14/4/20: Re-Opening America: A Long Road Ahead

In our Financial Systems class, yesterday, we were discussing the potential trajectories for 'exit' from COVID19 restriction and easing of economic constraints. Handily, yesterday, Morgan Stanley published this analytical timeline of the pandemic evolution:

Their analysis is based on the following assumed timings:

1. They expect U.S. coastal regions to peak in the next 3-5 days (so March 15-17),
2. The rest of the U.S. will lag these by "around 3 weeks", leading to a "second peak" that promises to be not as severe as the first peak.
3. The MS are expecting the second peak to result in the US cases peaking at x4 China and x2 Italy.
4. MS therefore describe the U.S. trajectory as having "a very long tail".
5. Based on comparisons to Korea testing, the MS research suggests the earliest 'reopening' date for the U.S. as mid-to-late May.

Here is MS note on re-opening:

Bleak. 

Key takeaway on the future developments: "only a vaccine will provide a true solution to this pandemic" and that means that we are likely to see - best case scenario - scaled delivery of the vaccine for the 2021 flu season. 

This is a long road ahead...

2/8/2013: June's Great Recession Update

The usual monthly chart from Calculated Risk (h/t for the reminder to check to @businessinsider )... US Great Recession in comparison:

Source: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/07/june-employment-report-195000-jobs-76.html

Continue to be scared... cause we've been scared for the last 65 months... And a reminder from my previous re-posts of this chart: notice how frighteningly longer are the durations of employment recoveries in recent recessions since 1981.

And while we are on this, here's a good discussion of completely unrealistic US expectations for fiscal recovery: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/why-the-cbo-s-deficit-forecasts-are-too-optimistic.html via @BloombergView

6/6/2013: US House Prices: Trouble Brewing for Monetary Policy Dilemma

Now, QE seems to be feeding through into the real assets, not just financial ones, in the case of the US. Here's a chart from Pictet on CoreLogic house prices index changes and underlying house prices fundamentals:

And the same adjusting for inflation, annualised 3mo series (q/q):

CoreLogic rose 3.2% m/m in April, following a +2.2% m/m rise in March. Based on Pictet seasonal adjustments, "the increase remains surprisingly high: +1.6%, after +1.7% in March. Since the end of last year, house prices have risen by 6.4% (after seasonal adjustments), an astonishing annualised rate of 20.4%. On a y-o-y basis, the increase reached 12.1%, the highest since April 2006."

Although as the chart below shows, things are still ok in 'affordability' terms (index of house prices), with recent rises from the trough returning the index to mid-2009 levels. It would take a further 28% rise to hit pre-crisis peak of March 2006:

Lest we forget - unwinding the QE will hammer interest rates on longer maturities (see: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2013/05/1652013-on-that-impossible-monetary.html) which will spell trouble for debt-funded assets, like property.

1/1/2013: US Household Income: down 7.8% on January 2000

Sentier Research have published analysis new series on the US Household Income data (see report here).

Topline analysis, quoted directly from the report (emphasis mine):

• According to new data derived from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), real median annual household income in November 2012 was  $51,310, statistically unchanged from the October 2012 median of $51,134. 
• This is the second month in a row that real median annual household income has failed to show a statistically significant change. I
• With the exception of a 0.7 percent increase between April and May, all of the other month-to-month changes in real median annual household income since January 2012 have not been statistically significant. 

But wait, things are even worse:

• The November 2012 median annual household income of $51,310 was 4.4 percent lower than the median of $53,681 in June 2009, the end of the recent recession and beginning of the “economic recovery.” 
• The November 2012 median was 6.9 percent lower than the median of $55,093 in December 2007, the beginning month of the recession that occurred more than four years ago. 
• And the November 2012 median was 7.8 percent lower than the median of $55,650 in January 2000, the beginning of this statistical series. 
• These comparisons demonstrate how significantly real median annual household income has fallen over the past decade, and how much ground needs to be recovered to return to income levels that existed more than ten years ago.

And two charts to illustrate: