LIBOR v SOFR Interest Rates


QUESTION:Dear Martin:

Do you have any concerns for the equity markets from the upcoming conversion from Libor to SOFR (the secured overnight financing rate). A recent article from Business Insider highlighted the following:

“Libor, linked to about $350 trillion worth of financial products, will be replaced by an alternate pricing benchmark for everything from mortgages to credit cards.”
“Replacing Libor will be lengthy and problematic, and is one of the key themes to look out for in 2019 as financial services and asset managers start transferring to new systems.”
“Thousands of existing contracts will need to be renegotiated causing a huge operational and financial burden that will consume legal teams for months.”
“Market structure experts cite the need to amend existing contracts to include “fallback” clauses which which specify what happens when Libor disappears. This is comparatively easy for loans, but for derivatives, swaps, and options, amending existing contracts could potentially lead to legal battles.”
This conversion seems like it could get awful messy.

Regards,

ML

ANSWER: Ever since the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal, there has been one faction that has sought to eliminate the powers of banks to manipulate the LIBOR rate. This is similar to ending floor tradings in financial markets. Yes, LIBOR has been used to price trillions of dollars’ worth of loans, derivatives, and a lot more. The Federal Reserve moved to actually intervene and prevent a handful of banks to fix the interest rates. The Fed created a group in response, known as the Alternative Rate Reference Committee (ARRC), which has created a new benchmark dollar interest rate. This new rate is known as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). Actually, since April 2018, SOFR has been used for a growing number of bond offerings by large institutions including the World Bank, MetLife, and Fannie Mae. Europe is also moving to create a new benchmark rate that includes the Bank of England, Central banks in Europe with the ECB, Japan, and even Switzerland. This new group is also constructing new benchmark rates. However, there is another reason the Eurozone is taking this giant step. This is a major effort to take the dominance of trading away from Britain in light of BREXIT.

Now as for a crisis, no, that is about as likely as Y2K Millennium bug. Borrowing will take place under SOFR without a problem. The issue will be more with past contracts. That will tend to be a court issue if rates rise under SOFR or old contracts are converted involuntarily. The real issue will be concerning the manipulation of SOFR by governments as they have done with Quantitative Easing. The banks were never able to manipulate LIBOR to the extent of changing the trend. Front-running to elect stops etc. were the “manipulation” tactics. With governments involved, then we can see false trends and real manipulation. The banks could never manipulate LIBOR, suppress the rate, or increase it out of competition.

 

Italy Falls into Recession


QUESTION: It is official. Italy is now in recession. Obviously, the Fed is looking outside its own economy. Your Economic Confidence Model is remarkable. I have been following you now for more than 10 years. It has always been correct. Why does the economic community and governments pretend you cannot forecast the economy? You have proven the economy can be accurately forecast.

PV, Rome

ANSWER: Yes, Italy has turned down. The Fed knew what is coming. All these pundits who claim the stock market forced the Fed to change policy have only shown their total ignorance of the true factors upon which central banks will act.

I have probably met with more central banks than anyone.  They all know the Economic Confidence Model. That is one of the primary questions I am asked by them – where does it stand now. They cannot publicly come out an say the economy will turn down now for fear that they will be blamed. Just look at the Russia-Trump nonsense. They want to pretend that Hillary would have been elected BUT FOR the release of the emails which showed he true colors. Our computer was forecasting she would lose BEFORE any emails were released. The trend was already set in motion – anti-career politicians. Just look around the world and you see the same trend. But it is easy to always blame someone else for your failure. Thus, central banks cannot forecast a decline because if it happens, they would be blamed just like the Russians right now for Hillary’s loss. The central banks can only forecast economic growth, not recessions.

As for the academic community maintaining that the business cycle cannot be forecast, this “opinion” is self-serving. To announce that the business cycle is regular means you cannot control the economy and the entire theory of Marx and Keynes is completely wrong. They kill Kondratieff because he warned the business cycle would kill communism. The economic community would not be able to put out theories to manage the economy and they would have no importance if they admitted they cannot control the business cycle. It is just self-interest.

I have been talking with central bankers for months and it has been about the decline into 2020. That is the backdrop to the Fed’s actions – not the stock market. And as for gold, it rallies because interest rates will decline when the Fed said there is less of a risk of inflation? It just seems the reasoning is never consistent.

Economic & Real Estate Bubbles


QUESTION: I work in the construction industry in Phoenix Arizona and there has been a boom in new construction for apartments, condos massive housing tracts and all of the retail that follows this.
When I read about your worldwide property crash forecast the economic forecast for growth in our market is that that there is no end in sight for the next 6-8 years.
Are these guys whistling past the graveyard??
Thanks and keep up the good work!

JW

ANSWER: There are 8 states without an income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, and Tennessee). You are in one of them that is receiving NETpopulation growth. There are herds migrating there from California. Now that said, the real estate market will have an undying bid in those states, but that will be specific to particular regions within the state. However, the trend that will cap the real estate is clearly interest rates and banks. The greater the decline in confidence in government, the less likely it will be to find long-term mortgages. The 30-year fixed rates mortgage will eventually vanish.

During the Great Depression, real estate collapsed to 10% for there was no money available for loans whatsoever. On June 13, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Home Owners’ Loan Act into law thereby creating the 30-year mortgage to try to give people time to buy a home that they otherwise could not afford without having the cash. This is the 86-year cycle due here in 2019. This really implies that we may see a Directional Change whereby the confidence in the future will start to decline because of political instability. Of course, we can now count on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to scream about taxing the rich and their property. The Democrats WILL look into creating a major tax increases and this will seriously harm the economy. We will see a collapse in capital investment resulting in money for 30-year mortgages drying up.

Hence, they always say there is no end in sight to all booms. We should still see 2019 provide a peak in new construction as capital becomes scarce to fund such projects.