The current administration is addressing the actual imbalances that exist from the dollar's reserve currency status
@SteveMiran is now in a position of influence on the political side and the monetary side
This has implications for politics, markets, the Fed, and midterms🧵
The current account in the US has been in free fall for years now which represents the entire import/export relationship.
In simple terms, the US imports way more than it exports.
The system incentivizes other countries to suppress consumption at home in order to run trade surpluses and build dollar reserves:
- Countries like Germany and China deliberately depress wages and household consumption to create large savings surpluses.
- These surpluses are exported in the form of capital outflows, which must be matched by U.S. capital inflows and thus trade deficits.
- This means American workers and firms are systematically undercut by foreign producers with artificially low costs, worsening inequality in the U.S.
Because the U.S. economy is forced to absorb global surpluses:
- American households and the government borrow more to maintain demand.
- The inflow of cheap foreign capital inflates asset prices, creating bubbles in housing, stocks, and credit.
- This leads to a fragile domestic economy, overly reliant on debt-fueled consumption and financial markets.
The purchase of US securities by foreigners has become a massive factor in US markets as a result of this: (Chart below shows gross purchase of US securities)
On net, this has created a massive long position by foreigners in US markets. In simple terms, imagine a massive hedge fund that is long the US. It is possible for them to buy more or have to sell, depending on their liquidity constraints.
These dynamics don’t affect all Americans equally:
- Owners of capital benefit from asset price inflation and globalization.
- Workers face job insecurity and wage stagnation, especially in manufacturing.
- The U.S. ends up with internal class warfare, as the reserve currency status acts like a reverse wealth transfer—from labor to capital.
The political division we see in the United States today is directly linked to the financial imbalances! This is why we see inequality exists.
This is why equity market valuations are ABOVE 2000 and 2021 bubble levels!
The @DOGE dynamic we saw earlier this year by @elonmusk was an important and critical step toward visibility. The larger macro constraints for any spending exist in the financial imbalances.
The government spending we have seen is only increasing and directly linked with the dollar's reserve currency status (chart below shows government expenditures)
When foreign capital floods into the U.S., someone must borrow and spend it. If the U.S. government doesn’t run a fiscal deficit, the private sector is forced to do so instead, often through:
In simple terms, when we have a massive financial imbalance with cheap capital flowing, the government or private sector needs to take on the debt. In the run up to the GFC, the private sector took on the debt which created a housing bubble. After 2008, the government took on all the debt
The result? Government net worth has been collapsing since 2008.
This is WHY the trade policy and changes are critical to understand. This is where many of the issues lie.
If this issue is truly fixed, it will literally change the world.
The problem is that not enough people are aware of the actual issues due to their complexity. On top of this, the entire situation is politically charged, which is actually a reflection of the inequality and imbalances that exist!
If we can have a dramatic change, it would fundamentally improve the entire financial system and economy.
These changes require coordination of the fiscal and monetary sides, which are beginning to take place
As we approach midterms, the most important talking point should revolve around the financial/trade imbalances the US has, how the Fed is moving policy toward this solution, and how this change will boost the real incomes of consumers so inequality falls.
This is THE ONLY WAY to grow out of the amount of debt we have in the system right now. It is impossible to inflate away the debt or grow out of the debt unless the structural imbalance is reversed.
The inflation and higher interest rates over the last 3 years only made the debt issue worse.
The only way forward is addressing the root causes.
The credit cycle is in the process of one more injection of liquidity, as equity valuations across every country are sitting at all-time highs
None of this is going to end well but the KEY will be playing this final stage of the endgame
This thread explains everything 🧵
I am going to explain WHERE we are in the credit and liquidity cycle and then break down HOW I am looking at the signals for taking risk. These set the stage for the S&P500, Bitcoin, gold, silver, and every major asset.
Everything starts with understanding growth, inflation, liquidity, and credit.
Right now, we know that growth is positive and inflation risk has been falling.
The chart below shows credit spreads (white) falling as growth remains positive in the US economy and inflation swaps (blue) falling more recently as the market realizes 2% inflation is approaching on the horizon.
Bitcoin primarily has a positive correlation with risk assets. This is Bitcoin telling you that it has a high sensitivity to flows into risk assets (bottom panel shows correlation with SPX). Bitcoin speaks and doesn't need anyone to speak for it as a decentralized network.
The credit cycle is starting to flash yellow for the first time in this regime
Most investors will only notice once spreads are blowing out
Here’s the framework I use to track the credit cycle and front‑run where capital goes next: 🧵
First, my macro thesis is simple: Since April we had a massive injection of credit into the underlying economy and liquidity into financial markets. This created procyclical liquidity where growth and liquidity rose at the same time. This is why asset prices melted up.
We are now seeing the beginning of some headwindes in the credit cycle. The entire questions is are these risks shrot term signals or could they materialize into a larger issue?
I am going to lay out all of these macro signals but first I would encourage you to read (or reread!) the macro report I wrote explaining the largest structural risks we are seeing in the system right now. Do we know for sure that these risks will materialize? No but if they do, you need to know exactly what to look for cause that is not an environment where you want to be offsides.
Real interest rates have been driving the pullback in equities and Bitcoin
You will notice that 2 year real interest rates have begun to drag up credit spreads, which is a very clear signal about how liquidity is impacting risk assets
Here is how to understand this 🧵
Real rates tell you the true cost of money after adjusting for inflation.
Real rate = Nominal yield minus inflation expectations
So real rates move for only two reasons:
- Nominal yields move
- Inflation expectations move
The chart below shows 2 year real interest rates. Notice that they were deeply negative during 2021 when the Fed held rates below inflation. As we moved into the 2022 hiking cycle this reversed. Since this time, we have been normalizing lower.
If nominal yields go up faster than inflation expectations ⇒ real rates rise
If inflation expectations go up faster than nominal yields ⇒ real rates fall
If nominal yields fall and inflation expectations stay the same ⇒ real rates fall
If inflation expectations fall and nominal yields stay the same ⇒ real rates rise (THIS IS WHERE WE ARE)
Everything fits into one idea:
Real rates rising = more expensive money/liquidity in the system on a real basis.
Real rates falling=cheaper money/liquidity in the system on a real basis.
There has been a lot of talk around how 10 year yields in Japan are melting up and how this is an indication that a massive carry trade is about to unwind
The problem with this is that it doesn't match up with ANY of the actual evidence 🧵
First,
yields have been rising for years now and the Nikkei has been moving in lockstep ever since the BoJ stopped doing yield curve control. On top of this, every major carry trade unwind that pushed the Nikkei and US equities down was when JGB yields were going DOWN, not up!
JGB yields are rising because inflation is still elevated and the BoJ isnt taking a aggressive action toward it. The BoJ has hiked a little but its nowhere near enough to bring inflation down
The credit cycle is in the process of shifting, and this is going to begin increasing volatility significantly
The most important thing you can do is be on the right side of the macro volatility
This 🧵is a breakdown of WHERE we we are and risks for markets
The primary place to start is HOW interest rates are impacting equities
You will notice that the bottom in real interest rates created the top in S&P500 market breadth. Why? Because when real rates begin to rise, it begins to contract liquidity. This begins to weigh on some sectors before others.
When real interest rates rise into unchanged growth, on net, it pulls capital BACK across the risk curve. This has been happening in the Goldman Sachs Mega Caps vs nonprofitable tech. In simple terms, when real rates rise and liquidity contracts, investors have less money to deploy and as a result they move capital into mega caps as opposed to nonprofitable tech on a relative basis.