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# The Global Intelligence Files

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

## [alpha] INSIGHT - GLOBAL - Macro report - OCH007

Released on 2012-03-08 18:00 GMT

Email-ID | 79560
Date | 2011-06-22 17:15:39
From | michael.wilson@stratfor.com
To | alpha@stratfor.com
List-Name | alpha@stratfor.com

SOURCE: OCH007
ATTRIBUTION: Old China Hand
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: Well connected financial source
PUBLICATION: Yes
SOURCE RELIABILITY: A
ITEM CREDIBILITY: 3
SPECIAL HANDLING: None
SOURCE HANDLER: Meredith/Jen
The global economy is facing a difficult period. The US Federal Reserve's
QE2 program ends at the end of the month. Europe's debt issues continue to
roll on as no party wants to pull the plug on Greece. The Middle East is
in turmoil and high oil prices, together with food, are a tax on global
consumers. Japan's reconstruction has yet to get into full gear; and there
are new concerns about the durability of China's economy. Any significant
slowdown there will send ripples of fear around the world.
The Federal Reserve is likely to sit pat for some months to see how the US
economy will be able to perform without the steroids provided by them.
Foreign central banks have largely been absent from Treasury auctions. In
quarter 1 this year, foreign central banks bought just 16% of the
issuances while the Federal Reserve acquired almost 200%, according to
Russell Napier. In other words, the Fed's activities have masked the
exodus of foreign central banks including China from these auctions.
If foreign central banks continue to abstain from purchasing US
Treasuries, the private sector will have to fund the fiscal deficit,
implying quarterly remittances to the US Treasury of some $370bn. The
private sector will be able to fund these auctions but at a price. They
will demand a higher return on treasury paper and the funding will mean
that the free-flow of funds into equity and commodities will come to an
end. Many institutions are taking risk off the table.
On our associate's, WaveTrack International technical work, 10-year US
Treasuries should be yielding around 4% later this summer and 6% a year or
so later. The repercussions of such a change in the yield structure will
have global consequences, not least on stock and commodity markets.
Debt has woven a dangerous spider's web in Europe. The basic truth is that
Greece can never repay its debt; the ECB, the IMF and Euro governments are
merely buying time by granting new loans, hoping that the problem goes
away. Future stability, however, does not depend on what these
institutions and governments do, but on how the electorates will react. In
their view, austerity can be accepted only on a one or two year view, not
as an ongoing way of life.
This is especially true of Greece whose national pride will find the sale
of assets to foreigners wholly unacceptable. The same is true in other
debt-laden Euro countries. All, apart from Italy, have seen their
economies contract significantly over the past two years with little hope
of any imminent improvement. The next major move could emanate from
Ireland; the Irish government wants to renegotiate its ECB and other
loans.
In fact, nearly all the conventional forward looking indicators (PMIs,
OECD leading indicators etc.) are suggesting that global growth is slowing
and rolling over. The US ISM data for May was universally awful with every
component from New Orders to Imports down significantly. This is a view
shared by industry mills we talk to and visit regularly.
The USA does not only have a cyclical problem, but a structural one also.
The fundamental issue is that sooner rather than later government will be
forced to introduce measures that will allow the country to live within
its means. It will take a deep crisis before such policies can be put
together and passed by the country's politicians. For instance, a run on
the US dollar sometime next year or early in 2013 might do the trick.
Unemployment amongst teenagers has become a serious structural and social
problem for the USA in an economy that is becoming dominated by skilled
workers. The number of unemployed teenagers (16-19) now totals almost one
in four. However, the number of African-American, not seasonally adjusted
U-3 unemployment, including both sexes, in the same age group has risen to
a stunning 41%, almost every other teenager.
Once Washington puts its act together, (it will have to or else the crisis
will get so deep that US markets will become dysfunctional), America will
find a large number of companies which had vacated the shores of the USA
for China and other parts of Asia returning to their homeland.
There are two main reasons for this change, what we call reverse
globalisation. First, manufacturers want their supply chains located close
to the market, not on the other side of the world. And second just as
important is the cost differential trend which is narrowing together with
the increasing logistical costs. It is not only the wage profile looking
10 years forward, but the other costs, such as land, electricity, taxes
together with the indirect supply chain cost increases. There is also the
reluctance of the system in China to allow foreign companies to gain
access to government contracts.
Within a decade, the USA could supplant China as the manufacturing hub of
the world. To repeat, big changes will be needed in Washington for this
historic development to occur. The changes will not just be on the fiscal
side, but the need to offer businesses the right incentives to produce in
the USA rather than abroad, the permitting procedures to allow the
development of the country's resources, including oil (the USA could
become self-contained), making government less intrusive in households and
businesses and so on.
In short, it is putting back in place the principals that made America
the great country it once was. Crises produce opportunities and this one
is as big as they have been since the USA entered WW11. What is noteworthy
is that should America grab its opportunity, it will become self-contained
in energy and of course food. What other major power has those valuable
