Vijay Kumar Gaba

The war in Ukraine; the economic slowdown in China; and the monetary policy dilemma in the US and India are some examples of problems where the administrators and policymakers seem to be hoping for divine intervention. I see the recent speech of the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium and the minutes of the last meeting of the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India in this light.

After 16 months of aggressive monetary tightening, the Fed is not confident whether they have done enough; or they have overdone with tightening or they are lagging behind. He reiterated that the policy is restrictive enough to anchor inflationary expectations, but still expressed fears that the high inflation might get entrenched in the economy and may require treatment at the expense of higher unemployment. Chairman Powell indeed sounded more like a sailor trapped in a storm, when he said, “We are navigating by the stars under cloudy skies”.

The situation in the US, as I see it from thirty-five thousand feet above sea level, is as follows:

·         The US Federal Reserve has hiked the key policy rates from near zero (0.25%) in March 2022 to 5.5% in August 2023. This is one of the steepest hikes in the past four decades.

·         The US financial system faces a serious challenge as MTM losses on the bond portfolios are accelerating; retail delinquencies have started to build up;

·         The positive real rates in the US are now 2% or higher. Despite these restrictive rates, the economy is not showing much sign of cooling down. The probability of growth acceleration in the US economy in the next couple of years is therefore remote.

·         Inflation continues to persist above 4% against a committed target of 2%. The household savings may therefore continue to shrink at an accelerated pace.

·         The mortgage rates are well above 7%, the highest in two decades. Housing affordability is at its worst in history.

·         The US government is paying close to US$1trn/year (about 20% of revenue) in interest on its borrowing, which is an unsustainable level.

·         The cost of borrowing (and interest burden) for the US government shall continue to rise for a few years at least as the Fed reduces its balance sheet, foreign governments cut on their demand for the US treasuries, and the rating of the US government’s debt face further downgrades. The fiscal pressures thus remain elevated.

·         The money supply (M1) in the US at US$19trn is about 4.5x of the pre-Covid levels. It may take years to normalize at the current speed of quantitative tightening (QT) by the Federal Reserve.

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The “Lower for Longer” narrative has metamorphosed quickly into “Higher for Longer”. However, analysts, economists, and strategists who are in their 30s may have never witnessed a major rate or inflation cycle in their professional careers. Their assessment of peak rates and peak inflation may be suffering from some limitations.

….to continue tomorrow

From whatever is happening around the world; and whatever is being prophesied about the future, at least the following five things are reasonably clear to me–

(i)    The economic growth is declining and it is not an immediate priority for the policy makers.

(ii)   The “innovative monetary policy” adopted post global financial crisis (GFC) has outlived their utility and is no longer effective. In fact the side effects of these policies are now appearing in most of the economies.

(iii)  No policy maker is in control of the economic events happening in their respective jurisdiction. Most have resorted to conventional means of policy management to tackle a situation which is largely created by unconventional policies, misplaced political aspirations; demographic transition; natural calamities; and egotistic pursuits of some political leaders.

(iv)   The cost of factors of production (wages, interest, material, and machines) is rising across the globe due to factors like demographic changes; under-investment in physical capacity building in the past 2 decades; climate change; and unwinding of unprecedented monetary stimulus.

(v)    The Indian markets are walking on a tightrope (of hope) passing through a deep valley of concerns like, worsening global macro; poor domestic macro; worsening valuation-corporate fundamental matrix; and tightening liquidity etc. The best case for markets is that it will cross the valley of concerns with no or little damage. The worst case is that it will lose balance and fall down. Generally speaking, the risk reward of investing in Indian markets is not very encouraging at this point in time.

In my view, the markets have already called the Central Bankers’ bluff, as I had expected five months ago (see Markets will call central bankers' bluff). There is no evidence of aggressive rate hikes leashing the prices; while growth has been crushed.

In the words of reputable William Hunt Gross (popularly known as Bill Gross), without interest rate “carry” (the positive difference between 2 and 10yr treasuries, for instance), our half-century-old, financed-based economy cannot thrive. In the 1980s the then Fed chairman Paul Volcker slayed 13% inflation by introducing a negative carry of 500bps or more for 3yrs. This resulted in a deep 3yr recession. Today central bankers are employing the same tactics, but our significantly higher levered economy cannot withstand the same amount of negative carry. The question is how much and for how long…..while inflation is the Fed’s seemingly solitary focus at the moment, economic growth and financial stability may soon gain equal importance……Recent events in UK, cracks in Chinese property based economy, war and a natural gas freeze in Europe, and a super strong dollar accelerating inflation in emerging market economies, point to the conclusion that today’s 2022 global economy in no way resembles Volcker’s in 1979. A negative carry of 500bps now would slay inflation but create a global depression."

Besides, Volcker tightened with the world progressing towards the end of the cold war era. Today, the world is entering an era of a fresh and perhaps more intensive cold war.

In India also, fissures have been reported in the Monetary Policy Committee. At least two members of the MPC have warned against unmindful rate hikes in the current circumstances.

My feeling is that central bankers would be forced to review their tactics and USD will revert to its rightful place. The only uncertainty is if this would happen well in time to avert a global depression.

Considering these circumstances, what should be the strategy of a small investor like me!

More on this tomorrow…