Posts Tagged ‘dollar carry trade’

Emerging Doom Loop

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Emerging markets!

Have had a great run for a decade, can they possibly go higher?

Sure, so long as the dollar carry trade keeps ‘em afloat!

Borrowing cheap in the US to buy economic growth, debt, and anything else that’s tasty is what the big banking and hedge fund boys are doing.

Returns are astounding.

Sure, there’s the odd problem in places like Dubai, but that’s not gonna stop these engines of growth!

“Investors are starting to look at this asset class and realize that it is a pretty safe place,” said Kevin Daly, who manages $1.7 billion in emerging market debt at Aberdeen Asset Management.

Of course, this quote reflecting supreme confidence that it’s different this time means that these markets are likely heading for a fall.

The problem may come when another sovereign defaults, or interest rates begin to rise in the US and Europe, or somebody blows up the Saudi/Iraqi/Iranian oil fields.

Then the hot money flees to safe havens.

Emerging markets crash worldwide, while no growth developed countries start cringing again.

Oh well, this is what current US international economic policy is all about. We’ve had a couple of bubbles, now we need to find another one.

And the banks are certain that Uncle Sam will bail ‘em all out when they get too greedy.

Gorilla says: “It’s what happens when dishonesty is the only transparency!”

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Financing Debt Is Risky!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Who knew? Not the banks backing indoor ski slopes in Dubai!

Turns out the non-sovereign debt of Dubai won’t be guaranteed, a blow to those who naturally assumed from their experience in other badly indebted nations (USA, Ireland) that the government would come riding to the rescue!

So, Dubai’s a good lesson for some investors and banks, and yet another unlearned example of what happens when banks get too large to succeed and too large to fail.

Will this effect the dollar carry trade investments in emerging markets? Probably not, since no one in the world of financial services appears to understand the definition of risk.

Gorilla says: “Mohawk or pompadour, the haircuts will keep coming!”

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TGIF And Predictions

Friday, August 28th, 2009

These were the events that mattered this week:

*Ted Kennedy died. A great American and a great Senator. Gorilla thinks his kind of liberalism seems as dead as can be in the world of Movingforwardville.

*Lots more talking about Middle East Peace. Gorilla thinks the odds of a serious peace process are about as remote and as good as they’ve been in the past 60 years.

*No real seriousness about health care reform. The crazies still rule the roost and the President doesn’t want to take on vested interests. Gorilla says we’ll get very little more than window dressing passed this year.

*Afghanistan continues to spiral downwards. There’s plenty of recognition that our policy isn’t working, but very little realism about what we can do to make things work. Gorilla believes we’ll be surging to withdrawl within 18 months.

*Goingbackwardville keeps getting in the President’s way. CIA torture, ever larger banks gaining ever freer passes to moral hazard, and rewarding the failures of Ben Bernanke et. al. with another term: Gorilla wonders when if ever we’ll decide that stupidity isn’t the first and only policy option.

*The dollar carry trade is the next bubble in international finance. We’ve become the new Japan, with the same old insolvent banks. Gorilla guesses this means we are the old Japan, with the same old insolvent banks.

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