Practical analysis for investment professionals
11 November 2013

PIMCO’s Seidner: The Economic Recovery Is Even Worse than Many Think

Posted In: Fixed Income

“We went through a three-year transition in bond markets after the financial crisis, then fell into a sovereign debt crisis, and now we’re questioning the sustainability of policy — both monetary and fiscal,” said Marc P. Seidner, CFA, a managing director of  portfolio management at PIMCO, at the 2013 Fixed-Income Management Conference held October 17–18 in Boston. Seidner kicked off the annual event by questioning the strength of the economy and appropriateness of valuation levels in bond markets.

“From a fundamental perspective, the unemployment rate, which is what the Fed watches, has come down close to 7%. But does this rate really reflect the underlying fundamentals of the economy?” Seidner asked.

Seidner showed the audience a graph by Haver Analytics that plotted (through 8/31/13), the percent employed versus the unemployment rate (%) back to 2000. Although the unemployment rate is now closer to the Fed’s target, the ratio of the number of people employed to the total population (currently about 58.5%) has not budged since 2008.

On the surface, people tend to focus on signs of growth in the economy — housing, the manufacturing sector renaissance, and energy independence. And it is true that these longer term trends are improving. But in the here and now, the number of people working has not improved and seems stuck at 58% (vs. about 64.5% in 2000). Seidner believes the employment to population ratio is a much better gauge of economic strength (or lack thereof).

Next Seidner turned to valuation levels and asked what is the right equilibrium real rate of return on cash and short-term securities? Today’s two-year Treasury bond rate, five years forward is about 4%. The Fed is targeting 2% inflation, leaving a 2% real rate of return, which happens to be the historical (ex ante) rate that investors earned over the last 30–40 years (and yes, there could have been some excess premium that came out of the 1970s and 1980s).

But is it realistic to expect this in the future, especially for an economy that is 350% levered and (by definition) very sensitive to interest rate movements? “Two percent real return on short-term securities for taking no risk, would be a gift,” said Seidner, “and if offered, would cause the economy to slow quickly.” He believes the real return investors should expect from not taking any risk will be much lower than has been historically observed.

So if the economy is not as strong as some believe, and real rate projections on cash are too high, it’s not likely that the Fed will tighten any time soon. “We saw the turmoil created in the bond markets in the May-July period when the Fed hinted about tapering — mortgage rates rose and began to choke off the only bright spot in the economy,” Seidner noted. On the other hand, the Fed wants and needs to get out of the business of buying mortgages and Treasuries.

It’s not clear to Seidner whether the benefits of QE are outweighing the costs at this point. But tapering is very different from tightening. “A focus on the policy rate is still critically important to bond investors,” he said.


Please note that the content of this site should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute.

Photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/ARTPUPPY

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About the Author(s)
Julie Hammond, CFA, CPA

Julia S. Hammond, CFA, CPA, is Director, Events Programming on the Marketing & Customer Experience (MCX) team at CFA Institute, where she leads the content planning for the Alpha Summit series of events. Previously she was the lead content director for a number of annual and specialty conferences at CFA Institute, including the Fixed-Income Management Conference, the Equity Research and Valuation Conference, the Latin America Investment Conference, the Alpha and Gender Diversity Conference, and the Seminar for Global Investors, formerly known as the Financial Analysts Seminar. Prior to joining CFA Institute, she developed strategies for pension, endowment, and foundation fund clients at Equitable Capital Management (now AllianceBernstein), and she has also worked as an auditor for Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). Hammond served for a number of years as chair of the investment committee for the Rockbridge Regional Library Foundation. She holds a BS in accounting from the McIntire School of Commerce and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

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