This from Money Morning:

Commentators are tripping over one another to declare this country or that country’s stimulus package as a primary reason to pour money into its stock market. Yet if you look at the highly damaging long-term effects of such loose monetary and fiscal policies, an investor can come to only one conclusion: You should invest in the country with the smallest stimulus package.

Stimulus packages are all the rage right now. President-elect Barack Obama has promised an $800 billion package for the United States, which equates to nearly 7% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). And there are plenty of others:

• Japan has a stimulus package of $720 billion – roughly 14% of GDP.
• South Korea plans two stimulus packages – the larger of them “green” – totaling about $50 billion, or about 6% of GDP.
• Great Britain is expected to inject about $177 billion into its economy, the equivalent of 8% of GDP.
• France has a modest $40 billion stimulus package in place but that’s on top of a $300 billion European Union (EU) stimulus package, so the total’s about 3% of GDP.
• China has announced a $586 billion stimulus – almost 20% of GDP – and now appears to have decided even that is too little.

Then there’s Germany. When the British stimulus was announced, Germany’s finance minister, Peer Steinbruck, described it as “crass Keynesianism.” Since then, he’s been forced to back off that stance a bit: On Jan. 12, Germany announced a stimulus plan totaling $70 billion over two years.

Still, even that is only is a relatively modest 2% of GDP, and Germany’s 2009 budget deficit – even with the stimulus – is projected to come in at less than 3% of GDP. That’s far less of a deficit than the country faced during the 2001-2003 recession, and means that Germany enjoys one of the soundest fiscal positions of any country in the world.

Germany’s short-term economic outlook is unexciting, as is currently the case for most countries. According to The Economist, the country’s GDP is forecast to shrink by 1.4% in 2009, after actually advancing 1.0% in 2008. That’s equal to the Euro zone average and equal to Japan, a bit less than the United States (projected at minus 1.2%), but better than Britain (minus 1.7%). But at a projected 1.0%, at least inflation at 1% is expected to be satisfactorily low.

Where Germany stands out, however, is when you look at its balance of payments, which is in surplus by $265 billion in the year to November 2008 – the equivalent of 6.6% of GDP. That immediately distinguishes it from the finance-based economies of the United States and Britain, both of which have perennial balance-of-payment deficits.

The most impressive thing about the German payments surplus is that it is achieved against a background of some of the highest wage rates in the world, very heavy tax and Social Security costs and a strong euro exchange rate. Even though it has among the world’s highest labor costs, Germany also has among the world’s highest labor skill levels, and those are more concentrated in manufacturing than in finance or business services, making the German economy less vulnerable to this finance-based recession or to erosion through globalization.

Like other countries, Germany will see its exports hit by this global recession, but it has the ability to grow domestic demand to compensate without affecting its budget or payments position.

For a decade and a half, the German economy and its budget were bedeviled by the huge costs of integrating the former communist East Germany into the West. However, that was a one-off cost; anyone who graduated high school in East Germany under Communism before 1989 is now nearing 40, so younger workers have been given the education and training common to their splendidly productive West German counterparts. From about 2005 on, the drag on the budget and on productivity from East German integration costs has begun to decline, and it will continue declining in the years ahead.

With its low budget deficit and large payments surplus, Germany is the strongest economy in the EU. It is potentially the strongest economy in the world; while the United States, Japan and Britain will struggle for years with the nasty side-effects of their massive government-stimulus spending, Germany will remain in sound shape.

It is thus likely that over the next few years, the huge flows of “safe haven” money that for decades helped prop up the U.S. Treasuries market will flow instead into the German bund and equities markets: After all, where the hell else is there? That will reduce German interest rates and increase multiples on German stocks. For an international investor, it thus becomes essential to have a significant part of your portfolio in German stocks.

What to buy? Well, for a start there’s the German exchange-traded fund (ETF), the iShares MSCI Germany Index (NYSE:EWG). At $334 million, it’s surprisingly small, but it has a Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio of 9.6, and a yield of 6.6%, so this ETF provides decent income as well as a broad exposure to the German market.

There are eight German companies whose American Depository Receipts (ADRs) have a full sponsored listing on the New York Stock Exchange (several others have moved to the Pink Sheets recently because of the costs of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance).

Of these, Allianz SE (ADR:AZ) and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) are both caught up in the travails of the global financial-services sector, while financial services industry’s travails, while Daimler AG (DAI) offers the limited prospects of the automotive industry (though Daimler’s a good bet once economic recovery is clearly in sight). Infineon Technologies AG (ADR: IFX), a semiconductor manufacturer, and Qimonda AG (ADR: QI), a maker of computer memory devices, are each currently making losses.

