Why the next recession will be a doozy

[Bill Bonner's Diary]( Why the Next Recession Will Be a Doozy By Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners [Bill Bonner] SALTA, ARGENTINA – “Stocks Slide After Powell Testimony,” reads a headline at Bloomberg. The Dow dropped 380 points yesterday, leaving February as the worst month in two years. What did the new Fed chief say? Only that he thought the economy was doing so well that the Fed would be able to continue raising rates and reducing its bond holdings. It is currently scheduled to get rid of nearly $2 trillion worth of bonds in its quantitative tightening program over the next two years. Recommended Link [Can You See the Anomaly Hidden in This Chart? (Wall Street PhDs Can’t)]( [image]( Can you spot the [powerful anomaly]( hidden in this chart? Wall Street PhDs can’t. High-speed traders can’t. The talking heads on TV can’t either. But thanks to a former MBA college dean and millionaire trader, now you can. And it could make you more profits in 3 hours than most investors make in 3 years. [See if you can spot it here]( -- Allergic to Higher Rates As you’ll recall from [yesterday’s]( Fed policy is as easy as 1… 2… 3. (1) It keeps rates too low for too long. (2) It raises them, causing a serious allergic reaction on Wall Street… which it then medicates (3) with more low rates. It is now in the middle of Mistake 2. And our guess is that a recession/crash will happen before it has had a chance to restock the medicine cabinet. Yes, Dear Reader, Wall Street is allergic to higher rates. Not only do they raise the discount rate, making the flow of earnings less valuable in today’s money… they also signal that the Fed no longer has investors’ backs. And now, after so many years of the Fed favoring financial assets with EZ credit policies, the financial world is particularly sensitive. Even a small increase in rates could send Wall Street to the emergency room. Which is okay with us. We don’t care about higher rates. Or lower rates. We just want honest rates. Because honest rates produce honest prices. And honest prices are what an economy needs to make the right decisions. Recommended Link [China Steals “Doomsday Technology” From Indiana Factory]( The Chinese have been thieves for decades. According to CBS News, Chinese spies cost the U.S. more than two million jobs… But Beijing’s latest act of espionage has put all 323 million Americans at risk. You see, China “stole” a U.S. military “kill switch” on American soil. Now the Pentagon is terror-stricken because China’s leader could shut down the U.S. armed forces in seconds… right from his official residence. CIA director Mike Pompeo admits, it’s “a very real concern.” But there’s one way America could fight back. And it gives patriotic Americans a quick opportunity to capture 1,127% gains in months… [Click here for the full story]( -- Honest Prices Which merely raises the same question we asked yesterday. How can some guys and gals with PhDs in economics know what the honest interest rate should be? Even markets don’t know. They have to discover honest prices… minute by minute… based on all the information coming their way. Take away the information (from willing buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bulls and bears) and you are lost. But that doesn’t stop the Fed. It decides, by committee, where it thinks rates should be. And then, it proceeds to make Mistakes 1, 2, and 3. Of course, ours is a minority view. Most people believe the Fed knows what it is doing. Alan Greenspan, who chaired the Fed from 1987 to 2006, was lionized for making Mistakes 1, 2, and 3. And Ben Bernanke, his successor, was lauded when he had the “courage to act” by making Mistake 3. Mr. Bernanke’s successor, Janet Yellen, was acclaimed for making Mistake 1 for four years. And now Powell – no fool – is going to stick with the script: make Mistake 2 until it is time to make Mistake 3 again. Same old. Same old. Recommended Link [March 31: New law lifts barrier to $10,000 gold]( [image]( Why has gold not surged to $10,000 – even with everything that’s going on in the world? That’s all about to change. When a new “gold law” goes into effect, expected to pass by March 31, the yellow metal will begin a historic ascent to $10,000 and beyond. And thanks to a secret gold trade, you can see the biggest profits on what will be the biggest wealth story of 2018. [Click here to get started]( -- Recession Warning What is new is that Mistake 2 is likely to set off a chain of events too powerful for Mistake 3 to stop. So far, the Fed has unloaded just $21 billion in bonds. It was supposed to dump $50 billion a month, but it seems to have gotten cold feet. And in the mini-crash of early February, it actually rushed ahead to Mistake 3 (a preview of things to come) and added $16 billion to its bond portfolio. Even former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, whom we caught on Bloomberg TV this morning, sees the feds making errors. The understatement headline: “Summers Warns Next U.S. Recession Could Outlast Previous One.” Why? Mistakes are costly. They distort prices, causing investors, consumers, and businesses to make mistakes, too. And they add debt. Eventually, you get to the point where the economy has too much debt; it can’t add more. The Fed… like a dirty old man hanging around a schoolyard… runs out of candy. Even with the lowest rates in 5,000 years, the Fed has been unable to coax households into adding substantially more debt. Home buyers and lenders saw what happened the last time. Mortgage debt has declined. Besides, households just couldn’t add much more debt… they had too much already. Aside from their houses, they had little collateral. So they could only borrow against easily-repossessed