Fund Manager: 2008 Redux-Cubed (At Least Cubed)?
SilverDoctors.com
April 2, 2018
Dave Kranzler says “If Deutsche Bank collapses, it will set off a catastrophic chain reaction of counter-party defaults. This would be similar to…”
by Dave Kranzler of Investment Research Dynamics
There is plenty of dysfunction in plain sight to suggest that the financial markets can’t bear the strain of unreality anymore. Between the burgeoning trade wars and the adoption in congress this week of a fiscally suicidal spending bill, you’d want to put your fingers in your ears to not be deafened by the roar of markets tumbling – James Kuntsler, “The Unspooling”
Many of you have likely seen discussions in the media about the LIBOR-OIS spread. This spread is a measure of banking system health. It was one of Alan Greenspan’s favorite benchmark indicators of systemic liquidity. LIBOR is the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate, which is the benchmark interest rate at which banks lend to other banks. The most common intervals are 1-month and 3-month. LIBOR is the most widely used reference rate globally and is commonly used as the benchmark from which bank loans, bonds and interest rate derivatives are priced. “OIS” is an the “overnight indexed swap” rate. This is an overnight inter-bank lending benchmark index – most simply, it’s the global overnight inter-bank lending rate.
The current 1-month LIBOR-OIS spread has spiked up from 10 basis points at the beginning of 2018 to nearly 60 basis points (0.60%). Many Wall Street Einsteins are rationalizing that the LIBOR-OIS spread blow-out is a result of U.S. companies repatriating off-shore cash back to the U.S. But it doesn’t matter. That particular pool of cash was there only to avoid repatriation taxes. The cash being removed from the European banking system by U.S corporations will not be replaced. The large pool of dollar liquidity being removed was simply masking underlying problems – problems rising to the surface now that the dollar liquidity is drying up.
Keep in mind that the effect of potential financial crisis trigger events as reflected by the LIBOR-OIS spread since 2009 has been hugely muted by trillions in QE, which have kept the banking system liquefied artificially. Think of this massive liquidity as having the effect of acting like a “pain killer” on systemic problems percolating like a cancer beneath the surface. The global banking system is addicted to these financial “opioids” and now these opioids are no longer working.
Before the 2008 crisis, the spread began to rise in August 2007, when it jumped from 10 basis points to 100 basis points by the end of September. From there it bounced around between 50-100 basis points until early September 2008, when it shot straight up to 350 basis points. Note that whatever caused the spread to widen in August 2007 was signaling a systemic financial problem well in advance of the actual trigger events. That also corresponds with the time period in which the stock market peaked in 2007.
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