That means there are only three other possible recommendations, which is why, if you want a broad exposure to the German market, you should also consider a mutual fund or an ETF like EWG.

Deutsche Telekom AG (ADR:DT) is Germany’s traditional fixed-line telephone service, which has mobile operations and that also has increased revenue by providing high-speed Internet access services. Based on both 2008 and 2009 earnings, the P/E ratio of its shares is a somewhat high 15. On the other hand, however, the stock’s dividend yield is better than 8%. A dividend cut must be possible, but the company in general seems fairly recession-proof.

SAP AG (ADR:SAP), the well-known international maker and marketer of enterprise software, has a lower dividend yield of only 2.1%, but much better earnings-growth prospects: 2009 is currently projected ahead of 2008. At 14 times earnings, the stock currently looks cheap for this sector.

Siemens AG (ADR:SI) is active in a broad range of heavy equipment, including items such as locomotives and electric power plants – the very kinds of businesses that are likely to benefit from heavy “stimulus” spending worldwide, especially infusions aimed at infrastructure development, which is very much the case in China.

With Siemens having recovered from losses in 2006, the company’s shares are now trading on only 8 times estimated earnings for the year to September 2009, with a dividend yield of 3.7%. They seem attractively priced.

Source: Four Ways to Profit From the Country With the Smallest Stimulus Package

It must now be horribly clear to everybody with an investment portfolio – indeed, to anyone who watches the financial markets – that no country or sector is safe from a bear market of the magnitude of the one we’re suffering through right now. When stocks get marked down en masse, as they have, literally everything drops.

What’s more, there may be very little rationale for which stocks drop — or how much they drop by: When the wave of selling meets very few buyers, good stocks can easily fall more than bad ones.

Does that mean it’s a waste of time to search for a “safe haven?”

Absolutely not. Assuming you have the fortitude to avoid selling during the worst of this mess, the storm will eventually blow itself out. At that point, investors will look around at the wreckage, and start figuring out which stocks represent good value. Good stocks and countries without major economic problems will then bounce – and bounce big.

A few smart cookies that stayed out of the market until it bottomed will buy them and win big. The rest of us – who didn’t see the storm coming, but who invested in “safe haven” stocks – will see the majority of our portfolio value restored fairly quickly, while other investments languish near the bottom, or even drop further, possibly even failing altogether.

It is difficult to assess which sectors will be best able to shrug off the storm (obviously housing and financial services remain highly vulnerable), but we can identify some alluring safe-haven countries by employing several rules. As you analyze markets around the world, look for a country that:

* Hasn’t had a major housing boom during the last few years. Housing-price declines of 30%, 40% or 50% make a huge mess of the country’s mortgage system, and the fallout can reach far beyond the housing sector itself. Apart from the United States, countries like Britain and Spain are to be avoided. In Great Britain, London housing and related real estate became almost as overvalued as 1980s Tokyo property – far outstripping anything that happened here in the United States. And Spain experienced massive overbuilding in resort areas – most of it highly speculative.

* Is competently run from a macroeconomic standpoint, without any great tendency toward huge bailouts or Keynesian deficit-spending projects. Japan qualified on these grounds until recently, but the new Prime Minister Taro Aso wants to increase the already-excessive budget deficit with infrastructure spending (thereby even further increasing Japan’s already-excessive public debt). Deficits are a real problem in a recession: They are difficult to finance, choke off potential private-sector investments, increase interest rates and may require damagingly large tax increases to sort out.

* Does not have a huge balance-of-payments deficit or large international debt – either of which becomes difficult to finance as capital flows decline.

* Has interest rates that are close to – or are above – its rate of inflation. Very low interest rates distort an economy, and generally necessitate unpleasant deflationary action at some point in order to avoid rapidly rising inflation.

Of the major global economies in which a U.S. investor might reasonably buy stocks, the four that really meet these criteria are Canada, Brazil, South Korea and Germany. Let’s take a close look at each one:

* Canada has just re-elected a conservative government, increasing its parliamentary representation. It has low inflation of around 3%, short-term interest rates just above 2%, a modest payments surplus and a modest budget surplus. It had a moderate housing boom, with prices rising about 65% in the 2000-2007 time frame, but its bank bailout was a quarter the size of the U.S. bailout, if measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). Canada is a well-balanced economy between commodities and manufactured goods; it will suffer from the U.S. downturn, but represents sound value over the longer term. The TSX Composite Index is down about 42% from its June 2008 peak, about the same as the U.S. market, but the Canadian economic picture appears to be much more sound. One last point: Although this certainly isn’t a make-or-break requirement, it is worth noting that investing icon Warren Buffett has made highly favorable comments about the Canadian economy.

