Too Much of a Good Thing

We all know the expression "Too much of a good thing", but in practice, do we act in line with this life principle ?....... NO

I'll illustrate the fallacy of this "Too Much" principle with regard to two topics: Debt and Risk.

Debt

We all know that when it comes down to setting up a new business or investing in a sustainable development, a loan may help us to start up fast and facilitate growth.

So we might say that a deliberate chosen debt (a loan) stimulates the growth of a company or investment and also stimulates the entrepreneur or investor to take the 'right' decisions.

However when adding more debt (taking up more loans) doesn't generate the intented growth, in most cases a serious profit recovery plan is needed to keep the company a life or the investment profitable.

Unfortunately this is not the way we think in saving our western economy.

We keep adding debt while the growth of our economies keeps slowing down. This development is the main reason why the price of gold keeps rising.

Golden Proof
Although in 'normal' times the relationship between gold and country debt is not substantial, it's clear that in a 'no-growth increasing-debt policy' this relationship becomes clearly visible.

Despite of these clear signs, we keep adding debt-increasing measures, while the last signs op economic growth hope drown in the sea of debt.

When I showed the above slide on a Webinar (= online seminar) , one of the participants stated that investing in gold at this (current) price level would be risky.

I answered that the opposite was in fact true, as in historical perspective the market value of the Federal Reserve's Gold has fallen back to a backing up level of around 20-30% of the balance sheet.

So in fact the Fed has allocated 'too little of a good thing ' to restore trust in the financial markets.

In other words, Gold has still a great upward potential, as seen from a risk perspective.

Without going into 'too much' detail her, in fact, it's the other way around:

The relatively high price of Gold in Dollars,

is an indicator of the default risk of the Dollar. 

Looking at the dollar from this new perspective, it suddenly seems strange that we define the default risk of a country (currency) only with help of a country's (artificial) bond interest rate (more on my Blog: Default Risk at Risk) on basis of an also artificial  'risk free interest rate'.

Why not define the risk of a country's currency in terms of it's value to a neutral 'zero credit risk'  asset class, which gold in fact is.  I challenge you to come up with a new formula for the default risk of a country, based on the price of gold (e.g. London Fix=LF)... 

Default Rate Currency X = D_c = F( London Fix [Currency] )

where Currency=USD, GBP or EUR and F is a function which translates the actual London Fix price of Gold in a specific currency to a default risk. 

If no formula-volunteers step up, I'll come up with formula in one of my next blogs.


Risk
Now let's look from a  "too much of a good thing perspective" at Risk itself.
As we all know, a positive and optimistic look at life increases the probability of success in life. In examining Risk, Risk-Life is different.

When risks are far away and have not yet occurred, risk professionals as well as non-risk-professionals are inclined to underestimate risk. On the other hand, risks that occur now and then are (too) well known and overestimated. Finally unkonwn  hidden risks in the well known high frequency-low-impact risks are again often underestimated.


The Art of Judging Risk

A professional risk manager is more than a good goalkeeper in a professional football (soccer) club. His first responsibility is to identify and assess a potential risk together with his (management) team. Golden rule in this risk assessment process is to estimate risk in such a way in time that you never get into a underestimated position of a specific risk. This implies that when we assess new risks (e.g.  'hedge fund risks' or 'country default risks') we should not start from a zero risk position and adding risk in our models while we are making progress, but rather the other way around. This way of estimating risks will contribute to a much more professional and appreciated working method in the risk work field.

Enjoy exploring risk management. It's an everlasting activity you can't do too much!  Or can you?

Used Sources
- Clipproject.info 

Humor: Penguin Risk Management

Life ain't easy ... sometimes.... Especially not... when you're a risk manager....

Changing Professional Field of Risk

In order to make any kind of progress in our human - penguin like - society, we'll have to take risk...

Part of a risk manager's task is to check regularly whether parties, (e.g.  asset managers)  are acting in line with the defined risk mandates (compliance). 

