Feed the Fed

Alright, it’s been way too long since I brewed something… So... Let’s get to work.

The Context:

October Jobs Report.  It seems that companies have added about 271,000 jobs in October. This sudden surge in the number of jobs added has been the fastest rate change yet and as an effect has sent the unemployment rate to 5% which is the lowest level since April 2008.

Ok, what does that mean?

Well, according to Economics, inflation rises as unemployment goes down. I know sounds strange at first because we are used to associating negatives with negatives… but Economics thinks otherwise.. for every good, there is bad. Hence, as more and more people get employed, they have money to spend, and as their spending ability increases, so does the demand for things and hence price rise or inflation. Tada!

All right ok we understood that employment increases inflation, what’s next?

Coming to that; USA’s central bank rate has been practically 0% for almost a decade now... 8-8.5 years actually. So now they want to increase that. Now maybe you’re thinking, wait increase bank rate or as its popularly called Fed rate in USA, wouldn't it increase the cost of loans? That would make it harder for people to get their hands on more money, that’s bad, why does USA want to do that??

Weeeelllll…. Inflation in USA has also come to about 0% and now that there’s a sudden drop in unemployment, this inflation will go up and they don’t want that to happen. Simple right? Wrong! Nothing is ever simple!

 Think about it, if inflation goes from 0 to 0.5 or even 1% what’s the big deal? Growth and inflation are directly proportional, so if inflation rises (up to a certain extent, not like Zimbabwe) it means somewhere you are making growth. So the story of wanting to keep inflation under check is bogus.

Wow, ok boss, so what does all this mean then? Why do they really want to increase the fed rate?

I’ll tell you… because they want to look good.

For a stable economy, the Bank rate needs to be respectable, well at least not 0. Japan’s central bank rate has been at zero for almost 15 years, and everyone knows Japan is a saturated economy. They don’t want the same to happen to USA.

Alright… We get it now... so they want to give the Fed rate a hike because they want to look good and look like they made a recovery from the 2008-09 crash. But if this make believe stunt is what they want to do, then why didn’t they do this earlier?

Good question. Frankly, I believe they are doing this because of the presidential elections. However, this post is about a conspiracy theory. Now, where’s the theory??

The Theory

We know what the context is, how Recession, Recovery, Fed Rate, Inflation, Growth and Unemployment are related to each other. And we also know that unless Obama and his govt. show some proof of recovery, it will be really hard to get a third term for the Democrats. So, there’s but one option to show this for sure, increase the fed rate.

This might choke cash flow in the system but! And I mean a serious But! This fed cut is not to choke or pour money into the common man of USA, but it is to show the outsiders that USA is on track for recovery. We must note that people are really wry of the situation. Japan is in a recession, China is looking unstable, and India is still volatile. Everyone else is anyway insignificant. So investors will put their money into USA.

But sir, what about the employment? The govt. can’t simply cook it up, how did nearly 200 thousand new jobs come up within a month??

Ask yourself that question again! How did nearly 200 thousand jobs come up within a month?? Come on!!

I looked it up; the October jobs report a little and I found and I quote

“White-collar businesses added 78,000 profession jobs. Health care added 45,000 positions. Retailers took on 44,000 new workers, and restaurants hired 42,000 people.”

I’m not chasing after everyone, but I got curious at the restaurants and so did a little more digging. About three companies did 80% of this 42000. And surprisingly, these three are Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. All three belong to the same parent organization of Yum Brands, Inc.

Now about this Yum Brands, Inc.

Yum Brands stock tanked 11% in October. They said it’s because the company didn’t meet the analyst's expected quarterly revenue... seriously? 11% because it missed “analyst estimates”?? Ok I'll believe even that… But listen… The quarterly revenue actually grew by 2.2% and increased the "adjusted earnings" by 14%.

Now the stock, even after recovery is at 5% below last year’s price, but the earnings are high and they just hired 42000 people!!

Here’s where I come in... US wanted to hike the fed rate so bad... But they couldn’t just do it.. Neither could they leave it at 0 and be another Japan... sooo.. They called some of the big guys... like Yum and a few others… and said, look guys, you need to hire more people.

