GEAB No. 20 is now issued. This is one of the few publications that has achieved a remarkable predictive record on the subprime crisis and the global credit crisis. Although it is a subscription item (I have no financial connection or other connection) there is an informative abstract provided on the site. The following is excerpted from this abstract:
"The rapid aggravation of the global systemic crisis as its phase of impact unfolds (1) has brought our researchers to estimate that the contemporary global financial system will reach a breaking phase in the course of 2008.Crisis follow-up indicators now show that we should no longer only fear the failure of some large financial institution (and of many small ones) in the US first and the in the rest of the world (cf. GEAB N°19), but that the global financial system itself is structurally hit.The network of global central banks' repeated incapacity to control the « credit crunch » when the two historical pillars of the contemporary global financial system (a US economy in recession and a US dollar in decay), reflects the growing surge of centrifugal forces within this very system.Indeed it is no more a matter of competence or of magnitude of the corrective actions implemented by central bankers. These times are over since summer 2007 and, according to LEAP/E2020, we are now witnessing an increasing divergence in
economic interests among the different components of the global financial
system.The expected failure of the Fed's most recent attempt to coordinate a joint action of the main central banks in order to feed the banks in US dollars (2), is particularly revealing. This action meant to restore confidence in the financial system by two means:- reinstating the now moribund inter-banking market, by proving the existence of a « joint force de frappe (strike force) » of global central banks.- enabling large financial institutions in distress to anonymously restock in US dollars, in exchange of their assets being accepted as discount window collateral (i.e.worth their value some months ago, when they were still worth something)(3).Of course the first goal is predominant, as reinstating of interbanking market is the only means to bailout banks in distress in a sustainable manner. However, it is already clear that the target has failed to be reached (4). The LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate), a key indicator of the health of the interbank market, has not moved an inch from its highest levels ever reached (5). “Psychologically” speaking, the global stocks decline recorded after the action of the central banks was announced, proves this if any message went through, it is that the situation for large US banks is even worse than announced in the past months (6).According to LEAP/E2020 research team, it is already a fact that after it lost control over interest rates (cf. GEAB N°16), the US Federal Reserve has now lost two more of the attributes that characterized the post-1945 global financial system: its credibility as a proactive player capable of influencing heavy market trends(8), and its capacity to organize and drive global central banks altogether along its own rhythm and goals. In doing so, it has just lost the ability to steer by itself the entire global financial system, an ability it has gained after 1945.Even though today, financial markets are mostly receptive to the loss of the first attribute (9), our researchers estimate that it is the loss of the second attribute (and the impact on the system's leadership) which will result in the global financial system's break sometime in the course of next year, probably by summer, when the effects of the ongoing US recession will start being fully felt and when Asians and Europeans will decisively be compelled to impose their own priorities to the “Fed-pilot”.In this 20th issue of the GlobalEurope Anticipation Bulletin (December 2007 issue), our team describes in detail the characteristics of the growing divergences between the four main central banks (US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Swiss national Bank)."
