Europe’s Biggest Bank Dares To Ask

Why did we focus so much attention yesterday on a post in which the IMF confirmed what we had said since last October, namely that the BOJ’s days of ravenous debt monetization are coming to a tapering end as soon as 2017 (as willing sellers simply run out of product)? Simple: because in the global fiat regime, asset prices are nothing more than an indication of central bank generosity. Or, as Deutsche Bank puts it: “Ultimately in a fiat money system asset prices reflect “outside” i.e. central bank money and the extent to which it multiplied through the banking system.”

The problem is that the BOJ and the ECB are the only two remaining central banks in a world in which Reverse QE aka “Quantitative Tightening” in China, and the Fed’s tightening in the form of an upcoming rate hike (unless the Fed loses all credibility and reverts its pro-rate hike bias), are now actively involved in reducing global liquidity. It is only a matter of time before the market starts pricing in that the Bank of Japan’s open-ended QE has begun its tapering (followed by a QE-ending) countdown, which will lead to devastating risk-asset consequences. The ECB, which is also greatly supply constrained as 

What would happen then? Well, DB casually tosses an S&P trading a “half its value”, but more importantly, also remarks that what we have also said from day one, namely that “helicopter money” in whatever fiscal stimulus form it takes (even if it is in the purest literal one) is the only remaining outcome after a 50% crash in the S&P:

Of course our definition of “failure” may also be a little zealous. After all why should equities always rise in value? Why should debt holders be expected to afford their debt burden? There are plenty of alternative viable equilibria with SPX half its value, longevity liabilities in default and debt deflation in abundance. In those equilibria traditional QE ceases to work and the only road back to what we think is the current desired equilibrium is via true helicopter money via fiscal stimulus where there are no independent central banks. 

And there it is: Deutsche Bank saying, in not so many words, what Ray Dalio hinted at, namely that the Fed’s tightening would be the mechanistic precursor to a market crash and thus, QE4.

Only Deutsche takes the answer to its rhetorical question if the Fed is preparing for a “controlled demolition” of risk assets one step forward: realizing that at this point more QE will be self-defeating, the only remaining recourse to avoid what may be another systemic catastrophe would be the one both Friedman and Bernanke hinted at many years ago: the literal paradropping of money to preserve the fiat system for just a few more days (At this point we urge rereading footnote 18 in Ben Bernanke’s“Deflation: Making Sure “It” Doesn’t Happen Here” speech)

While we can only note that the gravity of the above admission by Europe’s largest bank can not be exaggerated – for “very serious banks” to say this, something epic must be just over the horizon – we should add: if Deutsche Bank (with its €55 trillion in derivatives) is right and if the Fed refuses to change its posture, exposure to any asset which has counterparty risk and/or whose value is a function of faith in central banks, should be effectively wound down.

* * *

While we have no way of knowing how this all plays out, especially if Deutsche is correct, we’ll leave readers with one of our favorite diagrams: Exter’s inverted pyramid.

Reprinted with permission from Zero Hedge.