It's more or less generally accepted that a risk manager's first task is to prevent, control and optimize risks from a mainly defensive point of view.

However.....

we live in a 'risk growing world' where (state) regulators and accounting standard boards increasingly prescribe all kind of risk controlling measures.

In this world it becomes more and more important that a risk manager also advices actively on where and when to take more risk, instead of less risk.

Zero Risk Attitude: Death by Risk Management

Taking less and less risk gradually leads to a zero risk position.

An (on top of)  'zero risk attitude' of a risk manager can therefore become the nail in the coffin of any financial company. As without risk there's no profit, and without profit any financial company is doomed.

So skip any form of 'scary risk management', face risk as it is and changes in time. Moreover, develop and demand a positive, realistic and dynamic risk view of yourself and your professional environment.


Risk, Part of Evolution
History shows that taking major risks is essential in successful exploring new areas.

A few examples:

• Discovering America
  The (re)discovering of America by Columbus took a lot of lives. Shipwrecks, bad weather, diseases and fights took its toll.
• Radioactivity
  Discovering the properties and applications of radioactivity took many lives. Example : Marrie Curie died as a result of prolonged exposure to radiation.
• Exploring Space
  Many astronauts died on the the Gemini, Apollo an shuttle projects About 5% of the astronauts that have been launched, have died.

Future Risk Space Programs: Dream Chasing
At the start of the Shuttle program, NASA managers thought (calculated?) there was only a '1-in-100,000' chance of losing a shuttle and its crew.
Today, engineers believe this probability was in fact closer to 1 in 100. 
NASA’s basic requirement for new commercial crew vehicles is a probability of 1 in 1000 (!).

On basis of these modern risk standards, the original Apollo project back in 1961 would not even have started.

Looking at our 'Exploring Space' ambitions, it's likely that due to higher risk standards, cost of new space programs will increase to a level where no profitable exploitation (at all) is possible.

In other words: Profitable exploitation of future crewed flights to other planets will turn out to be a real 'Dream Chaser'.

Let's be fair, after 1972 we've never been back to the moon. Yet, plans to go to Mars are presented as 'business as usual'....

At the same time risk standards increase and costs explode.
Forget about going to Mars at current risk standards!

Financial Risk Equivalent

Just like in the space industry, risk standards in the financial industry have increased. From old demands, like the 2.5% one year default rate (97.5% confidence level)  of Dutch pension funds to the 1.0% - 0.5% default rate in the insurance and 0.1% - 0.05% in the banking industry.


In general, raising default risk standards by lowering default levels is a dead end street. It's much more effective to tackle other risk topics like controlling 'systemic risk' and 'company size' and accept risk as a fact of life.

Penguin Behavior
Perhaps - regarding risk and size - we can learn from penguin behavior. Although king penguins are highly gregarious at rookery sites, they usually travel in small groups of 5 to 20 individuals.

Just like we humans, penguins have to take risk in order to survive. In our research for risk we have to accept risk, and therefore loss, as a necessary unavoidable part of (financial) life.
Let's learn from penguin Risk management.....

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Conclusion

Let's wrap up with penguin wisdom:
To survive as society on the long term, we need to create smal(ler) companies with a limited exposure to systemic risk and a higher risk attitude.

Risk is a part of life, explore but don't kill it, as it will kill you...


Links & Used Sources:
- Apollo by numbers
- Percentage of fatal space flights
- Analysis: NASA underestimated shuttle dangers 
- Certified Safe (2011)
- Dream Chaser
- POLE Penguins Comic Strip

Aftermath

Mars?  Perhaps in 2525?

Worldwide Country Bonds Overview

Country Bond Rates are decreasing. As global debt is still increasing, trust is declining. 'Counterparty Safe Cash'  is what's becoming more and more important. Prepare for getting used to negative interest rates!

BTW: If you can't hold your breath, go to the end of this blog and click one of the tabs to get an updated worldwide overview of actual country bond interest rates.

