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.

 

Markets Cheer a Recession?


The rally in gold and the stock market together is demonstrating that eventually, we will see the alignment as it transforms from Public to Private assets. The most deranged reaction to the Federal Reserve saying they will be “patient” on any further rate moves, is just beyond all reason. But markets are not always rational – they tend to trade emotionally much of the time.

The Fed also said that it would be flexible on the path for reducing its balance sheet. The Federal Open Market Committee’s statement twice refers to “financial developments.” The actual passages Powell read the first one verbatim in his press conference

“In light of global economic and financial developments and muted inflation pressures, the Committee will be patient as it determines what future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate may be appropriate to support these outcomes.”

“This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments.”

The talking heads have so distorted reason that the markets interpreted it as complete capitulation. The two-year Treasury yield, the most sensitive coupon-bearing maturity to Fed policy, dropped like a stone 4 basis points to 2.53% percent. The yield curve steepened, as everyone expected the Fed would stop raising short-term rates. Of course, you have the pundits claiming that Powell has yielded to the correction in the stock market. They argue that Powell and other officials made their new posture clear. Additionally, Powell disclosed that the FOMC is evaluating the appropriate timing for the end of the central bank’s balance-sheet reduction and that they would be looking to finalize their plans on that issue going forward.

The pundits seem to ignore history completely. They are touting that the Fed was backed into a corner by financial-market volatility. It is just totally amazing how ignorant these people are when it comes to the global economy and the business cycle.

The Fed ALWAYS lower interest rates NOT because of the stock market, but because of an economic decline. A stock market decline by itself is no big deal. We did not even elect a single Monthly Bearish Reversal. There was no significant damage from that respect. The real issue being ignored here is the entire world is declining sharply into 2020 on an economic level. Lowering interest rates NEVERsupports a collapse in the stock market. The Fed even raised interest rates as the market was falling in 1931 because the dollar was under pressure during the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

 

 

It is so amazing how oblivious pundits are to what is unfolding around the world. Trump is correct. The USA has been the strongest economy. However, the US is starting to slow and overseas is having a very bad dream. Just look at the DAX which not only was a major crash, it closed BELOW the low of 2017. The US market has been the BEST performer. The Fed is NOT taking action based on the stock market. That is absurd.

 

The US share market has outperformed everything in terms of currency from the international perspective. While the pundits had forecast Europe as a great buy two years ago, people simply lost tons of money on that forecast and their buy of Emerging Markets.

We are now going to go down very hard economically into 2020. The Fed is under a lot of pressure from other central banks pleading with it to stop raising rates for they cannot raise rates. The ECM is in no position to stop Quantitative Easing. The Fed’s actions here have ZERO to do with the stock market. This is the culmination of the economic decline into 2020 that began in 2015.

The Fed is not going to lower rates dramatically. While rates closed at 2.5% for 2018, resistance still stands at 2.67% here in 2019 so rates have not broken out just yet. It is unlikely that the Fed will lower rates of more than 1%. That could unfold after May if the election in Europe create havoc over the future. So far everything is on target. Last year was a Directional Change and 2019 is a turning point with 2020 coming in as another Directional Change and 2021 in a Panic Cycle. So hang on tight. We are in for some really confusing good times as we conclude this business cycle into 2020. Sorry – the Fed did not lower rates to help the stock market. It lowered rates because we are in a global economic recession into 2020. All I have been hearing is complaints from central banks around the world. They can see what is unfolding.