Domestic Politics

Highlights The Philippines is seeing a genuine inflation outbreak. The Duterte administration's policies favor "growth at all costs." "Charter change," or constitutional revision, will stoke political polarization, erode governance, and feed inflation. We are neutral on Philippine stocks and bonds within EM benchmarks for now but are placing the country on downgrade watch. Feature Chart 1Markets Sold On Duterte Election Markets Sold On Duterte Election Markets Sold On Duterte Election It has been nearly two years since Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte - the Philippines' populist and anti-establishment president - was elected. On May 11, 2016, two days after the vote, BCA's Geopolitical Strategy and Emerging Markets Strategy published a joint report arguing that Duterte would "take the shine off" the economic structural reforms that had taken place under the outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino.1 We downgraded the bourse from overweight to neutral within the EM universe. Financial markets have largely vindicated this view. Philippine stocks peaked against EM stocks three days before Duterte's inauguration and have continued to underperform since then. The Philippine peso has also suffered, both in real effective terms and relative to the weakening U.S. dollar (Chart 1). Is it time to buy then? No. Duterte's policies will continue to erode the country's governance and macro fundamentals, overheating the economy and subtracting from investment returns. Of course, the country is well insulated from any China or commodity shock, and this is an important advantage over other EMs in the medium term. Also, equity and currency valuations have improved relative to other EMs. Hence we recommend clients remain neutral Philippine stocks, currency, and credit versus the EM benchmark for now, and use any meaningful outperformance to downgrade the country to underweight within aggregate EM portfolios. An Inflation Outbreak One of the most reliable definitions of a populist leader is one who pursues nominal, as opposed to real, GDP growth. While policymakers can stimulate nominal growth through various policies, real growth over the long run depends on productivity and labor force growth, which are much harder to control. The only way policymakers can affect real growth is by undertaking structural reforms - which are often painful and unpopular in the short run. By contrast, faster nominal growth as a result of higher inflation can create the "money illusion" among the populace and bring political rewards, at least for a time.2 Higher nominal growth might initially please the public, but when inflation escalates it will reduce living standards. Moreover, an inflation outbreak will eventually necessitate major policy tightening and a growth downturn to reverse inflation. A comparison of a range of populist political leaders with orthodox (non-populist) leaders across Latin America, Central Europe, and Central Asia demonstrates that populists really do tend to achieve higher nominal growth relative to non-populists in the first two years of their rule (Chart 2). This finding has served BCA's Geopolitical Strategy well in predicting that U.S. President Donald Trump would blow out the federal budget through tax cuts and government spending in pursuit of faster growth.3 With stimulus taking effect while the output gap is closed, inflationary pressures are likely to rise higher than they otherwise would have done over the next 12-to-24 months.4 Chart 2Populists Pursue Nominal GDP Growth The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion President Duterte of the Philippines also appears to fit this rubric. Like Donald Trump, he combines foul-mouthed eccentricity and personal risk-taking with a policy agenda of tax cuts, fiscal spending, and deregulation (Table 1).5 Yet unlike Trump, his infrastructure program - which is desperately needed in the Philippines, a laggard in this respect - is up and running, producing a large increase in capital expenditures and imports. The gap between nominal and real GDP growth - i.e. the inflation rate - looks likely to rise further. Table 1Duterte's Agenda Consists Of Drug War, Tax Cuts, And Big Spending The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Signs of an inflation outbreak are already evident. Chart 3 shows that both core and headline inflation measures are now rising sharply and have crossed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas's (BSP) 3% inflation target by a wide margin, even rising above the 2%-4% target band. Further, local currency yields are rapidly ascending while the currency has been plunging against the weak U.S. dollar. These indicators suggest that the inflation outbreak that BCA's Emerging Markets Strategy warned investors about in October has now come to pass.6 The official explanation for the inflation spike this year is Duterte's tax reform bill, which took effect January 1 (and is the first of several such bills). The bill cuts taxes for households and raises excise taxes on a range of goods - from electricity, petroleum products, coal, and mining to sugary drinks and tobacco.7 The central bank has cited this law and its ramifications (including transportation costs and wage demands) as reasons for the inflation overshoot to be temporary. Yet Duterte's growth agenda and the BSP's simulative policies have created an environment ripe for inflationary pressures to build, namely by encouraging banks to expand their balance sheets and money supply (Chart 4). This has led to excessive strength in domestic demand. Chart 3An Inflation Outbreak An Inflation Outbreak An Inflation Outbreak Chart 4Stimulative Policies Stimulative Policies Stimulative Policies Further signs of a genuine inflation outbreak include: Twin deficits: both the current account and fiscal balances are negative in the Philippines, a significant development over the past two years (Chart 5). Further, the trade balance now stands at a nearly two-decade low of 9.5% of GDP (Chart 6). Worryingly, the current account has fallen into deficit despite the fact that remittances from Filipinos living abroad, which account for 9% of GDP, have been robust (Chart 6, bottom panel). Oil prices are surprising to the upside as global inventories drain and the geopolitical risk premium rises. This puts additional pressure on the current account balance and adds to inflationary pressures. Chart 5The Philippines Now Has Twin Deficits The Philippines Now Has Twin Deficits The Philippines Now Has Twin Deficits Chart 6Trade Deficit Worsens; Remittances The Saving Grace Trade Deficit Worsens Despite Remittances Trade Deficit Worsens Despite Remittances The Philippines' import bill is growing briskly, especially that of consumer goods (Chart 7, top panel). Meanwhile, overall export volumes and revenues of non-electronic/manufacturing exports are contracting (Chart 7, second panel). This is a sign that the Philippine economy is losing competiveness. Indeed, the third panel of Chart 7 shows that the country's global export market share is deteriorating. Wages are rising across many sectors (Chart 8). The imposition of excise taxes on electricity and fuel has prompted a wave of demands for higher wages from labor groups and provincial wage boards. Duterte is also said to be preparing a nationwide minimum wage law (to increase regional wages vis-à-vis the capital Manila) and an end to temporary employment contracts, which cover about 25% of the nation's workers and pay wages that are 33% lower on average. As wage growth outpaces productivity gains, unit labor costs are rising, eating into listed non-financial companies' profit margins (Chart 9). Chart 7Domestic Demand Surges While Competitiveness Falls Domestic Demand Surges While Competitiveness Falls Domestic Demand Surges While Competitiveness Falls Chart 8Wage Growth Is Strong Wage Growth Is Strong Wage Growth Is Strong On the fiscal front, the Duterte administration is pushing badly needed spending increases in infrastructure, health, and education. The investments amount to $42 billion over six years, or roughly 2% of GDP per year in new fiscal spending.8 While these investments will be beneficial in the long run as they augment both the hard and soft infrastructure of the nation, their size and timing needs to be modulated in real time to prevent them from creating excessive inflationary pressures in the short and medium run. This is difficult and the administration is likely to err on the side of higher spending that feeds inflation. Further, the administration's tax reform plan is unlikely to raise enough revenue to cover all the new spending. The first tax reform bill to pass through Congress cuts household tax rates for most brackets (with rates to fall further in 2023) and raises the threshold to qualify for income tax, thereby narrowing the tax base to 17% of the population. The value added tax (VAT) will also have its threshold increased. Corporate taxes will be cut next. Revenue shortfalls will add to the budget deficit. Loosening fiscal policy will foster higher inflation and will continue weighing on the currency. Despite the upside inflation surprise, the central bank has kept the policy rate at the record low level of 3% where it has been since 2014. It also cut reserve requirements in March, injecting liquidity into the system. Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo says that an inflation reading within the target band at the May 10 monetary policy meeting will increase the likelihood that no rate hikes will occur this year.9 The central bank explicitly views this year's high inflation as a passing phenomenon tied to the excise taxes. It may also have stayed its hand due to signs of waning momentum in certain segments of the economy such as autos and property construction, which are weakening (Chart 10). Chart 9Higher Labor Costs Eat Firm Margins Higher Labor Costs Eat Firm Margins Higher Labor Costs Eat Firm Margins Chart 10Central Bank Not Worried About Overheating Economy Is Not Invincible Economy Is Not Invincible But in light of the fiscal and credit trends outlined above, and given that the Philippine economy is domestically driven and insulated from the slowdown in global growth, we do not expect domestic growth to fall very far. Overall, the central bank has maintained accommodative monetary policy for too long and tolerated an inflation outbreak. At this stage, central bank independence thus becomes a critical question. The current governor, Nestor Espenilla, is a tough enforcer against financial crimes who may be willing to do what it takes to rein in inflation: his comments have been a mixture of hawkish and dovish. But he is also a Duterte appointee, and thus perhaps unwilling to counter a popular, and forceful, president. It is too soon to say that the BSP will fail in its duties, but it does have a reputation for dovishness that it has reinforced this year.10 This analysis points to a policy of "growth at all costs." Odds are that growth will remain fast, that the inflation outbreak will continue, and that the BSP has fallen behind the curve. Bottom Line: The Philippines is witnessing an inflation outbreak that is likely to continue. Credit growth is booming, fiscal policy is loose, and the central bank is behind the curve. This policy setup is negative for the currency and for stock prices and local bonds in the absolute. Cha-Cha: What Does It Mean? In the long run, Duterte's authoritarian leanings will weigh on the country's performance. Governance has declined since he took office, primarily because of his rampant war against drugs. The Drug War has officially led to the deaths of 6,542 people since July 1, 2016, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.11 Human rights groups believe the actual tally is twice as high. Yet even if we exclude "political stability and absence of violence" from the Philippines' governance indicators, the country's score has declined under Duterte and is worse than that of its neighbors (Chart 11). And this score does not yet account for the fact that Duterte has imposed martial law on the southern island of Mindanao and is using his popularity (56% net approval, Chart 12) and supermajority in Congress (89% of seats in the House and 74% in the Senate) to push a constitutional rewrite that would give him even more extensive powers.12 Chart 11Even Excluding The Drug War, Philippine Governance Is Bad And Getting Worse The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Chart 12Duterte Is Popular (But Not That Popular) The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Like previous administrations, the Duterte administration wants to revise the 1987 Philippine constitution. There are three current proposals, each of which would change the government from a "unitary" to a "federal" system.13 Manila would remain the capital but the provinces would be incorporated into states or regions that would have their own governments and greater autonomy. The proposals differ in detail, but if and when congressmen and senators reconstitute themselves into a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the charter, they will have complete freedom, i.e. will not be limited to the specifics of these proposals. A popular referendum will be necessary to approve the results and could occur as early as May 13, 2019, when Senate elections will be held, or the summer afterwards.14 "Charter change" or Cha-cha is a perennial preoccupation in the country with three main drivers (Table 2). First, successive Philippine presidents try to revise the constitution so that they can stay in power longer than the single, six-year term limit. Second, provincial political forces seek to change the constitution to decentralize power. Third, economic reformers and business interests seek to remove protectionist articles embedded in the constitution, particularly limitations on private and foreign investment. Table 2History Of Cha-Cha In The Philippines The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion In general, Manila is seen as a distant and unresponsive capital ruling over an extremely diverse and disparate archipelago. The centralized system is prone to corruption due to the pyramid-like patronage structure descending from a handful of elite, Manila-based, families at the top. Meanwhile the provinces lack autonomy and economic development. While the capital region only contains 13% of the population, it accounts for 38% of GDP. The central government has trouble raising resources - as indicated by a low tax revenue share of GDP compared to neighbors (Chart 13). It is at times incapable of providing essential services like security and infrastructure, particularly in far-flung provinces like Mindanao or parts of the Visayas where poverty, under-development, natural disasters, and militancy reign. The chief goal of those who want a federal system is to decentralize power in order to strengthen the provinces. They argue that reversing the role of central and regional fiscal powers will improve government effectiveness overall by bringing the government closer to the people it governs. Today, the central government controls about 93.7% of the revenues and 82.7% of the spending while local governments control about 6.3% and 17.3% respectively (Chart 14). Chart 13The Philippine Government Is Underfunded And Weak The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Chart 14The Philippine Government Is Heavily Centralized The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Under a federal system these roles would reverse. Local governments would gain greater powers to tax and spend within their jurisdictions, while also improving tax collection. This would enable them to improve public services while still providing the federal government with resources to pursue national goals. Better funded and more autonomous local governments would presumably be more responsive to public demands within their jurisdictions. This is especially the case given the country's population and geography, with 101 million people spread out over more than 7,000 islands. The result - say the proponents - would be better governance all around, including greater economic development across the regions. From this point of view, over the long run, Cha-cha appears to be a pro-market outcome. In particular, the proposed changes will probably include greater openness to foreign direct investment (FDI), easing restrictions on land ownership, utilization, and resource exploitation that have long been difficult to remove because of their constitutional status (a vestige of anti-colonial sentiment). The Philippines falls markedly behind its peers in attracting FDI (Chart 15). This change would likely have a positive impact on FDI and productivity, as the Philippines has long suffered from its closed, protectionist, and heavily regulated model.15 Chart 15The Problem With Constitutional Restrictions On Foreign Investment The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion However, Cha-cha's opponents argue that the net effect will be negative for the business community and financial markets because of the drastic shift in the status quo. They argue that the 1987 constitution provides ample authority for decentralization but that Congress has refused to pass implementing legislation due to vested interests. As opposed to reforming the Local Government Code and other laws on the books, a total change of the government system would be controversial, expensive, and prone to expanding bureaucracy (as it would replicate the current national government institutions for each state/region in the new federal system). It would also be self-interested. Cha-cha would give Duterte additional powers to oversee the chaotic transition, and likely give him new powers in the aftermath as a result of the provisions themselves.16 Weighing both sides, we expect that charter change will require a massive political struggle and a long transition period in which economic uncertainty will spike. It will also give Duterte more arbitrary power and weaken central institutions and legal frameworks designed to keep him in check. While he insists that he will step down in 2022 according to existing term limits, Cha-cha could remove the constitutional limit on his time in office or allow him to resume as prime minister indefinitely. He would also have extensive powers of appointment and dismissal affecting the judiciary and other checks and balances. Is creeping authoritarianism market-negative? Not necessarily. Authoritarian governments in some cases have greater ability to make difficult, unpopular decisions that benefit national interests in the long run - including on macroeconomic policy. Singapore, Taiwan, and China are famous regional examples. Nevertheless, the Philippines is not Singapore or China - it is not a weak or non-existent democracy with a strong central government, but rather a strong democracy with a weak central government. It will not be easy for Duterte to seize ever-greater control if he should attempt to. He will eventually meet resistance from "people power" - mass protests from civil society such as those that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Such a movement may not develop in the short run, given his popularity, but the distance from here to there will involve political instability and a deterioration of monetary and fiscal management. To illustrate this process, consider the Philippines' record in the "Polity IV" dataset, which is a political science tool that provides a standardized measure of the quality of democracy in different regimes across the world.17 A time series of the Philippines' Polity scores illustrates the drastic collapse of governance under Marcos (Chart 16), who imposed martial law from 1972-81 and plunged the country into a morass of oppression, dysfunction, and corruption. This ended with the first People Power Revolution in 1986 and the promulgation of the 1987 constitution. Since then, Polity scores have improved markedly. Today the Philippines scores an eight, within the range of western democracies. The democratic era has been a boon for investors who have seen the Philippines improve its macroeconomic and business environment over this period. But Duterte is a Marcos-like figure who could reverse this process even if he does not drag the country all the way down into the worst conditions of the 1970s-80s. Could Duterte succeed in charter change where his post-Marcos predecessors have failed? Yes. He has a lot of political capital and is well situated to push for dramatic change. He is an anti-establishment political outsider - the first Philippine president from the deep south - elected amidst a wave of disenchantment over persistent, endemic problems like poverty, corruption, lawlessness, and lack of development. He has high public approval ratings and a supermajority in Congress (Chart 17). It is too early in the game to give firm probabilities on whether the constitutional changes will pass the necessary popular referendum in spring or summer 2019, but it is perfectly possible for Duterte to succeed judging by his standing today. Chart 16The Marcos Dictatorship Was Inflationary The Marcos Dictatorship Was Inflationary The Marcos Dictatorship Was Inflationary Chart 17Duterte's Legislative Supermajority The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion What will be the economic effects? Aside from policy uncertainty, decentralization will be good for growth and inflation. Local leaders will have more tax money to spend and less central discipline. Pent-up demand for development in the provinces will be unleashed, with local political leaders likely to encourage credit expansion. In the context outlined above this change means higher inflation. Inflation rates in the provinces should start to climb toward those of the capital region, while those of the capital region would have no reason to fall amid the flurry of new activity. Hence investors interested in the Philippines must monitor the long and rocky road of charter change. They should look to see if the Congress and Senate do indeed merge into a Constituent Assembly (the quickest yet most controversial way of revising the constitution because it is the least constrained); what proposals look to be codified in the drafting of the constitution and assembly debates; if Duterte retains his popularity throughout the constitutional process; and whether the public is supportive of the proposals.18 Our rule of thumb is that a constitutional process focused on decentralization and removal of protectionist provisions would be market-positive in principle. However, if authoritarian provisions creep into the final text, they may reveal the market-negative priorities and a lack of constraints on policymakers in Manila. Bottom Line: Philippine governance will continue to decay under the Duterte administration. Revisions to the constitution will have pro-market aspects, and net FDI will probably continue to rise. But these positive aspects will be overweighed by the politically polarizing and destabilizing process of charter change itself. Moreover, decentralization will feed into the current credit boom and inflationary backdrop and could produce excesses. The U.S.-China Crossfire The Philippines is a strategically located island chain that frames the South China Sea (Diagram 1). It has been caught in great power struggles for centuries. The rising U.S. colonial power displaced the remnants of the established Spanish colonial power there in 1898; the rising Japanese empire displaced the established U.S. in 1941, only to be defeated by the U.S. and its allies in 1944. Diagram 1The South China Sea: Still A Risk The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion The Philippines: Duterte's Money Illusion Now China is the rising power in Asia and is applying pressure on America's visiting forces. The Philippines is again caught in the middle. It relies on the U.S. more than China economically and strategically, but China is rapidly catching up, as is clear in trade data (Chart 18). And China's newfound naval assertiveness must be taken seriously. Indeed, Duterte claims that Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened him with war if his country crossed China's red line in the South China Sea.19 Chart 18China Rivals U.S. In The Philippines China Rivals U.S. In The Philippines China Rivals U.S. In The Philippines Geopolitical risk has fallen since Duterte's election as a result of his pledge to improve relations with China and distance his country from the United States. This was a sharp reversal of Philippine policy. From 2010-16, the Aquino administration engaged in aggressive strategic balancing against China. The country was threatened by China's militarization of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and encroachment into Philippine maritime space and territory. The pro-American direction of Aquino's policy culminated in the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which granted the American military the right, for ten years, to rotate back into Philippine bases. In July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines, against China, in a landmark case of international law. It held that the South China Sea "islands" were not islands at all and that China could not base territorial or maritime claims off them.20 This strategic balancing brought tensions with China to a near boiling point. However, the pot was taken off the fire when the Philippine public elected the outspokenly anti-American, pro-Chinese, and communist-sympathizing Duterte. Duterte immediately set about courting Chinese investment, calling for bilateral China-Philippine solutions in the South China Sea (such as joint energy development), and denouncing President Barack Obama, the West, and various international legal bodies.21 As a result, China has largely dropped its pressure tactics against the Philippines. It has been investing more in the country over time (Chart 19) and has recently proposed a range of new projects worth a headline value of $26 billion. In the short run, Duterte's policy is positive because it enables the country to extract economic and security benefits from both the U.S. and China. China has reduced its coercive tactics, while the U.S. under President Trump has taken an easy-going attitude both toward Duterte's human rights violations and his pro-China (and pro-Russia) leanings. Duterte, for his part, has not tried to nullify the 2014 military pact with the U.S., but rather reversed his claim that he would sever ties with the U.S. by asking for American counter-insurgency support during the 2017 Siege of Marawi. Eventually, however, the emerging U.S.-China "Cold War" could force Duterte to make unpopular choices that violate economic relations with China or security protections from the U.S. The Philippine public is largely pro-American and suspicious of China.22 Thus, if Duterte pushes his foreign policy too far, he will provoke a backlash. This could take the form of a revolt against Chinese investments in the economy - as Chinese companies will be eager to take advantage of greater FDI access, especially under constitutional reform. Or it could take the form of a revolt against Chinese encroachments in the South China Sea, which are bound to recur.23 Alternatively, if the Philippines takes China's side, the U.S. could threaten to cut off market access, remittances, or (less likely) military support. A rupture in U.S. or China relations could spark or feed into domestic opposition to Duterte over political or constitutional issues or trigger a tense U.S.-China diplomatic standoff with economic ramifications. This is something to monitor in case a conflict emerges such as that which occurred in 2012-14 at the height of Philippine-China tensions, or in South Korea in 2015-16. In both cases, China imposed discrete economic sanctions against American allies as a result of foreign policy moves they took in stride with the United States (Chart 20). Chart 19Chinese Investment Will Rise Under Duterte Chinese Investment Is Growing Over Time Chinese Investment Is Growing Over Time Chart 20China Imposes Sanctions In Geopolitical Spats China Imposes Sanctions In Geopolitical Spats China Imposes Sanctions In Geopolitical Spats Bottom Line: Geopolitical risks have abated over the past two years and should remain contained for the next few years, as China wishes to reward Duterte and his foreign policy. However, relations between the U.S. and China are getting worse, which puts the Philippines in the middle of the crossfire. The South China Sea remains a fundamental, not superficial, source of tension. Investment Conclusions Chart 21Stocks And Bonds Will Underperform 21. Stocks And Bonds Will Underperform 21. Stocks And Bonds Will Underperform This scenario is negative for financial markets and will cause stocks to fall and local bonds yields to rise in absolute terms (Chart 21). Philippine equities remain very expensive. At this point only policy tightening by the BSP can control inflation, but that, even if it were to occur (unlikely in our opinion), will be negative for growth and financial markets in the short-to-medium term. Relative to other EMs, Philippine financial markets have underperformed considerably for the past few years, and thus might experience a relative rebound. If so, it will not be due to Philippine fundamentals but to the fact that in other EMs, fundamentals are deteriorating and financial markets selling off. These markets have had a good run in the past two years and are vulnerable to the downside. In this context, it matters that the Philippines is not a major commodity exporter and not highly vulnerable to a Chinese growth slowdown. Oversold conditions relative to EM peers and lower commodity prices could allow the Philippine bourse and currency to outperform those peers for a time. We thus maintain neutral allocation on Philippine stocks and bonds within EM benchmarks for now but are placing it on downgrade watch. On the political side, President Duterte is making investments in the country that will improve the supply side, but his policies will feed inflation in the short term and erode governance in the long term. His push to reshape the political and governmental system will increase political risk at a rare moment when geopolitical risks have somewhat abated. The latter are significant, but latent, and could flare up significantly in the long run due to U.S.-China conflicts. Matt Gertken, Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy mattg@bcaresearch.com Ayman Kawtharani, Associate Editor Emerging Markets Strategy ayman@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy and Emerging Markets Strategy Special Report, "Philippine Elections: Taking The Shine Off Reform," dated May 11, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2The "money illusion" is a concept in macroeconomics coined by economist Irving Fisher, who wrote a book of the same title in 1928, to describe the failure of economic actors to perceive fluctuations in the value of any unit of money. In other words, people tend to pay more attention to nominal than to real changes in money or prices. The concept is valid today, albeit subject to academic debate over its precise workings. 3 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Buy In May And Enjoy Your Day!" dated April 26, 2017, and Special Report, "Populism Blues: How And Why Social Instability Is Coming To America," dated June 9, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 4 Please see BCA Emerging Markets Strategy Weekly Report, "EM: Perched On An Icy Cliff," dated March 29, 2018, and "Two Tectonic Macro Shifts," dated January 31, 2018, available at ems.bcaresearch.com. 5 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Monthly Report, "Transformative Vs. Transactional Leadership," dated September 14, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 6 Please see "The Philippines: An Overheating Economy Requires Policy Tightening" in BCA Emerging Markets Strategy Weekly Report, "Is The Dollar Expensive, And Are EM Currencies Cheap?" dated October 11, 2017, available at ems.bcaresearch.com. 7 Please see Office of the Presidential Spokesperson, "A Guide To T.R.A.I.N. Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Republic Act No. 10963," dated January 2018, available at www.pcoo.gov.ph, and Department of Finance, "The Tax Reform For Acceleration And Inclusion (TRAIN) Act," dated December 27, 2017, available at www.dof.gov.ph. 8 Please see the Philippine Department of Finance, "The Comprehensive Tax Reform Program: Package One: Tax Reform For Acceleration And Inclusion (TRAIN)," January 2018, available at www.dof.gov.ph. 9 At its March policy meeting the BSP decided to keep interest rates on hold despite a March inflation reading of 4.3%, above the top of the target range of 4%. For Guinigundo's comments about the May 10 meeting, please see "Philippines c. bank says monetary policy still data-driven, may hold rates," April 20, 2018, available at www.reuters.com. 10 The BSP has reportedly only surprised markets four times out of 84 scheduled monetary policy meetings over the past ten years. Please see Siegfrid Alegado, "Life Is Getting Harder For Philippine Central Bank Watchers," dated March 21, 2018, available at www.bloomberg.com. 11 Please see Rambo Talabong, "Duterte gov't tally: At least 4,000 suspects killed in drug war," dated April 5, 2018, available at www.rappler.com. 12 Duterte's personal popularity is overstated. He was elected in a landslide, but only received 39% of the popular vote. The Pulse Asia quarterly polls suggest his popularity and "trust" ratings have ranged from 78%-86% since his inauguration (currently 80%), but this falls to 60% if undecided voters and disapproving voters are netted out. The Social Weather Station polls, which we cite, show a 56% net approval rating, which is mostly in line with Duterte's predecessor President Aquino at this stage in his term. 13 There are currently three draft proposals. The first is Senate Resolution No. 10, filed by Senator Nene Pimentel; the second is House Resolution No. 08, filed by Representatives Aurelio Gonzales and Eugene Michael de Vera; the third is the ruling PDP Laban Party's proposal, from Jonathan E. Malaya at the party's Federalism Institute. 14 The funding to hold a referendum in 2018 does not exist nor are legislators ready. A "special budget" will coincide with the plebiscite, no doubt strictly to pay for the polling and not to grease the wheels of the "yes" vote! Please see Bea Cupin, "Charter Change timetable: Plebiscite in 2018 or May 2019, says Pimentel," I, February 2, 2018, available at www.rappler.com. 15 Please see Gary B. Olivar, "Update On Constitutional Reforms Towards Economic Liberalization And Federalism," American Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee, dated September 27, 2017, available at www.investphilippines.info. 16 Please see Neri Javier Colmenares, "Legal Memorandum on Charter Change under the Duterte Administration: Resolution of Both Houses No. 8 Proposed Federal Constitution," December 4, 2017, available at www.cbcplaiko.org. 17 Please see the Center for Systemic Peace and Monty G. Marshall, Ted Robert Gurr, and Keith Jaggers, "Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2016," July 25, 2017, available at www.systemicpeace.org. 18 Local elections in May 2018 may also provide some indications of popular support, as well as the Senate elections in May 2019 (if the referendum is not simultaneous). 19 Please see Richard Javad Heydarian, "Did China threaten war against the Philippines?" Asia Times, dated May 23, 2017, available at www.atimes.com. 20 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "South China Sea: Smooth Sailing?" dated March 28, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 21 He has since said the Philippines will leave the International Criminal Court, which it joined in 2014, and arrest any prosecutor of the court who comes to the Philippines to investigate the government and police handling of the drug war. Please see Rosalie O. Abatayo, "Arresting ICC prosecutor could get Duterte in more legal trouble, says lawyer," The Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 22, 2018, available at globalnation.inquirer.net. 22 Please see Jacob Poushter and Caldwell Bishop, "People In The Philippines Still Favor U.S. Over China, But Gap Is Narrowing," Pew Research Center, September 21, 2017, available at www.pewglobal.org. 23 At present the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is negotiating a long-awaited, albeit non-binding, "code of conduct" with China in the South China Sea that could be concluded as early as this or next year. However, South China Sea tensions could heat up again at any point due to Chinese encroachments, U.S. pushback, or other regional actions. Also, with oil prices set to increase rapidly, non-U.S./OPEC/Russia international offshore oil rigs could begin to increase again, renewing an additional source of tension in the sea.

