06-02-2015, 10:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2015, 10:57 PM by HyperionTree.)
Recently no fewer than 17 central banks have started to implement monetary policy or exchange rate policy to ease according to Reuters here: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/05...C120150205
In light of this, Hyperion and Tree likes to start a new thread to discuss what would likely be the effect of collective monetary easing on investing strategies to cure mainly Hyperion's bore dome because he can't find a job. The following is Hyperion and Tree's collective opinion and should not be view as advice to trade in any investments. If you like the article please upvote Hyperion and Tree's reputation. Hyperion: =] , Tree: -_-
So what happens if every central bank starts to implement monetary easing? Interestingly, it is likely that when everybody starts to ease, it would offset the monetary easing policy of every country and thus nullify the intended effects of monetary easy. To take an example, if one country starts to increase monetary supply or set lower nominal interest rates, ideally the effect is to weaken exchange rate and allow the exports of its country to be more attractive globally. If other countries around the globe also do the same thing, what happens is the exchange rate would strengthen again and thus the country that started to ease cannot benefit from exporting cheaply to other countries.
This means that countries whose economy is structurally in trouble with budget deficits, lack of tax revenue, lack of domestic demand, lack of competitive exports, and have high debt, could not recover from export driven growth. This leaves them with the painful option of restructuring their economy or defaulting on their debt. Hyperinflation would likely be a possibility if real interest rates in these countries are declining due to lack of economic activity. The key word is real interest rates.
For countries whose economy is doing well, however, the real interest rate should increase due to more economic activity. The effect will be although nominal interest rates are low, deflation will occur. This is because Nominal Interest Rates minus Inflation gives Real Interest Rates. If Real Interest Rates increase but Nominal Interest Rates stay low due to government intervention, Deflation has to occur. Under this situation, if you buy bonds, and bond yields keep decreasing, you can still buy more because effective real bond yields are actually increasing due to deflation.
Singapore
Recently in Singapore for the last 2 months the economy experience deflation of around 0.1%. This has some implications which are not immediately obvious. If you take the short term SGS bond yields in Singapore which is around 0.7% now and adjust for deflation of 0.1% to get the real bond yields, you get around positive 0.8% real bond yields. If now you assume that long term 10 year inflation is 3% as observe historically, and adjust the current 10 year SGS bond yields which is around 1.9%, you actually get negative 1.1%. In this case, short term real interest rates actually are higher than long term real interest rates. This is call an inverted yield curve which is a leading indicator of an economic crisis. It is likely that there are more sellers of short term SGS than buyers because more people need short term liquidity.
Although the above indicators suggests that Singapore might enter a recession this year, Hyperion and Tree likes to caution readers that the key assumption is that the average 10 year inflation stands at 3%. If this is not true, given that we now face global deflation for economies that are not in trouble, there is unlikely to be a crisis. This is because if say the next 10 years we experience a deflation of 3% a year. The actual adjustment to the current 1.9% 10 year SGS bond yield would be to add 3% and we have long term SGS real bond yields higher than short term real bond yields. Thus there is no inversion of yield curve.
Crucially, another indicator, the amount of loans in Singapore versus deposits was signally trouble few months ago. The amount of loans in Singapore was higher than deposits around July to September 2014. This suggests a general lack of liquity. For more info refer to:
https://www.dbs.com.sg/corporate/aics/Ge...posits.xml#
As observe from the link the other time this had occurred was during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.
In conclusion, the likelihood of a 1997 occurring again is indeed becoming real. Most interestingly, Singapore is an open economy, and thus Singapore is actually a great barometer for the South East Asian economies. Overall, this further suggests that in fact, South East Asian countries are heading for an economic crisis similar to 1997 based on the above 2 indicators.
We like to hear your views in the comments.
Thank You.
Regards,
Hyperion and Tree
In light of this, Hyperion and Tree likes to start a new thread to discuss what would likely be the effect of collective monetary easing on investing strategies to cure mainly Hyperion's bore dome because he can't find a job. The following is Hyperion and Tree's collective opinion and should not be view as advice to trade in any investments. If you like the article please upvote Hyperion and Tree's reputation. Hyperion: =] , Tree: -_-
So what happens if every central bank starts to implement monetary easing? Interestingly, it is likely that when everybody starts to ease, it would offset the monetary easing policy of every country and thus nullify the intended effects of monetary easy. To take an example, if one country starts to increase monetary supply or set lower nominal interest rates, ideally the effect is to weaken exchange rate and allow the exports of its country to be more attractive globally. If other countries around the globe also do the same thing, what happens is the exchange rate would strengthen again and thus the country that started to ease cannot benefit from exporting cheaply to other countries.
This means that countries whose economy is structurally in trouble with budget deficits, lack of tax revenue, lack of domestic demand, lack of competitive exports, and have high debt, could not recover from export driven growth. This leaves them with the painful option of restructuring their economy or defaulting on their debt. Hyperinflation would likely be a possibility if real interest rates in these countries are declining due to lack of economic activity. The key word is real interest rates.
For countries whose economy is doing well, however, the real interest rate should increase due to more economic activity. The effect will be although nominal interest rates are low, deflation will occur. This is because Nominal Interest Rates minus Inflation gives Real Interest Rates. If Real Interest Rates increase but Nominal Interest Rates stay low due to government intervention, Deflation has to occur. Under this situation, if you buy bonds, and bond yields keep decreasing, you can still buy more because effective real bond yields are actually increasing due to deflation.
Singapore
Recently in Singapore for the last 2 months the economy experience deflation of around 0.1%. This has some implications which are not immediately obvious. If you take the short term SGS bond yields in Singapore which is around 0.7% now and adjust for deflation of 0.1% to get the real bond yields, you get around positive 0.8% real bond yields. If now you assume that long term 10 year inflation is 3% as observe historically, and adjust the current 10 year SGS bond yields which is around 1.9%, you actually get negative 1.1%. In this case, short term real interest rates actually are higher than long term real interest rates. This is call an inverted yield curve which is a leading indicator of an economic crisis. It is likely that there are more sellers of short term SGS than buyers because more people need short term liquidity.
Although the above indicators suggests that Singapore might enter a recession this year, Hyperion and Tree likes to caution readers that the key assumption is that the average 10 year inflation stands at 3%. If this is not true, given that we now face global deflation for economies that are not in trouble, there is unlikely to be a crisis. This is because if say the next 10 years we experience a deflation of 3% a year. The actual adjustment to the current 1.9% 10 year SGS bond yield would be to add 3% and we have long term SGS real bond yields higher than short term real bond yields. Thus there is no inversion of yield curve.
Crucially, another indicator, the amount of loans in Singapore versus deposits was signally trouble few months ago. The amount of loans in Singapore was higher than deposits around July to September 2014. This suggests a general lack of liquity. For more info refer to:
https://www.dbs.com.sg/corporate/aics/Ge...posits.xml#
As observe from the link the other time this had occurred was during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.
In conclusion, the likelihood of a 1997 occurring again is indeed becoming real. Most interestingly, Singapore is an open economy, and thus Singapore is actually a great barometer for the South East Asian economies. Overall, this further suggests that in fact, South East Asian countries are heading for an economic crisis similar to 1997 based on the above 2 indicators.
We like to hear your views in the comments.
Thank You.
Regards,
Hyperion and Tree