Repo Volume, Whale Carcasses And Bear Corpses, Oh My!

We break the $2.2 trillion volume barrier last night in the repo market as the Fed vacuums up more dollars out, RFK decapitated a whale with a chainsaw and chucked a bear corpse into Central Park.

Repo Volume Breaks the $2,200 Barrier

Dollars trading hands in the repo market hit $2.227 trillion yesterday. That puts the repo to reserves ratio at 66.4%, another new high.

It will keep going higher until the Fed provides new dollars. Lots of them. Trillions of them. Reminder that the crisis number is around 83-87%. We should be there by late this year. Exactly when I don't know.  

The increased repo volume probably has to do with approaching month end, which is also why the reverse repos are climbing as well, back up to $344B, but that will reverse to probably somewhere in the upper $200B range by the month turn.

Rice Shortage in Japan

I was informed by a follower that Japan has been experiencing a rice shortage. There is only one thing that can cause a rice shortage, and that is the price of rice is below the market clearing price. The question is why don't stores just raise the price of rice so that the shortages stop? I don't know enough about Japanese rice policy to give a full answer, but if stores could increase the price of rice, they would. The fact that they aren't, at least not fast enough (which is why there is a shortage) means that something is blocking them or slowing them from increasing prices to meet the market-clearing price. The yen weakening is obviously the elephant in the room here, but you won't see that discussed on any article dealing with the subject.

It's always possible to deal with price inflation statistics by mandating all prices by law and threatening to murder anyone who executes any transaction outside of your price controls. But then there's nothing to buy at all, so it doesn't quite work.

By They Way, RFK Cut off a Dead Whale's Head With a Chainsaw

This story just came out. (In 2012.) He also dumped a dead bear in central park while he was driving drunk. (What didn't he do? Well, he didn't shower with his 12 year old daughter as far as I know. That was Biden.)

And that, my friends, is why we must give up the rest of our freedoms. Because we don't want no whale-decapitating-bear-carcass-dumping drunk yokel anywhere near the white house. I mean, what happens if Russia launches a nuclear first strike and RFK is the only one who knows about it and he's too busy sawing off whale heads and launching bear corpses into public parks to tell Trump and then we're all dead?

Go Kamala.

Looks Like Palladium is Ready to Turn