Highlights Midterm election is yet another geopolitical headwind to the markets this summer; A "lame duck" Trump could seek relevance abroad, with aggressive foreign and trade policy; Investors would be right to fret about a hard turn to the left by the Democratic Party; Democrats have 60% probability of taking the House and 45% probability of taking the Senate; On a cyclical horizon, midterm election will not undermine pro-business policies of the Trump administration, but may signal a paradigm shift over a more structural time horizon. Feature Geopolitical winds have turned from tailwinds to headwinds. This is as we expected last April, when we correctly forecast that geopolitical risks were overstated in 2017 but understated for 2018.1 This January we focused on several key risks for 2018: trade protectionism, Iran-U.S. geopolitical tensions, and a potential black swan risk in Taiwan.2 In our 2018 Strategic Outlook, we also pointed out that if Donald Trump becomes an early "lame duck" president, he will seek relevance abroad.3 It is therefore time to turn to the question of the upcoming midterm election, set to take place on November 6. For most of our clients, the midterm election is another volatile political event to add to an already long list (Table 1). True, the midterm election could produce a gridlocked Congress - which we recently showed quantitatively is marginally negative for the markets - and a potential push to impeach President Trump.4 However, this is not the worst of it. As November approaches, through a tumultuous summer full of headline risks, President Trump may double-down on his doctrine of "maximum pressure" - which objectively succeeded in the case of North Korea. This could produce more aggressive rhetoric and policy in the ongoing trade skirmish with China, further sanctions against Iran, and tensions with Russia. Table 1Protectionism: Upcoming Dates To Watch Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? President Trump would not be the first U.S. president to seek relevance abroad, although he may be the earliest, and potentially the lamest, lame duck president in recent U.S. history.5 As such, the real risk is not the Democrats taking over the House, but rather how the Trump administration reacts to a sudden loss of legislative initiative. While a Democratic House would dramatically increase domestic political constraints on President Trump, there are few constitutional constraints on U.S. presidents when it comes to foreign policy. As such, the midterm election is market relevant, but not because Democratic Party control will be able to impact domestic policy. Investors should remember why markets cheered President Trump in the first place: Chart 1Trump: A Boon For Main Street And Wall Street Trump: A Boon For Main Street And Wall Street Trump: A Boon For Main Street And Wall Street Chart 2Easy Fiscal + Tight Money = Buy SPX Easy Fiscal + Tight Money = Buy SPX Easy Fiscal + Tight Money = Buy SPX Deregulation: Business confidence soared even before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, especially among small businesses, while regulatory worries melted away (Chart 1).6 The executive branch controls the regulatory process, which means that the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, or even the Senate, will have little impact. Tax cuts: Fears that the Democrats will be able to reverse the tax cuts are overstated. Without a veto-proof majority in both chambers of Congress - two-thirds of the seats - the Democrats cannot regain legislative initiative or reverse President Trump's accomplishments. Table 2ADXY Returns During Periods Of Loose##br## Fiscal And Tight Monetary Policy Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Table 2BSPX Returns During Periods Of Loose##br## Fiscal And Tight Monetary Policy Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Fiscal policy: Markets are currently pricing in a rare mix of tightening monetary policy and stimulative fiscal policy, a bullish combination (Chart 2) that tends to boost both equities and the dollar (Table 2). While there is no need for fiscal profligacy at the current point in the cycle (Chart 3), we would think that investors would recoil at any sign of fiscal conservativism. But looking for austerity within the current Democratic Party - whose official party platform calls for universal health coverage, for example - is a mistake. Chart 3An Odd Time For Fiscal Profligacy An Odd Time For Fiscal Profligacy An Odd Time For Fiscal Profligacy As such, the Democratic Party's control of the House - or even the Senate, given that a filibuster-proof majority is out of reach in 2018 - is unlikely to reverse the policy and regulatory backdrop that has been so beneficial for equities over the past 18 months. Instead, the risks are twofold. First, that President Trump reacts to the coming electoral bloodbath well ahead of November with aggressive foreign and trade policy that plays to his base. Second, that markets begin pricing in impeachment risk. Although we do not think that impeachment would have a major or direct impact on earnings and the real economy, it could add to volatility and could imply higher odds of a Democratic win in 2020 (think Gerald Ford). This would present a scenario in which the Democrats would be more likely to reverse Trump's policies in 2020, thus increasing uncertainty. As such impeachment could start being priced in well ahead of the November election. We would therefore expect midterm-related volatility to rise before the election. The election itself could likely be a time to buy risk assets, provided that fundamentals, the macro backdrop, and geopolitical risks all combine into a bullish signal, as long as President Trump makes an effort to move to the middle and work with either a split Congress, or even a potentially Democratic-led legislature. These are all sources of uncertainty and therefore provide plenty of reasons for the markets to fret ahead of the election. Who Will Win The Midterm Election? It is too early to have a high conviction view on the midterm election, which is still over six months away. Betting markets give Democrats roughly 70% probability of winning the House and just 40% of winning the Senate (Chart 4). We roughly agree with those odds, but would give the Democrats a lower chance of winning the House and a slightly higher chance of winning the Senate. There are broadly five reasons why the Democratic Party has a very good chance of winning the House of Representatives in November: Chart 4GOP Odds Have Fallen, But Stabilized GOP Odds Have Fallen, But Stabilized GOP Odds Have Fallen, But Stabilized Chart 5GOP Trails In Polls, But Still Close GOP Trails In Polls, But Still Close GOP Trails In Polls, But Still Close Polling: The generic congressional ballot (Chart 5) has the Democrats up 6.7% on the Republicans. The generic ballot has a decent predictive track record. Basically, the party that is up tends to perform well in the election. Meanwhile, Trump's approval rating, despite its recent recovery in support, remains at the lower end of presidential approval ratings ahead of midterm elections, predicting a 35-seat loss for Republicans in the House (Chart 6). On the whole, the Democrats' polling advantage is modest-to-strong. True, it could unravel over the summer. But at current levels, it is still a respectable advantage. Chart 6Republican Presidents And Midterm Results Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Retirements: Republicans in the House and the Senate are retiring at an alarming pace, one never seen in the modern political context (Chart 7). We cannot overstate how important this is, especially given that there has been a 20% swing against non-incumbent Republicans in deeply conservative districts that have held special elections thus far (Table 3). Most worrying for the GOP is that, of the 42 Republicans who have announced retirement, 18 sit in seats that are not "solidly" held by the GOP.7 These are seats that only elected the Republican candidate by an average of at most 5% more than the overall Republican vote in the 2012 and 2016 election. Chart 7GOP Retirements Are Unprecedented Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Table 32017 Special Elections Are Ominous For The GOP Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? History: Of the 18 midterm elections since World War II, the sitting president's party only retained congressional control four times (Chart 8). The only president to win congressional control during the midterm election was Bush Jr., an election that was held a year after the September 11 terrorist attack (i.e., an exception). Americans like checks and balances and abhor hubris. Redistricting: Gerrymandering - politically motivated redrawing of district electoral maps - has mainly favored Republicans over the past decade.8 It has also significantly reduced the number of competitive districts available to electoral swings (Chart 9). Recently, however, the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court invoked the state constitution and struck down the congressional map that favored the GOP. The Supreme Court of the U.S. then refused an emergency request from Pennsylvania Republicans to block the new, non-partisan map drawn by the state court. This decision followed several decisions in 2016-17 that saw congressional maps in North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin, and Alabama either thrown out or questioned. The changes will help the Democrats at the margin, potentially making the difference between a majority and a minority position in the House. Chart 8Trump Is ##br##Fighting History Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Chart 9Gerrymandering Reduces##br## Competitive House Seats Gerrymandering Reduces Competitive House Seats Gerrymandering Reduces Competitive House Seats Momentum: Shouldn't a strong economy and sub-4% unemployment rate help the Republicans in November? The simple answer is not much. Just as a strong economy and a 4.7% unemployment rate did not help the incumbent party and its candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton fend off the inexperienced challenger, Donald Trump, in 2016. Simply put, economics is relative and partisan. While Republican voters suddenly became very happy about the economy after Trump's election - having been miserable merely days before- it is now the Democrats who believe that the economy is in a downward spiral (Chart 10). It is therefore difficult to see how the current economic performance makes enough of a difference to swing voters away from the trends we describe above. Further supporting this view is the fact that economic issues, broadly defined, are declining in terms of relevance in the upcoming election (Chart 11).9 Chart 10Politics Trumps Data! Politics Trumps Data! Politics Trumps Data! Chart 11It's Not Necessarily The Economy Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? The trend is clear: Republicans are in trouble when it comes to the House of Representatives (Chart 12). Democrats need to win only 25 seats in November and there are now 29 Republicans representing seats that The Cook Political Report, the expert political analysis shop when it comes to predicting individual House races, classifies as "toss-up or worse." Our call, at this point, is that the Democrats have a 60% probability of winning the House of Representatives. We hesitate to set our odds at the higher end, near where the betting markets are pricing it, as there is still a long time until the election. In addition, the Democrats' lead in the generic congressional ballot has halved from 13% since December. What about the Senate? We modeled the individual Senate races by combining the state and national economic and political variables with the latest available opinion polling.10 We only focused on the races that we believe are currently competitive and we may change the mix as new information becomes available. Our model is a work in progress and we will update our clients as it develops. The results of our "beta" model, expressed as a margin of victory by the GOP candidate (GOP total vote minus Democrat total vote), show that the Democrats have a surprisingly decent chance of picking up the Senate (Chart 13).11 This is astonishing given that the Democrats are defending nine seats in "red states," whereas Republicans are only defending one seat in a "blue state" (Nevada). Basically, our model predicts that Republicans would lose Nevada and Tennessee. Meanwhile, of the five Senate races that are ranked as "toss ups" and that are currently held by Democrats, our model predicts that Republicans will only win Indiana. Given that current polling is highly unreliable, we would take all predictions of our model with a healthy dose of skepticism. Nonetheless, the results are surprisingly bullish for the Democrats. Chart 12The Number Of "At-Risk" GOP Seats Has Doubled Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Chart 13BCA Senate Model Says: Election Is Too Close To Call Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Our call, at this point, is that the Democrats have a 45% probability of winning the Senate; essentially the election is too close to call. This is higher than where the betting markets are pricing the election and an astonishing turnaround from 12 months ago, when most forecasts ignored Democrat chances in the Senate given how unfavorable the math was for their odds of winning. What does it all mean for the markets? Chart 14Midterm Elections Are A Boon For The S&P 500... Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Chart 15...But Really, It's All About The Fed ...But Really, It's All About The Fed ...But Really, It's All About The Fed Generally speaking, the market has performed very well following midterm elections during a Republican presidency (Chart 14). At closer inspection, however, it appears that this may have been because monetary policy has almost always been easy during these periods (Chart 15). As fate would have it, Republican presidents have been generally blessed with easy monetary policy. As such, we do not think that investors should take anything from this data. Table 4Democratic Primaries To Watch Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Rather than rely on uncertain empirical results, we would simply point out that the run-up to the midterm election, this coming summer, looks packed with geopolitical risks and uncertainty. President Trump is facing a potential defeat in Congress and will want to ensure that his base turns out for the election. This could mean doubling down on those parts of his policy agenda where the constitutional constraints are the weakest: foreign and trade policy. This is a recipe for more volatility. The midterm election is therefore a catalyst, if not the source, of near-term volatility. Furthermore, investors should carefully observe the results of key Democratic primary races (Table 4). Any sign that the Democratic Party is fielding left-wing candidates, as opposed to centrists, would have two implications. On one hand, it would lower our odds of the Democrats winning the House and definitely the Senate. On the other hand, it would increase the odds that the U.S. will have a political paradigm shift over the next electoral cycle. If the Democrats swing hard to the left and win the midterm election, the implications for investors would be hard to overstate. As a point of reference, investors should remember that Republicans swung hard to the right in 2010-14, presaging the rise of Trump. Yet these Republican victories took place in the face of long-term demographic and social headwinds, whereas comparable Democratic victories today would take place in the face of long-term demographic and social tailwinds. American policy can shift harder to the left over the coming decade than it did to the right over the past eight years.12 As Charts 16 and 17 show, the U.S. is at "peak inequality." As the example of France illustrates, income inequality does not necessarily go up. In the early 1960s, France had a larger share of the national income apportioned to the wealthy than the U.S. does today. Since then, it has fallen. In other words, societal decisions on wealth redistribution vary over time. The concern for investors would be if any Democratic party move to the far left is rewarded at the polls in November. If this were to happen, it would be appropriate to begin pricing in a significant decline in the share of national income that goes to corporate profits, if not yet a decline in social unrest. As Chart 17 illustrates, a significant decline in wealth concentration in France occurred right around the late 1960s. The May 1968 revolution was one of the most paradigm-shifting moments in France's post-World War II history. If the markets begin pricing in anything close to this degree of change in the U.S., the S&P 500 could enter a bear market. Chart 16GOP Tax Cuts: Same Old Story GOP Tax Cuts: Same Old Story GOP Tax Cuts: Same Old Story Chart 17Beware May 1968 Beware May 1968 Beware May 1968 Bottom Line: Our odds of the Democrats winning the House are 60%, below market expectations. Our odds of the Democrats winning the Senate are 45%, above market expectations. While we do not think that Democratic control of Congress, or just the House, will be negative for earnings on a cyclical time horizon, we do understand why investors would price in higher volatility. First, President Trump may respond to a loss of congressional control by seeking relevance abroad through hawkish foreign and trade policy. Second, investors may sense a paradigm shift occurring in the U.S. if left-wing Democrats start winning primary races and then go on to win the House. Is Impeachment A Risk? In a report titled Break Glass In Case Of Impeachment, we argued that investors should fade impeachment-related volatility.13 Equity markets are driven by earnings. As such, there has to be a direct relationship between political volatility and company earnings. Impeachment has rarely produced such a link. Chart 18 looks at market performance during the Teapot Dome Scandal (April 1922 to October 1927), Watergate (February 1973 to August 1974), and President Clinton's Lewinsky Affair (January 1998 to February 1999). Of the three, the Teapot Dome scandal did not result in impeachment proceedings, but only because President Harding died in office in 1923 - and neither his death nor the unfolding scandal prevented the stock market from "roaring" through the mid-1920s.14 Chart 18AVolatility Amid Three U.S. Scandals Volatility Amid Three U.S. Scandals Volatility Amid Three U.S. Scandals Chart 18BEquities Amid Three U.S. Scandals Equities Amid Three U.S. Scandals Equities Amid Three U.S. Scandals The market reaction to the Lewinsky Affair was also highly muted. Like the Teapot Dome incident, it occurred amidst one of the greatest bull markets in U.S. history. Of course, U.S. equities did fall 19% mid-way through the Clinton impeachment process, but this was more due to global risk factors than domestic politics. Watergate appears to have affected both equity markets and volatility. The S&P 500 fell 39% from February 7, 1973 - when the Senate established a select committee to investigate Watergate - until Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. That said, the scandal alone did not cause the correction; rather, it was a combination of factors, including the second devaluation of the dollar, rapid increases in price inflation, and a massive insurance fraud scandal. Writing in the summer of 1973, BCA remarked that while a speculative, "Watergate-inspired," attack on the dollar further contributed to some short-term capital outflow, but that the macro-fundamentals of the economy would ultimately persevere. Would today play out more like Teapot and Clinton, or Nixon? It will depend on the fundamentals. In the 1920s and the 1990s, fundamentals were solid and thus politics could not dent the ongoing bull market. In the early 1970s, macro fundamentals were terrible and thus politics accentuated the decline in the bear market. One thing that impeachment would not change, however, is policy. The U.S. is not Brazil. Impeachment will not lead to a 180 degree change in policy outcomes. Vice President Mike Pence is a Republican and is as pro-business as Trump. Given that the aggressive trade policy towards China has both public and establishment support, we would not expect any relief on the protectionism front. However, there would be a lot less tweeting, insults, and erratic foreign policy rhetoric aimed at both allies and rivals. The "maximum pressure" doctrine would likely be replaced by a more traditional policy of carrots and sticks. Most notably, we think this would minimize the risk of a proxy war with Iran in the Middle East. How likely is impeachment once Democrats take over the House? It depends. If President Trump fires Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the Democrats in the House of Representatives may get enough votes to impeach President Trump even without a House takeover! The question is whether impeachment would matter. As we outlined in our special report, impeachment is a political, not a legal, process. As such, the House of Representatives has a low bar for impeachment. It can essentially impeach the U.S. president for anything, including a debatable claim that he obstructed justice. The real question is whether the Senate would convict. To do so, the Senate must hold a trial and vote on whether to remove the president from office by a two-thirds majority (67 votes). Even if Democrats win the Senate, they would need over 15 Republican Senators to join them in removing a sitting U.S. president from office, which has never been done in American history. This could happen, but it would require the American public, particularly Republicans, to lose faith in President Trump. In particular, we have been advising clients to focus on Republican voters' support for Trump. If it dips well below 70%, we suspect that Senators could start switching sides. We are currently nowhere near these levels (Chart 19). What could change these levels of support? The Mueller special investigation is a big risk to President Trump even if one thinks that the charge of collusion with Russia is unfounded. President Bill Clinton was similarly investigated by an independent special investigator, Kenneth Starr. Starr initially focused on the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments by Bill Clinton. But the trail led elsewhere. Ultimately, the "Starr Report" alleged that Clinton lied under oath regarding his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, an issue completely unrelated to the original investigation. In other words, once independent investigators start digging, there is no telling what skeletons they will exhume. We do not intend to "prosecute" claims against President Trump in this or any future report. But we can also envision a scenario where the Mueller investigation reveals enough evidence of malfeasance to shake GOP voter confidence in President Trump, leading to a potential scenario where he is removed from power. Would the market care at this point? We think the answer is yes. While removal of a U.S. president has no impact on earnings, it could have an impact on social stability. Political polarization is at its highest levels in the U.S. (Chart 20), and roughly 40% of both Democrats and Republicans believe that their political competitors pose a "threat to the nation's well-being" (Chart 21). Chart 19Impeachment: Not A Risk (Yet) Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Chart 20Polarization, As Inequality, Remains At Record Highs Polarization, As Inequality, Remains At Record Highs Polarization, As Inequality, Remains At Record Highs Chart 21"A Threat To The Nation's Well-Being?" Really?! Will Trump Fail The Midterm? Will Trump Fail The Midterm? We would fade any risk of a widespread, Red State rebellion. Since a change in Republican opinion is required for Senators to convict Trump, most of Trump's supporters will have already lost faith in him by the time he is removed from office. As we outlined in our Strategic Outlook, we doubt that many Trump voters would risk social unrest to defend their champion.15 Many conservative voters simply wanted change and were willing to give an outsider a chance (much as their liberal counterparts did in 2008!). But convincing the markets may take time, and any sign of even minimal right-wing terrorism could create volatility and drawdowns. Bottom Line: Impeachment remains a headline risk to the markets. We continue to believe that impeachment will merely accentuate the impact of fundamentals on risk assets. However, fundamentals themselves are starting to look vulnerable, at least on a tactical horizon. As such, we are entering a six-month period where geopolitical, trade, and domestic political risks could pose headwinds to U.S. risk assets. Marko Papic, Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist marko@bcaresearch.com Ekaterina Shtrevensky, Research Assistant ekaterinas@bcaresearch.com David Boucher, Associate Vice President Quantitative Strategist davidb@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Political Risks Are Overstated In 2017," dated April 5, 2017; "Political Risks Are Understated In 2018," dated April 12, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Watching Five Risks," dated January 24, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 3 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Five Black Swans In 2018," dated December 6, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 4 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China," dated February 28, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 5 President Clinton launched the largest NATO military operation at the time against Yugoslavia amidst impeachment proceedings against him while President George H. W. Bush ordered U.S. troops into Somalia a month after losing the 1992 election. Ironically, President George H. W. Bush intervened in Somalia in order to lock in the supposedly isolationist Bill Clinton, who had defeated him three weeks earlier, into an internationalist foreign policy. Less dramatic, but still notable examples, are President George W. Bush ordering the "surge" of troops into Iraq in 2007 after losing both houses of Congress in 2006, and President Barack Obama negotiating the Iranian nuclear deal after losing the Senate (and hence the entire Congress) to the Republicans in 2014. 6 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Tax Cuts Are Here... So Much For Populism!" dated November 8, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 We use The Cook Political Report methodology for reporting the characteristic of House seats. Seats are split into "toss-up or worse," "likely/lean," and "solid" based on their Partisan Voter Index (PVI) score. The Cook PVI measures how each district performs at the presidential level compared to the nation as a whole. A district with a D+2 PVI voted an average of two points more Democratic than the nation did as a whole in the last two presidential elections (2012 and 2016 for current PVI rating). The Cook Political Report defines a "swing seat" as one that falls between D+5 and R+5. A "solid Republican" seat would therefore be any seat with a PVI of R+5 or higher. A "solid Democrat" seat would therefore be any seat with a PVI of D+5 or greater. 8 This is not to say that Democrats have not redistricted for partisan reasons. California was famously redistricted in the 1980s. Most recently, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley admitted, during a court deposition, that he redrew the state's district borders specifically to increase the Democratic congressional majority in the state. Please see Amber Phillips, "Maryland's redistricting case reminds us: Both parties gerrymander. A lot." The Washington Post, dated March 28, 2018, available at washingtonpost.com. 9 Please see BCA U.S. Investment Strategy Weekly Report, "As Good As It Gets?" dated January 29, 2018, available at usis.bcaresearch.com. 10 The state variables include the annual percent change in personal income, the annual change in the Philadelphia Fed Coincidence index, and incumbency. The national variables include presidential approval ratings, a variable indicating whether the last presidential election was close, and the annual percent change in real GDP, CPI, industrial production, and the DXY. We add to this mix of national and state data the latest opinion polling by state race and the generic congressional ballot. 11 The U.S. Vice President, Republican Mike Pence, would cast the deciding vote in case of a 50-50 tie and therefore the Democrats require a pickup of two seats. 12 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Populism Blues: How And Why Social Instability Is Coming To America," dated June 9, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 13 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Break Glass In Case Of Impeachment," dated May 17, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 14 "Teapot Dome" was for decades the largest corruption scandal in U.S. history. It involved President Warren G. Harding, his Secretary of the Interior, other officials, and a number of oil companies that were given extremely favorable leases to drill oil in federal land in Wyoming. Investigations and prosecutions lasted through 1927. 15 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Strategic Outlook, "BCA Geopolitical Strategy 2017 Report Card," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com.

