What Interest Rates Going Down Really Means For The World
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the opaque nature of the modern monetary system, highlighting how authorities have lost track of money supply and demand due to the proliferation of financial products. It underscores the importance of bond yields as a critical signal, offering insights into the monetary system in the absence of direct knowledge. The script emphasizes that the recent powerful rallies in global government bonds, including Chinese bonds, could indicate increased demand for safety and liquidity, potentially signaling underlying risks in the economy and financial system that authorities may be overlooking or unable to fully comprehend.
Takeaways
- 🔑 The bond market is becoming more important as a signal for monitoring monetary conditions, as central banks are unable to accurately measure money supply and demand due to the complexity and evolution of the monetary system.
- 💰 Central banks have lost insight into the monetary system due to the proliferation of financial products, non-bank entities, and the globalization of the dollar system (the 'eurodollar' system), rendering traditional money supply measures obsolete.
- 🚨 The lack of understanding of the modern monetary system by central banks and regulators poses significant risks, as evidenced by the global financial crisis of 2008, which they failed to anticipate or effectively address.
- 📈 Rallies in government bond yields, such as those seen recently in China and globally, can signal increased demand for safety and liquidity, potentially indicating underlying economic or financial risks.
- 🕳️ The monetary system is likened to a 'black hole,' whose impact on the surrounding environment (the economy and financial markets) can be observed, but whose inner workings remain opaque.
- 🔍 In the absence of direct monetary knowledge, market signals like bond yields and other esoteric curves provide the next best approximation of insight into the state of the monetary system.
- 🌐 The evolution of the monetary system is a global phenomenon, with the Chinese system undergoing a similar transformation as Western economies, leading to increased opacity and challenges for their central bank.
- 🏦 Non-bank entities, such as mutual funds and other financial institutions, have played a significant role in reshaping the monetary landscape, further complicating central banks' ability to monitor and manage the system.
- 💼 Regulators and authorities have failed to take substantive action to address the information gap and lack of understanding of the modern monetary system, even after the 2008 crisis.
- 🛡️ The demand for safe and liquid assets, as reflected in bond rallies, raises questions about potential risks in the economy, financial system, and opaque sectors like commercial real estate.
Q & A
What is the main topic discussed in the transcript?
-The main topic discussed is the lack of transparency and understanding regarding the monetary system, money supply, and money demand by central banks and regulatory authorities, particularly since the eurodollar evolution in the 1970s and 1980s.
Why are bond yields becoming increasingly important, according to the transcript?
-Bond yields are becoming increasingly important because they serve as a proxy or signal for understanding the state of the monetary system and economy, as central banks have lost direct insight into money supply and demand due to the proliferation of financial products and the evolution of the monetary system.
In 1999, the Federal Reserve realized that they had lost track of the monetary system, and the traditional measures like M1, M2, and M3 were no longer accurate proxies for money, as the world had changed and the old equations were no longer working.
-null
What does the transcript suggest about the global nature of the monetary system issue?
-The transcript suggests that the lack of understanding of the monetary system is a global affair, not just limited to the United States. It mentions that the eurodollar system transformed the monetary systems and methodologies worldwide.
What is the significance of the recent powerful bond rally in China, according to the transcript?
-The powerful bond rally in China, with 10-year rates falling below the policy rate, is seen as a strong signal that the monetary system participants are indicating concerns about the economy and financial system, similar to the bond market signals in other parts of the world.
Why does the transcript suggest that authorities should have taken a deeper look at understanding the monetary system after the global financial crisis of 2008?
-The transcript suggests that authorities should have taken a deeper look at understanding the monetary system after the 2008 financial crisis because it was a monetary crisis that defied central banks' efforts to alleviate the problem, highlighting the lack of understanding of the underlying monetary system.
What is the significance of the rise of non-bank entities and financial products mentioned in the transcript?
-The rise of non-bank entities like mutual funds and the proliferation of financial products is highlighted as a major factor contributing to the increasing complexity and opaqueness of the monetary system, making it more difficult for central banks to understand and track money supply and demand.
