Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Topping Patterns and the Proper Cause for Optimism

Notes to the FOMC

The following are a few observations regarding Dr. Yellen’s testimony to Congress. The objective is to broaden the discourse with alternative views and evidence, not to disparage FOMC members. We should all hope that Dr. Yellen does well in what can be expected to be a challenging position in the coming years.

1. While we all would like to see greater job creation and economic growth, there is little demonstrated cause-and-effect relationship between the Fed’s actions and the outcomes it seeks, other than provoking speculation in risk-assets by depriving investors of safe yield. That’s essentially the same M.O. that got us into the housing crisis: yield-starved investors plowing money into mortgage-backed securities, and Wall Street scrambling to create “product” by lending to anyone with a pulse. To suggest that fresh economic weakness might justify further efforts at quantitative easing is to assume a cause-and-effect link that is unreliable, if evident at all, and to overlook the already elevated risks.

2. In this context, the “dual mandate” of the Federal Reserve is much like charging the National Weather Service to balance the frequency of sunshine versus rainfall. If Congress was to require the Federal Reserve to change itself into a butterfly, it would not be the fault of the Federal Reserve to miss that objective. Moreover, what is absent from nearly every reference to the dual mandate is the phrase “long run” that is repeatedly included in that mandate. It seems probable that the cyclical response to economic weakness following the 2000-2001 recession – suppressing safe yields in a way that encouraged yield-seeking and housing speculation – was largely responsible for present, much longer-term difficulties.

3. The FOMC should be slow to conclude that monetary policy is what ended the credit crisis. The main concern during that period was the risk of widespread bank insolvency, resulting from asset losses that were wiping out the razor-thin capital levels at banks. In the first weeks of March 2009, in response to Congressional pressure, the Financial Accounting Standards Board changed accounting standards (FAS 157) to allow “significant judgment” in the valuation of assets, instead of valuing them at market prices. That change coincided precisely with the low in the financial markets and the turn in leading economic measures. By overestimating the impact of its actions, the FOMC may underestimate the risks. The philosophy seems to be “If an unprecedented amount of ineffective intervention is not sufficient, one must always do more.”

4. At present, excess reserves in the U.S. banking system amount to $2.4 trillion – more than double the total amount of demand deposits in the U.S. banking system, far more than all commercial and industrial loans combined, and 25% of total deposits in U.S. banks. Short term interest rates have averaged less than 10 basis points since late-2009, when the Fed’s balance sheet $2 trillion smaller. Based on the tight relationship between monetary base / nominal GDP and short-term interest rates, it is evident that even an immediate and persistent reduction in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet of $20-25 billion per month would be unlikely to result in even 1% Treasury bill rates until 2020, absent much higher interest on reserves. The FOMC has done what it can – probably too much. A focus on the potential risks of equity leverage (where NYSE margin debt has surged to a record and the highest ratio of GDP in history aside from the March 2000 market peak), covenant lite lending, and other speculative outcomes should be high on the priorities of the FOMC.

5. Dr. Yellen suggests that equity valuations are not “in bubble territory, or outside of normal historical ranges.” The historical record begs to differ on this. The first chart below reviews a variety of reliable valuation measures relative to their historical norms. The second shows the relationship of these measures with actual subsequent 10-year equity returns. With regard to alternate measures of valuation such as price/unadjusted forward operating earnings, or various “equity risk premium” models, it would be appropriate for the FOMC to estimate the relationship between those measures and actual subsequent market returns. Having done this, the spoiler alert is that these methods do not perform very well. In contrast, the correlation between the measures below and actual subsequent 7-10 year equity returns approaches 90%. At present, U.S. equity valuations are about double their norms, based on historically reliable measures.

6. Finally, when confronted with the difficulties that quantitative easing has posed for individuals on fixed incomes, Dr. Yellen asserted that interest rates are low not only because of Fed policy, but because of generally lackluster economic conditions. This argument is difficult to support, because there is an extraordinarily close relationship between the level of short-term interest rates and quantity of monetary base per dollar of nominal GDP (see the chart below). With regard to long-term interest rates, it’s notable that the 10-year Treasury yield is actually higher than when QE2 was initiated in 2010, and is also higher than the weighted average yield at which the Federal Reserve has accumulated its holdings. In order to restore even 1% Treasury bill yields without paying enormous interest on reserves, the Fed would not only have to taper its purchases, but actively contract its balance sheet by more than $1.5 trillion.