Highlights After the March FOMC Meeting, market pricing for short-term rates is largely consistent with the Fed's forecasts. For investors and the Fed, the health of the economy and earnings matter more than Trump's political woes. However, the U.S. / China trade disputes will now take center stage. How can investors prepare for the trough in Citigroup Economic Surprise Index? Investors remain skeptical that the unemployment rate can fall to 3.5% and wonder what pace of monthly payroll growth would be required to get it there. Feature The S&P 500 fell more than 2% last Thursday after President Trump announced a new round of tariffs aimed at China. Treasury yields drifted modestly lower, and the trade weighted dollar fell 1%. Credit spreads widened. The trade tensions and the softer dollar drove gold up by nearly 3%. Meanwhile, another drawdown in oil inventories drove WTI oil nearly 5% higher. The VIX climbed last week, and has more than doubled since the start of the year. The market largely ignored last week's FOMC meeting. Fed Chair Powell stuck to the script at his first post-meeting press conference, but noted that trade was a topic of discussion. The "...For Inflation" section of this week's report provides more detail on Fed's view of the economy and rates. U.S. risk assets also sold off last week as market participants reacted negatively to Trump's political woes and trade policies. BCA's view is that investors should fade the former and focus on the later. We discuss Trump's political situation, as well as the trade tensions in the second section of this week's report ("...For the Next Tweet"). Nearly all the data in last week's sparse economic calendar exceeded expectations. At 1.8%, the Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimate for Q1 finished the week where it started. An unusual run of harsh winter weather in the Northeastern U.S. in March will keep downward pressure on the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index for the next month or so. We provide more detail on the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index and the performance of risk assets as the index rises and falls in the "...For The Washout" section of this week's report. Moreover, in the final section of the report ("...For The Labor Market"), we discuss how the unemployment rate can get to BCA's target of 3.5% in the next 12 months. ... For Inflation As widely expected, the FOMC last week delivered its sixth rate hike of the cycle and Fed members were more optimistic on the economic outlook. However, U.S. trade policy is a cloud over the outlook. The Fed downgraded its assessment of current economic conditions, but upgraded the outlook. The current pace of economic activity was described as "moderate" and opposed to "solid" in the previous FOMC statement. This reflects some disappointing data releases, which is also apparent in the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model forecasting just 1.8% growth in Q1. But the Fed does not expect the softness to persist and noted that "the economic outlook has strengthened" (details below in "...For the Washout"). This was reflected in the updated economic projections. GDP growth forecasts were revised to 2.7% and 2.4% for 2018 and 2019, respectively (Chart 1). That's up from 2.5% and 2.1%, and comfortably above the Fed's 1.8% estimate for potential growth. As a consequence, the Fed expects the unemployment rate to drop to 3.6% in 2019, which would be well below the Fed's revised 4.5% estimate of full employment (details below in "...For the Labor Market"). Despite growth being above-trend and the jobless rate falling far below NAIRU, FOMC participants are not forecasting a major acceleration in inflation. From 1.9% in 2018, core PCE inflation is seen fairly steady at 2.1% in 2019 and 2020. To some degree, the upward pressure on inflation will be mitigated by a higher path for the Fed funds rate. Although the median projection remains for three rate hikes this year, the Fed expects slightly faster rate hikes in 2019 and 2020 (Chart 2). The Fed funds rate is now expected to end 2020 at 3.375%, up from 3.125% expected in December. This will put monetary policy on the tighter side of the Fed's 2.875% estimate of the neutral rate. Chart 1The FOMC'S Latest Forecasts The FOMC'S Latest Forecasts The FOMC'S Latest Forecasts Chart 2Market And The Fed In Agreement On Rates Market And The Fed In Agreement On Rates Market And The Fed In Agreement On Rates Of course, the path of the Fed funds rate will depend on the degree of slack in the economy and the resulting inflationary pressures. The Fed could be underestimating the inflationary pressures associated with a jobless rate that will be nearly 1% below NAIRU. Alternatively, a rising participation rate could slow the decline in the unemployment rate, or the Fed's estimate of NAIRU could get revised much lower. Finally, while the fiscal stimulus is behind the Fed's more optimistic outlook, U.S. trade policy is a growing downside risk (details below in "...For the Next Tweet"). During his press conference, Fed Chair Powell said that FOMC members were aware of the risk, but it was not incorporated into their forecasts. President Trump announced tariffs on China last week. China may then retaliate with its own tariffs. As we've said before, nobody wins from trade wars. Economic activity will be weaker and prices will be higher. A full blown trade war could jeopardize the Fed's rosy forecasts. Bottom Line: Market pricing for short-term rates is largely consistent with the Fed's forecasts. Therefore, the outcome of last week's FOMC meeting is not very market relevant. Investors are more focused on trade policy for now. ... For The Next Tweet BCA is looking beyond any market volatility induced by President Trump's political scandals.1 The decision to impeach President Trump is a purely political decision that rests with the House of Representatives. Under GOP control, Trump will not likely be impeached if he continues to fire his White House aides or members of his cabinet. That is his purview as President. However, relieving Special Counsel Mueller of his duties would probably be a red line for House Republicans and lead to impeachment. That said, it is very difficult to see the impeachment in the House lead to Trump's removal by the Senate, given his elevated approval ratings among GOP voters (Chart 3). Trump's support with GOP voters, our Geopolitical Strategy service's critical measure of whether Trump can stay in power, is back at 2016 election levels with GOP voters (Chart 3). Furthermore, conviction in the Senate (and removal from office), requires 67 votes. If the Democrats take the House, they are likely to impeach Trump in 2019. But even if the Democrats retake the Senate this fall, they would fall far short of that 67-vote threshold for conviction. For investors and the Fed, the health of the economy and earnings matter more than Trump's political woes. Equity markets performed well when the economy and earnings backdrop was favorable during presidential scandals in the 1920s and the 1990s. In the early 1970s, amid soaring inflation and the worst recession since the Great Depression, there was a bear market in equities (Chart 4A). Likewise, surges in equity market volatility amid political scandals were related more to economic and financial events than politics (Chart 4B). Chart 4AFor Markets,##BR##Economy Matters More Than Politics For Markets, Economy Matters More Than Politics For Markets, Economy Matters More Than Politics Chart 4BMarket Volatility During##BR##U.S. Political Scandals Market Volatiltiy During U.S. Political Scandals Market Volatiltiy During U.S. Political Scandals Today's environment - while not as robust as in the 1920s or late 1990s - provides support for higher stock prices, above-trend economic growth, escalating inflation, three more Fed rate hikes this year, and higher Treasury bond yields. Moreover, none of the issues that investors care about (tax cuts, deregulation, lifting of the spending caps, etc.) can be reversed by Trump's impeachment. Even a Democratic wave in this fall's mid-term Congressional elections will not deliver the opposition party a veto-proof majority (Chart 5). Thus, in the current economic cycle, we expect pro-market forces at the legislative and executive branches of government to persist. Chart 5Democrats's Lead in Generic Congressional##BR##Ballot Has Moved Lower This Year Democrats's Lead in Generic Congressional Ballot Has Moved Lower This Year Democrats's Lead in Generic Congressional Ballot Has Moved Lower This Year However, Trump's political scandals may cost the GOP the House in this fall's mid-term elections. Table 1 and Chart 6 show that political gridlock is not positive for stock prices after controlling for important macro factors.2 The average monthly return on the S&P 500 is considerably higher when the executive and legislative branches are unified. The worst outcome for equity markets, by far, is when the President faces a split legislature. BCA's Geopolitical Strategy service noted that while the market has cheered the limited scope of tariffs imposed earlier this month, investors may be underestimating the political shifts that underpinned Trump's move. There is little reason to think that protectionism will fade when Trump leaves office. The Administration's decision late last week to introduce sanctions aimed at China represents another escalation of the trade spat initiated in early March. Increased trade tensions with China represent a near-term risk to the markets.3 However, BCA's Geopolitical Strategy team notes that the latest round of tariffs suggests that Trump has made a bid to increase negotiation leverage with China rather than launch a protectionist broadside. This is good news in the short term, relative to the worst fears given Trump's lack of legal/constitutional constraints. But in the long term, Trump's latest move on trade policy support's our view that geopolitical risk is moving to East Asia and the U.S. / China conflict is a high-risk scenario that markets are now going to have to start pricing in.4 Table 1Divided Government Is, In Fact, Bad For Stocks Waiting... Waiting... Chart 6A Unified Congress Is A Boon For Stocks Waiting... Waiting... Bottom Line: Investors should dismiss the risk of domestic political scandals interrupting the market-friendly policy back drop. However, U.S. / China trade disputes will take center stage. China is motivated to prevent a trade war through significant compromises that Trump can advertise as wins to his audience this November. If Trump accepts these concessions, then the risk of a trade war with China will likely be removed until the next race for President in 2020. ... For The Washout The U.S. economic data have disappointed so far this year, as illustrated by Citigroup Economic Surprise Index (Chart 7). The Index peaked at 84.5 in December 2017 and subsequently has moved lower for 64 days. Since early 2011, there were six other episodes when the Surprise Index behaved similarly. These phases lasted an average of 86 days; the median number of days from peak to trough was 66 days. The implication is that the trough in the Citigroup Economic Surprise reading may be a month or two away. However, the relatively low economic expectations at end-2017 suggest that the disappointment may be truncated. On the other hand, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, along with the lifting of budgetary spending caps in early 2018, have likely raised economists' near-term projections. Chart 7U.S. Financial Markets As Economic Surprise Index Declines U.S. Financial Markets As Economic Surprise Index Declines U.S. Financial Markets As Economic Surprise Index Declines The performance of key financial markets and commodities since the Economic Surprise Index crested in December 2017 matches the historical record, with a few notable exceptions (Table 2 and Charts 7 and 8). As the Index rolled over in late 2017, stocks beat bonds, credit outperformed Treasuries and the dollar fell, matching previous episodes. However, counter to the historical trend, gold and oil prices have increased and small caps have underperformed in the past three months. Table 2Financial Market Performance As The Economic Surprise Index Falls Waiting... Waiting... Chart 8Economic Surprise Approaching A Turning Point Economic Surprise Approaching A Turning Point Economic Surprise Approaching A Turning Point Based on BCA's research,5 tactical investors should add to their risk positions as the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index bottoms and begins to climb. As the Economic Surprise Index rises, stocks beat bonds by an average of 8700 bps and in six of the seven episodes since 2011 (Table 3). Furthermore, the performance of stock-to-bond ratio is better when the Economic Surprise Index is accelerating. Table 3 again shows that all asset classes also perform better when the Index climbs. After briefly moving above zero in early 2017 - indicating that inflation data was stronger than analysts projected - the Citigroup Inflation Surprise index rolled over again (Chart 9, top panel) through year end 2017. Reports on the CPI, PPI and average hourly earnings continued to fall short of consensus forecasts despite tightening of the labor and product markets. The disappointment on price data relative to consensus forecasts is not new. Although there were brief periods when prices exceeded forecasts in 2010 and 2011, the last time that inflation exceeded market consensus in this business cycle was in late 2009 and early 2010. In the last few years of the 2001-2007 economic expansion through early 2009, the price data eclipsed forecasts more than half of the time. During this interval, economists underestimated the impact of surging energy prices on inflation readings. Table 3Financial Market Performance As The Economic Surprise Index Rises Waiting... Waiting... Chart 9The Fed Cycle And Inflation Surprise The Fed Cycle And Inflation Surprise The Fed Cycle And Inflation Surprise Moreover, the Citigroup Inflation Surprise index escalated during previous tightening regimes when the economy was at full employment and the Fed funds rate was in accommodative territory (Chart 9). The last time those conditions were in place, which was in 2005, the Fed was wrapping up a rate increase campaign that began in mid-2004. An increase in the Citigroup Inflation Surprise Index also accompanied most of the Fed's rate hikes from mid-1999 through mid-2000. In late 2015, as the current set of rate hikes commenced, the inflation surprise index was on the upswing, the economy was close to full employment and the Fed funds rate was accommodative. Bottom Line: The disappointing run of economic data will not end for another few months. The unusually harsh winter weather in March in the Northeastern exacerbates the situation. However, the weakness in the economic data is not a sign that a recession is at hand. We expect that the inflation surprise index will continue to grind higher, as unemployment dips further into 'excess demand' territory (details below in "...For The Labor Market"). After the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index forms a bottom and starts to rise, history suggests that stocks will beat bonds, investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds will outpace Treasuries, and gold and oil will climb. Stay overweight stocks versus bonds, long credit and underweight duration. ... For The Labor Market BCA expects the unemployment rate to hit 3.5% by late 2018 or early next year, the first time since December 1969. Our base case assumes that the economy will generate 200,000 nonfarm payroll jobs per month and that the labor force participation rate will remain at 63%. The unemployment rate was 4.1% in February 2018 and bottomed at 4.4% in 2006 and 2007; the rate reached a 30-year low at 3.8% in 2000. As noted in the first section of this week's report, at the conclusion of last week's meeting, the FOMC nudged down its view of this year's unemployment rate to 3.8%. The FOMC also slightly adjusted its long-term forecast of the unemployment rate to 4.5%. The implication is that BCA and the FOMC expect the U.S. economy to continue to run below full employment this year. Nonetheless, investors remain skeptical that the unemployment rate can fall to 3.5% and wonder what pace of monthly payroll growth would be required to get it there. In Table 4 we look at various scenarios (monthly increases in payrolls, annual percentage change in participation rate) to show when the unemployment rate will dip below 3.5%. In the past three months, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 242,000 per month, and in the past year, the average monthly increase was 190,000. The participation rate was 63% in February, little changed from a year ago as an improved labor market offset demographic factors that continue to drive down this rate. Our calculations assume that the labor force will expand by 0.9% per year, matching the growth rate in the past 12 months. Chart 10 shows the history of the unemployment rate and several scenarios in the next two years that assume the participation rate stays at 63%. Table 4Dates When 3.5% Unemployment Rate Threshold Is Reached Waiting... Waiting... Chart 10The Unemployment Rate Under Various Monthly Job Count Scenarios The Unemployment Rate Under Various Monthly Job Count Scenarios The Unemployment Rate Under Various Monthly Job Count Scenarios Bottom Line: BCA's view is that the FOMC's forecast for the unemployment rate at the end of 2018 (3.8%) is too high and only marginally lower than the current 4.1% rate. This is inconsistent with real GDP growth well in excess of its supply-side potential. The macro backdrop will likely justify the FOMC hiking more quickly than the March 2018 dots forecast. The risks are skewed to the upside. BCA expects the 2/10 Treasury yield curve to steepen through mid-year and then flatten by year-end, spending most of 2018 between 0 and 50 bps. Stay underweight duration. John Canally, CFA, Senior Vice President U.S. Investment Strategy johnc@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Break Glass In Case Of Impeachment," dated May 17, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Policies Are Stimulative Everywhere But China," dated February 28, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 3 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Trump, Year Two: Let The Trade War Begin," dated March 14, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 4 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report "The South China Sea: Smooth Sailing?," dated March 28, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 5 Please see BCA U.S. Investment Strategy Weekly Reports, "Solid Start," dated January 8, 2018 and "The Revenge Of Animal Spirits," dated October 30, 2017. Both available at usis.bcaresearch.com.

