Sovereign Debt Crisis - Cracks Showing in the Yen?Long position on OANDA:USDJPY
Interest rates on US dollars are rising globally, at a very rapid rate. Capital has been flowing towards the United States for the last couple years, as a global flight to security occurs as fear rises in markets during times of turmoil.
Because the US Dollar is the reserve currency of the globe, debts backed by US Treasuries are quickly becoming expensive - particularly for sovereigns. Sovereign debt, particularly long-tenor notes and bonds, have demonstrated to be very illiquid in the last decade. Globally, central banks have attempted to combat this issue with lower interest rates and quantitative easing.
This theory, however is fundamentally flawed since it does not address the lack of price discovery in these markets. Central banks can support these markets domestically, but without a foreign buyer they hold little value, and the currency will experience inflation relative to other currencies. In this instance, this is the US Dollar. See this chart of the British 10-Year Bond (Gilt) Futures, where there was a panic in the market a few months ago as pension funds holding large quantities of Gilts were rendered insolvent. The same pattern can be observed on a USDGBP chart, as capital fled the nation and its debt lost value (rates rise).
The crisis that nations now face, is that they are burning the candle at both ends. Japan has been employing strict interest rate controls, and extraordinary liquidity-providing measures to domestic banks for decades to stimulate inflation. In the past couple months however, they have begun to employ currency controls, to curb the loss of value of the Yen in FX markets. Despite this inflation they have had little success stimulating growth domestically. Negative rates reflect a negative demand for sovereign debt, as if the entity "buying" it must be paid to do so.
Rates have also gone negative in Europe, see the financial capital, Germany, has struggled since 2009 to find a market for its debt. US banks are reluctant to lend via repo to European banks for their sovereign entities possess such great risk
The Reverse Repo facility (RRP) has become a black hole for capital around the globe. During QE it offered the highest return on cash for money-market funds and other money market participants. As rates rise globally, so too does risk. As markets like Europe are unable to keep up with the rise in rates as is occurring in the United States, so capital will continue to flee these nations under duress and create a feedback loop. The RRP is a zero-risk investment, so offers a safe home for flighty capital looking to liquidate long-term debt. See chart of Yen, inverse Euro and RRP usage
The Bank of Japan has become unable to control the market on its 10-year debt security, and it will continue to rise and push against the imaginary "ceiling" imposed on it, until a currency crisis occurs and a crisis in sovereign debt markets may begin to be realised.
Capital will flow very quickly towards the United States in this event. Since it is the financial capital of the world still, as it is the reserve currency of most foreign governments, any assets priced in US dollars will grow in value. Particularly equities, this will be a theme in markets over the following years. War in Ukraine will continue to create massive inflationary pressure globally, as capital concentrates around a very expensive and complicated geopolitical conflict. Rates will continue to rise until this is resolved, and sovereign debt will quickly become un-affordable as the price falls due to rate increases. Debt is already concentrating in short-term debt markets, like REPO, FIMA, SOFR and so on. Pension and mutual funds will quickly be rendered insolvent as they are the parties which hold gigantic quantities of these dangerously illiquid bonds.
BEWARE of these markets, they are a ticking time bomb and all global currencies have a massive exposure.