What does the transcript suggest about the lack of data and transparency in international liquidity and repo markets?
-The transcript cites a report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) acknowledging the complexity of global US dollar funding markets, data gaps, and the opaqueness of transactions occurring between non-banks, particularly those outside the United States, hindering efforts to monitor and manage risks.
Why does the transcript emphasize the importance of understanding the monetary system in relation to the risks faced in 2024?
-The transcript emphasizes the importance of understanding the monetary system because it would help better define and map out the risks faced in 2024, such as the commercial real estate problems in the United States, Europe, and China, which have clear and strong potential to harm the economy and create financial volatility.
What is the significance of the bond market signals and other esoteric curves mentioned in the transcript?
-In the absence of direct monetary knowledge, the transcript suggests that bond market signals and other esoteric curves serve as the next best thing, providing useful information and insights into the monetary system and the risks faced, as they reflect the trading activity and views of monetary participants themselves.
Outlines
🌍 The Critical Role of Bond Yields in Financial Insight
Paragraph 1 explores the importance of government bond yields, such as the recent low yields in Chinese government bonds and similar trends in other global bonds, as critical financial indicators in the absence of traditional monetary signals like money supply and demand. This shift, largely attributed to changes in monetary operations since the 1970s and 80s and the Eurodollar evolution, has left traditional monetary policy tools less effective, forcing reliance on bond yields for financial insights. The paragraph references historical perspectives, including Alan Greenspan's 1990s warnings about the Federal Reserve's (Fed) limited insight into monetary conditions, to underscore the current reliance on bond yields for understanding the global financial state.
🔍 Rethinking Money: The Challenge of Defining Monetary Phenomena
Paragraph 2 delves into the complexities of defining what constitutes money in the modern financial system. Despite inflation being a monetary phenomenon, identifying a consistent measure for money (e.g., M1, M2, M3) has become increasingly challenging due to the evolving nature of financial instruments and the rise of non-bank entities. This evolution has rendered traditional monetary aggregates ineffective, reflecting the Fed's and other central banks' struggles to track and understand money supply and demand, leading to a reliance on policy-driven interest rate adjustments rather than direct monetary interventions.
🌐 Global Financial Complexity and the Quest for Monetary Clarity
Paragraph 3 addresses the ongoing challenges in comprehending the global monetary system, highlighted by the Bank for International Settlements' (BIS) 2020 report on the opacity of US dollar funding markets and the difficulties in mapping cross-border transactions. The Eurodollar revolution, alongside the proliferation of non-bank financial institutions and innovative financial products, has compounded these challenges. The failure to fully grasp these complex dynamics, especially in critical areas like repo markets and international liquidity, underscores the systemic risks and the need for better data and understanding of monetary flows.
📉 Bond Markets as Barometers of Economic Sentiment
Paragraph 4 suggests that, in the absence of clear monetary signals, bond markets serve as indirect indicators of economic health and sentiment. This idea is supported by the observation of bond rallies and their implications for market liquidity and safety demand. The discussion includes the specific context of Chinese government bonds and the broader implications of bond yield movements globally. The paragraph argues that, despite the lack of direct monetary transparency, bond markets can offer valuable insights into financial system dynamics and investor sentiment.
👏 Acknowledging the Audience: The Importance of Engagement
Paragraph 5 concludes the script by expressing gratitude towards the audience, including university members and subscribers. It underscores the importance of community engagement and the shared journey in understanding complex financial and economic concepts.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Bond yields
💡Monetary system
💡Central banks
💡Monetary policy
💡Euro dollar system
💡Money supply
💡Non-bank entities
💡Liquidity
💡Commercial real estate
💡Repo markets
Highlights
Chinese government bond yields are at multi-decade lows after a recent, powerful Bond rally.
There's at least a mini rally developing in treasuries and other government bonds around the world, after an equally powerful rally at the end of last year.
