Financial Sarcasm Roundup for 04/08/13

Cyprus is out of the headlines but not out of trouble.  There's enough going on in other countries to warrant continued sarcasm.

Portugal is going for austerity.  Europeans can say goodbye to their precious social safety nets, which are really drags on productivity.  No more nonsense like two months of vacation for those folks.  What has Portugal done lately that warrants such generous benefits anyway?  It's not like still own big chunks of the New World, for crying out loud.

Abenomics isn't going to work.  The Japanese yen is at a three year low against the U.S. dollar.  Other central banks aren't going to wait for Japan's export data before they retaliate with more printing.  When that happens, Japan will be right back in stagflation and on its way to high inflation.  Japanese exporters have window of maybe two or three months in which to use their windfall earnings to stock up on physical plant and inventory that will hold their value domestically.

U.S. unemployment is dropping only because frustrated job seekers are leaving the workforce.  Federal spending cuts so far have been too minuscule to account for the hiring slowdown, so I wish the financial media would drop that meme.  It's ironic that last week I attended a technology transfer conference with scientists and investors who would love to create new jobs.  They need STEM graduates for high-tech work but American colleges are churning out indebted liberal arts grads.  The mismatch won't last forever.

Australia is the latest country to go for direct currency exchange with China.  Neither one wants to get stuck holding U.S. dollars when the run on that currency starts sometime.  I'd like to know whether Asian multinational corporations are moving their cash holdings out of dollars.  American and European multinationals were minimizing their euro exposure in 2012 and events will prove them to be prescient.

Today's good news comes from New Zealand, where the central bank promises to raise rates to fight inflation.  That's the exact opposite of the Greenspan-Bernanke philosophy and the results for their economy will be very different from America;s current malaise.  I haven't purchased any New Zealand dollars yet but stories like this revive the temptation.

My quest for sarcastic material will never be fully satisfied.  Even "Mickey Ronin" knows that but he hasn't provided me with anything stupid to laugh at in recent days.  Come on, dude, don't save all of your lies for your court appointment.

New Zealanders Threaten Competitive Currency Devaluation

Count on silly politicians somewhere to argue for the wrong way to promote exports.  Some New Zealand politico wants to force that country's central bank to devalue the New Zealand dollar.  Cooler heads are likely to prevail through simple political strength and solid arguments that the Swiss haven't been able to hold their currency down.  The risk for currency investors is that these pro-stimulus sentiments can catch on among people desperate to revive economic growth.

New Zealand is doing the right thing by maintaining a normal interest rate policy.  Central bank intervention destroys a currency in the long run.  Proof will come in a year or two when the euro will have dissolved and the dollar will have begun its own devaluation.

Full disclosure:  No position in the New Zealand dollar, although I am considering buying some as a hedge against the U.S. dollar.