Financial News -Deutsche Bank Is Scared: "What Needs To Be Done" In Its Own Words

Deutsche Bank Is Scared: "What Needs To Be Done" In Its Own Words

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/09/2016 20:37 -0500

It all started in mid/late 2014, when the first whispers of a Fed rate hike emerged, which in turn led to relentless increase in the value of the US dollar and the plunge in the price of oil and all commodities, unleashing the worst commodity bear market in history.

The immediate implication of these two concurrent events was missed by most, although we wrote about it and previewed the implications in November of that year in "How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed."

The conclusion was simple: Fed tightening and the resulting plunge in commodity prices, would lead (as it did) to the collapse of the great petrodollar cycle which had worked efficiently for 18 years and which led to petrodollar nations serving as a source of demand for $10 trillion in US assets, and when finished, would result in the Quantitative Tightening which has offset all central bank attempts to inject liquidity in the markets, a tightening which has since been unleashed by not only most emerging markets and petro-exporters but most notably China, and whose impact has been to not only pressure stocks lower but bring economic growth across the entire world to a grinding halt.

The second, and just as important development, was observed in early 2015: 11 months ago we wrote that "The Global Dollar Funding Shortage Is Back With A Vengeance And "This Time It's Different" and followed up on it later in the year in "Global Dollar Funding Shortage Intensifies To Worst Level Since 2012" a problem which has manifested itself most notably in Africa where as we wrote recently, virtually every petroleum exporting nation has run out of actual physical dollars.

The point is, it all started with the rising dollar and the ensuing global dollar shortage, and thus, the Fed embarking on what may be the biggest central bank error of all time. To be sure, the consequences are wide ranging: from the collapse in crude, to the tremors and devaluations in China, to the tightening financial conditions, to the (manufacturing) recession in the U.S., and most recently, to whispers that Deutsche Bank, the bank with $60 trillion in notional derivatives, may be the next Lehman Brothers.

Which, incidentally, brings us to none other than one of Deutsche Bank's most respected credit analysts, Dominic Konstam, who clearly has an appreciation of the existential risk he finds himself in, not only career-wise, but in terms of the entire financial structure. We know this, because after reading his email blast from this morning we realize just how vast the fear, if not sheer terror, is among those who truly realize just how broken the system currently is.

We have reposted his entire letter below, because it represents the most definitive blueprint of everything that is about to be unleashed - especially since it comes from the perspective of one of the people who is currently deep inside Deutsche Bank and realizes just how close to the edge the German bank is.

What Konstam makes clear, in no uncertain terms, is that the the problem is the one we laid out back in November 2014: "It is not oil, it is not in the banks, it is a run on central bank liquidity, especially dollar based and there needs to be much more ($) liquidity."

He also makes it quite clear that investor fears about contagion are well-founded: here it is in the words of a Deutsche Banker:

The exposure issue has been downplayed but make no mistake banks are heavily exposed to Asia/MidEast and while 10% writedown might be worst case for China but too high for the whole, it is what investors shd and do worry about -- whole wd include the contagion to banking hubs in Sing/HKong

His solution? It's actually quite disturbing to all those who thought that all our warnings that cash would be outlawed were nothing but a joke. For those pressed for time jump straight to the "What needs to be done section" - it's a doozy.

So back to the  original question WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. Simple?

1. Recognize the problem. It is not oil, it is not in the banks..it is a run on central bank liquidity, especially dollar based and there needs to be much more ($) liquidity. Keynes said to deal with overinvestment boom you cut you don't raise rates. QE is impractical but getting the dollar down would greatly lift dollar based liquidity. So for a starter Fed shd stop raising rates and clearly signal an extended time out.
2. Draghi shd follow up with a one 2 punch, not to get rates down but open the refi spigot to banks and ease liquidity concerns.
3. China needs to come clean. Devalue, stabilize reserves and then allocate 1 tn+ to short up strategically important institutions. Stop intervening in equity markets.
4. And Basel 3 (?4) should be delayed specifically regarding leverage ratios and threat of higher. As a token move there shd be deemphasis of the SSM/bail in rules until there is clarity from the ECB on liquidity sources for stressed banks.
5. how about some fiscal stimulus
6. on negative rates -- instead of making them punitive on the banks allow the banks to earn the spread, make them punitive to savers.. Cash shd be charged interest -- put the micro chip in large denom notes/tax cash withdrawals.. encourage spending not saving .. mortgage rates can be negative and banks can still earn a spread. The spread is the problem not the rate.

The existential fear in Deutsche Bank's analyst is tangible, as is the implied threat: "don't do these things, and if Deutsche Bank and its $60 trillion in derivatives blow up, it will be on you."


And with that we check to the central bankers who will do precisely as instructed, because Deutsche Bank is simply too vast and too systemically important to fail: in fact its failure would be orders of magnitude more costly and more destructive for modern capital markets than Lehman.

As a result, we expect all of Konstam's suggestions, from a major China devaluation, to a halt to negative rates, to a Yellen relent (perhaps as soon as tomorrow), to negative rates being passed on to savers, to the taxing of cash withdrawals "to encourage spending not saving", and all the other bullet points. Unless, of course, someone is intent on seeing Deutsche Bank liquidate, as was the case with Lehman.