Bond yields have always been useful, but pure money signals have been taken away from us, leaving us without critical insight into monetary conditions and the state of the world.
Allan Greenspan tried to tell people in the 1990s that the Fed was 'Flying Blind' because it couldn't keep up with the evolving monetary system and lost crucial information on money supply and demand.
The proliferation of financial products like mutual funds and money market funds in the 60s, 70s, and 80s made it difficult for the Fed to forecast money demand and define what constitutes 'money'.
Greenspan admitted in 1999 that money was 'hiding itself very well' and the Fed was struggling to find a proxy that accurately captures what money is.
The monetary signals we have, like bank reserves and interest rate targets, are just reflections of policymakers' opinions and not true measures of money in the economy.
After the global monetary crisis of 2007-2009, regulators and authorities still failed to rectify the blindspot and lack of understanding of the monetary system.
In 2020, the BIS acknowledged the complexity of the global US dollar funding markets and data gaps that prevent an accurate and complete map of monetary activity.
The BIS suggested that more complete data collection could help reduce vulnerability, but identified regulatory and structural policy options as potential solutions.
With the lack of direct monetary knowledge, bond markets and yield curves have become crucial signals as they reflect the actions of monetary participants themselves.
Bill Poole hypothesized in 2007 that bond market participants have proprietary inside information that leads them to believe the overall economy has a soft tone not captured in official data.
The recent powerful rally in Chinese government bonds could be a signal from monetary participants reflecting concerns about the economy or financial system.
The Chinese curve has inverted, with the 10-year rate below the policy rate, sending a strong message about monetary conditions.
In the absence of direct monetary knowledge, indicators like bond yields, yield curves, and gold prices provide crucial insights into the monetary system's impact on the economy and financial markets.
Transcripts
Chinese government bond yields are at
multi-decade lows after a recent
powerful Bond rally there's at least a
mini rally developing in treasuries and
other government bonds around the world
after an equally powerful rally at the
end of last year and these signals are
incredibly important they're more
important than they have ever been in
the past but why is that the case well
bond yields have always been useful but
what has happened is that pure money
signals have been taken away from us
leaving us without that critical insight
and it's Insight not just about money
supply monetary conditions would tell us
a lot of Highly useful and crucial
information as to the state of the
entire world but we don't have that and
we haven't had it for a very long time
and Allan Greenspan throughout the 1990s
tried to tell people that we don't have
that insight and so Not only was the FED
Flying Blind so was everyone else
because everyone else came to lean on
the FED exclusively which made him a
little bit uncom uncomfortable as he
said in
1997 increasingly since 1982 we have
been setting the funds rate directly in
response to a wide variety of factors
and forecast we recognize that in fixing
the short-term rate we lose much of the
information on the balance of money
supply and demand that changing Market
rates afford but for the moment we see
no alternative in the current state of
our knowledge money demand has become
too difficult to predict and it's again
it's money demand money supply that
information isn't just about the
monetary system or strictly monetary
conditions it's about the whole state of
the world and in maybe the purest sense
of all of these economic and financial
factors coming into one convenient place
but since the euro dollar evolution in
the 70s and 80s as Greenspan was saying
the fthe head had to change its entire
operations because it couldn't keep keep
up with the monetary system not only do
that leave monetary policy as more and
more non-monetary policy it leaves us
with fewer direct signals on this
critical space in lie of all that we
start to depend upon bond yields and
that's what makes bond yields these days
more and more important but
understanding why that is we have to
understand how we got to this point and
so we'll go back to greenpan again but
this isn't in 199
9 in February 1999 the fomc was
discussing this very phenomena about how
they were losing track of the monetary
system and how important that was at the
time the Federal Reserve was still
obligated to maintain money supply
forast because even Congress after the
experience of the great inflation
realized this money business is
incredibly important not just about
inflation but especially inflation of
the 1970s and so they told the FED every
year you have to come up to Congress and
tell us all about the money supply
targets that you're going to maintain
and try to M try to keep up with that's
really where the Humphrey Hawkins
testimonies came from it's about the
