Oil didn’t move yesterday. Neither did gold.

The Wall Street Journal reported that markets were reacting to “mixed data”.

That is to say, some reports were encouraging. Others were not. It was as if one weather forecaster called for a blizzard. The other for sunny skies and warm temperatures. Investors didn’t know how to dress.

Among the dark clouds was an item on the falloff in tax revenues. States are having a hard time balancing their books, because their tax receipts are declining. The WSJ reports that they are running 17% below last year.

Since states cannot print money, they’re forced to make cutbacks – typically reducing hours worked per employee as well as the total number of employees. This is a bad thing, says the report, because it increases unemployment and lowers the wage base. This leads to less consumer spending.

Another little cloud appeared yesterday (in addition to the consumer confidence numbers): the vacation timeshare market is collapsing at a record pace.

Well, don’t worry about it. We met a guy who explained the timeshare business to us.

“What you’re selling is a dream. You bring them to the property. You make sure they have a good time. And then you do to the numbers with them. You show them how much they save by coming to your property rather than on a typical vacation. And then you show them the other properties that they can exchange for. They think they can buy a cheap property and then exchange with an expensive timeshare. But it doesn’t work that way. They get stuck in the cheap unit and the dream gets a little faded… And then, they stop coming… and then they try to sell the timeshare. Timeshares are rarely a good investment.”

Besides, timeshares are a small, quirky part of the housing picture anyway. The real story is in the regular housing market. There, if you believe the forecasters, it’s sunny skies.

House prices seem to be stabilising. In some areas, they are going up. Of course, in some places you can get a house at half the price it sold for two years ago. That lures buyers back into the market. If we wanted a house to live in, we might be tempted too. That’s why we like falling housing prices: we get more for our money. But most people want a rising housing market. They think it makes them richer.

They’re likely to be disappointed. They show up at the beach with their umbrellas and sun-tan lotion… just as a winter storm hits the coast.

Forbes lists eight reasons to “remain worried about housing”.

• The federal tax credit, worth $8,000, is set to expire at the end of November. That will make housing $8,000 more expensive for first-time buyers.

• The Fed is also ending its $1.45 trillion shopping spree. It has been supporting housing by buying mortgage-backed derivatives. What will happen when it stops?

• Mortgage lending standards are tightening up generally.

• Houses are still not cheap. Forbes cites Shiller’s numbers, putting the average house price 41% higher than it was in 2000. Incomes did not increase during that period; ergo, houses are still too expensive.

• Damaged psychology. It will take time for potential homeowners to get over the shock of a bear market.

• The end of summer has arrived. Housing sales always go up in the summer. People relocate in summer, during the school break. Then, sales fall with the autumn leaves.

• There are still huge numbers of houses that will be repossessed. Forbes says only 12% of option ARMs have been reset. More repossessions will increase the supply of desperate sellers and decrease prices.

• There’s a ‘shadow inventory’ hanging over the housing market. It could be vast. Everyone knew it would be hard to sell a house in 2009. Many potential sellers held back, waiting for the market to stabilise. As they put their houses up for sale, that too will hold prices down.

Some wiseacre economist has probably already come up with eight reasons why housing prices will go up. But the key thing to recall is that this is a depression. It’s a major restructuring of the economy, not a standard post-war recession. After 64 years, the consumer has finally rung a bell. He has reached his limit. He cannot borrow more. He cannot spend more. He is finally cutting back. That fact will echo through the entire world economy – and through the US housing market – for many years.

Houses, like stocks and corpses, may bounce. But they will not begin a real bull market again for a long, long time.

***Our old friend Marc Faber is “highly confident” that things will turn out badly.

“The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society,” he writes.

“We have a money-printer at the Fed,” he continues, which guarantees runaway inflation, wholesale debasement of the dollar, and a major lowering of living standards for most Americans and many Europeans as well.

Meanwhile, Paul Volcker says that China’s rise merely “highlights the relative decline of the US.”

So there you have it: China on the way up, America on the way down .

That’s the drama that we’re watching every day here at the Daily Reckoning. In our view, the peak of US wealth and power probably came during the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Lehman Brothers. But there are probably a lot more shoes to drop before people are fully aware of what is going on.

