Tag: IMF

Capital Controls in Argentina & Further Down the Negative Debt Rabbit Hole

Economist – Argentina’s beleaguered government imposes capital controls 9/2/19

When Mauricio Macri was elected president of Argentina in 2015, one of his first acts was to abolish capital controls that restricted buying and selling of the peso. The move symbolized Argentina’s pivot back to open markets and liberal economic reforms under his rule. On September 1st, after weeks of market turmoil, Mr Macri was forced to issue a decree re-imposing controls in an attempt to shore up the currency. From now on ordinary Argentines’ purchases of dollars will be capped at $10,000 a month. Companies will face restrictions on their ability to purchase dollars in the foreign-exchange market and to pay dividends to investors abroad.

FT – Argentina: how IMF’s biggest ever bailout crumbled under Macri – Michael Stott and Benedict Mander 9/1/19

Following days of market chaos in the wake of the vote (the August 11 primary vote that went to Peronist rival Alberto Fernandez (no relation to former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner)), Mr Macri’s government bowed to the inevitable last week and asked creditors for more time to pay back Argentina’s $101bn of foreign debt, including the IMF money, as Buenos Aires struggled to avoid the country’s ninth sovereign default — and the third this century. Currency controls were imposed on businesses on Sunday after it lost an estimated $3bn in reserves in just two days last week.

Bloomberg – The Unstoppable Surge in Negative Yields Reaches $17 Trillion – John Ainger 8/30/19

Thirty percent of all investment-grade securities now bear sub-zero yields, meaning that investors who acquire the debt and hold it to maturity are guaranteed to make a loss. Yet buyers are still piling in, seeking to benefit from further increases in bond prices and favorable cross-currency hedging rates—or at least to avoid greater losses elsewhere.

May 10, 2018

Perspective

WSJ – Daily Shot: Charlie Bilello – Global Population Growth and Growth Rate Projections 5/9

Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

FT – Donald Trump declares trade war on China – Martin Wolf 5/8

  • “No sovereign power could accept the humiliating demands being made by the US.”

FT – How the Beijing elite sees the world – Martin Wolf 5/1

FT – Argentines shocked by IMF loan request – Benedict Mander and John Paul Rathbone 5/8

WSJ – Will Argentina’s Nightmare Spread? – Nathaniel Taplin 5/9

  • Strong dollar, surging oil prices, and US growth picking up steam – all bad for investors searching for yield in emerging markets.

Real Estate

Bloomberg Businessweek – Surprise, You Live in a Giant Airbnb – Olivia Zaleski 4/30

  • “Airbnb’s branded buildings promise management companies 5% to 15% of the profit hosts generate. At Domain, residents who rent through Airbnb would pay Niido 25% of their home-sharing income. In exchange, Diffenderfer says, residents will have access to the same hotel-style amenities visitors will receive.”

NYT – Developers Add a Missing Piece to Their Projects: Hotels – Joe Gose 5/8

WSJ – California Set to Require Solar on New Homes – Erin Ailworth 5/9

  • “California is poised to become the first U.S. state to require solar panels on nearly all new homes.”
  • “The California Energy Commission on Wednesday is expected to approve a requirement that residential buildings up to three stories high, including single-family homes and condos, be built with solar installations starting in 2020.”
  • “California is pursuing aggressive policies to reduce air pollution and combat climate change—including a mandate to slash greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030—that are helping drive renewable energy in the state.”
  • “Solar accounted for nearly 10% of California’s electricity generation in 2016, Energy Commission data shows.”
  • “Currently, about 20% of new single-family homes in the state are built with solar, said Bob Raymer, senior engineer with the California Building Industry Association, which represents thousands of home builders, contractors, architects and others. Making solar mandatory on homes is expected to add $8,000 to $10,000 to construction costs, he said.”
  • “While the building-industry organization would have preferred the Energy Commission hold off a few more years on mandating that homes be fitted with solar, it helped shape the rule to reduce compliance costs and increase flexibility, Mr. Raymer said. Builders would have the option to install solar in a communal area if it doesn’t make sense on individual rooftops. By installing batteries that help homeowners save energy for later use, builders can also gain some flexibility in meeting efficiency standards.” 
  • “California has more solar power installed than any other state, with roughly 21 gigawatts of generation capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. That is far more than the second -largest solar-producing state, North Carolina, which has 4.3 gigawatts.”
  • “The commission expects the cost of adding solar, when combined with other revised efficiency standards, to add about $40 to an average monthly payment on a 30-year mortgage. However it estimates the investment would more than pay for itself, with consumers on average saving $80 a month on heating, cooling and lighting bills.”