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What's up?

Countries with a high inflation (e.g. Brazil, India, China) or countries (e.g. Portugal, Ireland, Spain) that can't control and therefore have to finance their increasing debt at high interest rates, still show optical interesting interest rates for investors... So it seems, as these relative high interest rates are in fact 'compensation for inflation' or 'hidden default premiums'.

And of course we have countries (e.g Greece), who's interest rates show that they have in fact gone broke.

Unfortunately non of the EU countries dares to pull the plug...  From a risk management perspective: Living in a nuclear financial death zone, apparently is a better option than pulling the trigger in the knowledge that not only your Greek brothers but also YOU will be 'financial dead' for sure.....

Still the Greeks get away with this non compliance strategy, let's call it:

Greek Risk Management

Last but not least we have the strong countries like Denmark and Germany with low interest rates. These countries have to carry and finance their weaker brothers short term. So it all comes down on cash and counterparty risk.

The rhetorical question in this European business case is:

Can Germany finance a Europe that fails to restructure their debts in a sustainable way?

Country Bond Interest Rates in alphabetical order

Let's examine those interest rates as reported by Bloomberg, at the end of July 2012 in alphabetical order:

It's clear that country bonds interest rates vary widely across countries.

White spots in the table imply, there's no (Bloomberg) data available.

Let's bring some order in this bond-muddle, by ranking the countries on basis of their 10Y Bond yield.

Country Bond Interest Rates sorted by '10Y' Bond Rate

From the above chart it is clearly visible that

• Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands already enter the negative interest rate zone for 1 and 2 year bonds.
• Greece, with a phenomenal interest rate, is is completely burned up
• The Eurozone is split up in good and bad performing countries
• A strong, sustainable and relatively independent country like Switzerland has 'low short term', as well as 'low long term' interest rates.
  This must for sure be a warning to every investor to estimate long term interest for other countries  much higher on the long term. Perhaps the relatively higher long term interest rates of other countries resembles the implicit (extra) inflation expectation on the long run.

Mattress Money

As debt keeps increasing, economic growth in western countries is limited and modest inflation continues, short term interest rates will stay low for the near future (until the end of time inflation beast is released).

With an increasing 'cash demand' from weak performing countries, we have to learn to get used to negative interest rates in relatively more strong performing countries.

In other words, consumers and professional investors have to pay to put their money in the bank. Why not keep your money under the mattress?

For consumers this might perhaps be a risky (theft) solution  to consider. Professional investors however, have to reduce counterparty risk which demands first class collateral assets.

Therefore "mattress money" is no option for professional investors and (increasing) negative interest is the price these investors will have to pay for keeping more and more cash as debt and risk keep rising.

Desperate advice ;-)

Perhaps - just like World War II was financed by War Bonds - we should appeal to private investigators and consumer to fund the government in their desperate war against debt.... government debt ...

 But then.... who would be willing to invest?

Actual Country Bonds Interest Rates

Are you interested in following the actual country bonds interest rates, than bookmark this blog or the special Actuary-Info Actual Country Bond Rates Page, and come back once in a while to view the latest bond interest developments by clicking on one of the next tabs (have a few seconds patience, loading 150 (!) bond rates takes some time).

Actual Country Bond Interest Rates (Alphabetical)

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Actual Country Bond Interest Rates ('10Y' Sorted)

Update 2013 
Bloomberg stopped publishing a lot of bond rates. That's why several bond rates are missing. Sorry.

Hope you enjoyed this holiday blog...

Related Links/Sources

- View & Download 'Google Country Bond Rates Spreadsheet'
- Actuary-Info Actual Country Bond Rates Page

- View Google Country Bond Rates (Alphabetical)HTML and Bookmark!

- View Google Country Bond Rates ('10Y' Sorted)HTML and Bookmark!

- Bloomberg, Worldwide Best Financial Data Supplier 

- IS - LM Model Wikipedia

- On Negative Interest Rates (2012)