We just saw, that the sales revenue of Yum isn’t that great, the stocks tanked 11% but still its profits are awesome. How?? Think! Universities and Hospitals are known all too well for Govt. indulgence... Sooo… I’m just thinking… somehow someone made a big donation or an “adjustment” leading to a growth in numbers, then the hiring boom and hence creating a clean, unsuspecting and natual green signal for the fed rate hike.

But the question is … will you buy this natural green signal??? Is it all that natural in the first place? Will you invest in USA after knowing this??? Or is Obama really looking for investment in America and the American people or is it all just to get money for a short term till the elections are over??

King of All Times

There are very few days when I’ve worked after dark, but whenever I do, I make sure to take a look at the lit glass buildings near my office and the fiery collation of brake lights on Richmond road. The UB city is hard to miss from my building. The lit elevator shaft and the blue and red of the helipad on top are always sites I envy. Yday I happened to see a few lit windows too. Mallya must be at work with his managers I thought, or maybe drunk? Whatever the case, but I don’t know if they could afford to burn so many lights I thought to myself and smiled. 

As I was walking out towards the exit I caught a third eye’s view of the top floors of the UB city. He must be working so hard, maybe coming up with something ingenious. I was actually surprised at myself, Mallya has lost a lot of things while trying to revive his airline with a broken wing and yet I seem to have some strange confidence in him. Strange indeed, but that’s when I remembered reading the Forbes of July 20. The cover story said that Mallya and his managers never looked worried or desperate when they went to talk to their banks or investors. In fact there seemed to be an air of poised arrogance in their arguments and they had complete faith in their plans and were completely certain that the KFA would fly again. Their only argument was - FDI.

Banks together have lost close to rupees 7000 crore! More than half the staff of KFA is on strike and none of them have received their salaries from 6 months!! How the hell is he gonna come out of this one?? Then suddenly news comes out that there might be a deal with Diageo, the world’s largest liquor maker. Mallya and Diageo were in talks for 2 to 3 years and the talks had failed every time, maybe nows the end of the road when there needs to be some selling and sacrificing to get some inflow of money.

That’s when it struck me, how were Mallya and his men so confident of the FDI?

Just making casual conversation, I spoke with my friends:

Me: Boys! I gotta theory,

Me: Maybe, Mallya’s deal with either Heineken or Diageo took some serious turn and he got some prospects of cash, then with his charisma he cast a spell on the govt to pass the FDI, the govt is anyway in favor of the brave and the rich, so with pranav da gone, and chidu taking over finance ministry, Mallya had a chance. Chindu is anyway too close to the banks, his family or extended started 4 banks in tamil nadu right? So maybe Mallya worked closely with Chidu, Chaudhary and a few other bank and govt guys to convince them that if the FDI was passed he would get all the money he needed to make his kingfisher fly again, and maybe get a bit more.  

Me: Andddd… with the FDI passed, he doesn’t have to make deals with both Heineken and Diageo, maybe that’s why he’s stalling the Heineken deal.. lets see.. its just a theory :D plus.. you should see his tweets on FDI :P 

Friend: But It’s a tough deciesen for anyone to buy shares in a company with 7k crore in debt.

Me: dude! Anyone would buy once the govt is out of the way.. as in FDI is passed.. I know I would

Friend:  dude.. KFA shares are at 16 rupees or something.. :P 

Me: lol.. yeah I know.. ok heres the time for my ~serious statement making face~ I don’t buy shares for money dude.. I buy shares for my share. ~hunk look~

Friend: lol :P die.. its end game for Mallya dude.. hes gonna lose the dominant role in UB and US and even if he gets investors (fat chance) its gonna be pretty much the same on KFA.. and its all too famous that hes too hard to work when hes not the boss.

Me: hmmm…

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So, the wide spread opinion about Mallya is that much has been ruined and the only way to keep his head afloat is to sell off everything and just be a pawn. Well, that’s ridicules.

Now, many people might not like him, his extravaganza or his business, people might call him an opportunist or even arrogant. I have members in my own family circles that don’t like him because he made money from the liquor that ruined so many families. Well, We can blame the Indian conservatives for that.  