Energy

WSJ – As Putin Starts Fourth Term, Higher Oil Prices Give Him a New Edge – Thomas Grove 5/7

April 19, 2018

Markets / Economy

FT – IMF sounds alarm on excessive global borrowing – Chris Giles 4/18

  • “The world’s $164tn debt pile is bigger than at the height of the financial crisis a decade ago, the IMF has warned, sounding the alarm on excessive global borrowing.”
  • “The fund said the private and public sectors urgently needed to cut debt levels to improve the resilience of the global economy and provide greater firefighting capability if things went wrong.”
  • “Worldwide borrowing is more than twice the size of the value of goods and services produced every year and at 225%t of global gross domestic product, is 12 percentage points higher than during the peak of the previous financial crisis in 2009.”
  • “Half of the $164tn was accounted for by three countries: the US, Japan and China. The latter’s borrowing surged from $1.7tn in 2001 to $25.5tn in 2016, accounting for three-quarters of the increase in private sector debt in the past decade.”
  • “With the global economy expanding strongly, it recommended that countries such as the US stop using lower taxes or higher public spending to stimulate growth and instead try to reduce the burden of public sector debts so that countries have more leeway to act in the next recession.”
  • “The outliers were Germany and the Netherlands, which the IMF said had ‘ample fiscal space’ to boost public investment in infrastructure and enhance the long-term resilience of their economies.”

Real Estate

WSJ – South Korean Investors Pile Into U.S. Commercial Property Debt – Esther Fung and Kwanwoo Jun 4/17

  • “In all, investors based in South Korea accounted for 21% of foreign investment in U.S. real-estate debt as of mid-April, the largest proportion among foreign investors, according to data firm Preqin. Canada and Australia are second and third place, at 12% and 11%, respectively. Global fundraising for U.S.-focused real-estate debt reached $17.8 billion in 2017, up from $10.8 billion in 2016, Preqin said.”

Bloomberg – The Retail Real Estate Glut Is Getting Worse – Noah Buhayar and Lauren Coleman-Lochner 4/17

  • “At last count, U.S. store closures announced this year reached a staggering 77 million square feet, according to data on national and regional chains compiled by CoStar Group Inc. That means retailers are well on their way to surpassing the record 105 million square feet announced for closure in all of 2017.”

Finance

FT – Eurozone investors race up chart of US debt owners – Kate Allen 4/17

  • “Eurozone investors have been the biggest overseas net buyers of US debt securities in the past half-decade, a trend that could reverse as the European Central Bank continues to tighten monetary policy, according to new research.”
  • “Euro area holdings of US corporate and Treasury bonds reached $2.75tn at the end of last year, the report by investment bank Jefferies shows, an 80% increase since the start of 2012.”
  • “By contrast the volume of US debt held by investors in Japan and China remained flat over the period, while investors in the UK increased their holdings by 40% to $700bn.”

Construction

WSJ – Daily Shot: CME Lumber (May) 4/17

China

WSJ – Daily Shot: China Required Deposit Reserve Ratio 4/17

  • Effective April 25, 2018. More liquidity into the system.

Other Interesting Links

WSJ – The Trophy Homes Linked to Chinese Conglomerate HNA Group – Katherine Clarke 4/18

  • “Chen Guoqing, the brother of HNA chairman Chen Feng, and a company Chen Guoqing heads called Pacific American Corp., have purchased more than 20 homes in New York and New Jersey over the past two decades through various limited-liability companies, the Journal’s review shows.”
  • “Those deals include four pricey residences at the megatower One57, the Billionaire’s Row megalith where owners include titans of industry such as Michael Dell and Bill Ackman. The units were purchased for a combined $151.34 million in 2014 and 2015, the records show.”