Dear Clients, This week we are re-publishing an excellent Special Report written by our geopolitical team that appeared in the January 2018 Bank Credit Analyst. The recent removal of term limits on the Chinese presidency, a move that was foreshadowed in the report, has refocused global investor attention on the country's secular outlook. The report explains why the long-run outlook for China hinges on Xi Jinping's willingness to use his immense personal authority and concentration of power for the purposes of good governance and market-oriented economic reform. Without concrete progress, investors will have to decide whether they want to invest in a China that is becoming less economically vibrant as well as more authoritarian. I trust you will find this report insightful. Best regards, Jonathan LaBerge, CFA, Vice President Special Report Highlights 2018 is a pivotal year for China, as it will set the trajectory for President Xi Jinping's second term ... and he may not step down in 2022. Poverty, inequality, and middle-class angst are structural and persistent threats to China's political stability. The new wave of the anti-corruption campaign is part of Xi's attempt to improve governance and mitigate political risks. Yet without institutional checks and balances, Xi's governance agenda will fail. Without pro-market reforms, investors will face a China that is both more authoritarian and less productive. Feature Hearts rectified, persons were cultivated; persons cultivated, families were regulated; families regulated, states were rightly governed; states rightly governed, the whole world was made tranquil and happy. - Confucius, The Great Learning Comparisons of modern Chinese politics with Confucian notions of political order have become cliché. Nevertheless, there is a distinctly Confucian element to Chinese President Xi Jinping's strategy. Xi's sweeping anti-corruption campaign, which will enter "phase two" in 2018, is essentially an attempt to rectify the hearts and regulate the families of Communist Party officials and civil servants. The same could be said for his use of censorship and strict ideological controls to ensure that the general public remains in line with the regime. Yet Xi is also using positive measures - like pollution curbs, social welfare, and other reforms - to win over hearts and minds. His purpose is ultimately the preservation of the Chinese state - namely, the prevention of a Soviet-style collapse. Only if the regime is stable at home can Xi hope to enhance the state's international security and erode American hegemony in East Asia. This would, from Beijing's vantage, make the whole world more tranquil and happy. Chart 1The New Normal The New Normal The New Normal Thus, for investors seeking a better understanding of China in the long run, it is necessary to look at what is happening to its governance as well as to its macroeconomic fundamentals and foreign relations.1 China's greatest vulnerability over the long run is its political system. Because Xi Jinping's willingness to relinquish power is now uncertain, his governance and reform agenda in his second term will have an outsized impact on China's long-run investment outlook. The Danger From Within From 1978-2008, the Communist Party's legitimacy rested on its ability to deliver rising incomes. Since the Great Recession, however, China has entered a "New Normal" of declining potential GDP growth as the society ages and productivity growth converges toward the emerging market average (Chart 1). In this context, Chinese policymakers are deathly afraid of getting caught in the "middle income trap," a loose concept used to explain why some middle-income economies get bogged down in slower growth rates that prevent them from reaching high-income status (Chart 2).2 Such a negative economic outcome would likely prompt a wave of popular discontent, which, in turn, could eventually jeopardize Communist Party rule. The quid pro quo between the Chinese government and its population is that the former delivers rising incomes in exchange for the latter's compliance with authoritarian rule. The party is not blind to the fate of other authoritarian states whose growth trajectory stalled. Chart 2Will China Get Caught In The Middle-Income Trap? A Long View Of China A Long View Of China The threat of popular unrest in China may seem remote today. The Communist Party is rallying around its leader, Xi Jinping; the economy rebounded from the turmoil of 2015 and its cyclical slowdown in recent months is so far benign; consumer sentiment is extremely buoyant; and the global economic backdrop is bright (Chart 3). Yet these positive political and economic developments are cyclical, whereas the underlying political risks are structural and persistent. China has made massive gains in lifting its population out of poverty, but it is still home to 559 million people, around 40% of the population, living on less than $6 per day, the living standard of Uzbekistan. It will be harder to continue improving these workers' quality of life as trend growth slows and the prospects for export-oriented manufacturing dry up. This is why the Xi administration has recently renewed its attention to poverty alleviation. The government is on target in lifting rural incomes, but behind target in lifting urban incomes, and urban-dwellers are now the majority of the nation (Chart 4). The plight of China's 200-250 million urban migrants, in particular, poses the risk of social discontent. Moreover, while China knows how to alleviate poverty, it has less experiencing coping with the greatest threat to the regime: the rapid growth of the middle class, with its high expectations, demands for meritocracy and social mobility, and potential for unrest if those expectations are spoiled (Chart 5). Chart 3China's Slowdown So Far Benign China's Slowdown So Far Benign China's Slowdown So Far Benign Chart 4Urban Income Targets At Risk Urban Income Targets At Risk Urban Income Targets At Risk Chart 5The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge Democracy is not necessarily a condition for reaching high-income status, but all of Asia's high-income countries are democracies. A higher level of wealth encourages household autonomy vis-à-vis the state. Today, China has reached the $8,000 GDP per capita range that often accompanies the overthrow of authoritarian regimes.3 The Chinese are above the level of income at which the Taiwanese replaced their military dictatorship in 1987; China's poorest provinces are now above South Korea's level in that same year, when it too cast off the yoke of authoritarianism (Chart 6). Chart 6China's Development Beyond Point At Which##br## Taiwan And Korea Overthrew Dictatorship A Long View Of China A Long View Of China This is not an argument for democracy in China. We are agnostic about whether China will become democratic in our lifetime. We are making a far more humble point: that political risk will mount as wealth is accumulated by the country's growing middle class. Several emerging markets - including Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey and Brazil - have witnessed substantial political tumult after their middle class reached half of the population and stalled (Chart 7). China is approaching this point and will eventually face similar challenges. Chart 7Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs The comparison reveals that an inflection point exists for a society where the country's political establishment faces difficulties in negotiating the growing demands of a wealthier population. As political scientists have shown empirically, the very norms of society evolve as wealth erodes the pull of Malthusian and traditional cultural variables.4 Political transformation can follow this process, often quite unexpectedly and radically.5 Clearly the Chinese public shows no sign of large-scale, revolutionary sentiment at the moment. And political opposition does not necessarily result in regime change. Nevertheless, it is empirically false that the Chinese people are naturally opposed to democracy or representative government. After all, Sun Yat Sen founded a Republic of China in 1912, well before many western democratic transformations! And more to the point, the best survey evidence shows that the Chinese are culturally most similar to their East Asian neighbors (as well as, surprisingly, the Baltic and eastern European states): this is not a neighborhood that inherently eschews democracy. Remarkably, recent surveys suggest that China's millennial generation, while not wildly enthusiastic about democracy, is nevertheless more enthusiastic than its peers in the western world's liberal democracies (Chart 8)! Chart 8Chinese People Not Less Fond Of Democracy Than Others A Long View Of China A Long View Of China China is also home to one of the most reliable predictors of political change: inequality. China's economic boom is coincident with the rise of extreme inequalities in income, wealth, region, and social status. True, judging by average household wealth, everyone appears to be a winner; but the average is misleading because it is pulled upward by very high net worth individuals - and China has created 528 billionaires in the past decade alone. Chart 9Inequality: A Severe Problem In China Inequality: A Severe Problem In China Inequality: A Severe Problem In China A better measure is the mean-to-median wealth ratio, as it demonstrates the gap that opens up between the average and the typical household. As Chart 9 demonstrates, China is witnessing a sharp increase in inequality relative to its neighbors and peers. More standard measures of inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, also show very high readings in China. And this trend has combined with social immobility: China has a very high degree of generational earnings elasticity, which is a measure of the responsiveness of one's income to one's parent's income. If elasticity is high, then social outcomes are largely predetermined by family and social mobility is low. On this measure, China is an extreme outlier - comparable to the U.S. and the U.K., which, while very different economies, have suffered recent political shocks as a result of this very predicament (Chart 10). "China does not have voters" unlike the U.S. and U.K., is the instant reply. Yet that statement entails that China has no pressure valve for releasing pent-up frustrations. Any political shock may be more, not less, destabilizing. In the U.S. and the U.K., voters could release their frustrations by electing an anti-establishment president or abrogating a trade relationship with Europe. In China, the only option may be to demand an "exit" from the political system altogether. Chart 10China An Outlier In Inequality And Social Immobility A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Note that there is already substantial evidence of social unrest in China over the past decade. From 2003 to 2007, China faced a worrisome increase in "mass incidents," at which point the National Bureau of Statistics stopped keeping track. The longer data on "public incidents" suggests that the level of unrest remains elevated, despite improvements under the Xi administration (Chart 11). Broader measures tell a similar story of a country facing severe tensions under the surface. For instance, China's public security spending outstrips its national defense spending (Chart 12). Chart 11Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chart 12China Spends More On ##br##Domestic Security Than Defense A Long View Of China A Long View Of China In essence, Chinese political risk is understated. This conclusion may seem counterintuitive, given Xi's remarkable consolidation of power. But is ultimately structural factors, not individual leaders, that will carry the day. The Communist Party is in a good position now, but its leaders are all-too-aware of the volcanic frustrations that could be unleashed should they fail to deliver the "China Dream." This is why so much depends upon Xi's policy agenda in the second half of his term. To that question we will now turn. Bottom Line: The Communist Party is at a cyclical high point of above-trend economic growth and political consolidation under a strongman leader. However, political risk is understated: poverty, inequality, and middle-class angst are structural and persistent and the long-term potential growth rate is slowing. If we assume that China is not unique in its historical trajectory, then we can conclude that it is approaching one of the most politically volatile periods in its development. The Governance And Reform Agenda Since coming to office in 2012-13, President Xi has spearheaded an extraordinary anti-corruption campaign and purge of the Communist Party (Chart 13). The campaign has understandably drawn comparisons to Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Yet these are not entirely fair, as Xi has tried to improve governance as well as eradicate his enemies. As Xi prepares for his "re-election" in March 2018, he has declared that he will expand the anti-corruption campaign further in his second term in office: details are scant, but the gist is that the campaign will branch out from the ruling party to the entire state bureaucracy, on a permanent basis, in the form of a new National Supervision Commission.6 There are three ways in which this agenda could prove positive for China's long-term outlook. First, the regime clearly hopes to convince the public that it is addressing the most burning social grievances. Corruption persistently ranks at the top of the list, insofar as public opinion can be known (Chart 14). Public opinion is hard to measure, but it is clear that consumer sentiment is soaring in the wake of the October party congress (see Chart 3 above). It is also worth noting that the Chinese public's optimism perked up in Xi's first year in office, when the policy agenda on offer was substantially the same and the economy had just experienced a sharp drop in growth rates (Chart 15). Reassuring the public over corruption will improve trust in the regime. Chart 13Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign Chart 14Chinese Public Grievances A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Second, the anti-corruption campaign feeds into Xi's broader economic reform agenda. Productivity growth is harder to generate as a country's industrialization process matures. With the bulk of the big increases in labor, capital, and land supply now complete in China, the need to improve total factor productivity becomes more pressing (Chart 16). Unlike the early stages of growth, this requires reaching the hard-to-get economic conditions, such as property rights, human capital, financial deepening, entrepreneurship, innovation, education, technology, and social welfare. Chart 15Anti-Corruption Is Popular A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Chart 16Productivity Requires Institutional Change Productivity Requires Institutional Change Productivity Requires Institutional Change On this count, the Xi administration's anti-corruption campaign has been a net positive. The most widely accepted corruption indicators suggest that it has made a notable improvement to the country's governance. Yet the country remains far below its competitors in the absolute rankings, notably its most similar neighbor Taiwan (Chart 17 A&B). The institutionalization of the campaign could thus further improve the institutional framework and business environment. Chart 17AAnti-Corruption Campaign Is A Plus ... A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Chart 17B... But There's A Long Way To Go A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Third, the anti-corruption campaign can serve as a central government tool in enforcing other economic reforms. Pro-productivity reforms are harder to execute in the context of slowing growth because political resistance increases among established actors fighting to preserve their existing advantages. If the ruling party is to break through these vested interests, it needs a powerful set of tools. Recently, the central government in Beijing has been able to implement policy more effectively on the local level by paving the way through corruption probes that remove personnel and sharpen compliance. Case in point: the use of anti-corruption officials this year gave teeth to environmental inspection teams tasked with trimming overcapacity in the industrial sector (Chart 18). And there are already clear signs that this method will be replicated as financial regulators tackle the shadow banking sector.7 Chart 18Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, ##br##Reduced Need For Scrap Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, Reduced Need For Scrap Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, Reduced Need For Scrap These last examples - financial and environmental regulatory tightening - are policy priorities in 2018. The coercive aspect of the corruption probes should ensure that they are more effective than they would otherwise be. And reining in asset bubbles and reducing pollution are clear long-term positives for the regime. Ideally, then, Xi's anti-corruption campaign will deliver three substantial improvements to China's long-term outlook: greater public trust in the government, higher total factor productivity, and reduced systemic risks. The administration hopes that it can mitigate its governance deficit while improving economic sustainability. In this way it can buy both public support and precious time to continue adjusting to the new normal. The danger is that these policies will combine to increase downside risks to growth in the short term.8 Bottom Line: Xi's anti-corruption campaign is being expanded and institutionalized to cover the entire Chinese administrative state. This is a consequential campaign that will take up a large part of Xi's second term. It is the administration's major attempt to mitigate the socio-political challenges that await China as it rises up the income ladder. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely? The problem, however, is that Xi may merely use the anti-corruption campaign to accrue more power into his hands. As is clear from the above, Xi's governance agenda is far from impartial and professional. The anti-corruption campaign is being used not only to punish corrupt officials but also to achieve various other goals. Xi has even publicly linked the campaign to the downfall of his political rivals.9 In essence, the campaign highlights the core contradiction of the Xi administration: can Xi genuinely improve China's governance by means of the centralization and personalization of power? Over the long haul, the fundamental problem is the absence of checks and balances, i.e. accountability, from Xi's agenda. For instance, the National Supervision Commission will be granted immense powers to investigate and punish malefactors within the state - but who will inspect the inspectors? Xi's other governance reforms suffer the same problem. His attempt to create "rule of law" is lacking the critical ingredients of judicial independence and oversight. The courts are not likely to be able to bring cases against the party, central government, or powerful state-owned firms, and they will not be able to repeal government decisions. Thus, as many commentators have noted, Xi's notion of rule of law is more accurately described as "rule by law": the reformed legal system will in all probability remain an instrument in the hands of the Communist Party. Chart 19China's Governance Still Falls Far Behind A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Likewise, Xi's attempt to grant the People's Bank of China greater powers of oversight in order to combat systemic financial risk suffers from the fact that the central bank is not independent, and will remain subordinate to the State Council, and hence to the Politburo Standing Committee. This is not even to mention the lamentable fact that Xi's campaign for better governance has so far coincided with extensive repression of civil society, which does not mesh well with the desire to improve human capital and innovation.10 Thus it is of immense importance whether Xi sets up relatively durable anti-corruption, legal, and financial institutions that will maintain their legitimate functions beyond his term and political purposes. Otherwise, his actions will simply illustrate why China's governance indicators lag so far behind its peers in absolute terms. Corruption perceptions may improve further, but there will be virtually no progress in areas like "voice and accountability," "political stability and absence of violence," "rule of law," and "regulatory quality," each of which touches on the Communist Party's weak spots in various ways (Chart 19). Analysis of the Communist Party's shifting leadership characteristics reinforces a pessimistic view of the long run if Xi misses his current opportunity.11 The party's top leadership increasingly consists of career politicians from the poor, heavily populated interior provinces - i.e. the home base of the party. Their educational backgrounds are less scientific, i.e. more susceptible to party ideology. (Indeed, Xi Jinping's top young protégé, Chen Miner, is a propaganda chief.) And their work experience largely consists of ruling China's provinces, where they earned their spurs by crushing rebellions and redistributing funds to placate various interest groups (Chart 20). While one should be careful in drawing conclusions from such general statistics, the contrast with the leadership that oversaw China's boldest reforms in the 1990s is plain. Bottom Line: Xi's reform agenda is contradictory in its attempt to create better governance through centralizing and personalizing power. Unless he creates checks and balances in his reform of China's institutions, he is likely to fall short of long-lasting improvements. The character profiles of China's political elite do not suggest that the party will become more likely to pursue pro-market reforms in Xi's wake. Chart 20China's Leaders Becoming More 'Communist' Over Time A Long View Of China A Long View Of China Xi Jinping's Choice Xi is the pivotal player because of his rare consolidation of power, and 2018 is the pivotal year. It is pivotal because it will establish the policy trajectory of Xi's second term - which may or may not extend into additional terms after 2022. So far, the world has gained a few key takeaways from Xi's policy blueprint, which he delivered at the nineteenth National Party Congress on October 18: Xi has consolidated power: He and his faction reign supreme both within the Communist Party and the broader Chinese state; Xi's policy agenda is broadly continuous: Xi's speech built on his administration's stated aims in the first five years as well as the inherited long-term aims of previous administrations; China is coming out of its shell: In the international realm, Xi sees China "moving closer to center stage and making greater contributions to mankind"; The 2022 succession is in doubt: Xi refrained from promoting a successor to the Politburo Standing Committee, the unwritten norm since 1992. Chart 21Market Not Too Worried About##br## Party Congress Outcomes Market Not Too Worried About Party Congress Outcomes Market Not Too Worried About Party Congress Outcomes Markets have not reacted overly negatively to these developments (Chart 21), as the latter do not pose an immediate threat to the global rally in risk assets. The reasons are several: Maoism is overrated: While the Communist Party constitution now treats Xi Jinping as the sole peer of the disastrous ruler Mao Zedong, the market does not buy the Maoist rhetoric. Instead, it sees policy continuity, yet with more effective central leadership, which is a plus. Reforms are making gradual progress: Xi is treading carefully, but is still publicly committed to a reform agenda of rebalancing China's economic model toward consumption and services, improving governance and productivity, and maintaining trade openness. Whatever the shortcomings of the first five years, this agenda is at least reformist in intention. China's tactic of "seeking progress while maintaining stability" is certainly more reassuring than "progress at any cost" or "no progress at all"! Trump and Xi are getting along so far: Xi's promises to move China toward center stage threaten to increase geopolitical tensions with the United States in the long run, yet markets are not overly alarmed. China is imposing sanctions on North Korea to help resolve the nuclear missile standoff, negotiating a "Code of Conduct" in the South China Sea, and promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will marginally add to global development and growth. Trump is hurling threatening words rather than concrete tariffs. 2022 is a long way away: Markets are unconcerned with Xi's decision not to put a clear successor on the Politburo Standing Committee, even though it implies that Xi will not step down at the end of his term in five years. Investors are implicitly approving Xi's strongman behavior while blissfully ignoring the implication that the peaceful transition of power in China could become less secure. Are investors right to be so sanguine? Cyclically, BCA's China Investment Strategy is overweight Chinese investible equities relative to EM and global stocks.12 Geopolitical Strategy also recommends that clients follow this view and overweight China relative to EM. Beyond this 6-12 month period, it depends on how Xi uses his political capital. If Xi is serious about governance and economic reform, then long-term investors should tolerate the other political risks, and the volatility of reforms, and overweight China within their EM portfolio. After all, China's two greatest pro-market reformers, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, were also heavy-handed authoritarians who crushed domestic dissent, clashed with the United States from time to time, and hesitated to relinquish control to their successors. However, if Xi is not serious, then investors with a long time horizon should downgrade China/EM assets - as not only China but the world will have a serious problem on its hands. For Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin always reaffirmed China's pro-market orientation and desire to integrate into the global economic order. If Xi turns his back on this orientation, while imprisoning his rivals for corruption, concentrating power exclusively in his own person, and contesting U.S. leadership in the Asia Pacific, then the long-run outlook for China and the region should darken rather quickly. Domestic institutions will decay and trade and foreign investment will suffer. How and when will investors know the difference? As mentioned, we think 2018 is critical. Xi is flush with political capital and has a positive global economic backdrop. If he does not frontload serious efforts this year then it will become harder to gain traction as time goes by.13 If he demurs, the Chinese political system will not afford another opportunity like this for years to come. The country will approach the 2020s with additional layers of bureaucracy loyal to Xi, but no significant macro adjustments to its governance or productivity. It is not clear how long China's growth rate is sustainable without pro-productivity reforms. It is also not clear that the world will wait five years before responding to a China that, without a new reform push, will appear unabashedly mercantilist, neo-communist, and revisionist. Bottom Line: The long-run investment outlook for China hinges on Xi Jinping's willingness to use his immense personal authority and concentration of power for the purposes of good governance and market-oriented economic reform. Without concrete progress, investors will have to decide whether they want to invest in a China that is becoming less economically vibrant as well as more authoritarian. We think this would be a bad bet. Matt Gertken Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy Marko Papic Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist Geopolitical Strategy 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Taking Stock Of China's Reforms", dated May 13, 2015, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Chinese policymakers are expressly concerned about the middle-income trap. Please see the World Bank and China's Development Research Center of the State Council, "China 2030: Building A Modern, Harmonious, And Creative Society," 2013, available at www.worldbank.org. Liu He, who is perhaps Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, had a hand in drafting this report and is now a member of the Politburo and shortlisted to take charge of the newly established Financial Stability and Development Commission at the People's Bank of China. 3 Please see Indermit S. Gill and Homi Kharas, "The Middle-Income Trap Turns Ten," World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 7403 (August, 2015), available at www.worldbank.org 4 Please see Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: the Human Development Sequence (Cambridge: CUP, 2005). 5 For example, the collaps of the Soviet Union and the Arab Spring, as well as the downfall of communist regimes writ large, were completely unanticipated. 6 Specifically, Xi is creating a National Supervision Commission that will group a range of existing anti-graft watchdogs under its roof at the local, provincial, and central levels of administration, while coordinating with the Communist Party's top anti-graft watchdog. More details are likely to be revealed at the March legislative session, but what matters is that the initiative is a significant attempt to institutionalize the anti-corruption campaign. Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China's Party Congress Ends ... So What?" dated November 1, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 China has recently drafted top anti-graft officials, such as Zhou Liang, from the powerful Central Discipline and Inspection Commission and placed them in the China Banking Regulatory Commission, which is in charge of overseeing banks. Authorities have already imposed fines in nearly 3,000 cases in 2017 affecting various kinds of banks, including state-owned banks. On the broader use of anti-corruption teams for economic policy, please see Barry Naughton, "The General Secretary's Extended Reach: Xi Jinping Combines Economics And Politics," China Leadership Monitor 54 (Fall 2017), available at www.hoover.org. 8 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Three Questions For 2018," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 9 Please see Gao Shan et al, "China's President Xi Jinping Hits Out at 'Political Conspiracies' in Keynote Speech," Radio Free Asia, January 3, 2017, available at www.rfa.org 10 Xi has cranked up the state's propaganda organs, censorship of the media, public surveillance, and broader ideological and security controls (including an aggressive push for "cyber-sovereignty") to warn the public that there is no alternative to Communist Party rule. This tendency has raised alarms among civil rights defenders, lawyers, NGOs, and the western world to the effect that China's governance is actually regressing despite nominal improvement in standard indicators. This is the opposite of Confucius's bottom-up notion of order. 11 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Looking Beyond The Party Congress", dated July 19, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 12 Investors should note that, since the publication of this report, BCA's China Investment Strategy service has closed its long MSCI China / short MSCI EM trade. We are now primarily expressing our cyclically positive stance towards Chinese stocks by being long MSCI China ex-technology versus MSCI All Country World (ACW) ex-tech. For more information please see China Investment Strategy Weekly Report "After The Selloff: A View From China", dated February 15, 2018, available at cis.bcaresearch.com. 13 Xi faces politically sensitive deadlines in the 2020-22 period: the economic targets in the thirteenth Five Year Plan; the hundredth anniversary of the Communist Party in 2021; and Xi's possible retirement at the twentieth National Party Congress in 2022. At that point he will need to focus on demonstrating the Communist Party's all-around excellence and make careful preparations either to step down or cling to power. Cyclical Investment Stance Equity Sector Recommendations