 

Speaking on Mallya, we all know who Vijay Mallya is; hes a rock star! How many Indians decided to buy an F1 team and name it after India? How many Indians decided to buy Tipu Sultan’s sword for 505,250 pounds? And who made sure India didn’t cut a sorry figure when we couldn’t stop the auctioning of Gandhi’s belongings in 2009?? Mallya. 

There might be a lot of reasons to pull down Mallya and beat on him when hes low, but hes really a man of the riches who also means well. He doesn’t just want to be and feel rich alone; he wanted all of India to experience the riches. He wanted to give a luxury experience to the ppl of India, maybe that’s where he went wrong. When just a simple air travel is considered luxury in our country... maybe he went a little ahead of time to provide luxury to everyone in the country. 

Ok.. where does he go from now? And what do I see for him?

It’s simple, the FDI was the last hurdle and now that hes beyond that, he should be clean. He just needs to watch out for a few months and then with his charm and elegant arrogance it would be no time before people joined him in catapulting the broken bird back in the air. 

I believe the King of Good Times has proved it that he has no problems being the Baron at Bad Times… And to all those in strikes and literally being a pain in his ass... you better switch sides before hes rich again 

Rich and The Responsible II

The idea of Rich and The Responsible basically started out to show that there is a difference between those who have money and those who are actually rich. The thought of being responsible towards ones actions or showing and sharing responsibility towards the society is what according to me makes people rich. 

The founding lines of this idea were taken from an extract of a memory from my home to office ride on a cool Wednesday morning. 

A hijada made me realise who the real responsible are.  As I reached in for my wallet I realised that they didn’t come asking for money every day. So I asked her, 

 

‘Don’t you come every day?’

Her answer struck me deep and hard. She said

‘If I come here every day, wouldn’t all your money be mine?’

It sounded like she was just reminding me of common sense. But her matter-of-fact made me think for a long time. I still think about it when I see rich people talking about investments to save tax, evading tax, hiding money and never stopping from making more and more money. 

There’s nothing wrong in making money, but there comes a question when it comes to making money by stopping others from doing the same. And that’s what Obama plans to do. 

In Rich and The ResponsibleI, I spoke about the bad rating of S&P and Moody’s on the Indian economy. The article took the example of the real estate bubble to question the credibility of the S&P’s ratings.

Picking it up from there, let’s look at the recent turn of events.

On June 11 2012, S&P issues warnings of downgrading the credit rating of India and makes comments on India’s leadership stating that India is run by a Powerful Sonia and an Appointed Prime Minister. The Rating agency goes further to make remarks on economic slowdown and a loss in GDP could be the consequence of a lack in policy making. 

Quite naturally this wasn’t accepted by the Indian Finance minister and he went out to say that the Indian economy is one of the most stable economies and growth related problems will be addressed soon. Sadly for him, the very days to follow showed that the Industrial growth had also taken a dip. 

To speak in favour of S&P; or so as to speak, there hasn’t been any improvement on Indian front. But, the World Bank did come public and say that the Indian Outlook is good. The report also said that India will be moving up to 6^th spot in the world’s biggest economies. 

Now here’s what I think is the reason for India going bad. Obama.

The US presidential elections are in this November. Obama clearly wants to remain president for another term and he can do that if he convinces his people of two things:

                       1.      Terrorism is kept at bay.

                       2.       There is enough money in the USA. 

He has made progress on the first point by taking care of osama. Coming to the second, there is practically no way of encouraging investor confidence at a time when there are trillions of dollars of debt on Uncle Sam’s head.

But he has to do it, he needs the people to believe that the Obama and the Democrats can provide jobs and save Americans from mounting debts.

What does Obama do? Is there a trump card? Another trillion of the World Bank’s money? Not really, at least not when the elections are so close.  Taking a loan is inevitable for America, but the longer he pushes it, better are the chances of gaining investors and his remaining in the white house.

What does he do?

He picks on an easy scapecountry. India.

Phase 1: S&P, Moody’s etc issue statements on India’s falling economy and downgrade India.

Phase 2: Rupee starts doing badly on Dollar and then starts doing badly on all Currencies. 

(I have doubts that the USA with allies started selling out the Rupee, and the sharp fall led other countries to do the same, resulting in a falling rupee)

Phase 3: USA issues oil import sanction enforcements on India along with other major oil importers.