The way we see it, almost the entire 20th century was a mistake, a dead end. Europeans were clearly on top of the world when the century began. Then, after WWI the Europeans in America took the lead role. But WWI shook their faith in their evolving political order.

Not long after, German hyperinflation and the Great Depression shook their faith in their economic and financial order. This left a huge vacuum, which was soon filled by ruthless adventurers and ideological schemers. Much of the rest of the century – from 1939 to 1989 – was spent in hot wars and cold wars against these Bolsheviks, Fascists, Stalinists and Maoists.

In the end, the more reasonable and consensual societies of the West won the battle. But they, too, were transformed by 50 years of war and nearly a century of bad ideas .

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you,” Nietzsche warned.

Looking into the abyss created by Mussolini, Hitler, Tojo, Pol Pot and the rest, Western societies decided both to fight them and to join them. Tax rates soared. Regulations multiplied. University professors taught socialism, Freudianism, modernism, cubism, feminism, racism… and every other ‘ism’ they could think of. Parents spent good money to send their children to universities that turned them into mush-heads.

And – perhaps most ominous – in the United States of America, the military grew into a greedy, grasping goliath… the very thing Eisenhower had warned against.

Then, there were counter-trends in the 1980s… led by Margaret Thatcher in England and Ronald Reagan in the US. But these were mostly frauds . Top marginal tax rates were rolled back. And there were some cuts in regulatory procedures. But government spending tended to go up anyway. Worse, Ronald Reagan mistook the Soviet Union for a genuine threat and increased military spending even further to combat it.

And now, the US staggers under the weight of its eternal wars… its imperial illusions … and its everlasting efforts to provide bread and circuses. If it kept its books like a private enterprise, it would be broke. If it were a public corporation, it would be de-listed.

Still, it spends and spends… and there is no stopping the spending. Trillions are spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for no apparent reason. But who complains? Too much money is at stake. There are too many lobbyists for too many industries and too many special interests involved. Military spending – even in a time when America faces no substantial challengers – cannot be rolled back. Neither can social spending.

Marc Faber is right. There too, there are too many people with too many dogs in this fight. Both military and social spending will continue to expand until the empire is ruined.

Until tomorrow,

Bill Bonner

Source: A Century of Bad Ideas

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well… The currencies, for the most part, kept the heat on the dollar throughout the day and in the overnight markets. The euro, did rise to 1.45 and change yesterday, while it is hovering right at that figure this morning, so it did give a little bit back.

There were no big announcements last night like we saw on Monday, so the currencies didn’t have anything to push them further. In fact, there may be a “letting the dust settle” period of time, with the Big Dog, euro, before we see any further advancement, given the euro’s huge gains yesterday…

We did have “Mr. Yen” Sakakibara, tell a crowd of people that he believed the dollar would remain the world’s reserve currency for 20 years… Hmmm… Apparently, the IMF and UN haven’t let him in on the news that they desperately want to do something about the dollar! Not to mention the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, of whom, have already stated their case for a change!

Chinese stocks were up again last night, so that could lead the way to further gains by stocks here in the U.S., which would bring even more risk takers out of the walls… That is, of course as long as the trading pattern that has existed for 9 months remains in place!

I did read something last night about a complete collapse of Consumer Borrowing here in the U.S…. Hmmm… Well, on one hand, if that’s true, that would mean that Consumer spending is down, and saving has replaced it, and that would be a good thing! On the other hand… Consumer Spending is like 70% of our economy… Or was 70% of our economy I guess I should say! And if we’re going to see a further slowing of spending, then you can kiss the thought of a “V” shaped recession good-bye! Bye now… Don’t go away mad… Just go away!

Gold was unable to hold $1,000 yesterday and last night… I was talking to my Publisher for the Currency Capitalist letter yesterday, and I was telling her, that while I’m a firm believer that this stock market rally is going to crash and burn, bringing all risk assets along to the fire, which would adversely affect the prices of currencies, and commodities, including Gold… There’s no mistaking the appearance of a rush to Gold in the past week… And why did the rush occur? Well, to me, as I explained yesterday, it’s simply an understanding that inflation is on the other side of what we are now experiencing, and if you can pick Gold up now at those levels that existed last week (sub $1,000), why not, before it takes off?