Highlights The political path of least resistance leads to fiscal profligacy - in the U.S. and beyond. The response to populism is underway. The U.S. midterm election is market-relevant. Gridlock between the White House and Congress does, in fact, weigh on equity returns, after controlling for macro variables. The Democratic Party's chances of taking over Congress have fallen, but remain 50% in the House of Representatives. A divided House and Senate is the worst combination for equities, but macro factors matter most. China is clearly rebooting its "reform" agenda as Xi Jinping becomes an irresistible force. We remain long H-shares relative to EM, for now. Emerging markets - including an improved South Africa - will suffer as politics become a tailwind for U.S. growth and a headwind for Chinese growth. Feature The bond market has been shocked into action this month by the twin realizations that the Republican-held Congress is not as incompetent as believed and that the Republican Party is not as fiscally conservative as professed. When combined with steady U.S. wage growth and rising inflation expectations (Chart 1), our core 2018 theme - that U.S. politics would act as an accelerant to growth - has been priced in by the bond market with impressive urgency.1 The tax cuts alone were not enough to wake the bond market. First, the realization that a tax cut would pass Congress struck markets in late October, when it became increasingly clear that the $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts And Jobs Act would indeed pass the Senate. Second, the bill's passage along strict party lines - including the slimmest of margins in the Senate thanks to reconciliation rules - convinced investors that there would be no further compromises down the pipeline. The real game changer was the realization that the political path of least resistance leads towards profligacy. This happened with the signing into law of the February 9 two-year budget compromise (the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018) that will see fiscal spending raised by around $380 billion.2 The deal failed to gain the support of a majority of Republicans in the House, despite House Speaker Paul Ryan's support, but 73 Democrats crossed the aisle to ensure its passage. They did so despite a lack of formal assurances that the House would consider an immigration bill. The three-day shutdown in late January has forced Democrats, who largely took the blame, to assess whether they care more about preserving their liberal credentials on fiscal policy or immigration policy. The two-year budget agreement is a testament to their concern for the former. The deal will see the budget deficit most likely rise to about 5.5% of GDP in FY2019, up from 3.3% in last year's CBO baseline forecast (Chart 2). Chart 1Rising U.S. Inflation Expectations Rising U.S. Inflation Expectations Rising U.S. Inflation Expectations Chart 2Fiscal Policy Gets Expansive Fiscal Policy Gets Expansive Fiscal Policy Gets Expansive Adding to the newly authorized fiscal spending could be a congressional rule-change that reintroduces earmarks - leading to a potential $20 billion additional spending per year. There is also a 10-year infrastructure plan that could see spending increase by another ~$200 billion over the next decade. The new budget compromise, combined with last year's tax cuts, will massively increase U.S. fiscal thrust beyond the IMF's baseline (Chart 3). The IMF's forecast, done before the tax cuts were passed, suggested that fiscal thrust would contract by about 0.5% of GDP this year, and would only slightly expand in 2019. Now we estimate that fiscal thrust will be a positive 0.8% of GDP in 2018 and 1.3% in 2019. These figures are tentative because it is not clear exactly how much of the spending will take place this year versus 2019 and 2020. Our colleague Mark McClellan, author of BCA's flagship The Bank Credit Analyst, has stressed that the impact on GDP growth will be less than these figures suggest because the economic multipliers related to tax cuts are less than those for spending.3 Our theme that the political path of least resistance will lead to profligacy is not exclusive to the U.S. After all, populism is not exclusive to the U.S, with non-centrist parties consistently capturing around 16% of the electoral vote in Europe (Chart 4). Chart 3The Budget Deal And Tax Cuts##br## Will Expand U.S. Fiscal Thrust Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Chart 4Populism Will Fuel Fiscal##br##Spending Beyond The U.S. Populism Will Fuel Fiscal Spending Beyond The U.S. Populism Will Fuel Fiscal Spending Beyond The U.S. Policymakers are not price-setters in the political marketplace, but price-takers. The price-setter is the median voter, who we believe has swung to the left when it comes to economic policy in developed markets after a multi-year, low-growth, economic recovery.4 Broadly speaking, investors should prepare for higher fiscal spending globally on the back of this dynamic. Aside from the U.S., the populist dynamic is evident in the world's third (Japan), fourth (Germany), and sixth (the U.K.) largest economies. Japan may have started it all, as a political paradigm shift in 2011-12 spurred a historic reflationary effort.5 Geopolitical pressure from China and domestic political pressures on the back of an extraordinary rise in income inequality, and natural and national disasters, combined to create the political context that made Abenomics possible. While the fiscal arrow has somewhat disappointed - particularly when PM Shinzo Abe authorized the 2014 increase in the consumption tax - Japan has still surprised to the upside on fiscal thrust (Chart 5). On average, the IMF has underestimated Japan's fiscal impulse by 0.84% since the beginning of 2012. Investors often understate the ability of centrist, establishment policymakers to rebrand anti-establishment policies - whether on fiscal spending or immigration - as their own. In January 2015, we asked whether "Abenomics Is The Future?"6 We concluded that rising populism in Europe would require a policy response not unlike the policy mix favored by Tokyo. Today, the details of the latest German coalition deal between the formally fiscally conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) means that even Germany has now succumbed to the political pressure to reflate. The CDU has agreed to fork over the influential ministry of finance to the profligate SPD and apparently spend an additional 46 billion euros, over the duration of the Grand Coalition, on public investment and tax cuts. Finally, in the U.K., the end of austerity came quickly on the heels of the Brexit referendum, the ultimate populist shot-across-the-bow. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced a shift away from austerity almost immediately, scrapping targets for balancing the budget by the end of the decade. The change in rhetoric has carried over to the new government, especially after the Labour Party pummeled the Tories on austerity in the lead up to the June 2017 election. The bond market action over the past several weeks suggests that investors have not fully appreciated the political shifts underway over the past several years. Bond yields had to "catch up" to the political reality essentially over the course of February. However, the structural upward trajectory is now in place. The end of stimulative monetary policy will accelerate the rise in bond yields. Quantitative easing programs have soaked up more than the net government issuance of the major economies. Chart 6 shows that the flow of the major economies' government bonds available for the private sector to purchase was negative from 2015-2017. This flow will now swing to the positive side as fiscal spending necessitates greater issuance and as central banks withdraw demand. Real interest rates may therefore be higher to the extent that government bonds will have to compete with private-sector issuance for available savings. Chart 5Japan's Abenomics Leads The Way To More Spending Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Chart 6Lots Of Bonds Hitting The Private Market Lots Of Bonds Hitting The Private Market Lots Of Bonds Hitting The Private Market Bottom Line: The U.S. electorate chose the populist, anti-establishment Donald Trump as president with unemployment at a multi-decade low of 4.6%. The message from the U.S. election, and the rise of anti-establishment parties in Europe, is that the electorate is restless, even with the post-Great Financial Crisis recovery now in its ninth year. Policymakers have heard the message, loud and clear, and are adjusting fiscal policy accordingly. Over the course of the next quarter, BCA's Global Investment Strategy expects the rapid rise in bond yields to peter out, but investors should use any bond rallies as an opportunity to reduce duration risk. BCA's House View calls for the 10-year Treasury yield to finish the year at about 3.25%.7 Our U.S. bond strategists expect the end-of-cycle level of the nominal 10-year Treasury yield to be between 3.3% and 3.5%.8 Does The U.S. Midterm Election Matter? The three-day government shutdown that ended on January 22 has hurt the chances of the Democratic Party in the upcoming midterm election. The Democrats' lead in the generic congressional ballot has gone from a high of 13% at the end of 2017 to just 9% today (Chart 7). As Chart 8 illustrates, this generic ballot has some predictive quality. However, it also suggests that for Democrats, the lead needs to be considerably larger than for Republicans to generate the type of seat-swing needed to win a majority in the House of Representatives in 2018. Chart 7Democrats Have Lost Some Steam Democrats Have Lost Some Steam Democrats Have Lost Some Steam Chart 8Democrats Need Big Polling Lead To Win Majority Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China There are three reasons for this built-in advantage for the Republican Party in recent midterm elections. First, the Republicans dominate the rural vote, which tends to be overrepresented in any electoral system that draws electoral districts geographically. Second, redistricting - or gerrymandering - has tended to favor the Republican Party in the past several elections. While the Supreme Court has recently struck down some of the most egregiously drawn electoral districts, the overall impact of gerrymandering since 2010 overwhelmingly favors the GOP. Third, midterm elections tend to have a lot lower voter turnout than general elections, which hurts the Democrats who rely on the youth and minority vote. Both constituencies tend to shy away from participation in the midterm election. Does the market care who wins the House and Senate? On the margin, yes. If the current GOP control of the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate were to be broken, markets might react negatively. It is often stated that gridlock has a positive effect on stock prices, as it reduces the probability of harmful government involvement in the economy and financial markets. However, research by our colleague Jonathan LaBerge, which we have recently updated, suggests otherwise. After controlling for the macro environment, gridlock between the White House and Congress is actually associated with modestly lower equity market returns.9 This conclusion is based on the past century of data. For most of that period, polarization has steadily risen to today's record-setting levels (Chart 9). As such, the negative impact of gridlock could be higher today. Table 1 illustrates the impact of four factors on monthly S&P 500 price returns. The first two columns demonstrate the effect on returns of recessions and tightening monetary policy, respectively, whereas the last two columns measure the effects of executive/legislative disunity and reduced uncertainty in the 12-months following presidential and midterm elections.10 The table presents the beta of a simple regression based on dummy variables for each of the four components (t-statistics are shown in parentheses). Chart 9U.S. Polarization Has Risen For 60 Years U.S. Polarization Has Risen For 60 Years U.S. Polarization Has Risen For 60 Years Table 1Divided Government Is, In Fact, Bad For Stocks Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China As expected, the macro context has a much larger impact on stock returns than politically driven effects. The impact of political gridlock is shown to be negative regardless of timeframe. The takeaway for equity investors is that, contrary to popular belief, political gridlock is not positive for stock prices after controlling for important macro factors. Absolute results are similarly negative, with the average monthly S&P 500 returns considerably larger during periods of unified executive and legislative branches (Chart 10). Intriguingly, the less negative constellation of forces is when the president faces a unified Congress ruled by the opposing party. We would reason that such periods force the president to compromise with the legislature, which constitutionally has a lot of authority over domestic policy. The worst outcome for equity markets, by far, is when the president faces a split legislature. In these cases, we suspect that uncertainty rises as neither party has to take responsibility for negative policy outcomes, making them more likely. Chart 10A Unified Congress Is A Boon For Stocks Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China In the current context, gridlock could lead to greater political volatility. For example, a Democratic House of Representatives would begin several investigations into the Trump White House and could potentially initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. But as we pointed out last year, impeachment alone is no reason to sell stocks.11 The Democrats would not have the ability to alter President Trump's deregulatory trajectory - which remains under the purview of the executive - nor would they be likely to gain enough seats to repeal the tax cut legislation. Yet given President Trump's populist bias, center-left Democrats could find much in common with the president on spending. This would only reinforce our adage that the political path of least resistance will tend towards profligacy. The only thing that President Trump and the Democrats in Congress will find in common, in other words, will be to blow out the U.S. budget deficit. Bottom Line: The chances of a Democratic takeover following the midterm elections have fallen, but remain at 50% for the House of Representatives. A gridlocked Congress is mildly negative for equity markets, taking into consideration that macro variables still dominate. Nonetheless, investors should ignore the likely higher political volatility and focus on the fact that President Trump and the Democrats are not that far apart when it comes to spending. China: The Reform Reboot Is Here And It Is Still Winter He told us not to believe the people who say it's spring in China again. It's still winter. - Anonymous Chinese government official referring to Liu He, the top economic adviser.12 The one risk to the BCA House View of a structural bond bear market - at least in the near term - is a peaking of global growth and a slowdown in emerging markets. The EM economies, which normally magnify booms in advanced economies, particularly in latter stages of the economic cycle, are currently experiencing a relative contraction in their PMIs (Chart 11). BCA Foreign Exchange Strategy's "carry canary" indicator - which shows that EM/JPY carry trades tend to lead global industrial activity - is similarly flashing warning signs (Chart 12).13 Chart 11EM Economies Underperforming EM Economies Underperforming EM Economies Underperforming Chart 12Yen Carry Trades Signal Distress Yen Carry Trades Signal Distress Yen Carry Trades Signal Distress At the heart of the divergence in growth between EM and DM is China. Beijing has been tightening monetary conditions as part of overall structural reform efforts, causing a sharp deceleration in the Li Keqiang index (Chart 13). In addition, the orders-to-inventories ratio has begun to contract, import volumes are weak, and export price growth is slowing sharply (Chart 14). Chart 13Li Keqiang Index Surprises Downward Li Keqiang Index Surprises Downward Li Keqiang Index Surprises Downward Chart 14China's Economy Weakens... China's Economy Weakens... China's Economy Weakens... The Chinese slowdown is fundamentally driven by politics. Last April we introduced a checklist for determining whether Chinese President Xi Jinping would "reboot" his reform agenda during his second term in office. We define "reform" as policies that accelerate the transition of China's growth model away from investment-driven, resource-intensive growth. Since then, political and economic events have supported our thesis. Most recently, interbank lending rates have spiked due to China's new macro-prudential regulations and monetary policy (Chart 15), and January's total credit growth clocked in at an uninspiring 11.2% (Chart 16). Tight credit control in the first calendar month typically implies that credit expansion will be limited for the rest of the year (Chart 17). A strong grip on money and credit growth is entirely in keeping with the three-year "battle" that Xi Jinping has declared against systemic financial risk.14 Chart 15...While Policy Drives Up Interbank Rates ...While Policy Drives Up Interbank Rates ...While Policy Drives Up Interbank Rates Chart 16January Credit Growth Disappoints... January Credit Growth Disappoints... January Credit Growth Disappoints... Chart 17... And January Credit Is The Biggest Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China In short, we have just crossed the 50% threshold on our checklist, confirming that China is indeed rebooting its reform agenda (Table 2). Going forward, what matters is the intensity and duration of the reform push. Three events at the start of the Chinese New Year suggest that the market will be surprised by both. Table 2How Do We Know China Is Reforming? Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China First, the National People's Congress (NPC), which convenes March 5, is reportedly planning to remove term limits for the president and vice-president, thus enabling Xi Jinping to remain as president well beyond March 2023. Xi was already set up to be the most powerful man in China's politics through the 2020s,15 so we do not consider this a material change in circumstances: the material change occurred last October when "Xi Thought" received the status of "Mao Zedong Thought" in the Communist Party's constitution and reshaped the Politburo to his liking. The point is that Xi's position is irresistible which means that his policies will have greater, not lesser, effectiveness as party and state bureaucrats scramble to enact them faithfully.16 Chart 18Crackdown On Shadow Lending Has Teeth Crackdown On Shadow Lending Has Teeth Crackdown On Shadow Lending Has Teeth Second, the Communist Party is reportedly convening its "Third Plenum" half a year early this year - that is, in late February and early March, just before the annual legislative meeting that begins March 5. This is a symbolic move. The third plenum is known as the "reform plenum," and this year is the fortieth anniversary of the 1978 third plenum that launched China's market reform and opening up to the global economy under Deng Xiaoping. However, the last time China convened a third plenum - in 2013 when Xi first announced his agenda - the excitement fizzled as implementation proved to be slow.17 As we have repeatedly warned clients, China's political environment has changed dramatically since 2013: the constraints to painful structural reforms have fallen.18 If the third plenum is indeed held early, some key decisions on reform initiatives will be made as we go to press, and any that require legislative approval will receive it instantly when the National People's Congress convenes on March 5.19 This will be a "double punch" that will supercharge the reform agenda this year. It is precisely the kind of ambition that we have been expecting. Third, one of the most important administrative vehicles of this new reform push, the Financial Stability and Development Commission (FSDC), has just made its first serious move.20 On February 23, China's top insurance regulator announced that it is taking control of Anbang Insurance Group for one year, possibly two, in order to restructure it amid insolvency and systemic risks. Anbang's troubles are idiosyncratic and have received ample media attention since June 2017.21 Nevertheless, China's government has just seized a company with assets over $300bn. Clearly the crackdown on the shadow financial sector has teeth (Chart 18). Anbang's case will reverberate beyond the handful of private companies involved in shadow banking and highly leveraged foreign acquisitions abroad. Beijing's focus is systemic risk, not merely innovative insurance products. The central government is scrutinizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local governments as well as a range of financial companies and products. We provide a list of reform initiatives in Table 3. Table 3China Is Rebooting Economic Reforms Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China What is the cumulative effect of these three developments? Basically, they raise the stakes for Xi's policies dramatically this year. If Xi makes himself president for life, and yet this year's third plenum is as over-hyped and under-delivered as in 2013, then we would expect China's economic future to darken rapidly. China will lose any pretext of reform just as the United States goes on the offensive against Beijing's mercantilism. It would be time to short China on a long-term time line. However, it would also spell doom for our positive U.S. dollar outlook and bearish EM view. If, on the other hand, Xi Jinping couples his power grab with renewed efforts to restructure China's economy and improve market access for foreigners, then he has a chance of deleveraging, improving China's productivity, and managing tensions with the U.S. This is the best outcome for investors, although it would still be negative for Chinese growth and imports, and hence EM assets, this year. The next political indicator to watch is the March 5 NPC session. This legislative meeting will be critical in determining what precise reforms the Xi administration will prioritize this year. The NPC occurs annually but is more important this year than usual because it installs a new government for the 2018-23 period and will kick off the new agenda. In terms of personnel, there is much speculation (Table 4).22 Investors should stay focused on the big picture: four months ago, the news media focused on Xi Jinping's Maoist thirst for power and declared that all reform efforts were dead in the water. Now the press is filled with speculation about which key reformer will get which key economic/financial position. The big picture is that Xi is using his Mao-like authority in the Communist Party to rein in the country's economic and financial imbalances. His new economic team will have to establish their credibility this year by remaining firm when the market and vested interests push back, which means more policy-induced volatility should be expected. Table 4China's New Government Takes Shape At National People's Congress Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China The risk is that Beijing overcorrects, not that reforms languish like they did in 2015-16. Our subjective probability of a policy mistake remains at 30%, but we expect that the market will start to price in this higher probability of risk as the March political events unfold. As Liu He declared at Davos, China's reforms this year will "exceed the international community's expectations."23 The anti-corruption campaign is another important factor to monitor. In addition to any major economic legislation, the most important law that the NPC may pass is one that would create a new nationwide National Supervisory Commission, which will expand the Communist Party's anti-corruption campaign into every level of the state bureaucracy. In other words, an anti-corruption component is sharpening the policy effectiveness of the economic and financial agenda. In the aforementioned Anbang case, for instance, corporate chief Wu Xiaohui was stung by a corruption probe in June 2017 and is being tried for "economic crimes" - now his company and its counterparty risks are being restructured. The combination of anti-corruption campaign and regulatory crackdown has the potential to cause significant risk aversion among financial institutions, SOEs, and local governments. Add in the ongoing pollution curbs, and any significant SOE restructuring, and Chinese policy becomes a clear source of volatility and economic policy uncertainty this year that the market is not, as yet, pricing (Chart 19). On cue, perhaps in anticipation of rising domestic volatility, China has stopped updating its home-grown version of the VIX (Chart 20). Chart 19Market Expects No Political Volatility Yet Market Expects No Political Volatility Yet Market Expects No Political Volatility Yet Chart 20Has China Halted Its Version Of The VIX? Has China Halted Its Version Of The VIX? Has China Halted Its Version Of The VIX? We would not expect anything more than a whiff, at best, of policy easing at the NPC this March. For instance, poverty alleviation efforts will require some fiscal spending. But even then, the point of fiscal spending will be to offset credit tightness, not to stimulate the economy in any remarkable way. Monetary policy may not get much tighter from here, as inflation is rolling over amid the slowdown (Chart 21),24 but anything suggesting a substantial shift back to easy policy would be contrary to our view. More accommodative policy at this point in time would suggest that Xi has no real intention of fighting systemic risk and - further - that global growth faces no significant impediment from China this year. In such a scenario, the dollar could fall further and EM would outperform. We expect the contrary. We are long DXY and short EUR/JPY. We remain overweight Chinese H-shares within emerging markets, but we will close this trade if we suspect either that reform is a fig leaf or that authorities have moved into overcorrection territory. Otherwise, reform is a good thing for Chinese firms relative to EM counterparts that have come to rely on China's longstanding commodity- and capital-intensive growth model (Chart 22). Chart 21Monetary Policy May Not Tighten From Here Monetary Policy May Not Tighten From Here Monetary Policy May Not Tighten From Here Chart 22Tighter-Fisted China Will Hit EM Tighter-Fisted China Will Hit EM Tighter-Fisted China Will Hit EM Bottom Line: Xi Jinping has rebooted China's economic reforms. The new government being assembled is likely to intensify the crackdown on systemic financial risk. Reforms will surprise to the upside, which means that Chinese growth is likely to surprise to the downside amidst the current slowdown, thus weighing on global growth at a time when populism provides a tailwind to U.S. growth. What It All Means For South Africa And Emerging Markets We spent a full week in South Africa last June and came back with these thoughts about the country's economy and the markets:25 The main driving force behind EM risk assets, year-to-date, has been U.S. TIPS yields and the greenback (Chart 23). Weak inflation data and policy disappointments as the pro-growth, populist, economic policy of the Trump Administration stalled have supported the ongoing EM carry trade. The actual emerging market growth fundamentals and politics are therefore unimportant. Chart 23Weak Inflation And Dollar Drove EM Assets Weak Inflation And Dollar Drove EM Assets Weak Inflation And Dollar Drove EM Assets Chart 24Market Likes Ramaphosa, Unlike Zuma Market Likes Ramaphosa, Unlike Zuma Market Likes Ramaphosa, Unlike Zuma In the near term, South African politics obviously do matter. Markets have cheered the election of Cyril Ramaphosa to the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC), a stark contrast to the market reaction following his predecessor's ascendancy to the same position (Chart 24). However, the now President Ramaphosa's defeat of ex-President Jacob Zuma's former cabinet minister and ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was narrow and has split the ANC down the middle. On one side is Ramaphosa's pragmatic wing, on the other is Dlamini-Zuma's side, focused on racial inequality and social justice. Chart 25Chronic Youth Unemployment Chronic Youth Unemployment Chronic Youth Unemployment Chart 26Few Gains In Middle Class Population Few Gains In Middle Class Population Few Gains In Middle Class Population For now, the ANC bureaucracy has served as an important circuit-breaker that will limit electoral choices in the 2019 election to the pro-market Ramaphosa, centrist Democratic Alliance, and radical Economic Freedom Fighters. From investors' perspective, this is a good thing. After all, it is clear that if the South African median voter had her way, she would probably not vote for Ramaphosa, given that the country is facing chronic unemployment (Chart 25), endemic corruption, poor healthcare infrastructure, and a desire for aggressive, and targeted, redistributive economic policies. South Africa stands alone amongst its EM peers when it comes to its tepid rise in the middle class as a percent of the population (Chart 26) and persistently high income inequality (Chart 27). We see no evidence that the electorate will welcome pro-market structural reforms. Chart 27Inequality Remains Very High Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Politics Are Stimulative, Everywhere But China Nonetheless, Ramaphosa's presidency is a positive given the recent deterioration of South Africa's governance, which should improve as the new regime focuses on fighting corruption and restructuring SOEs. Whether Ramaphosa will similarly have the maneuvering room to correct the country's endemically low productivity (Chart 28) and still large twin deficits (Chart 29) is another question altogether. Chart 28A Distant Laggard In Productivity A Distant Laggard In Productivity A Distant Laggard In Productivity Chart 29Twin Deficits A Structural Weakness Twin Deficits A Structural Weakness Twin Deficits A Structural Weakness Will investors have time to find out the answer to those latter questions? Not if our core thesis for this year - that politics is a tailwind to U.S. growth and a headwind to Chinese growth - is right. In an environment where the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield is rising, DXY stabilizes, and Chinese economy slows down, commodities and thus South African assets will come under pressure. As our colleague Arthur Budaghyan, BCA's chief EM strategist, recently put it: positive political developments are magnified amid a benign external backdrop. Conversely, in a negative external environment, positive political transformations can have limited impact on the direction of financial markets. Bottom Line: Markets are cheering Ramaphosa's ascendancy to the South African presidency. We agree that the development is, all other things being equal, bullish for South Africa's economy and assets. However, the structural challenges are vast and we do not see enough political unity in the ANC to resolve them. Furthermore, we are not sure that the global macro environment will remain sanguine for long enough to give policymakers the time for preemptive structural reforms. To reflect the potential for a positive political change and forthcoming orthodox macro policies, we are closing our recommendation to bet on yield curve steepening in South Africa, which has been flat since initiation on June 28, 2017. However, we will maintain our recommendation to buy South African 5-year CDS protection and sell Russian, even though it has returned a loss of 17.08 bps thus far. We expect that Russia will prove to be a low-beta EM play in the next downturn, whereas South Africa will not be so lucky. On a different note, we are booking gains of 2525bps on our short Venezeulan vs. EM 10-yr sovereign bonds, as our commodity team upgrades its oil-price forecast for this year. Marko Papic, Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist marko@bcaresearch.com Matt Gertken, Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy mattg@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Three Questions For 2018," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Please see the Congressional Budget Office, "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018," February 8, 2018, available at www.cbo.gov. 3 Please see BCA The Bank Credit Analyst Monthly Report, "March 2018," dated February 22, 2018, available at bca.bcaresearch.com. 4 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Monthly Report, "Introducing: The Median Voter Theory," dated June 8, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 5 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Japan's Political Paradigm Shift: Investment Implications," dated December 21, 2012, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 6 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Monthly Report, "Is Abenomics The Future?" dated February 11, 2015, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 Please see BCA Global Investment Strategy Weekly Report, "A Structural Bear Market In Bonds," dated February 16, 2018, available at gis.bcaresearch.com. 8 Please see BCA U.S. Bond Strategy Weekly Report, "The Two-Stage Bear Market In Bonds," dated February 20, 2018, available at usbs.bcaresearch.com. 9 Please see BCA U.S. Investment Strategy Weekly Report, "A Party On The QE2," dated November 8, 2010, available at usis.bcaresearch.com. 10 We include the last factor in the regression because it could be that the market responds positively in the post-election period, irrespective of the election outcome, simply because political uncertainty is diminished. 