politicians in Congress understanding
that monetary fundamentals are
incredibly important for the wider
economic system not to mention financial
markets too and so the Fed was obligated
to maintain money supply targets that by
the 1990s knew were impossible and in
1999 against once again debating the
money supply targets for that year they
came to another realization that look we
just have no information no Insight the
M's are all corrupted we'll start out
with Don con who said I think that by
1991 we were beginning to get some sense
of what was going on specifically that
Banks were getting into the mutual fund
business mutual funds in particular were
much Moree freely available to
households and households were
diversifying their portfolios out of
deposits again the proliferation of
financial products it began in the 60s
and 70s even before then but the really
the 60s and 70s and the 80s especially
money market funds the rise of non-banks
such as mutual funds and we'll come back
to this in just a moment continuing Mr
con if you go if you look back at our
forecast in 1990 1991 that development
caught us somewhat by surprise it caught
him completely by surprise but toward
the end of 1991 and in 1992 we were
doing a better job of forecasting and
green Span buted in saying yeah but you
were putting in ad factors fudge factors
and con said yes because we knew that
the world had changed so the old equ old
equations weren't working and they never
really got them working even with their
fudge factors as Greenspan would say in
2000 the proliferation of product was
just too extraordinary as he admitted in
February
1999 I must say that I have not changed
my view that inflation is fundamentally
a monetary phenomenon because it is but
I'm becoming far more skeptical that we
can define a proxy that actually capture
what money is either in terms of
transaction balances or those elements
in the economic decision-making process
which represent money we are struggling
here I think we have to be careful not
to assume by definition that M1 M2 or M3
is or anything is money they are all
proxies for the underlying conceptual
variable that we all employ in our
generic evaluation of the impact of
money on the economy now what this
suggests to me is that money is hiding
itself very well and that has enormous
implications especially as I said for an
economic and financial system that grew
up in the 80s and 90s in the shadow of
the euro dollar system without really
realizing it told repeatedly to depend
upon these folks at the Federal reserve
for all of the monetary conditions and
maintaining them and information about
them when in private and occasionally in
public monetary authorities were saying
we have no clue here money is hiding
itself we don't really know what's going
on instead we're going to move an
interest rate interest rate target
around the FED funds rate target in hope
that it all just works out but from an
informational perspective what are you
actually looking at when you look at
short-term interest rates you're looking
at nothing more than what the Federal
Reserve is doing in the same way as you
look at the fed's bank reserve balance
is nothing more it's not the amount of
money in the economy it's nothing more
than reflection of what policy makers
are doing so we the monetary signals
that we have whether in the form of Bank
Reserves or federal funds targets and
other forms of interest rate targets
around the rest of the world they're
just po they're just reflections of
policy makers opinions nothing more
useful F than that they certainly aren't
monetary especially since policy makers
as we continue to see in 2024 use
macroaggregates as their inputs and
evaluation standards for all of their
non-money policies that's what the fomc
does and it leaves us to either fully
depend upon policy makers or go looking
in other places for useful information
in case you do realize how flawed the
analysis is at these central banks how
little they understand the monetary
system and how important that all really
is you would think though that after
everything that has happened over the
last 25 years since this conversation
took
place authorities and regulators and
interested parties politicians
governments around the world would have
rectified this blind spot especially in
the wake of the monetary crisis is the
global monetary crisis that struck in
August 2007 and 2008 and into 2009 that
defied Central bank's best monetary
efforts to alleviate the problem and to
really get the system back on track to
act this the traditional Central Bank as
lender of Last Resort that didn't happen
one reason why they call it a financial
crisis and not correctly a monetary
crisis so you would think that at the
very least in the close aftermath of
that Absol disaster that cost the global
economy enormously a bill to which we're
still paying for today somebody would
have said okay let's take a look at this
money business yes we know M1 M2 M3
those are all garbage they don't reflect
the they don't accurately reflect the
monetary system as it as it is we don't
really know how to forecast money demand
because those PE that the money that
