Category Archives: Inflation

Austrian Theory, Banking, Bonds, Budget, Capitalism, Central banks, Commodities, Corporatism, CPI, Credit, Cycles, Economics, Energy, Entrepreneur, Europe, Federal Reserve, Fixed Income, Government, Inflation, Macro, MMT, Money, money supply, Politics, Production, QE

Pandora’s Box

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Most people associate ‘inflation’ with rising prices, but the disease goes much deeper than that. Inflation is a phenomenon wherein money becomes so abundant it disrupts relative price formation and hence interferes with the vital transmission of information about the state of the countless interactions of supply and demand, plenty and scarcity, which take place on the market. As the fever rises, mistakes accumulate, conflicts intensify, timings clash, finances become stretched, and coherence is lost. A rising price is one thing. Prices -plural- rising at varying speeds and in an ever less predictable manner is a much more dangerous pathology.

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Agriculture, Central banks, China, Commodities, CPI, ECB, Economics, Equities, Europe, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Fixed Income, Forex, Government, Inflation, Japan, Macro, Margin, Metals, money supply, Primary Dealers, Production, QE, repo, Revenues, Tech, US Treasury, USA

Paradigm Shift

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

An uneasy calm has descended on the markets since the end of the first quarter put a stop to the heavy liquidation in bonds and some gained the sense that commodities were perhaps a little overcooked. The rebalancing and retracements those two entailed could yet run further, but we very much doubt that we’ve seen the last of the inflationary wave.

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Bank of England, BOE, BOJ, Bonds, Central banks, Commodities, ECB, Energy, Equities, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Forex, Government, Inflation, Intervention, Macro, MMT, Money, money supply, QE

The Beggar’s Opera

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Though a lot of hot money was poured into the trade in the last quarter of 2020, there is still much reluctance on the part of economists – always prone to a spot of Under-consumption fallacy – to wholly embrace the idea that prices are beginning to rise and that the path ahead is likely to be an inflationary one. That path will inevitably not be smooth, nor its ascent uninterrupted, but it is hard to see where we slow the climb or take a different turning – or even that sufficient will exists to choose that alternative were it ever to come up on our satnav.

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Bank of England, Bitcoin, BOJ, Budget, Central banks, Commodities, CPI, Crypto, ECB, Emerging Markets, Equities, Europe, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Fixed Income, Government, Inflation, Japan, Keynesianism, Macro, Metals, money supply, Politics, Production, Revenues, Tech, UK, UK Treasury, US Treasury, USA

Burning Holes in Idlers’ Pockets

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Inflation, Milton Friedman famously said, is a monetary phenomenon. But it is also one given the readiest of outlets through recourse to what we call ‘fiscal’ policy – i.e., by spendthrift governments borrowing money created at their call and forced into the system by means of warfare, welfare, contracting, cronyism, bureaucratic expansion and plain old boondogglery. Arguably, this is where we find ourselves today, in a world where supply is no longer likely to meet demand as abundantly and as effortlessly as has been the case these past twenty years.

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Bank of England, BOE, Bonds, Central banks, Corporatism, Credit, ECB, Europe, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Fixed Income, Inflation, Macro, MMT, Money, Planning, Politics, QE, UK Treasury, US Treasury, USA

Tighten Your Belts: The Rationale

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Markets seem happy for now to focus on the carrot of a vaccine while ignoring the stick of the further severe restrictions to life and liberty being implemented while we await its delivery. Whether or not it offers a release from bondage, the state’s rediscovered taste for authoritarianism will, however, take some good time to dispel, while its corollary – the move toward taking an ever greater role amid the wreckage of the private economy – is being pursued with relish. Whatever the sloganizing, this is very unlikely to Build anything Back Better – only dearer and scarcer.

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Bonds, China, Commodities, Elecction2020, Equities, Fixed Income, Forex, futures, Gold, Inflation, Japan, Metals, Money, money supply, Oil, Politics, US Treasury, USA

A Shot in the Dark

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

The ink has not even dried on the US ballot papers (!) but the Market already thinks it knows what this will all mean. And then there’s Pfizer’s vaccine announcement – perhaps similarly preliminary in nature – but, hey, the Herd will always take every silver lining it can find. Some of the themes we touched upon at the end of the Summer are still in play: Japan has been attracting money, non-oil commodities are rallying, gold has lost some lustre, bond yields are creeping higher, and Value may just be topping out at last v Growth.

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Austrian Theory, Banking, Bonds, Central banks, Credit, Cycles, Deflation, Economics, Fixed Income, Inflation, Intervention, Money, money supply, QE

Fire and Water

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

This essay attempts a review of the economics – and the prevailing economic thinking – which have brought us to our present pass of high-leverage and heavy debt-dependence. It helps set the backdrop for an in-depth look at markets which will follow shortly…

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Bonds, Budget, Central banks, Deficit, Federal Reserve, Fiscal policy, Fixed Income, Inflation, Saving, US Treasury, USA, Volatility, Yield Curve

MOVE-ing the Dial

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Bond yields have started to creep higher – and curves to flex steeper – as the market begins to fret that the willing fiscal subservience of the central bank can only presage a coming inflation. With bond volatility still reasonably cheap, now might be the time to take cognisance of this.

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Bank of England, Budget, Central banks, Economics, Fiscal policy, Fixed Income, Forex, Government, Inflation, Intervention, money supply, Revenues, UK, UK Treasury

A Great Deal of Ruin

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

The Johnson government’s approach to COVID19 has been a toxic mix of contradiction, vacillation, and jackbooted authoritarianism. There seems no exit strategy and no end to the spiralling cost. We take a critical look at the impact on the budget impact and discuss what it means for inflation.

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Agriculture, Central banks, Commodities, COVID19, Credit, Energy, futures, Gold, Greens, Inflation, Metals, money supply, Oil, Production, Renewables, Tech

Dead Cat or Deep Value?

Posted on by Sean Corrigan

Since their Lockdown lows, commodities have performed as well as any other asset, though they still remain generally depressed. Can they now continue to rise?

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