11 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Break Glass In Case Of Impeachment," dated May 17, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 12 Please see Tom Mitchell, "Xi's China: The Rise Of Party Politics," Financial Times, July 25, 2016, available at ft.com. See also BCA Geopolitical Strategy and China Strategy Special Report, "Five Myths About Chinese Politics," dated August 10, 2016, available at www.bcaresearch.com. 13 "Carry Canary" indicator tracks the performance of EM/JPY carry trades. These trades short the Japanese Yen and long an emerging market currency with a high interest rate (Brazilian real, Russian ruble, or South African rand), and as such they are highly geared to a positive global growth back-drop. Please see BCA Foreign Exchange Strategy Weekly Report, "The Yen's Mighty Rise Continues ... For Now," dated February 16, 2018, available at fes.bcaresearch.com. 14 The other two battles are against pollution and poverty. 15 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Looking Beyond The Party Congress," dated July 19, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 16 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Xi Jinping: Chairman Of Everything," dated October 25, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 17 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Monthly Report, "Reflections On China's Reforms," in "The Great Risk Rotation - December 2013," dated December 11, 2013, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 18 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Party Congress Ends ... So What?" dated November 1, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 19 Consider that the standard political calendar would have called for Xi to make personnel adjustments at the second plenum (which was held in January), then to formalize those personnel changes at the legislature in March, and then to announce reform initiatives at the third plenum in the fall, leaving implementation until late in the year or even March 2019. Instead, all of this will be done by March of this year, leaving the rest of the year for implementation. 20 The Financial Stability and Development Commission was created last July at an important financial gathering that occurs once every five years. We dubbed it a "Preemptive Dodd Frank" at the time because of China's avowed intention to use it to tackle systemic financial risk. Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "The Wrath Of Cohn," dated July 26, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. The FSDC's purpose is to coordinate the People's Bank of China with the chief financial regulators - the banking, insurance, and securities regulatory commissions (CBRC, CIRC, and CSRC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). There is even a possibility under discussion (we think very low probability of happening) that the FSDC will preside above the central bank - though the precise organizational structure will remain unclear until it is formalized, probably during the March legislative session. 21 Anbang is part of a group of companies, including Foresea, Fosun, HNA, Ping An, and Dalian Wanda, that have been targeted over the past year for shady financial doings, corruption, excessive debt, and capital flight. In particular, Anbang was integral to the development of universal life products, which have been highly restricted since last year. These were not standard insurance products but risky short-term, high-yield shadow investment products. Investors could redeem them easily so there was a risk that purchasers could swamp insurance companies with demands for paybacks if investment returns fell short. This would leave insurance companies squeezed for cash, which in turn could shake other financial institutions. The systemic risk not only threatened legitimate insurance customers but also threatened to leave insurance companies unable to make debt payments on huge leveraged buyouts that they had done abroad. Anbang and others had used these and other shadow products to lever up and then go on a global acquisition spree, buying assets like insurance subsidiaries, hotels, and media/entertainment companies. The targeted firms are also in trouble with the central government for trying to divest themselves of China's currency at the height of the RMB depreciation and capital flight of 2015. They were using China's shadow leverage to springboard into Western assets that would be safe from RMB devaluation and Chinese political risk. The government wants outward investment to go into China's strategic goals (such as the Belt and Road Initiative) instead of into high-profile, marquee Western assets and brands. 22 Particularly over whether Xi Jinping's right-hand man, Liu He, will be appointed as the new central bank governor, to replace long-serving Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, and/or whether he will replace Vice Premier Ma Kai as chairman of the FSDC. It is important whether Liu He takes the place of central banker or chief reformer because those roles are so different. Making him PBoC chief would keep a reformer at the helm of a key institution at an important point in its evolution, but will raise questions about who, if anyone, will take charge of structural reform. Giving him the broader and more ad hoc role of Reformer-in-Chief would be reminiscent of Zhu Rongji at the historic NPC session in March 1998, i.e. very optimistic for reforms. Of course, Liu He is not the only person to watch. It is also important to see what role former anti-corruption czar Wang Qishan gets (for instance, leading U.S. negotiations) and whether rising stars like bank regulator Guo Shuqing are given more authority (he is a hawkish reformer). 23 Please see Xie Yu and Frank Tang, "Xi picks team of problem solvers to head China's economic portfolios," South China Morning Post, dated February 21, 2018, available at www.scmp.com. 24 Please see BCA China Investment Strategy Weekly Report, "Seven Questions About Chinese Monetary Policy," dated February 22, 2018, available at cis.bcaresearch.com. 25 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "South Africa: Crisis Of Expectations," dated June 28, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com.

Highlights Japan's reflationary economic policies will be reinforced ahead of the constitutional referendum; The Bank of Japan is a long way from a 2% inflation overshoot; Fiscal thrust will continue to surprise to the upside; Wage law revisions are significant and, on net, inflationary; Go long JPY/EUR as a tactical play on the countertrend yen rally. Feature Despite a 8.5% selloff in Japanese equities over the past week amid the global equity pullback, Japan's underlying economic growth is strong. The unemployment rate has collapsed to 2.8%, the economy is humming along at an impressive 2.1% clip, and inflationary pressures are building at last. A variety of indicators - from sentiment surveys to household incomes to manufacturing output - attest to the fact that "Abenomics" is keeping the fire well lit (Chart 1). Before the pullback began, investors were wondering whether the BoJ's reduction of long-term government bond purchases signaled that a less dovish turn in monetary policy was underway (Chart 2). BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda tried to quiet these rumors by reiterating the need to keep current, easy monetary policy in place. The latest financial shakeup reinforces this message. Chart 1Japan's Macro Fundamentals Are Strong Japan's Macro Fundamentals Are Strong Japan's Macro Fundamentals Are Strong Chart 2The BoJ Has Cut Back Asset Purchases The BoJ Has Cut Back Asset Purchases The BoJ Has Cut Back Asset Purchases Over the long run, the BoJ's moves, and "Abenomics" in general, should be assessed from the perspective of Japan's broader geopolitical revival.1 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs reflation to continue for a range of reasons. Policymakers are not constrained by inflation; rather, inflation is constrained by the yen, global growth, and the increasing danger of a Chinese policy mistake. The BoJ Will Not Betray Abenomics Japan's strong consumer and business confidence, white-hot economic growth, and multi-year equity rally have stemmed from three factors: positive fiscal thrust, an EM rebound, and a weak yen.2 As a result, real interest rates have fallen (Chart 3), prompting the BoJ to downgrade its quantitative and qualitative easing policy (QQE). But cutting back bond-buying does not mean that the BoJ is removing accommodative policy. The central bank stopped targeting the quantity of asset purchases when it introduced its "yield curve control" policy in September 2016. Yield curve control ensures that long-term JGB yields stay around 0%, with a de facto cap of 10 basis points that can be adjusted as needed. Therefore the gross amount of asset purchases is arbitrary; it only needs to be sufficient to achieve the yield target. In fact, the BoJ's official annual target of asset purchases, 80 trillion yen, was until recently well above the annual net issuance of JGBs at 35 trillion yen (Chart 4). Fiscal policy, while surprising upward as expected, has not produced the volumes of new bond issuance that would be necessary to justify such a lofty target. Hence the BoJ can reduce bond-buying without turning more hawkish. As for inflation, the core price level has only barely begun to perk up (Chart 5) - and that has occurred after five years of reflationary efforts, which, in turn, followed a sea change in Japanese politics. Prime Minister Abe came to power by declaring war on deflation, putting Governor Kuroda in charge of the BoJ, and seeking a broad-based revival of Japan from the "lost decades" of the 1990s and 2000s. Neither Abe nor Kuroda can afford to remove accommodation too soon and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Chart 3Real Interest##br## Rates Have Fallen Real Interest Rates Have Fallen Real Interest Rates Have Fallen Chart 4Bond Purchases Had ##br##Exceeded New Issuances Bond Purchases Had Exceeded New Issuances Bond Purchases Had Exceeded New Issuances Chart 5Weak Yen, Easier Financial ##br##Conditions Pushed Up Inflation Weak Yen, Easier Financial Conditions Pushed Up Inflation Weak Yen, Easier Financial Conditions Pushed Up Inflation Kuroda has repeatedly stressed that he will allow inflation to "overshoot" the 2% target before normalizing policy.3 While it is possible that he will step down when his first term ends on April 8, it is neither required nor probable. We highly doubt that he will. Further, the likeliest candidates to replace him are those that would maintain policy continuity.4 Hence the wind-down of QQE does not portend any additional moves away from easy policy. Any such moves would drive the yen upward, and neither Kuroda nor his acolytes at the BoJ can allow yen strength to undermine their quest to whip deflation. Bottom Line: The BoJ's yield curve control framework will remain intact even if the quantity of asset purchases remains much smaller. No leadership change at the BoJ will alter this new monetary policy framework. With the Fed and other central banks in the midst of rate-hike cycles, and the ECB winding down its QE, the persistent dovishness of the BoJ will act as a depressant on the yen as it experiences upward pressure from abroad. Policy Is Inflationary... Significant inflationary pressures are building in Japan, and reflationary policy will be resolute in the face of any headwinds. First, Abe's political career depends on maintaining the economic revival. His most treasured policy objective - reforming the Japanese constitution to revise the pacifist Article Nine and clear the legal path for the normalization of the country's military - ultimately requires a majority vote in a popular referendum.5 This is no easy task. Abe will almost certainly win the leadership poll within the Liberal Democratic Party in September this year, but he may not wait till then to try to push a constitutional amendment through the Diet. The tentative plan is to present a bill in March and proceed to the national referendum in late 2018. Certainly it is imperative for him to secure two-thirds majority votes in each chamber before the House of Councillors elections in July 2019, since that event puts his near-supermajority in the upper house at risk (Chart 6). The constitutional referendum could coincide with that vote or precede it, but Abe wants the process finished before the 2020 Tokyo summer Olympics. It will be a stretch but it is feasible. Chart 6Abe Has A Virtual Supermajority In Both Houses, Necessary For Constitutional Change Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Chart 7A Popular Referendum Will Be Very Close Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Opinion polls have consistently showed the public almost evenly split on the topic of revising Article Nine, with the hawkish advocates of revision usually trailing dovish opponents (Chart 7). While Abe's approval rating ranges in the high forties, his constitutional tinkering has similar, sub-50% levels of support. Pacifism runs deep in Japan. The LDP and New Komeito ruling coalition has not won more than 47% of the popular vote in the 2012, 2014, and 2017 general elections (Chart 8). And it has never scored above 50% in popular opinion polls over the course of Abe's term (Chart 9). Chart 8Abe's Coalition Has Not Won 50% Of The Vote... Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Chart 9...Nor Polled Above 50% In Popular Opinion ...Nor Polled Above 50% In Popular Opinion ...Nor Polled Above 50% In Popular Opinion Abe will not have forgotten Italy's former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who gambled his political career on controversial constitutional reforms in 2016 only to fall from power when he lost the popular referendum. More to the point, Abe knows that large-scale protests - bigger than those he faced in 2015 - could attend his final push to secure the constitutional revision. After all, Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, faced mass protests in 1960 and was forced to resign upon concluding a new Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with the United States. This was a consequential update to the "U.S.-Japan Security Treaty" that enabled Japan to build up de facto military forces despite its pacifist constitution. Kishi fell from power even though he had presided over a rapid expansion of real GDP and real wages and a steep drop in unemployment (Chart 10). True, Japan was a very different place in 1960. At that time, the Cold War was raging, and a large and restless youth population energized the protests. Today's youth are complacent and outnumbered by comparison. Nevertheless, Kishi did not need to put his treaty to a popular vote, unlike Abe's constitutional revisions. His grandson has a higher threshold to overcome. It follows that Japan will maintain dovish monetary policy and will continue to outperform conventional estimates of fiscal thrust (Chart 11).6 Abe's decision to abandon the goal of achieving a primary balance budget surplus by 2020 is a clear indication of this policy direction.7 Chart 10Treaty Protests In 1960 Despite Strong Economy Treaty Protests In 1960 Despite Strong Economy Treaty Protests In 1960 Despite Strong Economy Chart 11Fiscal Thrust Surprises To Upside Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Wages will be a decisive factor in Abe's economic success.8 Wage growth has remained in the black for most of his term, marking a contrast with the past twenty years of at best sporadic and short-lived wage rises (Chart 12). This is likely to continue. In this spring's "shunto" negotiations between businesses and unions, both the Abe administration and Keidanren, the top business group, are asking for 3% wage increases. The biggest union, Rengo, is only asking for one percentage point more.9 Abe has dedicated the current Diet session, beginning January 22, to "work-style reforms" that should be, on net, positive for wage growth.10 He wants to remove disparities between regular and irregular workers, particularly regarding wages, training opportunities, and welfare benefits. He also wants to impose limits on the workweek - putting a cap on the average 80-hour workweek of Japan's full-time workers so as to force companies to hire more irregular workers on a full-time basis (and to encourage employed people to have children). Companies that raise wages by 3% or more will see a cut in the corporate tax rate from around 30% to 25%. Economic conditions should push wages up regardless of central government policies. The jobs-to-applicants ratio is at the highest level since 1990. The labor participation rate is 60.8%, with female participation at 51.3%, up from 47.8% when Abe took power in 2012. Neither does the adoption of robotics, for which Japan is famous, counteract the tight labor market and inflationary consequences over time.11 In short, wages and core inflation should rise as long as the economic expansion is not derailed. As our colleague Peter Berezin of BCA's Global Investment Strategy has shown, the Phillips Curve will eventually kick in - and it even looks like Japan (Chart 13)!12 Chart 12Wage Growth Is The Key To Abe's Success Wage Growth Is The Key To Abe's Success Wage Growth Is The Key To Abe's Success Chart 13The Phillips Curve In Japan Looks Like Japan Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Bottom Line: A growing economy with real wage growth is Abe's only hope not only of beating deflation but also of getting his planned constitutional amendments over the line. Reflationary policy is essential to his legacy and vision of reviving Japan. ... But Not Too Inflationary Still, fiscal thrust is hardly going to explode unless an economic slowdown calls for it. Despite Abe's adoption of a twenty first-century "Takahashi Plan," i.e. simultaneous monetary and fiscal expansion, his administration's fiscal spending has remained relatively restrained. Strong revenue growth has actually improved the primary balance (Chart 14). Until very recently, Abe's "fiscal arrow" has disappointed his cheerleaders - he even raised the consumption tax from 5% to 8% in 2014, undermining his pro-growth fiscal packages. By law Abe is required to raise the consumption tax again, from 8% to 10%, in October 2019. In the latest election he campaigned on using the proceeds of this tax increase to expand social spending.13 Of course, he reserves the option of postponing this decision if he should deem a tax hike detrimental to the economic recovery (or to his odds of revising the constitution). But this flexibility means that any and all inflationary pressures in 2018-19 will increase under the shadow of a statutorily scheduled slug to consumer spending. There are also some constraints on wage growth. First, the reforms are intended to liberalize the labor market, which means their effects are not likely to be exclusively inflationary. "Performance" metrics that put less emphasis on seniority and working overtime, insofar as they are successful, could weigh on wage growth, at least initially. Second, Japan is starting to allow immigration - the number of foreign workers hit a record of 1.28 million total in October 2017 (Chart 15).14 This trend runs contrary to Japan's long status as the least hospitable destination for migrants in the developed world. The influx is apparently not limited to construction workers for the 2020 Olympics, as manufacturing is still the sector with the largest number of foreign workers. The Abe administration is committed to breaking the mold in the name of pro-growth structural reform and immigration is a meaningful change, albeit still in its early stages. Given existing labor market tightness and rising labor costs for companies, we expect this trend to outrun expectations, nudging up labor force growth and at least mildly counteracting wage rises, especially in low-skill sectors.15 Chart 14Primary Balance Improves On Growth Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Chart 15Japan Finally Allowing Immigration Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Japan: Kuroda Or No Kuroda, Reflation Ahead Bottom Line: Inflation will continue building if the global economy continues expanding and additional fiscal thrust and wage hikes are added to Japan's negative output gap, tight labor market, and rock-bottom unemployment rate. Nevertheless Japan is far from runaway inflation, and fiscal and labor market policies are nuanced. The BoJ's desired inflation overshoot is still a long way off. China And EM Pose Deflationary Risks Meanwhile deflationary forces lurk in China and emerging markets, which have been key factors in Japan's recent economic outperformance. Japan's trade exposure to China is substantial: The latter accounts for 18% of Japan's total exports, 2.7% of Japan's GDP (Chart 16). At the moment, Japanese manufacturing appears resilient in the face of China's slowdown, especially relative to the "newly industrialized" Asian neighbors. But Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's famous proxy for economic activity is closely correlated with Japanese export growth, and it is slowing. China's monetary conditions and credit and fiscal spending impulse - key leading indicators - also bode ill for Japanese exports (Chart 17). Chart 16Japan Exposed To Chinese Economy Japan Exposed To Chinese Economy Japan Exposed To Chinese Economy Chart 17China Policy Will Hit Japan Directly China Policy Will Hit Japan Directly China Policy Will Hit Japan Directly Beijing has so far tightened policy into the slowdown. It is adding new financial, environmental, and property sector regulations while expanding its anti-corruption campaign into finance, industry, and local government.16 Central government regulatory discipline - and reforms meant to reduce capital and energy intensity - will weigh on China's monetary and credit growth, capex, capital and commodity imports, and hence EM as a whole (Chart 18). And EM ex-China accounts for a further 25% of Japanese exports. In other words, Chinese reforms will bite in 2018-19 and thus encourage Japan to maintain loose fiscal and monetary policy. Recent market turbulence may add to this predicament as it is not easy for China to abandon its newly launched economic reforms - meaning China may ease policy too late if conditions worsen. We put the risk of a policy induced mistake in China at 30%. There are also significant geopolitical risks in East Asia that could cause headwinds to Japan's economy. China's strategic challenge is the key driver of Japan's attempts to revive its economy (including through higher military spending) and normalize its military operations (Chart 19). With Japan re-arming, China and Japan could easily suffer a breakdown in diplomatic relations - and China has already shown the willingness to use sanctions to punish Japan when strategic spats occur.17 Frictions over the Koreas or Taiwan could also encourage safe-haven flows into the yen. In short, Abe and Kuroda must be prepared for any eventuality, which is another reason to expect policy to stay looser for longer. Chart 18China Policy Will Hit Japan Via EM China Policy Will Hit Japan Via EM China Policy Will Hit Japan Via EM Chart 19Strategic Tensions Still A Serious Risk Strategic Tensions Still A Serious Risk Strategic Tensions Still A Serious Risk Bottom Line: Japan's exposure to both China and EM ex-China makes it vulnerable to growth wobbles as China intensifies reforms. Meanwhile Japan's constitutional revisions and remilitarization could spark a spat with China. These are compelling reasons for policymakers to stay the course with loose monetary and fiscal policies. Investment Recommendations In the short run, we would suggest clients go long JPY/EUR. The euro is expensive relative to fair value and purchasing-power-parity models (Chart 20). And investor positioning is skewed heavily in favor of the euro versus the yen (Chart 21).18 Chart 20EUR/JPY Is Expensive EUR/JPY Is Expensive EUR/JPY Is Expensive Chart 21Skewed Positioning In EUR/JPY Skewed Positioning In EUR/JPY Skewed Positioning In EUR/JPY We are closing our long USD/JPY for a loss of 3.23%. In the long run, as long as global growth holds up, any yen rally is likely to be a countertrend one, as a stronger yen will exert deflationary pressures and reinforce persistent, easy policy. Japanese policymakers have little need to fear inflation; they will focus on nurturing the country's economic and strategic rebound. Therefore, investors need not worry about the BoJ pulling the rug out from under the equity and bond markets. While BCA's House View favors Japanese equities over the U.S., BCA Geopolitical Strategy's China view prevents us from sharing this conviction in 2018. We would favor U.S. equities, which are low-beta and poised for continued strong earnings growth due to tax cuts and growth. The big risk for Japanese equities comes if China's central government makes a policy mistake and "overcorrects," triggering a precipitous drop in Chinese imports. We put a 30% subjective probability to such a scenario given the difficulty of reforming the financial sector in a highly leveraged economy. The yen would rally on safe-haven flows and Japanese markets would sell off. Matt Gertken, Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy mattg@bcaresearch.com Mathieu Savary, Vice President Foreign Exchange Strategy mathieu@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Japan's Political Paradigm Shift: Investment Implications," dated December 21, 2012, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Please see BCA Foreign Exchange Strategy Weekly Report, "Yen: QQE Is Dead! Long Live YCC!" dated January 12, 2018, available at fes.bcaresearch.com. 3 See for example Haruhiko Kuroda, "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing and Economic Theory," speech at the University of Zurich, Bank of Japan, November 13, 2017, available at www.boj.or.jp. 4 Technically, Kuroda's term ends on April 8, 2018 but he can be reappointed by the prime minister for another five-year term. Please see "Experts say Haruhiko Kuroda likely to remain at BOJ helm despite failures," Japan Times, October 7, 2017, available at www.japantimes.co.jp. Both of Kuroda's deputies, Hiroshi Nakaso and Kikuo Iwata, as well as other possible successors (Masayoshi Amamiya, Etsuro Honda, and Takatoshi Ito) are dovish candidates likely to maintain continuity with his policies if at the BoJ helm. Nobuchika Mori is the only potential exception but it is still not clear that he would deviate from Abe's and Kuroda's framework if given the top job. 5 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy, "Strategic Outlook 2017: We Are All Geopolitical Strategists Now," dated December 14, 2016; and Special Report, "Japan: The Emperor's Act Of Grace," dated June 8, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 6 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Northeast Asia: Moonshine, Militarism, And Markets," dated May 24, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 Abe abandoned the 2020 budget target while campaigning in the general election of October 2017 and has stuck with his higher spending proposals. 8 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Monthly Report, "King Dollar: The Agent Of Righteous Retribution," dated October 12, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 9 Please see "Japan business lobby seconds call for 3% pay hikes," Nikkei Asian Review, January 17, 2018, available at asia.nikkei.com. 10 Abe is attempting to amend the Labor Standards Law. Please see Heizo Takenaka, "A prologue to work-style reforms," Japan Times, January 30, 2018, available at www.japantimes.co.jp. 11 Despite labor shortages, Japanese firms are using robots less often. Also, companies with high technology and robot usage are actually companies that tend to pay higher wages, contrary to popular belief. Please see BCA's The Bank Credit Analyst Special Report, "The Impact Of Robots On Inflation," dated January 25, 2018, available at bca.bcaresearch.com. 12 Please see BCA Global Investment Strategy, "Three Tantalizing Trades - Four Months On," dated January 19, 2018, available at gis.bcaresearch.com. 13 Abe reiterated his plans for more social spending, for instance on expanded child care support and free preschool education, in his policy speech ahead of the opening Diet session this year. Please see "Abe delivers policy speech," NHK, January 22, 2018, available at www3.nhk.or.jp. 14 Please see "Number of Foreign Workers in Japan at Record High," NHK, January 26, 2018, available at www3.nhk.or.jp. 15 Please see "Japan quietly accepting foreign workers -- just don't call it immigration," Japan Times, November 3, 2016, available at www.japantimes.co.jp 16 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Upside Risks In U.S., Downside Risks In China," dated January 17, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 17 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Does It Pay To Pivot To China?" dated July 5, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 18 For full discussion, see footnote 2 above. Geopolitical Calendar