Phase 3 evokes chaos in India and the leaders are biting each other’s backs.  

Phase 4: S&P downgrades India from stable to unstable and makes comments on policy making. The restricted FDI along with this comment makes foreign investors think low of India. 

Phase 5: US lifts sanction enforcements.

Phase5 is to show the people that India will comply to the will of USA. As a part of Phase 5 USA still keeps the enforcements over China to show that China’s no better than India and is well covered under their thumb.

In all this, Obama’s aim is to show the investors and the people of USA that USA has control over major parts of the world. The effects of this are:

  

 1. Investors opting out of India, China etc; with the euro zone is complete disarray they have but 1 option, USA. 

  

 

2.       People of USA gaining confidence in Obama and The Democrats.

As an effect, the economy of USA would see an upward trend. More money, jobs and happy people would pave way for Obama’s Second term as President. But what of India? China? Or the rest of the world? Will they crumple under Obama’s success? Or will they hold on to their reputation of “emerging” economies and emerge out of this clutter? If they do? What options does Obama have? Drop the curtains on his ploy and pull out the roofs of his people? Or apply for fresh loans? 

Can he control the monster he has created out of Uncle Sam to feed his greed of continued occupancy of the white house? Is it more personal than it looks? Or more importantly, does he even care?

Rich and The Responsible - I

This post comes out as a reaction to the recent downgrading of Indian Outlook by S&P and Moody. These two are organizations that do the Risk rating operations and analysis on investments, credits and everything they feel like. Like India for example. 

To throw light on what I’m talking about, just last week the S&P downgraded the Indian outlook to negative from being stable. In simpler terms, it’s branding India to be a Risky place for investments. This might not come as a surprise to some and they might even agree to this as the Indian markets haven’t showed a lot of stiffness, some of the big bosses have drawn graphs crossing the red line. To add, there’s the rupee losing ground on the US dollar. From this point, it sure seems like Indian economy is risky. 

To add to this one flamboyant “rating” the Moody has come out and done more act of downgrading India. Well, this time they’ve taken on 3 private banks; HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank have been given bad ratings by moody and there is a speculation over LIC; India’s biggest PSU insurance provider. 

Why!!! Why are you throwing stones at me??

Let’s take a deep breath and do what a glass house dwelling stone pelter deserves.

Looking back into very recent history, wasn’t it the S&P and Moody who gave a triple A rating for the Housing Credit Securities? They said that the money lent on houses was insured as they had the house in possession which could be sold to a new customer if the loan was defaulted.  Seems sensible, and so thought the countries who bought these sensible “securities” what happened later?? The housing prices started falling, people couldn’t sell houses, they had to take fresh loans to pay out to their housing loans. This debt after debt burst the housing bubble and everything was ruined. Billions of dollars were lost, people came to the streets and no one had money. All this was in the USA, what about the countries who bought these “insured securities”?? The rest of the world laughed at them and they lost all their money, and more than half the world had to apply for loans from the world bank. That was the beginning of the recession era.

What brought all this? The AAA rating by S&P.

Economists, or in general anyone with common sense across the globe believed that the system of rating itself was corrupt. The US govt. must have been at bed with S&P and Moody and forced them to give an AAA rating so as to be able to sell their rots to the rest of the world. 

Now, just about 6 months back when the S&P gave USA a bad rating, everything went haywire, like hell had descended over earth. At that time, the head of S&P who was an Indian was sacked and the rating was reversed. After 6 months, we see that these very respectable organisations are throwing stones at the Indian economy. My take is, that after the Indian Head had been sacked from S&P and an American past VP of Citi Bank had been made the new head, they went back to sleep with the Fed govt of USA. 

It’s only fitting that the federal govt of USA and these rating organisations are playing this game of downgrading India together. With the presidential election looming close, and Obama’s failing promise of providing jobs and curbing outsourcing, this might be his last ditch effort of bringing money back to the USA. By defaming India, they are hoping to suck money and investors off India. Will this pump money back into USA? Only time can tell. But is this the right way to become rich? 

I wasn’t sure of the answer myself. Until I met a Hijada on the street this Wednesday.