That said, Konstam's final sentence is the most ominous:

"Austria July 31 1932 was a great success; Sept 1 1933 beginning of the end (see Worgl experiment, Gesell)."

He is referring to the "Miracle of Worgl", when during 1932 - in the middle of the Great Depression - the Austrian town unleashed a monetary experiment in which "Certified Compensation Bills" were issued, a form of currency commonly known as Scrip, or Freigeld, one influenced by the monetary theories of the "hyper-Keynesian" Silvio Gesell.

Why does Konstam bring up scrip as the solution to not only Dutsche Bank's problems, but the entire problem of a run on central bank liquidity, and by implication, credibility?
Because it's coming... just to save the banks one more, final time.

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Appendix: the part from Konstam's letter not dealing with policy recommendations is below

Strategy Update: What we need....Main point is still policymakers need to recognize the problem and have a total rethink of strategy...Yellen is a detail in the grand scheme of things if its more of the same about risks to the outlook but labor mkt strong, blah blah Even Draghi has clear re-think issues.. no longer about more negative rates in the way they have been doing it but cutting thru the incipient financial crisis. All of these though are symptoms of the wider problem -- the collapse in global liquidity that  is on going in the post Fed qe phase, reflected in an overly strong dollar/loss of reserves and end user deleveraging from china to opec to credit. It picks off the weaker links and makes people think that that is the "problem".

So about 3 weeks everyone was saying if only oil would stabilize.. and "it has".. but that wasn't the solution; Now it's if only euro bank credit stabilizes, and no doubt there will be a level when that happens.. but that won't be it.. The PCA analysis from Jerome was neat becos it captures the investor base-plus running on the hampster wheel thinking it's found the problem. The very fact that the weightings have shifted from oil to euro financials doesnt mean the problem is different now then it was, it's the same problem but PCA can't find it-- by definition. (Correlation is not causality). It merely captures the menu du jour. Soon enough the "problem" will be equities generally or maybe core rates dropping "too low", these weightings invariably will rise -- and thats why its very dangerous to use the last year's correlation to determine which markets have over or under reacted to the best proxy of the problem, at any particular time. For example rates look too low in the PCA now but that's precisely becos they were almost invariant to lower oil late last year.

The refrain from the customer base last year if you recall was that rates don't rally when there's risk off.. that must be becos of loss of reserves or investor too long etc (George's QT).. But now they are moving and the correlation is becoming stronger. I would posit that instead of a low correlation dissauding investors from hedging with rates they are actually needing to get super long to make up for poor performance on risk assets becos it is they only thing that comes close to a proper hedge. So the mother of all rate rallies will be driven by investors going way over long on the either side UNLESS or UNTIL policymakers do the right thing... Our traders have been debating whether the market trades long or not with idea that there seems to be better selling.. but CoT got shorter last week and even on the open interest adjment Alex Li did, it still looks to us that the market trades short -- or not long enough..And that means we do not want to fade this move absent the policy shift,.. and that means why can't 10s test the old lows. On the euro financial issue itself.. our equity analysts have got a lot of attention around the specifics of the euro fincl issue from the concerns over exposures to commodities/china.. the inability to earn in a low for long/negative yield world to the overreach of regulation with limitations on capital raising/bail in issues.. One of the main issues we would argue is that policymakers need to be break what wd become a liquidity issue for banks in the status quo. TLTROs had poor take up becos banks were capital constrained and didn't want to lend -- that now limits their access to liquidity going forward so if the exposure/bail in concerns force banks to the ECB there better be an open door. In the xtreme the ECB cd buy the (sub) debt but the politics probably don't allow that -- better might be to simply offer cheap liquidity for alternative vehicles to do so or better yet have unconditional LTROs -- either way it is probably not the time to go deeper negative on rates.

The exposure issue has been downplayed but make no mistake banks are heavily exposed to Asia/MidEast and while 10% writedown might be worst case for China but too high for the whole, it is what investors shd and do worry about -- whole wd include the contagion to banking hubs in Sing/HKong.. and for the record BIS data is as follows for countries' bank exposures -- we'll give China first, whole second.. Australia: 32bn/74bn; france 43bn/226bn; germany 28bn/120 bn; japan  70 bn/367bn; uk 169bn/657bn; US 87bn/409bn. Note according to Fed rough proxy of US bank capital is over 1.5 tn so in worst case scenario it would "only" be 3% of capital.. a lot but managable.. but that's then becomes the problem for UK, French banks in particular,,ironically not obviously Germany so much..altho Europe has the issue of earning the capital that US banks are better able to do.
Average:

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BP's Stunning Warning: "Every Oil Storage Tank Will Be Full In A Few Months"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/10/2016 09:51 -0500

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It was just last week when we said that Cushing may be about to overflow in the face of an acute crude oil supply glut.

“Even the highly adaptive US storage system appears to be reaching its limits,” we wrote, before plotting Cushing capacity versus inventory levels. We also took a look at the EIA’s latest take on the subject and showed you the following chart which depicts how much higher inventory levels are today versus their five-year averages.