Highlights The U.S.'s twin deficits do not explain the drop in the USD; Global growth is the biggest factor for the USD, and growth depends on China's economic reforms; The U.S. is turning more hawkish on China trade despite Beijing's reform-induced vulnerability; U.S. and Chinese political dynamics suggest upside risks in the former and downside in the latter; Go long DXY. Feature American policymakers scrambled to walk back Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's "weak dollar" comments last week. Investors were left to wonder why Mnuchin broke with the long-held official position of favoring a strong dollar. Was it a "shot across the bow" of China, warning Beijing that the U.S. would engage in currency manipulation if it was not given concessions on trade? Or was it an admission that the U.S. would run large "twin deficits" - a budget deficit and a current account deficit - going forward? We don't have a good explanation for what Mnuchin said in Davos.1 But we can say with some conviction that the "twin deficit" explanation, which has been brought up in almost every client conversation so far this year, is wrong. Chart 1Twin Deficits: Why The Panic? Twin Deficits: Why The Panic? Twin Deficits: Why The Panic? Chart 2Because The Narrative Is Scary Because The Narrative Is Scary Because The Narrative Is Scary First, who says that the U.S. is about to widen its twin deficit (Chart 1)? The concern arises periodically in the marketplace but is often grossly off the mark in predicting the path of deficits or the dollar (Chart 2). We expect the budget deficit to hold steady in 2018, if not contract. Why? Because the fiscal deficit almost always contracts in the eight quarters before a recession, barring, in some cases, one or two quarters just before the recession hits (Chart 3). Unless investors have a high-conviction view that a recession is afoot in the next two quarters, they should ignore the dire predictions about the U.S. budget deficit. Chart 3The Deficit Is Not A Problem... Yet The Deficit Is Not A Problem... Yet The Deficit Is Not A Problem... Yet Chart 4Bond Market Not Sniffing Out Any Twin Deficit Crisis Bond Market Not Sniffing Out Any Twin Deficit Crisis Bond Market Not Sniffing Out Any Twin Deficit Crisis If the risk to the U.S. economy is to the upside, as we believe due to the tax cuts and unleashing of animal spirits, then deficits will come down regardless of additional tax or spending policy.2 In the long term, yes, the budget deficit will almost certainly expand due to entitlement spending, the impact of automatic stabilizers during a recession, and the loss of revenue from tax cuts. But long-term deficit concerns are the purview of the bond market, not currency traders. So what is the bond market telling us? Chart 4 shows that the yield curve tends to steepen as the twin deficit widens; both tend to occur during and after recessions. Today, however, the curve continues to flatten. Another fixed-income market indicator that tends to track budget deficits is the 30-year swap spread, which falls during recessions as budget deficits expand. But today the swap spread is not falling, it is increasing and doing so at the fastest pace since the 2008 recession (Chart 5). This may be a sign of resurgent animal spirits as banks throw caution - and concerns over Obama-era overregulation - to the wind. Credit demand is rising in the economy, which should increase both the velocity of money and growth. Concerns over the widening fiscal deficit are not being reflected in this indicator. Finally, our currency strategist, Mathieu Savary, has pointed out that a widening twin deficit only impacts developed economies' currencies about 50% of the time over 12 month periods. In other words, expansion of the twin deficit predicts currency moves about as well as flipping a coin. What really matters is how central banks respond to the causes and economic effects of the twin deficits. Protectionism, on the other hand, ought to be bullish for the dollar.3 As such, a potential trade war between China and the U.S. should not be the reason for the dollar's deepening doldrums. And while we are generally open to alarmism on trade protectionism - due to the fact that President Trump has few constitutional or political constraints holding him back on this issue - there is still not enough evidence to say whether the Trump administration will impose across-the-board tariffs on China. (See next section.) Could dollar weakness, conversely, be the result of a Plaza Accord 2.0 orchestrated between Chinese and American policymakers to depreciate the greenback in order to avert the need for protectionist policies? We doubt it. First, the U.S. and China economic dialogue has faltered. Second, the dollar would not have declined following the Plaza Accord had the Fed not aggressively cut rates from 1984 to 1985 by 423 basis points (Chart 6). And the Fed is obviously not cutting rates today, it is hiking them. Chart 5No Sign Of Deficit Here No Sign Of Deficit Here No Sign Of Deficit Here Chart 6The Fed Is More Important Than Politics... The Fed Is More Important Than Politics... The Fed Is More Important Than Politics... So, what matters for the U.S. dollar? Higher domestic inflation would matter as it would incentivize the Fed to tighten more than the market expects. Even here, however, recent history warrants caution on this view. Between 2004 and 2006, the Fed tightened 440 basis points and yet the dollar declined 11% from the start of the tightening cycle to its end (Chart 7). This is because the rest of the world's growth outpaced U.S. growth, particularly that of emerging markets, which grew at an annual 19%. We therefore come full circle to the single biggest issue on our forecasting horizon: Chinese policy. China is the most important variable for the U.S. dollar at the moment as it can single-handedly tip the global growth balance back towards the U.S., given its expected contribution to global growth (Chart 8). Chart 7...But Not More Important Than Global Growth ...But Not More Important Than Global Growth ...But Not More Important Than Global Growth Chart 8China Really Matters For Global Growth "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) Our view is that Chinese policymakers are acting as an accelerant to BCA's House View that the Chinese economy will experience a benign slowdown. Risks are skewed towards the downside. We recently dedicated our monthly Crow's Nest Webcast solely to this issue and we highly encourage our clients to listen to it on replay.4 In today's weekly, we briefly assess where our Chinese view stands and then turn to U.S. politics. News Flash: Chimerica Has Been Dead Since 2012 Two critical aspects of our China view are coming together. The first is U.S. policy, which is becoming more aggressive after a year in which Trump showed restraint for the sake of North Korean negotiations.5 The second is China's renewed focus on domestic economic reforms.6 The "symbiotic" relationship between the U.S. and China is in decay, as we have argued since 2012.7 As China's economy grows, so grows its capacity for challenging the United States in the strategic sphere (Chart 9). Meanwhile the two economies have diverged markedly since U.S. households began to deleverage in 2008 (Chart 10). Chart 9China's Capabilities Are Growing China's Capabilities Are Growing China's Capabilities Are Growing Chart 10China No Longer Addicted To U.S. Demand China No Longer Addicted To U.S. Demand China No Longer Addicted To U.S. Demand The mainstream media is about to become more attuned to this reality now that the Trump administration has published a series of high-level reports declaring that U.S. strategy toward China is changing. Here are a few choice quotations: "China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea." (Department of Defense, National Defense Strategy, 2018) "Long-term strategic competitions with China and Russia are the principal priorities for the Department." (Department of Defense, National Defense Strategy, 2018) "[High-level bilateral dialogues] largely have been unsuccessful - not because of failures by U.S. policymakers, but because Chinese policymakers were not interested in moving toward a true market economy." (U.S. Trade Representative, 2017 Report to Congress On China's WTO Compliance, 2018) "The United States also will take all other steps necessary to rein in harmful state-led, mercantilist policies and practices pursued by China, even when they do not fall squarely within WTO disciplines." (U.S. Trade Representative, 2017 Report to Congress On China's WTO Compliance, 2018) "The United States ... is seeking fundamental changes to China's trade regime, including the overarching industrial policies that have continued to dominate China's state-led economy." (U.S. Trade Representative, 2017 Report to Congress On China's WTO Compliance, 2018) "China and Russia want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests. China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favor." (President Trump, National Security Strategy of the United States of America, 2017) We expect to find echoes of this tough rhetoric in Trump's State of the Union Address on January 30, which will air as we go to press. Already commentators have declared that the U.S. is entering a "post-engagement" phase in the U.S.-China relationship.8 The U.S. and China will continue to engage. What is important is the Trump administration's shift toward more aggressive economic statecraft. Trump's view, made amply clear on the campaign trail, and now officially U.S. policy, holds that China is a mercantilist as well as a revisionist power and that it has initiated a trade war against the U.S. Thus the real policy change lies not in naming China a "strategic competitor" antithetical to U.S. values, but in declaring that normal "WTO consistent" remedies are no longer sufficient and the U.S. will have to resort to "all other steps necessary." The question is whether the U.S., in adopting unilateral measures, will pursue trade remedies on an item-by-item basis, as it has done so far, or break out of the mold and levy broader tariffs to try to achieve "fundamental changes" as quoted above. Trump's recent tariffs on solar panels and washing machines adhered closely to U.S. institutional procedures and penalized U.S. ally South Korea as well as China: if this is the trajectory that the U.S. intends to take, then markets can breathe a sigh of relief.9 The basic trade data show that the U.S. has continued to expand imports from China despite past incidents of presidents slapping on tariffs (Chart 11). Chart 11China And U.S.: Ships Passing In The Night China And U.S.: Ships Passing In The Night China And U.S.: Ships Passing In The Night However, the U.S. is likely to draw a harder line than that. The same data also show that the U.S. is not gaining much access to the Chinese market over time, while China has greatly diminished its exposure both to exports and to U.S. trade as a whole. Furthermore, the Trump administration is accusing China of trying to gain superior technology from the U.S. in a way that jeopardizes its security and sovereignty in the pursuit of a better strategic position. This is said to include coercion and corruption of U.S. firms in China, favoring the manufacturing sector by squeezing out competition, preferring domestic-sourced goods over foreign goods, and jeopardizing U.S. companies' intellectual property and network security. The key grievances are forced technology transfer, the "Made in China 2025" industrial strategy, "indigenous innovation" rules, and the new Cyber-Security Law.10 A test case for the U.S.'s harder line will be the ongoing investigation into China's intellectual property theft, which is due by August but is expected to elicit action by Trump sooner. Trump has a range of actions he can take either within or without the WTO. Going outside the WTO would give him greater flexibility, for instance, to impose a "fine," as he called it, for the cumulative "big damages" of China's intellectual property theft - but it would also enable China to claim that the U.S. itself is violating WTO trade rules.11 How will China respond to this turn in U.S. policy? It will continue to focus on rebooting its economic reforms. Reform is both necessary for its own interests, as we have outlined in the past, and expedient in that it enables China to try to deflect and delay U.S. pressure.12 This is not to say that China will not retaliate to particular U.S. moves, but simply that it will prefer to minimize conflict unless and until the Trump administration demonstrates via broad and sweeping trade measures that Beijing has no choice but to engage in open trade war. China's recent declarations that it will accelerate economic reforms aimed at trade and investment openness - particularly in financial services but also more generally - are geared toward allaying Washington. Xi Jinping's right-hand economist, Liu He, who is a key figure, made this clear at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that China's reform and opening up this year would "exceed international expectations." Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang made a similar point late last year, saying that the "Made in China 2025" program would not discriminate against foreign or private firms.13 Simultaneously, leading technocrats are calling attention to China's vulnerability as it attempts delicate financial reforms. Guo Shuqing of the China Banking Regulatory Commission has warned of "black swan" or "gray rhino" events as he continues with his financial regulatory crackdown, and he has been echoed by the vice-secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission.14 These statements are prudent - as it is always risky for highly leveraged countries to tinker with financial tightening - and useful because Beijing wants to warn the U.S. against pushing too hard since it is both "making progress" and vulnerable to instability. We certainly expect the reforms to have a significant, adverse impact on China's economic growth this year. In the latest developments, the policy crackdown is spreading to local governments, where fiscal tightening could ensue (Chart 12). Local governments lack stable sources of revenue, have large hidden debts, face an intensifying debt repayment schedule over the next three years, and have recently begun to cancel infrastructure projects under central government scrutiny (in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and other provinces, and reportedly even in Xi's favored province of Zhejiang). Furthermore, the reforms have involved a crackdown on shadow lending that has sent non-bank credit into a steep decline (Chart 13). While some market estimates suggest that bank loans could grow by 13%-15% in 2018, such estimates cut against the policy grain. Assuming that non-bank credit does not grow any faster in 2018 than it did in 2017 (9.7%), China can afford to let new bank loans grow at 9.7% and still keep its total social financing (TSF) at its five-year annual average growth rate of 14.5%. Policymakers will not be able to soften their line easily, as several key players are newly appointed and must establish their credibility from the outset. Chart 12Local Government Finances Under Scrutiny Local Government Finances Under Scrutiny Local Government Finances Under Scrutiny Chart 13Shadow Bank Crackdown To Weigh On Credit Growth Shadow Bank Crackdown To Weigh On Credit Growth Shadow Bank Crackdown To Weigh On Credit Growth Our view is that Trump will harden the line despite China's promises both of deeper internal reforms and greater opening up. But the timing is impossible to predict. The real fireworks may be reserved until closer to the U.S. midterm election, as campaigning heats up in the fall. That would be the time for Trump to try to rally his voters by means of a clash of economic nationalisms with China. Beyond the top U.S. grievances cited above, we would highlight the U.S. approach toward China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Preferential policies for SOEs are a structural issue that the U.S. is now criticizing. At the party congress in October, President Xi Jinping pledged not only to reform the SOEs but also to make them bigger and stronger. Hence there is a potential collision course. The precise implementation of China's reforms could determine whether the U.S. pursues the issue further. China's State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has so far reaffirmed Xi's comments at the party congress but, in keeping with the subtlety of Xi's policies, has also suggested there may be room to intensify reforms. The combination of Trump's economic policies, and China's intensifying reforms, will result in the U.S. economy outperforming expectations relative to China while U.S. corporations will outperform their Chinese counterparts (Chart 14). China will experience higher volatility, both in general and in relation to the U.S., and Chinese companies that suffer from reforms will underperform U.S. companies that benefit most from tax cuts (Chart 15). This is ironic given the popular narrative that the U.S. is suffering from chaotic democratic politics while China's centralized authoritarian model reigns triumphant. Of course, we do think Xi has key capabilities to drive reforms further in his second term than in his first, so these U.S.-China divergences will continue for the next 6-to-12 months at least. China's slowdown and increase in equity volatility should create a policy response: more fiscal spending and credit expansion. The comparison of relative U.S. and Chinese credit impulses suggests that China extends more credit as relative volatility rises (Chart 16). Our view, however, is that China's credit impulse will continue disappointing this year as Beijing prioritizes reform over growth. The credit numbers in January are the next data set to watch, in addition to the aforementioned local government spending. Investors should brace for more uncertainty as the Lunar New Year approaches (Feb. 16). Chart 14U.S. Earnings Surprise Relative To China U.S. Earnings Surprise Relative To China U.S. Earnings Surprise Relative To China Chart 15Xi Adds Volatility Relative To Trump Bump Xi Adds Volatility Relative To Trump Bump Xi Adds Volatility Relative To Trump Bump Chart 16China's Credit Impulse Disappoints China's Credit Impulse Disappoints China's Credit Impulse Disappoints Bottom Line: The Trump administration has issued an ultimatum of sorts on trade. Yet China claims to be redoubling its efforts at reforming and opening up its economy - party to deflect the pressure. We are almost certain that Trump will take further punitive actions, but it is too soon to say when or if he will engage in sweeping measures that threaten to destabilize China and thus initiate a trade war. The political context heading into the U.S. midterm vote will be crucial. Is America Having A Macron Moment? It is unfortunate when one's forecast is challenged only weeks after it is conceived. But that appears to be happening to our view, articulated in late December, that investors should expect no significant legislation to come out of Congress following the passage of the tax cuts.15 Bad news for our forecast is perhaps good news for U.S. policy initiatives and the overall quality of U.S. governance. President Trump has softened his stance on immigration, stating that he would be willing to grant citizenship to roughly 1.8 million "Dreamers" - young adults who came to the U.S. as illegal immigrants.16 Clearing the immigration hurdle would mean that Congress can focus on passing a budget for FY2018 that would see both defense and discretionary spending levels significantly raised. It would also relegate the never-ending saga of the debt ceiling to the dustbin, at least for the duration of this political cycle. Trump also followed up his immigration proposal by sketching a $1.7 trillion infrastructure investment plan (albeit a vague one). Chart 17Bipartisanship = Steeper Bull Market? Bipartisanship = Steeper Bull Market? Bipartisanship = Steeper Bull Market? Could we be approaching a "Macron moment" in U.S. politics? A moment when the "silent majority" rises up and sends a message to politicians that it has had enough of polarizing extremes? Previous such moments have included President Reagan's collaboration with congressional Democrats and President Clinton's with Republicans, which underpinned that glorious stock market run between August 12, 1982 and March 24, 2000 (Chart 17). Both presidents passed significant economic and social reforms during that time. Chart 18Peak Partisanship? Peak Partisanship? Peak Partisanship? Chart 19Independents On The Rise Independents On The Rise Independents On The Rise Yes, polarization remains at extreme levels (Chart 18), but that could also mean that it is reaching its natural limits. Rather than dwell on the high levels of polarization, which are baked into the "expectations cake," we would point out that the percentage of Americans who identify as independents is now fast approaching the combined total who identify as either Republican or Democrat (Chart 19). Ominously for Republicans - who hold both the House and the Senate - midterm electoral sweeps have almost always occurred along with the share of independents crossing the 40% mark (Table 1). Table 1Sweep Elections Coincide With High Independent Affiliation "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) Meanwhile, President Trump's conciliatory tone on immigration was met with howls of protest from conservative activists. This is despite the fact that his proposal essentially exchanges leniency for Dreamers for considerably tougher immigration laws in general, which would align the U.S. with its developed market peers.17 Conservative activists are, however, massively out of step with the rest of America. Polls show that immigration is not high on the list of priorities for most Americans, and that most Americans continue to believe both that immigration is a positive and that immigration intake should remain at current levels (Chart 20). Chart 20Americans Are Neither Anti-Immigrant Nor All That Concerned About Immigration "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) "America Is Roaring Back!" (But Why Is King Dollar Whispering?) Our gut call that President Trump was itching to move to the political middle appears to be correct.18 Whether this becomes investment relevant will ultimately depend on whether the Democrats reciprocate. If Democrats go by data, they will. The government shutdown imbroglio has cost them a double-digit lead in the generic congressional ballot (Chart 21). As a political strategy, the shutdown was a miserable failure. Furthermore, the 2016 election stands as clear evidence that "outrage" does not work. Clinton picked up almost a million more voters in California than President Obama yet failed to beat his performance where it mattered: the Midwest. If Democrats continue to run on a "resistance" platform in order to satisfy their activist base, they will fail to win the House. Chart 21Government Shutdown An 'Own Goal' For Dems Government Shutdown An 'Own Goal' For Dems Government Shutdown An 'Own Goal' For Dems Ironically, the best strategy for Democrats ahead of the midterm election is to cooperate with Trump. The swelling ranks of independent voters will reward them if they do so. That same strategy, however, will paradoxically boost Trump's chances in 2020. Bottom Line: The market is, of course, ideologically nihilist. But a move to the middle - which benefits everyone involved except House Republicans - would be positive for stocks and the economy. Key bellwethers going forward are how Democrats react to Trump's immigration proposal and whether Trump moves to the middle on trade deals, starting with NAFTA, whose sixth round of negotiations just ended inconclusively (although not negatively) in Montreal. Investment Implications From the perspective of global asset allocation, the most important issue today is Chinese economic and regulatory policy. Yes, U.S. inflation is important, but whether it moves the dollar - and therefore commodities and EM assets - will depend on the pace of the current Chinese slowdown. China is therefore the most "diagnostic variable" in 2018. If our House View that inflation is coming back in the U.S. is right and our Geopolitical Strategy view that risks to growth in China are to the downside is also right, then investors should go long the U.S. dollar and underweight EM and EM-leveraged assets. If, on the other hand, we are wrong, then investors should load up with EM risk assets to the hilt right now. It is that simple. For what it is worth, we are putting our moderate-conviction view to the test and opening a long DXY trade. Marko Papic, Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist marko@bcaresearch.com Matt Gertken, Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy mattg@bcaresearch.com Jesse Anak Kuri, Research Analyst jesse.kuri@bcaresearch.com 1 But on a completely unrelated note we would like to remind our clients that, over the past 24 months, Mr. Mnuchin was the executive producer of How to Be Single, Midnight Special, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Keanu, The Conjuring 2, Central Intelligence, The Legend of Tarzan, Lights Out, Suicide Squad, Sully, Storks, The Accountant, Rules Don't Apply, The Lego Batman Movie, Fist Fight, CHiPs, Going in Style, Unforgettable, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Wonder Woman, The House, Annabelle: Creation, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and The Disaster Artist. 2 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Upside Risks In U.S., Downside Risks In China," dated January 17, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 3 Please see BCA Global Investment Strategy Special Report, "U.S. Border Adjustment Tax: A Potential Monster Issue For 2017," dated January 20, 2017, and Weekly Reports, "Trump and Trade," December 9, 2016, and "The Elusive Gains From Globalization," dated November 25, 2016, available at gis.bcaresearch.com. 4 Please see BCA Research Webcasts, Geopolitical Strategy Crow's Nest, "China: How Is Our View Working Out?" dated January 25, 2018. 5 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "BCA Geopolitical Strategy 2017 Report Card," dated December 20, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 6 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Looking Beyond The Party Congress," dated July 19, 2017, and "Three Questions For 2018," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Power And Politics In East Asia: Cold War 2.0?" dated September 25, 2012, "Sino-American Conflict: More Likely Than You Think," dated October 4, 2013, and "Sino-American Conflict: More Likely Than You Think, Part II," dated November 6, 2015, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 8 Please see Daniel H. Rosen, "A Post-Engagement US-China Relationship," Rhodium Group, January 19, 2018, available at rhg.com. 9 In fact, in the case of washing machines, the U.S.-based GE Appliances stands to gain from the tariff and has been owned by China's Haier Electronics Group since 2016. 10 Several clients have asked us about China's Cyber-Security Law, which has been in the process of implementation since July 2017 and will go fully into effect by the end of 2018. The law is meant to give the Chinese government the option of exercising control over all networks in the country. State security agencies are deeply involved in its enforcement and oversight. Foreign business interests fear that the law's new obligations will be onerous and potentially damaging - including potential violations of corporate security over intellectual property, source code, supply chain details, and data storage and transmission. 11 Please see Stephen E. Becker, Nancy Fischer, and Sahar Hafeez, "Update on US Investigation of China's IP Practices," Lexology, January 8, 2018, available at www.lexology.com. 12 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "How To Read Xi Jinping's Party Congress Speech," dated October 18, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 13 Wang has served as the top interlocutor with the U.S. in the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue. 14 Please see "China eyes black swans, gray rhinos as 2018 growth seen slowing to 6.5-6.8 percent: media," Reuters, January 28, 2018, available at www.reuters.com. "Gray rhinos," coined by author Michele Wucker, refer to high-probability, high-impact risks, whereas the proverbial "black swan" is a low-probability, high-impact risk. These terms have both been making the rounds more frequently in Chinese policymaking circles since last year. 15 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Three Questions For 2018," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 16 What is fascinating about Trump's statement is that he cited the 1.8 million figure. There are actually only about 800,000 people who officially participated in President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But estimates suggest that another 1,000,000 young adults are in the U.S. illegally, yet did not register. Trump has come under criticism from conservative, anti-immigration groups for essentially moving the goalposts beyond what even the Democrats had wanted. 17 Canada, for example, has a purely merit-based immigration system that is considerably tough on family reunification. (Reunification has even been suspended because of a large backlog.) In Europe, family reunification laws are extremely strict. Even spouses are not automatically allowed residency status in several major European countries unless they fulfill various conditions. 18 Please see footnote 2 above.

