Another day, another direction for rates. Banks are driving the show and the underlying question remains. Is this a true banking crisis or is it a tempest in a teapot? As true macro investors, we prefer to take a step back from the daily noise and watch the underlying trends. Amidst a renewed hawkish repricing yesterday the M2/M3 money growth measures were released in the Euro area. We have never seen the kind of destruction of money (and hence deposits) in the history of the Euro zone and if we look at similar data in the US, it looks even worse. The underlying quarterly growth numbers of money in Europe and the US are running at historically destructive levels. This is the true underlying reason for the deposit flight/destruction and the monetary policy is simply too tight by now. Chart 1: The quarterly pace of negative money growth in Europe is historic The trend remains very uniform across the West. Money growth is falling of a cliff from a sequential perspective and the banking crisis is likely to accelerate the trend as M2 growth is linked to the risk appetite of credit departments of banks. When various emergency facilities at the Fed (and other central banks) are getting maxed out, it is not a signal that banks are willing to add to the risk profile, rater the contrary. We know this drill and it is not reflationary. There is one spot on earth, and basically one spot only, with a […]