Finally, we went on to present two alarm bells that offer the best evidence yet that inventories are reaching nosebleed levels: 1) some counterparties are experiencing delays in delivering crude due to unspecified "terminalling and pump" issues (basically, it’s hard to move barrels around at this point because there’s so much oil sitting in storage); 2) the cash roll is negative.

On Wednesday, BP CEO Robert Dudley - who earlier this month reported the worst annual loss in company history - is out warning that storage tanks will be completely full by the end of H1. "We are very bearish for the first half of the year," Dudley said at the IP Week conference in London Wednesday. "In the second half, every tank and swimming pool in the world is going to fill and fundamentals are going to kick in," he added. "The market will start balancing in the second half of this year.”

Maybe. Or maybe excess supply will simply be dumped on the market once all the "swimming pools" are full.

If that happens, don't be surprised to see crude crash into the teens as attempts to clear and dump excess inventory spread like wildfire across the market.

Earlier this week, the IEA called any respite for crude prices "a false dawn." Here's why (via The Guardian):

• a deal between Opec and other oil producing countries to cut production is unlikely
• with Iran increasing production in preparation for the lifting of sanctions, Opec’s production could rise as strongly this year as in 2015
• there is little prospect falling prices encouraging a pick-up in the rate of demand for oil
• the US dollar is likely to remain strong, limiting the scope for falls in the cost of imported oil
• the predicted large fall in US shale production is taking a long time to materialise

So buckle up, because the collapse in the world's most financialized of commodities has further to go, and once the entire US shale space goes bankrupt, it will emerge debtless only to start drilling and pumping anew prompting the Saudis to continue to ratchet up the pressure in an endless deflationary merry-go-round. We close with a quote from the IEA:

"We suggest that the surplus of supply over demand in the early part of 2016 is even greater than we said in last month’s oil market report. If these numbers prove to be accurate, and with the market already awash in oil, it is very hard to see how oil prices can rise significantly in the short term. In these conditions the short-term risk to the downside has increased.” 

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"Nothing Is Moving," Baltic Dry Crashes As Insiders Warn "Commerce Has Come To A Halt"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2016 14:05 -0400

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The continued collapse of The Baltic Dry Index remains ignored by most - besides we still have Netflix, right? But, as Dollar Vigilante's Jeff Berwick details, it appears the worldwide 'real' economy has ground to a halt!!

Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world.  He told me they had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a loss.

This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its waters. Instead, they are anchored. Unmoving. Empty.
You can see one such report here.  According to it,

Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt. For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port. NOTHING is moving.

This has never happened before. It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

We checked VesselFinder.com and it appears to show no ships in transit anywhere in the world.  We aren’t experts on shipping, however, so if you have a better site or source to track this apparent phenomenon, please let us know.



We also checked MarineTraffic.com, and it seemed to show the same thing.  Not a ship in transit…



If true, this would be catastrophic for world trade. Even if it’s not true, shipping is still nearly dead in the water according to other indices.  The Baltic Dry Index, an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea, was already at record all-time lows a month ago... and in the last month it has dropped even more, especially in the last week. Today BDIY hit 415...




Factories aren’t buying and retailers aren’t stocking.  The ratio of inventory to sales in the US is an indicator of this. The last time that ratio was this high was during the “great recession” in 2008.



Hey, Ms. Yellen, what recovery? The economy is taking on water at a rapid rate.
The storm has been building for some time, actually. Not so long ago, there was a spate of reports that the world’s automobile manufacturers were in trouble because cars were not selling and shipments were backing up around the world.

ZeroHedge reported on it this way:

In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive manufacturers, better known as “channel stuffing”, of which General Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just hit a new record high.

Here is a photo of unsold cars in the United Kingdom from that article.



The world’s economy seems in serious trouble. You can’t print your way to prosperity. All you are doing is hollowing out your economy. Draining it. And sooner or later it’s empty and you have to start over after a good deal of crisis and chaos.

It’s no coincidence that China is struggling desperately to contain a stock implosion.  Reportedly, banks have been told they are forbidden to buy US dollars and numerous Chinese billionaires have gone missing.  And the markets have just opened on Monday and are again deeply in the red.
Here at The Dollar Vigilante we’ve specialized in explaining the reality of the global faux-economy and why it’s important that you not believe mainstream media lies.

In the meantime, keep your eye on this shipping story!  If it is true and worldwide shipping is disastrously foundering, it’ll only be a matter of days before grocery store shelves will reflect that with increasingly bare shelves.

Are people upset now? Just wait. Interruptions in goods and services, most critically food, almost happened in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis.  For three days worldwide shipping was stranded due to shipping companies not knowing whether or not the receiver’s bank credit was good.

That crisis was staved off due to a massive amount of money printing.  It was a temporary stay of execution, like bailing out the Titanic with coffee cups, however, and one that may reach much larger proportions in 2016.

Sailors watch the weather to see if it is safe to set sail.  Investors should be watching the economic climate with the same intensity.

We are already sailing through very stormy waters.