So… I was assigned to write a piece on Gold… See how that works in the Publishing biz? You mouth off with your thoughts, and the next thing you know, you’re doing research for a piece that has to be done in 3 days or so! UGH! But… The thing I thought of was simply this… We may, and I’m not sure yet, but we may be getting to a new level, where I used to say I thought it was good to buy Gold when it dipped below $900… That might have to be changed to $1,000… That is, if we don’t have the crash and burn…

Getting back to the crash and burn thing… I know, I know, I’ve been talking about this for a couple of months now… And no sign of crashing or burning… Yet! But, then maybe there won’t be any crashing and burning as long as the markets are manipulated… I was doing some research the other day, and came across something that plays well with my manipulated theory… The stocks of Fannie (NYSE:FNM), Freddie (NYSE:FRE), AIG, and… Oh shoot! I’ve forgotten the 4th one… It’s a Gov’t owned company… SHOOT! Oh well, it doesn’t matter, these 4 stocks were accounting for over 40% of the volume each day in the stock market… Usually these 4 account for about .3%… What’s going on here folks? I’ve got a boat load of conspiracy theories about what’s going on… But I’ll leave that up to your imagination!

The Commodity currencies, that were so strong yesterday, have given some ground back VS the dollar overnight. The only thing that makes sense to me here, is that it is profit taking… For, these Commodity Currencies, (except Canadian loonies) have yield advantage over the dollar… Shoot Rudy, they have yield advantage over all the major currencies… Euro, yen, sterling and dollars! And for the most part, interest rates in these countries will be the first to rise beginning later this year… So, it had to be profit taking!

But, what do I always say, when there’s profit taking? That’s right! It gives us a chance to buy at cheaper levels!

One currency that continues to baffle me and probably many others with its rise from the ashes, is pound sterling… (cable, as currency traders call it) I’ve had quite a few readers send me notes asking me about sterling’s strength, given the fact that the U.K. is probably in more dookie than the U.S…. There are two things I can think of that probably explain it… But even these don’t do that good of a job explaining this rise in sterling…

1. the talk of using SDR’s… SDR’s currently consist of: euro, yen, sterling and dollars. So, if SDR’s get wider use, then more sterling will have to be bought by the IMF (who issues the SDR’s)
2. The crosses… Because most of the currencies are rallying and have been rallying against the dollar since March, sterling gets dragged higher in the crosses…

I’ve explained these crosses many times in the past, so I’ll just touch on it here… Whenever you buy a currency, you have to sell a currency… So the two currencies that make up that trade are called a “pair”… These are also called “crosses”… Here in the U.S. we only think of dollar VS a currency… But all over the world, people are crossing euros for yen, and vice versa, Swiss francs for Aussie dollars, etc. A lot of those crosses, have sterling in them, and therefore, sterling gets dragged higher… Not a fundamental thing…

But we’ve seen this over the years, especially with yen… And the dollar of course!

Well… You might have missed this news yesterday… But the U.S. Senate is going to have to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 Trillion by mid-October! Hmmm… Anyone have a guess as to who blocked the raising of the debt ceiling in 2006 and said… “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren”? It’s the same person that is now that same person is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling to $13 Trillion…

But, the reality of this is that our Budget Deficit this year will be $1.6 Trillion, by Gov’t accounting standards… By Chuck standards, it will be $2.5 Trillion when it’s all said and done… And we just keep finding more ways to spend money we don’t have, don’t we? I’m going to stop here, because this all just ticks me off, and I don’t want to say something that will fill my email box with name calling emails…

Did you see the story in the Washington Post regarding the resetting of ARM’s? and I’m not talking about the arms that get broken on the playground and have to be reset… I’m talking about Adjustable Rate Mortgages… Here’s the skinny from the Washington Post story…

“Between now and 2011, roughly 70% of option ARMs, with a total value of about $189 billion, will reset.” The rating agency, Fitch, put together the numbers and did the research… And none of spells good times for home owners that are already stretched to make mortgage payments.

