Business

Narayana Kocherlakota is a funny guy.

Before abdicating his post at the Minneapolis Fed to former Goldmanite/TARP architect Neel Kashkari, Kocherlakota was the voice of Keynesian “reason” for the FOMC.

Although his pronouncements never measured up to the power of the Bullard, Kocherlakota did call on a number of occasions for MOAR dovishness, noting that if the US economy were to decelerate (which it has), more asset purchases may be warranted.

While the following summary of key recent headlines suggests a broad array of issues leading to the worst start of the year since 2008...

... in broad terms, the biggest worries challenging that bull case in January were twofold: China and commodities, mostly oil. However, over the past week, two new big concerns appear to have emerged. Here, ironically, is Deutsche Bank explaining what these are (for those confused, "tightening in financial conditions in European financial credit" is a euphemism for plunging DB stock among others):

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Submitted by Leonard Brecken via OilPrice.com,

Recently, I dedicated some time studying in much further depth the explosion in volatility in the broader market as well as in underlying stocks. We have witnessed unprecedented volatility in E&P stocks in recent months. But the commodity crash is spreading to Biotechs and even the broader technology sector with the implosion of Linkedin stock last week.

Too much mal-invested, Fed-fueled, hope-driven "if we build it, they will buy it" inventory... and not enough actual demand. This has never, ever, ended well in the past - so why is this time different?

At 1.32x, the December inventories/sales ratio is drasticallyhigher than at year-end 2014 and is back at levels that have always coincided with recessions...

And just in case you needed more convincing that all is not well - the current spread between sales and inventories is now at a record absolute high...