U.S. Dollar
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Don't Bet Against a Surging U.S. Dollar
In the midst of a brewing currency war, Japan's out-of-control monetary policy has caused the yen to fall to an almost five-year low against the U.S. dollar.
With an economy one-third the size of that of the United States, Japan has committed itself to a fiscal program that's almost double the U.S. Federal Reserve's current $85- billion a month stimulus.
Like any other war, this battle of monetary-easing measures won't end well, but fortunately for Americans, it's looking more and more likely that the dollar will emerge victorious.
"Right now, the U.S. dollar is the 'cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry,' so I'd buy it," said Money Morning Capital Waves Strategist Shah Gilani.
The dollar now stands at 101.93 against the yen, the first time it's broken the 100 mark since 2009, and is up 26.6% in the past six months.
Many experts are now predicting the dollar's climb has just begun and some analysts see the dollar hitting 105 yen this summer and possibly 110 by the end of the year.
"The turn in yen has been dramatic and has proven the importance of momentum when a multi-year cycle turns," Nomura currency expert Jens Nordvig wrote in a note to clients. "A similar dynamic could be in store for the dollar. In the scheme of things, the USD REER [Real Effective Exchange Rates] is still trading close to multi-decade lows. Once the turn is evident, we believe momentum could be powerful."
Here's why the U.S. dollar's run is just beginning.
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Are You About to Lose Your Savings in the Currency War?
You may not have even noticed, but the first shots have already been fired in the next World War.
Only this time there are no tanks, fighter jets, nuclear subs, or missiles. And it's not the North against South, or even East against West.
It's war by other means and it pits fiat currency against fiat currency in a multi-trillion dollar knock-down drag out between the world's central bankers.
At stake is nothing less than the value of your life savings.
Its goal is to cheapen worldwide currencies-which could make every dollar you own worth even less.
Thanks to horrible fiscal mismanagement, virtually every nation in the world now wants its own currency to become cheaper against those of other nations.
Welcome to the currency wars.
Think of it as a race to the bottom. But where it stops nobody knows.
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Is the Japanese Yen Headed for a Long Decline?
The Japanese yen has already fallen by more than 12% against the U.S. dollar since Nov. 1, 2012 - and it could still have further to fall.
That's mainly because the Bank of Japan appears likely to go along with the wishes of the Liberal Democratic Party, led by newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and step up its attempts to eliminate deflation by using "unlimited easing" and setting a 2% inflation target.
Most of the Japanese yen's weakness we have seen so far stems from aggressive jawboning by Prime Minister Abe and other LDP leaders. And outgoing Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has appeared likely to go along with Prime Minister Abe's demands for closer cooperation between the government and the central bank.
The Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Committee (the Japanese equivalent of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee) is in the middle of a regularly scheduled two-day meeting. It is widely anticipated that the BOJ will agree to additional easing measures - most likely purchases of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) - and will formally adopt the government's 2% inflation target.
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The Fiscal Cliff's Biggest Surprise Could Be a Rising U.S. Dollar
My grandmother Mimi had a saying that was as blunt as it was uncouth. "When the stuff hits the fan," she used to say, "it will not be evenly distributed."
This one came up often when she sensed that world events were about to take a turn for the worse.
You've heard me mention Mimi before. She was widowed at a young age and went on to become a savvy global investor long before people thought to look beyond their own backyard.
Mimi never cared what Wall Street's "Armani Army" had to say.
Instead, she preferred to travel widely to see for herself what the real story was. Having grown up in the midst of the Great Depression, she believed that people were the ultimate indicator and that governments were the penultimate contrarian influence.
If she were still alive today, I think she'd encourage us to take a good hard look in the proverbial "mirror" especially with regard to the looming fiscal cliff making headlines the world over.
And I don't think she'd waste any time with the doom, gloom and boom crowd either.
She was always on the hunt for opportunity when everyone else was running from chaos. Thanks to her, it's a habit that remains firmly ingrained in me today.
Not One but Three Fiscal Cliffs
And that brings me back to the "fiscal cliff."
In my mind, this is a misnomer. There isn't really a singular fiscal cliff . As I explained earlier this summer to Sheryl Nance of Forbes there are actually three.
- The massive adjustments headed our way as tax and spending cuts expire and come into effect beginning in 2013. You may know it as taxmegeddon.