people use is constantly changing
sometimes it's this sometimes it's that
sometimes it's something that the fed or
Central Bankers have no idea what it
actually is that's what they were really
saying we can't forecast money demand
because the money that the actual
economic participants use is constantly
changing the proliferation of financial
products that stuff in the early 1990s
which sounds just regular stuff today
that was that was groundbreaking well
the system hasn't stopped it continues
to evolve but you would think again
somebody somewhere would have said let's
take a deeper look and every time they
do they keep coming back to the same
thing we don't know we have no idea in
June of 2020 the bis which is one of the
few outlets around the world that
actually has taken interest not just in
the US monetary system what the FED
didn't say in the 1990s was that this
was a global Affair there was a global
revolution in money this is the euro
dollar system that transformed systems
that transformed methodologies mechanics
money supply demand all of it
transformed it all over the world and so
in June of 2020
basically admitting to the lack of
progress in understanding the monetary
system the bis wrote this the complexity
of the global US dollar funding markets
as well as certain data gaps prevent the
construction of an accurate and complete
map of activity International banking
data provide a view into the activities
of internationally active Banks but they
often lack information on maturity and
counterparty type data for transactions
occurring between non-banks Financial or
non-financial in particular those
transactions occurring outside the
United States are among the most opaque
so the euro dollar Revolution that was
causing all sorts of problems in the
1990s and obviously caused a big problem
in
2008 still don't have any good idea this
is
2020 and by by the way 2024 nothing much
has changed they even acknowledge all of
the various parts and complexities and
then say I don't know oh what do we do
here for example although repo markets
are more transparent now than before the
GFC it's not an F it's an M data gaps
believe them relatively opaque this is
particularly true for activity among non
us entities that takes place outside the
United States and activity outside the
tri party repo Market in the United
States the repo Market which is a
backbone is as much about collateral as
it is about currency or cash or whatever
form of cash is is being used at that
particular moment of time and so the
very fundamental basis of this monetary
system however for however the formats
are going transacted inside of it
authorities still don't know what to
make of them and this is not a small
oversight back to the bis one more time
moreover crossborder and cross- sector
linkages complicate efforts to Monitor
and manage the risk of a retrenchment in
crossborder liquidity the report
suggests that more complete data
collection could help reduce
vulnerability so why don't you do it the
report also identifies Regulatory and
structural policy options that could
further reduce certain vulnerabilities
but
basically yeah Banks were a big problem
before the g g not FC and actually were
the very big reason for the G not FC but
in the shadow as the banking sector has
been has been hobbled by the Lessons
Learned belatedly in that affair has
given rise to non-banks more
proliferations of more products have
more to say about these non-bank
entities as we go forward because they
are incredibly important to understand
too but for now thinking about all of
the potential factors that could harm
the economy create Financial volatility
and authorities don't really know how it
all fits together especially things like
International liquidity repo markets
collateral all the important information
you would want to know know if you are
in a situation facing very clear and
very strong risks as we are facing in
2024 we've been talking about this for
quite a long period of time which for
most people for maybe a lot of people
they think well nothing bad has happened
nothing bad could happen that sort of
recency bias dominated in the middle
2000s too and again we're not saying
that the world is going to end that this
is going to lead to an absolute utter
crash what we're saying is it would be
really nice if we had more useful
information about whether or not we can
say for sir that is absolutely the case
this is where the information Gap really
comes in being able to better Define the
risk that we obviously know that we are
facing we have a commercial real estate
problem in the United States we have a
commercial real estate problem in uh
Europe we have a massive real estate
problem in China wouldn't it be nice to
have a real Direct insight into monetary
conditions Supply demand circulation all
of it because that would H allow us to
then at least better map out those risks
that we are facing but in lie of all
that what we're left with is something
like Bond markets and bond curves and
other esoteric curves that we talk about
here at euro dollar University and
Shameless plug here in very great detail
at euro dollar University in our
memberships and subscription this is