Here’s how I believe they work… Option ARMs, also called pick-a-pay loans, allow borrowers to choose how much to pay each month. Nearly all the borrowers who took out this type of loan from 2004 to 2007 chose to pay less than the interest due. Sometimes they paid as little as 1 percent interest. But the loans eventually require the borrowers to start paying the principal and full interest rate, so the payments shoot up.

So… This mortgage meltdown will continue to remain in the news, eh? $134 Billion of these ARMs will reset in the next two years, and the monthly payments are expected to jump 63% on average, or $1,053 per month, for loans adjusting this year and next… Can you imagine getting that letter in the mail? Dear Homeowner, your next mortgage payment will be xxxxxx…

That’s a really sad thing… Very sad…
But… Another reason why I say this is a depression and not a recession! It’s going to carry on, and on, and on…

There was more Happy Days (NOT!) news in the Washington Post yesterday… “There is little chance U.S. taxpayers will recover all of the billion spent on rescuing Chrysler and General Motors, according to a report by the Congressional Oversight Panel.”

Great! But in reality, we didn’t expect to recover it did we? I know I didn’t! The Gov’t doesn’t have a good track record of preventing losses much less recovering them.. And I’m not just talking about the current brand of Gov’t… It goes back many years…

My friend, David Galland, gave a quick history lesson in his letter this past weekend… While this may be depressing, it does give what I said above, credence…

A Quick History Lesson

The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. So they’ve had 234 years to make it work. It is broke.

Social Security was established in 1935. They’ve had 74 years to make it work. It is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938. They’ve had 71 years to make it work. It is broke.

Freddie Mac was established in 1970. They’ve had 39 years to make it work. It is broke.

The War on Poverty started in 1964. They’ve had 45 years to make it work. About $1 trillion of taxpayer money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor.” It hasn’t worked.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. They’ve had 44 years to make it work. They are both broke.

AMTRAK was established in 1970. They’ve had 39 years to make it work. Last year it had to be bailed out and today continues running at a loss.

$700 billion bailout of 2008. It has yet to create a single new private-sector job.
Cash for Clunkers in 2009 went broke after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign companies.

Now that it’s put like that in black and white, it sure doesn’t look good does it?

I really got on a roll today regarding the goings on in the U.S. and didn’t pay much attention to the currencies… But, that’s because they are trading in yesterday’s clothes this morning… With no data to talk about yesterday, and so on…

The data cupboard only yields the Fed’s Beige Book for us this afternoon… For those of you who don’t know what this entails… The Fed’s Beige Book is a summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by each Federal Reserve District. It’s printed 8 times per year, and usually about two weeks before a FOMC meeting. (Federal Open Market Committee) It was once believed that the Fed Heads would use the findings in the Beige Book to help them make their decisions on monetary and fiscal policies…

I say, “It was once believed” because… After reading Bill Fleckenstein’s great book about Ignorance at the Fed Reserve, Greenspan’s Bubbles, I was scratching my head asking, but I thought the Beige Book was used to help make those decisions that Big Al Greenspan made?

So… Again, no real data today… So the currencies will get their direction once again from stocks… And like I said above, the Chinese stock markets was good to go overnight…

OK… So… Before I go to the Big Finish, let me recap today… The currencies held onto gains, albeit giving back small amounts in what appears to be profit taking. The Senate needs to raise the $12.1 Trillion debt ceiling. $189 Billion in Option ARMs are coming due in the next three years, and no data today should leave currencies to be directed by stocks, that is if the trading pattern holds.

Currencies today 9/9/09: A$ .8615, kiwi .6969, C$ .9245, euro 1.45, sterling 1.6505, Swiss .9560, rand 7.5525, krone 5.9375, SEK 7.0575, forint 186.70, zloty 2.84, koruna 17.60, RUB 31.18, yen 92.40, sing 1.4260, HKD 7.75, INR 48.50, China 6.8285, pesos 13.35, BRL 1.8290, dollar index 77.29, Oil $70.90, 10-year 3.48%, Silver $16.36, and Gold… $996.35

That’s it for today

Chuck Butler

Source: Currencies Hold Their Gains…