- The debt debacle and the near complete lack of any sort of credible financial consolidation plan that will affect everything from interest rates to collateral requirements and the US credit rating - again.
- And politicians who simply don't understand that issues 1 and 2 are already dramatically impacting the economy long before the theoretical limits of spending come into play. Profits are declining and 61% of companies that have reported through Monday October 22nd have failed to meet expectations. Hiring is slowing and top line revenue is increasingly hard to come by.
Many believe this is a moot point because Congress will get down to business in November after the Presidential Election takes place. The hope is that some sort of budget agreement will be reached and that the US economy will then be positioned for stronger growth in 2013.
Yeah and I suppose the tooth fairy will show up, too.
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What to Expect When the Reign of the U.S. Dollar Comes to an End
Lloyd Blankfein has got it all wrong again.
Speaking last week, the Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) claimed that if the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts go into effect on January 1, the U.S. dollar would lose its reserve currency status.
As the Vampire Squid's representatives often do, Blankfein actually has it backwards.
Contrary to what Blankfein thinks, a legitimate movement to deal with the fiscal cliff would cut the federal deficit in half, make the country more or less solvent and strengthen the dollar.
However, the problem is that the fiscal cliff involves pain. And since politicians like to delay pain as long as possible, the chances are good the fiscal cliff will be postponed again.
Instead, the country will likely continue to run trillion-dollar deficits in the hopes that Ben Bernanke can finance them through even more quantitative easing. It's the only play in the Keynesian playbook.
Unfortunately, that is the policy most likely to crash the dollar -- and it's headed our way.
So what will the world look like when the dollar has crashed, and international investors and traders have lost all of their confidence in the greenback?
The truth is if that happens it won't be like anything we've seen within living memory.
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Fiscal Cliff 2013: Global Concern is Growing
It's been a couple months since the Congressional Budget Office shared some negative news about the looming "fiscal cliff" - even suggesting a possible 2013 recession - and investors worldwide are starting to take the warning more seriously.
The fiscal cliff is the coinciding action of tax increases and spending cuts that will activate on Jan. 1, 2013 unless Congress and the White House take some action to either delay or change them.
Should these two actions combine, you'll watch $7 trillion be tagged onto the nation's debt over the next decade. This would come out to around $500 billion next year,according toCNN.
Not helping matters is that we've unofficially hit the middle of summer; the clock is ticking louder for the fiscal cliff as expectations for political stagnation instead of a resolution have increased ahead of Election 2012.
A recent Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) survey highlighted the fiscal cliff concerns.
According to MarketWatch, 65% of global investors - 71% of U.S. respondents - believe that "the fiscal cliff will cause significant uncertainty in markets for the rest of the year, but think policy makers will ultimately agree to extend most or all of the expiring stimulus and tax measures."
But only 24% of global investors believe the risks surrounding it are overblown.
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Fiscal Cliff 2013: IMF Warns of Global Impact
Worries over the looming "fiscal cliff" are spreading, and implications of the scheduled tax increases have become a growing global concern.
The fiscal cliff is the coinciding action of tax increases and spending cuts that will activate on Jan. 1, 2013, unless Congress and the White House change or at least delay them.
Everyone has an opinion on the matter, and this week the International Monetary Fund added its two cents.
The IMF issued a fresh report Tuesday warning that failure to avoid the fiscal cliff in 2013 could put the brakes on the U.S. growth rate, pushing it under 1%. Such a slowdown poses great risk to economies worldwide.
The IMF said the global implications for early 2013 are a negative growth rate with "significant negative repercussions on an already fragile world economy."
"It is critical to remove the uncertainty created by the "fiscal cliff" well as promptly raise the debt ceiling, pursing a pace of deficit reduction that does not sap the economic recovery," the IMF said in its annual health check of the U.S. economy.
Under current fiscal cliff terms, the proposed spending cuts and tax increases would minimize the deficit by approximately 4% of GDP in 2013.
Lawmakers should, the IMF counseled, replace the fiscal cliff with a program of small deficit reductions in the short-term with a longer term fiscal sustainability program.
Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, said at a press conference Tuesday that a small deficit reduction means cuts amounting to 1% of GDP next year. The downside risks to the U.S. economy as well as worldwide financial systems have deepened, she noted.
"We believe that fiscal consolidation is necessary but not just any fiscal consolidation. It has to be sensible and certainly not excessive," said Lagarde.
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