what we focus on and why we do so but
given the the risk that we're facing in
2024 when Bond markets start sending VAR
clear and Powerful signals it's
something you want to pay attention to
now the bond market is far from perfect
we get that out of the way and it's
complicated it's not as pure of a signal
like direct monetary knowledge would be
yet it's useful and the reason it's
useful well in the words of billp back
in 2007 it has inside information that
we could never even dream of the bond
market is the monetary participants
themselves trading in another medium
it's not a monetary medium necessarily
but it's a it's a monetary adjacent
medium that gives us if not a pure
signal a useful signal nonetheless as P
said I'll offer a hypothesis which is
that a number of people who are players
in this market like my contact at a
large Bank are looking at news and
saying that the proprietary inside
information they have on what's going on
leads them to believe that the overall
economy has a soft tone to it that is
not showing up in the data that we
follow and it doesn't have to be about
the economy it could be risks inside say
the opaque commercial real estate market
if we start to see a big rally in bonds
it could be that hedging demand has gone
way up now the bond signal is just where
we start we want to corroborate that
with other these esoteric curves inside
information from directly from the
monetary system itself if not directly
in the form of money supply domain and
circulation it is maybe as close as we
could hope to in lie of regulators and
authorities doing their damn job which
they refus to do after all these years
later so we depend upon bond market
signals as the next best thing as I
mentioned at the opening Chinese bonds
Chinese government bonds have made a big
move over the last couple months which
the Chinese system is actually as opaque
or nearly as opaque as the euro dollar
system is because the Chinese have over
the last 15 years undergone a radical
revolution too and there's many reasons
for it we don't have time to get into
here one reason why as I mentioned in a
recent video China's Central Bank has
become like its Western counterparts
being questions questioned over its
transmission mechanism and that's what
the real transmission mechanism is about
is that we don't know how the monetary
system works so basically central banks
are just throwing darts and wondering if
they can maybe influence some Behavior
well as far as Behavior goes in China
the big rally in its Government Bond
Market is the same thing as the big
rally in Government Bond markets around
the rest of the world it's the monetary
system and financial participants and
economic participants looking at their
own slice of information and saying we
don't like what's going on here because
lower bond yields increase demand for
safety and liquidity and when increased
demand for safety and liquidity is
evident in lower bond yields it raises
all sorts of uncomfortable questions
about what must be happening in the
economy in the financial system and in
the shadows of money wouldn't it be nice
to have that information huge rally in
Chinese Bond another rally that seems to
be forming in global government bonds
treasuries European debt German all
those types of things which tells us
that that's not a good set of
circumstances but where monetary direct
monetary knowledge would be useful is in
more more detailed understanding of what
that actually means so pay attention to
bond yields because we don't have any
real idea about the monetary system
except as as I use in the the black hole
analogy how that black hole the monetary
system we can't see impacts everything
around it that's what yield curves are
telling us even in China
they're not directly related to the
monetary system but they're close enough
to it that you can get a sense of the
overall picture and the overall picture
right now is one where bonds are
rallying even in the face of massive
amounts of Government Bond Supply not
just in treasuries but believe it or not
the Chinese government too and yet
demand for these instruments continues
to be Broad and deep is that that was
the term we used the other day how
powerful is this Chinese Bond rally well
the 10year rate is now below the onee
policy rate so you could say now the
Chinese curve is inverted too that's a
pretty strong message in China but again
it's not just China it's all over the
place in lie of direct monetary
knowledge this is what we have to depend
upon especially in light of how positive
all the official sources and all the
official proclamations are whether it be
in China how the economy supposedly
turned a corner or in the United States
and Europe which is supposed to be
heading toward a soft Landing what does
the monetary system think about it well
we don't know for sure but we do have
some
idea government bonds all about safety
and liquidity well gold is about at
least just safety and gold has had a
record run here too check out that's all
about at the video link below as always
I thank you very much for joining me
huge thank you yal University members
and subscribers and until next time take
care
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