The Fed’s Unnecessary Rate Cut

The Fed’s Unnecessary Rate Cut

Daniel Lacalle 06/08/2019 5

If there is something that is evident is that the United States does not need a rate cut.

With the economy growing at 2.1%, unemployment at 3.6%, creating 170,000 jobs per month, and estimated underlying core inflation of 2%, no objective data justifies cutting rates that are already artificially low. Wages are rising by 3% and credit growth for companies and families is solid.

There is also no public sector financing problem. The 10-year US bond trades at a 2.05% yield, consistent with the country’s growth and inflation. In real terms, the United States borrows at almost no cost and without Federal Reserve support, as all bond demand comes from the secondary market.

If the Federal Reserve cuts rates it can be for two reasons: One, because it expects a drastic and abrupt worsening of the economy, but that is apparently not the case, as the Fed itself talks of a “solid” economy. The second reason would be more concerning. The Federal Reserve would cut rates as a reactive measure against the monetary assault of the ECB (eurozone), the PBOC (China) and the BOJ (Japan). That is because it is recognizing in a veiled way that we are in a dangerous bubble inflated by central banks, and that we are heading for a currency war. It is no surprise that the dollar index (the DXY) has risen despite expectations of lower rates and even repurchase of bonds via reinvestment of interests in the United States. When all major economies “copy” the Fed without having the financial balance, economic dynamism and global reserve currency of the United States, they are basically implicitly saying “buy dollars”.

Constant easing has created major imbalances, from asset bubbles to rising zombie companies (“Asset Bubbles to Zombie Companies: The Dark Side of Rate Cuts”).

In the eurozone, there is a similar case. There is no need to cut rates and launch another stimulus, which by the way has never been abandoned, by the way, since all expirations are repurchased). The excess liquidity in the ECB exceeds 1.79 billion euros, rates are already negative and the eurozone governments issue debt at negative and artificially low yields. The credit market shows the risk of dangerous bubbles when the spread between junk and high-quality bonds has fallen to historic lows.

The problem of stagnation of the eurozone and other economies has nothing to do with rates. Businesses and consumers are not going to take more credit or invest more due to a 0.5% change in already artificially depressed rates. The problem of stagnation in many economies is not due to lack of monetary stimulus but its excess. Zombie debt is perpetuated, overcapacity is maintained and malinvestment in high risk and low productivity sectors is encouraged.

The risk to markets is that investors fall again into the trap of betting on “the worse, the better”, that is, taking more risk despite the fact that the earnings’ season and macro data are disappointing, with traders betting it all on new liquidity injections.

The Fed and the ECB face the devil’s alternative. If they normalize monetary policy, they risk an abrupt and widespread correction in risky asset prices, and if they do not normalize, they lose tools to face a true cycle change. The Federal Reserve still has some tools, but the ECB is already in diminishing return territory in monetary policy.

The United States does not need a rate cut, but it probably will. Reducing exposure to the most cyclical part of portfolios may be a good idea because the race towards negative rates of the global economy has only one result: secular stagnation. Central banks will keep risky asset prices, but we cannot forget collateral damages. When high productivity is fiscally penalized and monetary policy is rewarding the most inefficient and indebted parts of the economy, growth suffers and bubbles reach systemic size.

A version of this article first appeared here. 

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  • Bryan Kilner

    Apparently, it's a permanent bull market based solely on debt and counterfeiting. Who knew it could be that simple?

  • Steven Owen

    The fed always gets it wrong, always...

  • Matt Emson

    Fiat money production has been increasing forever and the number of bitcoin production will be cut by half next year. Buy Bitcoin.

  • Jamal Ansari

    The business cycle hasn't gone away. When we do enter a recession if rates are already really low we won't have a key tool to deal with it and negative rates have been a disaster everywhere they've been used.

  • Dan Smith

    Buy gold and silver! End the federal reserve!

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Daniel Lacalle

Global Economy Expert

Daniel Lacalle is one the most influential economists in the world. He is Chief Economist at Tressis SV, Fund Manager at Adriza International Opportunities, Member of the advisory board of the Rafael del Pino foundation, Commissioner of the Community of Madrid in London, President of Instituto Mises Hispano and Professor at IE Business School, London School of Economics, IEB and UNED. Mr. Lacalle has presented and given keynote speeches at the most prestigious forums globally including the Federal Reserve in Houston, the Heritage Foundation in Washington, London School of EconomicsFunds Society Forum in Miami, World Economic ForumForecast Summit in Peru, Mining Show in Dubai, Our Crowd in Jerusalem, Nordea Investor Summit in Oslo, and many others. Mr Lacalle has more than 24 years of experience in the energy and finance sectors, including experience in North Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. He is currently a fund manager overseeing equities, bonds and commodities. He was voted Top 3 Generalist and Number 1 Pan-European Buyside Individual in Oil & Gas in Thomson Reuters’ Extel Survey in 2011, the leading survey among companies and financial institutions. He is also author of the best-selling books: “Life In The Financial Markets” (Wiley, 2014), translated to Portuguese and Spanish ; The Energy World Is Flat” (Wiley, 2014, with Diego Parrilla), translated to Portuguese and Chinese ; “Escape from the Central Bank Trap” (2017, BEP), translated to Spanish. Mr Lacalle also contributes at CNBCWorld Economic ForumEpoch TimesMises InstituteHedgeyeZero HedgeFocus Economics, Seeking Alpha, El EspañolThe Commentator, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds a PhD in Economics, CIIA financial analyst title, with a post graduate degree in IESE and a master’s degree in economic investigation (UCV).

   
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