How have nominal yields remained so low? It's one of the true conundrums of 2021. (THREAD)
If you told me a year ago that the economy would be running at beyond capacity (measured by the spread between the U3 unemployment rate and “full employment”), and that inflation would be near 7%, a one-handle would not have been my base case for the 10yr. /2
Maybe the answer lies in the four Ds: debt, demographics, disruption & digitization (hat tip to Eric Peters of One River Asset Management). Perhaps those secular forces override any cyclical concerns about supply chain bottlenecks. /3
Indeed, this is very much part of my secular bullish thesis, which I will discuss more, in-depth, next week. /END
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Despite the choppy price action this year, Bitcoin’s network continues to grow unabated. Per Metcalfe’s Law, I expect that this growth will continue to underpin bitcoin’s valuation. (THREAD)
We tend to look at price, but for me valuation is the more relevant metric. Here we see bitcoin’s “price-to-network” ratio. Bitcoin’s fundamentals explain a lot of its meteoric price gains. Metcalfe’s Law at work. It’s not just about S2F. /2
While bitcoin’s network is growing steadily, Ethereum’s network is growing rapidly. Scale vs Scarcity. /3
Curb your enthusiasm? The CAPE model for stocks, and its equivalent for bonds, don't suggest a stellar 2022. In fact, the trailing 10-year P/E ratio for the S&P 500 (37x) bodes poorly for the return expectations over the next 10 years. But there's more to consider. (THREAD)
Here is the relationship shown in a different way. The actual 10-year CAGR has diverged quite a bit from the model in recent months (i.e. it is stronger than the model predicted 10 years ago). So maybe that model is not the best way of looking at things. /2
The bond equivalent of CAPE (which holds that the current yield-to-maturity is what an investor will earn if holding the bonds to maturity) hints at low nominal returns and negative real returns from bonds. /3
Following up on my previous thread, which pondered what it takes to force the Fed's hand, this chart shows the 2015-18 tightening cycle in detail, and illustrates how much financial conditions have played a role in Fed policy. (THREAD)
The top panel shows the official Goldman Sachs series overlaid on my constituent factors. The bottom panel shows the Fed Funds target rate and a series of forward curves taken at different points in time. /2
During the 2014-16 phase, the spike in financial conditions was driven mostly by credit spreads and the dollar (and eventually stocks). In December 2015 the Fed finally raised the Fed Funds rate for the first time since the Great Financial Crisis. /3
What’s next for the Fed? The Chairman made plenty of news yesterday, but IMO it all comes down to financial conditions. The GS Financial Conditions index (GSUSFCI) is a real-time look into the financial economy, which tends to lead the real economy. (THREAD)
Financial conditions are at their all-time loosest. Perhaps this is why the Fed is hinting at speeding up the timeline. To me the bigger question is: What needs to happen for the FCI to tighten, and by how much, in order to cause the Fed to pivot back to a more dovish outlook? /2
The chart above shows that, in both 2016 and late 2018, a sharp tightening of financial conditions forced the Fed’s hand to either slow down the cycle or reverse it altogether. We are far away form that outcome, it seems. /3
Market volatility: Sharing a quick thread with some fast charts after yesterday’s market rout: First up, short-term breadth is very oversold, in line with previous 3-5% corrections… (THREAD)
…For the 50-day moving average, we are not quite as oversold./2
Momentum, measured as the percentage of stocks with an RSI < 30, is now oversold and also in line with past corrections. /3
The Fed is likely keeping an eye on financial conditions, as it did during the last cycle. They are a real-time look into the financial economy, which is more forward looking than the lagging indicators of the real economy (inflation & employment). (THREAD)
Here we see financial conditions for this cycle and the previous four periods of tightening financial conditions (measured from the low point in the Goldman Sachs Financial Conditions Index). /2
So far, financial conditions remain very loose, but the USD is up and credit spreads are slightly wider. /3