I saw “Too Big to Fail” on HBO last night, which by the way is the best movie depicting the financial crisis to date. I particularly enjoyed Giamatti playing Bernanke; he was surreal. Anyway, seeing the movie reminded me of how stupid the government is and how intent they were/are in disallowing deflation.
Well here we are, 3 years removed from that event, and we are dealing with a bigger problem: sovereign debt. However, this one is easier to solve because governments do not need to worry about moral hazard, since the issue at hand is survival and not private sector bullshit. In other words, there is no way they will let Greece or Portugal fail. No fucking way. They will inflate persistently until it’s no longer an option. I contend, the only way it all falls apart is if the Chinese bubble bursts. They are perceived to be the white knight in all of this, with all of the growth and cash. When that perception is tainted or destroyed, there will be a run for the exits on an epic scale. Until that happens, western economies will extend the game as long as they can print money, sending commodities higher.
I don’t know when the sovereign debt issues will be resolved. But rest assured, they will paper over it and the market response will be “inflationary.” Do you really think they will let it all collapse, after all they did, because the Greeks can’t balance a budget? Remember, we are not talking about Greece here, but the banks. The European banks own a lot of the debt. If Greece defaults, the banks will need to raise capital or fail. If they fail, so do we. It’s a global economy, for better or for worse.
From a traders standpoint, the goal is to stay in the game and not get blown up waiting for resolution. Starting today, barring material news of disastrous consequences, I will begin a campaign of buying up beaten down basic material stocks. I will buy a basket of names, all with better than average fundies, in an effort to capture the coming inflation trade, which will happen as sure as I am sitting here.
To do this, I will need to make some wholesale changes.
Stay tuned.
Comments »