Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Société Générale's Albert Edwards Not His Usual Jolly Self


From Business Insider:

ALBERT EDWARDS WARNS: Prepare for overwhelming 'waves of deflation' to suck us into recession
Societe Generale strategist Albert Edwards may have finally out-beared himself. He warns the China devaluation is a step toward "a financial-market rout every bit as large as 2008."
In his new note, Edwards says the Chinese currency devaluation is the beginning of a period of serious foreign-exchange weaknesses in Asia.

This will force down import prices into the US and EU economies, aggravating a deflationary cycle that hits corporate profits and ending in a Lehman-style crisis:

We expect the acceleration of EM devaluations to send waves of deflation to the west to overwhelm already struggling corporate profitability and take us back into outright recession. As investors realize yet another recession beckons, without any normalization of either interest rates or fiscal imbalances in this cycle, expect a financial market rout every bit as large as 2008.

There are already signs a strong dollar relative to other currencies is pushing a "tidal wave" of deflation toward the US shore. Here's the chart:
Albert deflation
Societe Generale
Edwards sees no easy way out of a deflation-led US recession, culminating in a financial-market collapse. The emphasis is ours:...MORE