Peddling The Credit Cycle

Starting again with another letter from a reader, but I will just post his questions in response to this article:

1) How much emphasis do you put on the credit cycle? I guess given your background rather a great deal, although as a fundamentals guy, I imagine you don’t try and make macro calls.

2)  What sources do you look at to make estimates of the credit cycle? Do you look at individual issues, personal models, or are there people like Grant’s you follow?

3) Do you expect the next credit meltdown to come from within the US (as your article suggests is possible) or externally?

4) How do you position yourself to avoid loss / gain from a credit cycle turn? Do you put more emphasis on avoiding loss or looking for profitable speculation (shorts or quality)

1) I put a lot of emphasis on the credit cycle.  I think it is the governing cycle in the overall economic cycle.  When some sector of the economy finds itself under credit stress, it has a large impact on stocks in that sector and related areas.

The problem is magnified when that sector is banks, S&Ls and other lending enterprises.  When that happens, all of the lending-dependent areas of the economy tend to slump, especially those that have had the greatest percentage increase in debt.

There’s a saying among bond managers to avoid the area with the greatest increase in debt.  That would have kept you out of autos in the early 2000s, Telecoms after that, and Banks/Finance heading into the Financial Crisis.  Some suggest that it is telling us to avoid the junior energy names now — those taking on a lot of debt to do fracking… but that’s too small to be a significant crisis.  Question to readers: where do you see debt rising?  I would add the US Government, other governments, and student loans, but where else?

2) I just read.  I look for elements of bad underwriting: loosening credit standards, poor collateral, financial entities focused on growth at all costs.  I try to look at credit spread relationships relative to risks undertaken.  I try to find risks that are under- and over-priced.  If I can’t find any underpriced risks, that tells me that we are in trouble… but it doesn’t tell me when the trouble will hit.