* Brazil has reduced its foreign debt to about 40% of GDP and kept inflation under control at around 6% by running an admirably tight monetary policy, with a short-term rate of 13.75%. Its economy is primarily commodity-based, with a broad range of exports, but it also has a substantial manufacturing sector. The Bovespa stock index is down 62% from its May peak, and Brazilian stocks are distinctly cheap. Provided Brazil avoids a debt default, the bounce here should be a healthy one.

* South Korea elected a pro-business government in February. It is a major exporter of manufacturing goods and importer of commodities, which this year gave it a rare balance-of-payments deficit that should now reverse if commodity prices stay lower. Its banks avoided the U.S. subprime mortgage market, and are generally solid, although domestic lending is rather high. The country has an inflation rate of 5% and short-term interest rates – after an Oct. 27 cut – of 4.25%. Economic growth is around 4%, and the country boasts a budget surplus.  The stock market is down 55% from its October 2007 high, and should bounce significantly if commodity prices stay down.

* Germany is growing slowly – at a slow-but-steady 1% to 2% – but it has a static population, meaning that represents real per-capita growth. It had no recent housing boom (so no major domestic debt problem), and has low inflation, Germany also has improved its cost position considerably relative to its Eurozone neighbors, with a substantial balance-of-payments surplus, and is currently benefiting from the decline in East German restructuring costs, which hampered the economy during the decade and a half between 1990 and 2005.  The DAX stock market index is down 46% from its December 2007 high, meaning many bargains may be available. The main negative: Germany’s banks are quite heavily exposed to Eastern Europe, where several countries appear to have serious debt and balance-of-payment problems. If the problem is as big as some experts are starting to allege, this safe-haven candidate may need to be re-evaluated. But for now, Germany remains on our list.

Source: Four “Safe Haven” Markets For U.S. Investors

– European stocks are getting trashed. According to the Financial Times, “Dizzying falls across the [financial] sector came across the continent and led to big overall losses on leading indices.”

– There are calls for a European-wide fund to recapitalize banks. So far, European governments are acting individually to stem the crisis.

– Iceland, meanwhile, has suspended trading in banks before the bell this morning.

– Asia-Pacific markets have tumbled. The Nikkei 225 dropped to the lowest in four and a half years. Meanwhile, the MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan stocks index was on track for the biggest daily decline since January 2008, down 5.3 per cent.”

– US stock futures have also dived. “S&P 500 futures fell 29.7 points to 1,078.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 34.5 points to 1,443.00. Dow industrial futures fell 264 points,” according to MarketWatch.

– “We now believe national recessions in the US and the UK will be deeper and longer than previously forecast,” said Larry Hatheway, an economist at UBS in London. “For the first time, we also anticipate recession in the euro zone.”

– Oil is down below $90 a barrel this morning. It’s the lowest price per barrel in eight months.

– Gold futures are up more than 3%, however. “Gold for December delivery rallied $27.10 to $860.30 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex,” according to MarketWatch.

– According to gold bug Ed Bugos, the yellow metal should skyrocket on recent massive expansion of bank credit by the Fed. This from Agora Financial’s 5 Min. Forecast:

The Federal Reserve has just expanded its balance sheet more in one month than it has in almost all of its first 86 years of existence. I am not kidding. Its assets, which represent the cumulative reserves the Fed has ‘created,’ totaled less than $700 billion at the turn of the millennium, and continued to expand by about $50 billion per year after that, up until this month.

In September alone, reserve bank credit inflated by almost $600 billion. It is a record, and has already affected the monetary base.

Up until September, the Fed has been careful to sterilize its liquidity provisions by selling Treasuries or reverse repos or simply by lending its securities off balance sheet. So while it has extended credit since August 2007, it has not monetized much of the liquidity. But the NET factor of increase to reserve bank credit for the month of September was about $170 billion. That is money created out of thin air… unsterilized.

This number is unprecedented. It is difficult to predict gold’s short-term response to this shock, but the market cannot ignore the fundamental effect of this crackup for long. With interventions like this, we should get a few more $100-up days soon enough.”

The iShares MSCI Germany ETF will make a lot of people a lot of money in the next 12 weeks… but not everyone.

This chart shows EWG trading at a critical support level. A rule of thumb for trading is that major support lines normally hold while minor support levels usually break. What that means for EWG is uncertainty: a jump back to recent highs or a fall off a cliff.

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I’m biased towards a fall off the cliff. Just look at momentum getting ready to turn negative like Karl Rove in a presidential campaign.

Not to mention that manufacturing numbers show a fall of 2.4% when economists expected a rise of 0.3%.

Source:  Short the iShares MSCI Germany ETF (EWG)