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BEST OF DOUG NOLAND
July 11, 2006
In the context of a Credit system remaining stubbornly overheated in
the face of a cooling U.S. housing market, a powerful inflationary bias
in an arena of such potential enormity (energy/energy-related) is quite
significant. Credit Inflation/Bubbles innately expand and nurture
fledgling Bubbles to support and perhaps even supplant the aged. An
appreciation of this dynamic is today analytically invaluable. It is
exactly this dynamic that leaves me skeptical of the notion that the
Goldilocks economy will duly cooperate; that the timorous Fed can
painlessly wrap things up; and that the scrawny bond bear has had his
fill.
And while I keep an open mind to possible intermediate and long-term
developments, the current environment is inarguably inflationary…..
Today, I would strongly argue that the U.S. domestic economy and the
general global economy are enveloped by Credit Bubble Influences and
Dynamics. Most importantly, this infers powerful propensities toward
ongoing Credit excess, heightened inflationary pressures, unwieldy
speculation, and maladjusted economic expansion. Credit systems and
economies that have attained marked momentum will be restrained only by
a significant tightening of financial conditions – today either by
concerted and aggressive central bank rate increases and/or financial
dislocation. Current market yields are not sufficiently restrictive and
become only less so as bonds rally to the idea of the end of the Fed
"tightening" cycle.
That bond markets seem so willing to dismiss the possibility on an
intransigent global inflationary boom has me rather fascinated. I would
suggest, however, that any decline in market yields at this point plays
right into the hands of ongoing Credit Inflation and Problematic Excess
(not to mention $80 crude!). And whether it is willing to accept the
responsibility or not, it appears it will be the bond market that must
at some point wrest power away from the brutish inflationary boom. This
is not the ‘90’s; there’s no slack left in global resource markets; $800
billion Current Account Deficits are a disaster in the making; dollar
prospects are a serious global issue; and this synchronized global boom
has "trouble" written all over it. And that’s about as Concise as I get.
Doug Noland is a market strategist at Prudent Bear Funds. Their
website is www.prudentbear.com. |