twin assets?
China and the rest of Asia are no exception to this slowing economic
trend. In the former, government's focus on CPI inflation and the housing
market together with its concerns on the degree of speculative or hot
money circulating within the economy will almost ensure that the tight
monetary policy will continue for some months yet. In these circumstances,
further hikes in interest rates and Reserve Requirements are likely to be
seen before the end of the year.
Chart 1: Shanghai Composite Index
Such a scenario fits the political cycle. Some of the country's excesses
can be cleaned out by end 2011, much to the delight of the incoming
leadership, whilst monetary policy remains tight. The chief economist of
the State Information Centre, who is well regarded in Beijing, said at a
recent conference in Shanghai that "China has a serious inflation". He
concluded his speech by saying that China had to endure some short term
pain for the longer term benefit of the economy.
Early in 2012, monetary policy will start to be loosened and should
continue to do so throughout that year. The economy should recover so
allowing the outgoing leadership to depart on a high note. Post 2012, we
guess that the incoming leadership will want to put the economy on a
firmer long-term footing, meaning more tightening. This may well coincide
with the real estate sector seeing major falls in prices and, externally,
the global economy starting to suffer from the breakout of its second
global credit crisis. Oil prices in the $150-200 will be a disaster for
China as one senior government economist said to us. China may well go
through two odd years of real recession in 2013-14 years, in our view. The
impact of an effective recession in China on the rest of the world will be
serious and widespread.
Chart 2: The Demographics of the Middle East
Some of the underlying causes for MENA countries' youth to rebel against
their autocratic governments are common with China. The youth in these
countries don't care about democracy or who governs: they want freedom of
expression, for governments to uphold their rights and the right to work.
It is why Beijing has become so sensitive to the Jasmine movement and
ongoing developments in MENA. Workers' protests appear to be on the rise.
The ability to communicate via computers and mobile phones (Facebook etc.)
increasingly makes government powerless to control the flow of
information.
As the Financial Times wrote on 20th July, "the perception that local
protests might be gaining a broader national coherence is deeply
threatening to China's Communist Party....That is the conclusion of the
government itself. A report by the State Council Development Research
Centre blamed protests on the marginalisation of about 150M migrant
workers...
Graph 1: Global Food Prices
Global food prices have risen by 37% in the past year according to the
FAO. It was higher food prices plus the high level of unemployment in MENA
countries that sparked so much rioting in the region. China's government
is highly sensitive to rising food prices. They may well rise further over
the coming months due to the hog cycle so ensuring that pork prices
increase further followed by corn and in due course even wheat. But,
China's agricultural base is deteriorating. Top soil is collapsing to
dangerous levels; its fertility is being destroyed by acidification; water
is being consumed way beyond sustainable levels; and aquifers are being
exhausted. These are structural issues, not short term cyclical ones.
The demographics of the rural areas of China imply that the pool of active
workers in the age group 15-30 is fast diminishing. It means that
productivity will decline to a rate closer to the Asian Tigers ex. China
or down to the 2% a year level from its historic 5% rate. The above
remarks also imply that China will be importing more foodstuffs over the
coming decade. Unlike the USA, China is becoming increasingly dependent on
imports of food and energy.
The above is a more likely scenario to evolve than the benign outlook
postulated by so many. The world is not back to the 1990s sustainable
growth, but its fragility is being patched up by unsustainable fiscal and
monetary excesses. In fact, as Charles Gave wrote recently in GaveKal Five
Corners these policies have had the opposite effect than those intended
(the unintended consequences of policy actions!), "Capitalism cannot work
without a proper cost of capital. Capitalism needs the process of creative
destruction, and if real rates are negative or abnormally low, the
destruction part of the process cannot happen, zombie companies are kept
on perpetual life support and growth flags."
This is exactly what is happening nearly everywhere. Politicians won't
bite the bullet (perhaps with the exception of the UK) without a crisis.
That crisis is coming, certainly by early 2013 if not sooner, to be
followed by years of recession and deflation, a period when the down years
will outnumber the up ones. It will be accompanied by a serious deflation
of assets, both equities and commodities, perhaps excepting food. This
period of austerity is likely to last until around 2018; a generation of
debt should by then have been worked off so laying the foundations for a
long period of sustainable growth.
Chart 3: Historical Sovereign Default/Restructuring Events
The truth is that the lessons of history have been conveniently forgotten
or ignored, as illustrated by Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff in their
epic work "Growth in a Time of Debt". Those lessons are simple: credit
crises are followed by years of sub-par growth and sovereign defaults.
--
Jennifer Richmond
STRATFOR
China Director
Director of International Projects
(512) 422-9335
richmond@stratfor.com
www.stratfor.com
--
Michael Wilson
Senior Watch Officer, STRATFOR
Office: (512) 744 4300 ex. 4112
Email: michael.wilson@stratfor.com

### Attached Files

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10229 | 10229_msg-21778-10889.png | 21.7KiB
10230 | 10230_msg-21778-10887.png | 36.1KiB
10231 | 10231_msg-21778-10888.png | 20.4KiB
10233 | 10233_msg-21778-10886.png | 21KiB