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The flight from US treasuries, equities and the dollar is a category five hurricane against the once safe haven.  Is it fear of hyperinflation or just a ripple of the recession?

Speculation is increasing that the US will not be able to pay off its mounting debt and it is showing in the markets.  Most currencies, especially commodity driven ones like the Australian and Canadian dollar, are rallying.  The US treasury bonds are selling off at an alarming rate.  The stock market is starting to either consolidate or make a larger move down.

If the hyperinflation hits and creates a panic, this type of activity will increase markedly.  If instead this is a ripple from the recession tarnishing the confidence of other markets it is still a negative because it shows that central banks around the world are not supporting US debt to the degree that they did in the past during a time when the US is creating more debt than ever before.

The implications are vast and will have an effect on purchasing power, employment, wages and the types of jobs available moving forward.

What do silver, the Australian and Canadian dollars all have in common? They should all be considered good inflation hedges for US dollar-based portfolios.  The Australian and Canadian dollar are commodity-based currencies, because their underlying economies are very much driven by the production of commodities such as gold, silver, oil, industrial metals, etc.  Silver itself is very undervalued against ever increasing real world demand for coinage, jewelry, electrical and chemical applications.  The combination of all three assets, in two different asset classes (foreign currencies and commodities) provide strong upside as the dollar weakens and world growth comes more from emerging economies than industrial economies.

The Australian dollar ETF can be bought through symbol FXA, the Canadian dollar ETF through FXC and silver through SLV.  I currently have holdings in all three assets and advise those concerned about inflation to consider what their long term investment goals are and how these assets may or may not fit in to their strategy.

The consumer confidence number bounced significantly.  This is generally  supposed to be positive to the currency, but because the US dollar has become a carry trade currency through the zero interest rate policy, now  good economic news has an inverse effect on the US dollar, moving it lower.

It’s hard to believe that consumers are spending more money when their 401ks, house values and wages are down significantly, unemployment is rising and even if they are spending money retailers have marked down items so low their margins are razor thin.

The problem is that when there is bad macro news, such as the rumor of the US losing its AAA rating, the US dollar sinks, too.  US equities can’t continue to rally if the currency continues to sink at this rate.  All of the consumers will lose their purchasing power

As the rally appears to be running on fumes at this point, I’d like to say that I was a little early saying to sell it before, but one never can trust a bear market rally.  That’s what it still seems like we’re dealing with, too.  The technicals were powerful during the 8 week surge, but we do not yet have a Dow theory buy signal (need a close above 9125) or a break above the 200 day moving average on the S&P 500.  Now the charts are beginning to look more exhausted as the overbought conditions are worked out.  Longer term the trend remains down as we seem to continue with the 10+ year double top formation playing out on the S&P 500.

Banks led the rally up and now they are beginning to give way as fundamentals point to a more pessimistic picture than the prior trading action of their equities might suggest.  While I do feel that the substantive cash injections, ZIRP cheap liquidity and stimulus have filled part of the vacuum left by the implosion of Lehman and the deleveraging process, there is simply too much enthusiasm around when this alleged recovery is due to transpire.

We are quite literally in the midst of a complete reinvention of how the world does business and in that process there likely will be further dislocations and market abberations before settling in to a U or L-shaped recovery — either economic destiny will be determined by the shape of fiscal policy and whether insolvent institutions are infact allowed to fail or continue indefinitely as “zombies”.  Unregulated derivatives markets must be brought in to the light and fully regulated in order to prevent credit default swaps and other leveraged contracts from contributing to widespread system disruptions.

This turning point has been marked by the downfall of the US as the financial capital of the world.  A slow unwinding process that in the decades to come will be much more apparent than it is now.  This is the unfortunate consequence of being the largest debt bearing nation in the world whose currency is quickly losing popularity as reserves for central bankers around the world.  The unraveling is going to degrade the quality of life for Americans and boost domestic inflation considerably.

If nothing can be done to restore confidence by regulating the shadow markets and unraveling the insolvent institutions, then this trying period shall last quite a while.  At this point I don’t feel the actions of the US government or the Federal Reserve have been constructive to that end.  That is why I feel the rally is largely unsustainable and right now we are in a frothy period where short positions in equities and long positions in foreign currencies may be appropriate to consider putting back on the table.

Disclosure: Short US equities, long foreign currencies

Much of the rally has been predicated on increased optimism because the recession may be slowing. Many recessions have double dip bottoms and most bull markets are not led by the same groups that led the last bull market.

In addition, the US still has a lot of problems with the deleveraging consumer, potentially insolvent banks and a financial system whose accounting has reverted back to off balance sheet trickery and mark to make believe models.

How can we believe the rally is real if it is within the context of one of the sharpest downturns the world has ever seen, where the fundamental macroeconomic picture has not improved and nor has there emerged a true cyclical leader for the next bull market?