure.

Only people that can take those houses off the market are investors.. or renters that have lots of cash saved...

in an area like CA.. you could be talking 100K+ in cash to put down.

What they are in reality doing.. (indirectly) is telling China, Hong Kong, and Japan to go F themselves. There's where the wars come from... and bond crashes happen.

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Implosion
Posts: 3274
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99.9 percent of all crash calls are wrong!
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Quote:
Worse, this is causing the dollar to get slammed - at least for a little while.


Quote:
The dollar weakness, by the way, won't last. Either sort of war puts every other nation in the world in worse shape than us, which over time leads to the same place - "we're screwed but they're screwed worse."



How much more do you expect USD index to decline in the coming weeks/months before this selloff is finished? What is your downside target for USD index?

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"You better believe in the PPT! If you haven't by now, you will." - Chummin (2010)

Etz
Posts: 13888
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Fed = Lender of only resort.
Gov = Borrower of only resort.

Let them **** each other into oblivion.

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Legal chicanery and beneficent darkness are the banker's stoutest allies - F.Pecora.

Txdomer
Posts: 1254
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Ding-dong, the Fed is dead!
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Weezie,

When you know what that song is about, it is seems even more appropriate.

The short bus just got a Rolls-Royce Trent 900.

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Weezie
Posts: 6063
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Gold A True American Patriot!
Caution: Congress at Work
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Yep, more to it than just the title. smiley

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The election is not a way to have a voice in government, but rather an impotent declaration if we prefer ketchup or mustard on our **** sandwich.
Redshield
Posts: 1220
Incept: 2007-07-21
Gold
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fed wants to own long bonds at these prices. smart money will sell them to the fed and jump off into cash. fed is willing to become the last bag holder standing. sold to you, ben. the fragile, rusty, ungodly holee spring supporting the long bonds has been removed by zirp.

why would ben want to burst the final bubble?

Is it ben's chess move to inflate all burst bubbles, therefore, bursting the long bond bubble is in their plan to kick start the economy with printing money?

Only thing is ROW is not in debt as much as USA.

Next thing the MM surrounding Santelli will say FBI, CIA, GAO, IRS, AFT, IMF, WB, UN, etc. on the back of their smocks.

Only a depression would bring on such monetary policy decisions.

ZIRP ZIRP ZIRP - I cannot believe it!

You know sometimes I believe the tin foil that this casino has stacked the deck against us.

Full disclosure: long gold, silver, copper, molly, aig, cde, c, tbt & short TLT call spreads

Good Trading To All & Merry Christmas

Redshield
Tm22721
Posts: 975
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Gold
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K winter cannot be stopped.

Greenspan tried.

Bernanke tried.

Anybody else want to get in front of this freight train ?

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The country is terminally ill and IT JUST WANTS A PILL.

The only way up is down.
Nirvan45
Posts: 4036
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Green
florida
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What have we become? it is getting screwy everyday day.
I would disagree with you on the concept of once we are screwed other nations are more screwed. If we did not play the game of selling them all those junk papers in the last few yrs.
Now they are really screwed, otherwise it would take them a while to figure out they do not need a nation in debt and move on.
Now for us here as citizens we are screwed up to our neck
A yr ago interest in the money market would pay monthly mortgage, now oh well bank has the luxury of using that money nothing in it for us
Genesis
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Ah, Nirvan, now you're getting it.

What happens when people say "**** that, I'll keep it in the mattress!"?

You can't prevent that. But what does that do to bank Tier Capital?

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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Eaglewwit
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I wish they would have made some comment on how they intend to deal with bankrupt states. They clearly are trying to stop the second wave of mortgage resets and foreclosures that looms on the horizon, but there a lot of other stuff out there.

So is it a good time to get a gun and buy some canned food?
Samadams
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So, KD, are we still in deflation mode, or does the promise/threat/empty gesture regarding "quantitative easing" (i.e. helicopter dumps) mean that inflation is coming? Or do we get the special gift of BOTH (first deflation, to throw everyone out of work and destroy asset values, and then inflation as the Fed buys every Treasury note or bond that can be printed in order to stave off a default)?

If the bond market is screwed, how long does it have?

All I know is that the world economy is toast right now. We are the world's reserve currency, and the Fed just shot the last arrow in the interest rate quiver. Yeah, it reflects what is already reality, but now it is out in the open, which seriously affects faith/confidence (or it will, when people figure it out).
Tdray
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KD - I might not be thinking mattress, but I am looking at safes. They have been looking a little harried at my bank lately.
Patentleathershoes
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Quote:
They clearly are trying to stop the second wave of mortgage resets and foreclosures that looms on the horizon, but there a lot of other stuff out there.


Next comes the elimination of 20% down to get the low, low government guaranteed rate.

If the housing bubble is reinflated it stops the problem for a period of time. You know that people will run right back into the cycle. I had a friend ask me today about mortgage rates and stated that if they come down to 4.5 on a fixed it will 'solve a lot of problems' her family has. What problems do they have? CC debt. Where is the money going to come from? The house. And they do still have equity but the standards were too tough given the DTI ratio on a conventional for them to drain more out of the house.

If you get enough people with high credit scores to either do this, or, start reinvesting in the HB b/c it appears it will reinflate, then the CDOs trade again.

Ultimately, if those vehicles have value then it helps unfreeze everything, no? The world just needs the American consumer to start spending again.

I'm too simple to understand all of this but I do not have any doubt that the .gov will try every last thing, even reinflate the bubble, to stop a depression.

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"An unborn child's property rights are protected by law. His right to life is not." Ronald Reagan
Circlingthedrain
Posts: 50
Incept: 2008-02-16

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Genesis wrote..
What happens when people say "**** that, I'll keep it in the mattress!"?

You can't prevent that. But what does that do to bank Tier Capital?


Hell, I'll just move it to a safe deposit box in their own farking vault. Same effect.

cd
Thrustvectoring
Posts: 151
Incept: 2008-09-17

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quick question since it seems more relevant now than ever:

now that we have a nominal ZIRP policy, what sort of traction is there for printing USD in order to fight deflation? Since under ZIRP, the real interest rate is simply the rate of deflation, fighting deflation is the only way to lower the real interest rate, and raw printing is an inflationary act, which should then reduce the real interest rate and/or increase the nominal interest rate.

tl;dr version - what happens if/when we try to print ourselves out of a deflationary spiral
Eaglewwit
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The Obama 1 Trillion stimulus will be printed. It is the only way.
Genesis
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Admin A True American Patriot!
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Nova, any such attempt will last about six months to a year, and simply makes the GDP reduction that must (and will) follow even more harsh.

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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Tienkou
Posts: 4225
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Green
Connecticut
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The Federal Reserve has expanded its balance sheet from $900 million to $2.2 trillion. Where did this private bank get these funds?

The Treasury I presume. What authorization did Treasury receive from Congress to do this? What is the bill number? These funds are not part of the TARP.

Treasonous acts are being conducted and no one in our Congress gives a damn.

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Barack Hussein Obama - The last President of the First American Revolution.
The US Congress has abdicated its role as a governing body.

The most dangerous man is the one with nothing left to lose. Our government is making more of them everyday.
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