autos… or get scammy student debt, backed by the feds. That left businesses and the feds themselves to do the heavy lifting. And yes, they bent to the task with great enthusiasm. Business debt is now about 40% higher than it was in 2008. And the federal government has added $10 trillion to its burden since then. The problem now is that the Fed has run out of bonbons. It has few rates to cut. And cutting them doesn’t do much good anyway. As the Fed might say, we may already be beyond Peak Debt. There’s a limit to how much people can borrow. As interest rates rise, even the federal government runs into trouble. It can control the amount of fake money it puts out. Or it can control the quality (price) of it. It can’t control both. And when investors see it favoring quantity over quality, they get nervous. The price of money drops. The prices for goods and services go up. Interest rates rise in anticipation of higher inflation. This deepens the stock sell-off and intensifies the economic slump. Then, with no more rates to cut, the Fed looks back at Mistake 3 wistfully. What can it do? It has to commit Mistake 4. Rarely seen in civilized economies, Mistake 4 stirs dull roots like warm spring rain… …and excites strains of catastrophe now lying dormant in the laboratories of Hell. Stay tuned. Regards, [signature] Bill MARKET INSIGHT: U.S. STOCKS’ ROUGH MONTH By Chris Lowe, Editor at Large, Bonner & Partners [Chris Lowe] As Bill mentioned, February was tough sledding for investors… Today’s chart looks at the monthly change for the S&P 500 going back to the start of 2016. [Chart] As you can see, the S&P 500 fell almost 4% last month. That’s the worst monthly decline since January 2016. – Chris Lowe FEATURED READS [Today’s “Shoe Shine Boy” Warning]( to popular market lore, Joseph Kennedy decided to get out of stocks when he started receiving investment advice from a shoe shine boy. He narrowly missed the 1929 crash. Now, there are “shoe shine boy” warning signals popping up for this bull market. [Here’s What Will Permanently Change Medicine]( Brown, Bill’s top technology analyst, says 2018 could be the year that changes medicine forever. That’s because a revolutionary piece of technology is now being tested that has the potential to cure thousands of diseases. [Should Companies Weigh In on Social Issues?]( is in the midst of a renewed debate on gun control. Now, some of America’s largest companies are taking a stance. But a question: Should they? MAILBAG In the mailbag, yesterday’s Diary, “[The Fed Is About to Pop the Bubble in Stocks]( has gotten readers thinking… Where did you find that the Federal Reserve tries to hide its actions from Wall Street? My thoughts were that they were working hand in hand. Please elaborate. – Marius M. Larry Summers is warning that, because the Fed is out of ammo, the next recovery will be even longer. Isn’t the opposite true? Won’t we finally get a real downturn that clears out the rot, one that falls faster and farther than usual with reckless abandon, but that clears the decks and leads to a quick, strong, and sustainable recovery from a sustainable base? – Quint B. Bravo for saving that woman from choking to death. You’re a good man, Bill, and I don’t care what any of your readers might have to say about you. – Kurt J. Why are you hustling so hard when you can make so much money just using your own advice? – Art J. Wow! Bill, some of the responses in your mailbag prove your lose-lose proposition. Your “friends” hailed you when you seemed to sing from their song sheet, but what a fury once you fail to toe the line and let the sun shine on the mess that is ideological politics. – Erich K. Bill, I just read “The Fed Is About to Pop the Bubble in Stocks,” which also stated that your Doom Index is very high. So what do you recommend that we do with our money? Are there specific asset classes or stocks/other that you are recommending right now? I have some funds that I want to get invested, but I’m a little wary about putting them into the market now. I understand that you can’t provide individual advice, but can you provide general direction on where to go to avoid a bust? – Joann F. Editor’s Note: Recently, Bill and Bill Bonner Letter coauthor Dan Denning published what they called “the new permanent portfolio.” It’s an asset allocation strategy designed to protect your wealth no matter what happens to stocks. Dan and Bill also list some easy ways to start “definancializing” your life, including why everybody should have a “bug-out bag” and what to include in it. Subscribers to The Bill Bonner Letter can read it [right here](. And if you’re not a member, you can join Bill and Dan as a subscriber by going [right here](. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… Over 30 years ago, master trader Jeff Clark made a discovery… And for years, he’s been using it to book countless triple-digit gains for his readers – not the big-money firms. To learn more about it, [go right here](. [image]( [Bonner and Partners]( © Bonner & Partners 55 NE 5th Avenue, Suite 100, Delray Beach, FL 33483 [www.bonnerandpartners.com]( This e-mail was sent to {EMAIL} because you subscribed to this service. To stop receiving these emails, click [here](. Customer Service Bonner & Partners welcomes your feedback and questions. But please note: The law prohibits us from giving personalized advice. To contact us, call Toll Free: (800) 681-1765, International: (443) 353-4462, Mon-Fri: 9am-7pm or email us [here](mailto:feedback@bonnerandpartners.com). Having trouble getting your e-mails? Add us to your address book. Get Instructions [here]( © 2018 Bonner & Partners, 55 NE 5th Avenue Suite 100, Delray Beach, FL 33483, USA. All rights reserved. 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