In the aftermath of the BOJ's stunning NIRP announcement in late January, virtually everyone had an opinion on what this move of sheer desperation means.
Actually scratch the "virtually" part: as we reported one week ago, none other than famous baseball slugger Jose Canseco opined when he tweeted that "Negative interest rates in Japan is blowing my mind", rhetorically asking "Who is advising Japan? Forcing banks to lend all ¥ will not get 2% inflation. It creates loanees market with even lower rates. Dumb move" and slamming the BOJ: "Bank of Japan should call them willie wonka bonds "YOU GET NOTHING. yOU LOSE!""
A few short days later, Jose took a firm stance on JPM's forecast that NIRP could go as low as -4.5% in Europe (as well as -3.45% in Japan and -1.3% in the US).
@zerohedge udder lunacy
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 10, 2016
Today, this latest and perhaps most popular entrant to financial twitter took on a topic that is even more sensitive, and divisive, to the financial arena: gold.
This is what he tweeted moments ago:
not a surprise but everyone should be in gold
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 12, 2016
$1500+ by Memorial dAY
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 12, 2016
Mock him? Sure go ahead, but with an opinion validated by such commentary...
With gold minus storage cost becoming greater than cash returns could be a long rally. what else is there, bitcoins? think about it
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 12, 2016
... it is clear that the famous baseball slugger has done far more homework than 90% of the anti-gold crowd.
His conclusion is one we, and incidentally JPM's head quant Marko Kolanovic, wholeheartedly with:
Plus Psychology For Gold index growing with euro bank mess, nirP, falling oil, tanking stock markets, yellens slowdown hints.
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 12, 2016
Will Jose be right? And can this sport celebrity stir up "animal spirits" among the population and force a rush into physical gold ahead of NIRP's arrival in the US?
We'll find out, but for now, this is what Jose being right would look like.