North American Trade Hardball Soon To Heat Up

There was a suggestion today suggesting that President Trump will formally “withdraw” from the Canada/Mexico/United States free trade pact (CUSMA/USMCA) tomorrow (Happy Canada Day!). However, unless he radically breaks the rules (always possible), this is just moving the situation towards annual reviews with a potential dissolution in 10 years.

This was already expected to happen, as this gives more negotiating space for the Americans to try to aggressively ram terms down the Canadian negotiation teams’ throats. That said, the Canadian Federal Government is not exactly in a mood for giving ground to the Americans, and the economic outlook for the Americans going into midterm elections is hardly great, and a renewed trade war might not be welcome outside of the White House.

Forward Guidance Important? Yes And No.

I have returned from travels, and trying to catch up on things. The most important headlines have been about the situation in the Gulf of Hormuz, but I do not have anything new to say on that. The global economy seems to be coping with the reduced flow of commodities out of the conflict region, although the effects seem to be unevenly distributed. (Worriers will point out that inventories are getting low, but I really do not want to spend too much time arguing that oil pricing is wrong.) The story that has caught my eye has been worrying about “forward guidance.”

Yet More U.K. Bond Market Vigilantism

I have been getting ready to leave town, and so wrapping up other projects. The only thing that popped up in my internet browsing was the Return of the Bond Market Vigilantes, this time courtesy of a tweet on May 30th by the U.K. Green Party Leader, Zack Polanski. The short text was “We must stop being in hock only to the bond markets. No one voted for the bond markets.”

Bond Vigilante Musings

Bond vigilantes are a popular topic in financial media. Part of this is that most people find government bonds boring, and they would rather read about equities, which can have more exciting returns as well as more interesting company and sector specific stories. Bond market vigilantes who are about to discipline naughty governments creates a fun narrative hook to a market that is otherwise characterised by daily price changes of around 20 basis points.

Belated Comments On The AI Boom

Animal spirits have been soaring in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the surge in spending has shown up in the figure above. It shows the fixed investment in Information Technology Equipment and Software as a percentage of GDP (ends in 2026Q1). The last two quarters of data saw a surge of about 0.4% of GDP.

Inflation Outlook: Was I Too Pessimistic?

Although I have not been attempting to do economic forecasts, the current environment is surprising to me, at least with regards to inflation. The above figure shows the 5-year breakeven inflation rate as based on the U.S. inflation-indexed bond (TIPS) market.

Book Comments: "The Deficit Delusion"

A new book at my library caught my eye — “The Deficit Delusion: Why Everything Left, Right, and the Supply Side Tells You About the National Debt is Wrong,” by John Tamny. I was not familiar with Tamny, but he is Editor of the RealClearMarkets website. I would not describe this article as a review, rather I just want to outline what I see as major points in the book (which I am not too convinced about).

The angle appears interesting in that we have a pro-free markets person arguing that we should not need to worry about the American government defaulting on its debt. Given that there is a Republican in the White House, it is perhaps timely for free marketeers to pivot away from debt worrying. The author has fun skewering the professional government debt worryers that dominate “serious” fiscal analysis in the United States.