Highlights The U.S. government shutdown showed that the path of least resistance is for more fiscal spending; President Trump is turning to trade and foreign policy amid a lack of popularity at home; North Korean diplomacy is on track, but U.S.-China relations and Taiwan are potential black swans; Iran and the U.S. are playing a risky double game that will add geopolitical risk premium to oil; NAFTA will be a bellwether for Trump's future actions on issues that carry greater constraints, like Iran and China; Book profits on French vs German industrials and China volatility; close U.S. curve steepener and long PHP/TWD. Feature This weekend, investors woke up to the nineteenth government shutdown since 1976, a product of "grand standing" on both sides of the aisle. Our low-conviction view, which we elucidated last week, is that President Donald Trump will be forced to migrate to the middle on policy as the midterm election approaches.1 Chart 1Trump Hitting (And Building!) A Wall Watching Five Risks Watching Five Risks Despite a roaring stock market, strong economic fundamentals, and decade-low unemployment, President Trump's popularity continues to flounder. There is now even a perceptible decline in his support among GOP voters. Key problems for Trump have been the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the intensification of the Mueller investigation (Chart 1). We suspect that he will try to preempt an electoral disaster in November by means of bipartisan deal-making and more orthodox policies. The government shutdown, although not entirely unexpected, undermined the view that President Trump is thinking about moderating his stance. That said, the Democrats are as much, if not more, to blame. With the Republicans in charge of Congress and the White House, it is clear that the Democrats thought that voters would ultimately see the shutdown as the GOP's fault. This was a dangerous assumption given that current polling suggests the Democrats have more to lose. One positive about the short-lived imbroglio is that it was the first government shutdown in twenty years that had little to do with government spending, whether the appropriations bill explicitly or entitlements. While immigration is an intractable issue, the disagreement between Republicans and Democrats is not about dollars. This is good news for the markets as it means that more spending will likely be necessary to grease the wheels of compromise. Our mantra continues to be that the political path of least resistance will lead towards profligacy. While the media's focus is on domestic politics, the real risks remain in the international arena. The two are connected. As political science theory teaches us, policymakers often play "two-level games," with the domestic arena influencing what is possible in the international one. As Donald Trump loses political capital on the domestic front, his options for affecting policy will become constrained. However, the U.S. constitution places almost no constraints on the president when it comes to foreign policy. To this arena we turn, starting with China-U.S. relations and the other potential risks in Asia (the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan). We also briefly turn to Iran and NAFTA. What binds all these risks is that it is essentially up to President Trump whether they become market-relevant or not. Korean Diplomacy Is On Track In mid-September North Korean tensions peaked (Chart 2).2 Leader Kim Jong Un chose to demonstrate known missile capabilities rather than escalate the crisis. Chart 2Markets Have Called Kim's Bluff Markets Have Called Kim's Bluff Markets Have Called Kim's Bluff Chart 3North Korea Is Running Out Of Cash North Korea Is Running Out Of Cash North Korea Is Running Out Of Cash We expected this choice given Pyongyang's considerable military constraints. Kim is a rational actor following his father Kim Jong Il's nuclear negotiations playbook.3 Just as brinkmanship reached new highs, Kim Jong Un declared victory and offered to play nice. Specifically, he launched his most advanced missile yet on November 28 (the Hwasong-15) and immediately thereafter North Korean state media declared that North Korea has "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force," complete with a fireworks celebration in Pyongyang.4 Kim confirmed this message personally on January 1 while offering an olive branch to South Korea for the New Year. Apparently, then, Kim is responsive to the United States' threats of devastating military retaliation against any attack. Kim is also responsive to the fact that China's President Xi Jinping has joined the U.S. coalition imposing sanctions on the North (Chart 3), squeezing North Korea's economy. The deep drop in exports to China suggests that the North will run into foreign-exchange problems if it does not adjust its posture - not to mention shortages of goods like fuel that China is gradually cutting off (Chart 4). In short, the U.S. established a credible military threat in 2017, just as it did with Iran in 2012 (Chart 5). China responded to the U.S. and established a credible economic threat of its own. Kim has de-escalated. Kim said in his New Year declaration that he would only use his nuclear deterrent if the U.S. committed an act of aggression. Rhetoric about destroying American cities is gone. Meanwhile Kim has engaged South Korea in direct negotiations, with military-to-military talks possibly to follow, and both sides will make a display of friendship at the Olympic Games in South Korea in February. Chart 4China Is Enforcing Sanctions China Is Enforcing Sanctions China Is Enforcing Sanctions Chart 5Credible Threat Cycle: North Korea Mirrors Iran Watching Five Risks Watching Five Risks While our view that diplomacy will reduce tensions is on track, we caution that the underlying disagreement is driven by North Korea's weapon capabilities and remains unresolved. The North Korean issue is not a red herring and the diplomatic route may continue to be bumpy from time to time.5 Markets could still be rattled by surprise North Korean provocations. Nevertheless, we do not expect a replay of the 2017 level of "fire and fury" that caused the U.S. 10-year treasury yield to drop from 2.31% to 2.05% between June and September 2017. If the North should jerk back toward a belligerent posture and decisively throw away this opportunity for diplomacy, then we will watch closely to determine whether its provocations truly alter the status quo and whether the U.S. shows any sign of greater willingness to respond with force. Otherwise we will simply monitor the diplomatic talks and watch for any signs of internal stress in North Korea as global sanctions tighten.6 Bottom Line: Korean risks remain market-relevant as the crisis is not resolved and talks are just beginning. Nevertheless, diplomacy is taking shape. We remain long the Korean two-year government bond versus the ten-year on the back of global trends and continued de-escalation. China-U.S. Relations May Sour Anyway Over the past year we have warned clients that U.S.-China tensions are the fundamental source of geopolitical risk globally and in Asia Pacific; that North Korea is a derivative of this fact; and that China's cooperation in policing North Korea would only temporarily dissuade the Trump administration from imposing punitive measures on China over trade. Despite China's assistance with North Korea, Trump will be driven by domestic American politics to slap tariffs on China in addition to those levied on January 22.7 First, Trump is committed to an "America First" trade policy and to economic nationalist voters. Thus he may need to show more muscle against China ahead of the midterm elections. This is particularly true for the key rust-belt states that handed him the election in 2016, where four Democratic senators' seats are in competition in November (not to mention nine other senate seats that could be swayed for similar reasons) (Chart 6). It is politically embarrassing to Trump that China racked up its largest trade surplus ever with the U.S. in his first year in office and is on track to continue racking up surpluses (Chart 7). While Beijing has vowed to open up market access and import more goods and services, these promises have yet to impress (Chart 8). Chart 6Trump's Base Expects Protectionism Trump's Base Expects Protectionism Trump's Base Expects Protectionism Chart 7China's Exports To U.S. Are Growing... China's Exports To U.S. Are Growing... China's Exports To U.S. Are Growing... Administrative rulings on several trade disputes early this year will give Trump ample opportunity to take additional trade action against China. The critical question, however, is whether Trump will continue to focus on item-by-item trade remedies (perhaps at an accelerated pace), or whether he goes beyond previous administrations and demands that China make progress on structural and systemic issues. The latter is more politically difficult and would have greater macro consequences. The U.S. has recently suggested that it made a mistake by bringing China into the WTO. This comes after the December WTO meeting in which the administration was able to secure a joint statement with Japan and Europe that increased the pressure on China.8 At the same time, Trump is weighing a significant decision (due by August, but possible any day now) on China's alleged systemic intellectual property theft, which Trump says is likely to require a "fine" (penalty). And comments by White House officials suggest that the administration may be going after China's promotion of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as well as forced technology transfers (Chart 9).9 These are structural demands on China that will create much bigger frictions than tariffs on a few sub-sectors. Chart 8...While Imports Remain Tepid ...While Imports Remain Tepid ...While Imports Remain Tepid Chart 9Foreign Firms Forced To Transfer Tech Foreign Firms Forced To Transfer Tech Foreign Firms Forced To Transfer Tech Second, assuming that the U.S. and international community reach some kind of deal to reduce Korean tensions over the next six-to-eighteen months - for instance, a missile-test moratorium and corresponding easing of sanctions. It is likely still to be a complicated and ugly deal, as Pyongyang has no intention of giving up its nuclear and missile capabilities. The U.S. will have to make unpopular compromises with a rogue regime, comparable to the Iranian nuclear deal of 2015. The deal will leave a bitter taste in Trump's mouth and the administration will likely blame China for failing to prevent the North from achieving its nuclear status. It will rotate to address other long-standing disagreements with China, and may well look for compensation for Korea by taking a harder line on trade. Bottom Line: Korean diplomacy may delay or soften Trump's trade policies but cannot change his domestic political calculus. The Trump administration is more, not less, likely to impose further punitive trade measures on China as the midterm election draws near. We expect Chinese equity volatility to remain high. We are closing our recommendation to go long the CBOE China ETF Volatility Index, which has appreciated by 26.5%. This is not an investable index but an indicator of volatility in ETFs. A Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis? The rumor is going around that China and Taiwan are on the verge of a "Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis." Clients all over the world - from Hong Kong to San Francisco to Toronto - are asking us about cross-strait tensions and the risk of war. As we go to press, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has just publicly acknowledged that war is possible. Taiwan could indeed be a geopolitical "black swan." It was one of our top five black swans for 2016,10 and several extraordinary events that year suggested that our concerns are warranted: China cut off all communication with the island; the Taiwanese navy accidentally fired a missile towards the mainland on the Communist Party's birthday; and a U.S. president-elect spoke directly with a Taiwanese president for the first time since 1979, creating an uproar in Beijing.11 Today, in the wake of Xi Jinping's concentration of power at the nineteenth National Party Congress,12 and Beijing's heavy-handed crackdown on Hong Kong throughout 2017,13 there is renewed concern that China is about to stage a major intervention to rein in Taiwan. There is even talk that China could be preparing to mount a surprise attack.14 The rumors are arising from a confluence of events. On the mainland side, Xi is personally powerful and has made it a priority to lead China into a "New Era" of greater Chinese influence globally. This means that a decision to take bolder action on Taiwan could come from individual whim rather than a collective decision within the party (which would tend to maintain the status quo). Xi has also taken personal control of the military through promotions, and reasserted that the "party controls the gun," making it less likely that he would meet institutional resistance in any major foreign policy initiative. Finally, Xi has hardened Communist Party policies toward Taiwan, reflected in increased military drills, controversial new air traffic routes, and tougher language in the five-year policy blueprint that he presented to the party congress. On the Taiwanese side, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is the party that leans toward independence from the mainland, dominates the country's politics. The DPP not only won the presidency but also won legislative control for the first time in the January 2016 election.15 The DPP is also the leading party on lower levels of government. And young Taiwanese people increasingly identify as exclusively Taiwanese.16 While President Tsai has been relatively pragmatic so far, her party has fewer domestic political constraints than in the past - leaving room for the party's more radical side to have more influence or for Tsai to overreach. Internationally, Tsai has allies in Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan - both nationalists who favor Taiwan and harbor deep suspicions about the reviving communism emanating from Beijing. Hence we still see Taiwan as a potential black swan event in the coming years. However, we would put a near 0% subjective probability on the likelihood that China will spring a massive surprise attack in the near future. Why? Xi is not yet breaking the status quo: Xi has not yet shown himself to be a reckless revisionist. China's foreign policy assertiveness is a gradual process that began in the mid-2000s - it traces the country's growing economic importance and need for supply-line security (Chart 10). Xi has trod carefully in both the East and South China Seas, and both of these strategic thrusts are connected with China's security vis-à-vis Taiwan, as well as vis-à-vis the U.S. and Japan. There is no reason to think that China is ready to launch a multi-front attack against the combined forces of the U.S., Taiwan, Japan, and the rest of the American alliance system. North Korea's new missile capabilities do not tip the scales in China's favor either. Incidentally, even Xi's tougher rhetoric at the party congress echoed the 2005 "Anti-Secession" law, so that more evidence would be needed to conclude that a drastic policy shift is under way.17 China may even want to avoid antagonizing the Taiwanese ahead of local elections later this year. Trump is not yet breaking the status quo: Trump's Asia policy has been consistent with that of previous administrations.18 And Trump's moves to assure Taiwan of U.S. commitment to its defense are status quo. After all, the Democratic Party is historically more enthusiastic about supplying Taiwan with arms (Chart 11). Trump has assured Xi Jinping he will adhere to the "One China" policy; and it is rarely observed that Trump's controversial phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai followed the first-ever tête-à-tête between a Chinese president and his Taiwanese counterpart.19 As long as Trump upholds the norm, the U.S. remains committed to Taiwan's defense yet will refuse to let Taiwan lock it into excessive tensions with China. This policy actually reduces the probability of a miscalculation by Beijing or Taipei. By contrast, the probability would rise if China and Taiwan perceived that the U.S. was withdrawing from its commitments, as Taiwan might want to suck the U.S. back in, or China might see Taiwan as vulnerable. Incidentally, if the Trump administration is not rushing into conflict over Taiwan, then Japan's Abe administration certainly is not. Tsai is not yet breaking the status quo: President Tsai has so far played a pragmatic role. While she is dissatisfied with the "1992 Consensus," which holds that there is only "One China" but two different interpretations of it, she has not rejected the status quo, and she has not implied that Taiwan should be its own state (either of which would cause a huge reaction from the mainland). And there is no serious prospect of a popular independence referendum ("Twexit"?) on the horizon, which would assuredly prompt Beijing to aggressive measures. Chart 10China's Assertiveness Grows With Trade China's Assertiveness Grows With Trade China's Assertiveness Grows With Trade Chart 11Trump Has Not Changed Status Quo Trump Has Not Changed Status Quo Trump Has Not Changed Status Quo In order for us to increase the probability of a Taiwanese war, we would have to see one of these three players start behaving in a way that truly violates the status quo that has prevailed since the U.S. and China normalized relations in 1979. The real risk for Taiwan comes if the U.S. and China fail to arrest the secular decline in relations that began in the mid-2000s. A serious misunderstanding between these two would have a range of global repercussions, and could lead to miscalculation over Taiwan. Unfortunately, a miscalculation is conceivable within Trump's and Tsai's terms, which last until 2020. Consider the following scenario as an example. The U.S. is currently demanding that China assist with the North Korean problem, and may believe that it can compensate China by delaying any punitive trade measures. However, China may be expecting something else - it may be expecting the U.S. to downgrade relations with Taiwan. (In other words, China says, we diminish the North Korean threat to the U.S. mainland, you diminish the Taiwanese threat to the Chinese mainland.) Instead of giving China what it wants, the U.S. may provide Taiwan with new weapon capabilities in response to China's militarization of the South China Sea. In this way, U.S.-China competition could shift to the Taiwan Strait in the aftermath of any Korean settlement. In the meantime, we see Taiwan as vulnerable to China's discrete economic sanctions, which China has not hesitated to use in this or other diplomatic spats (Chart 12).20 Chart 12Mainland Tourists Punish Rebel Taiwan Mainland Tourists Punish Rebel Taiwan Mainland Tourists Punish Rebel Taiwan Bottom Line: What is clear to us is that U.S.-China tensions continue to grow and Taiwan could become more frightened, or more emboldened, in the "security dilemma" between them. But until we see signs that any of the relevant powers are actively attempting to break the status quo, we see war as a distant prospect. More likely, today's robust trade between China and Taiwan could suffer a hit due to politics, and tit-for-tat cross-strait sanctions could be imposed. We are closing our tactical trade of long Philippine peso / short Taiwanese dollar for a loss of 5%. This was a speculative play on the divergence in diplomatic relations with China. Taiwan has allowed its currency to rise to avoid antagonizing President Trump, while China and Taiwan have so far avoided the diplomatic crisis that we expect eventually to occur, as outlined above. Iran: Could America Pivot Back To The Middle East? BCA's Geopolitical Strategy correctly forecast the U.S.-Iran détente two years before the nuclear deal was agreed in the summer of 2015.21 At the heart of this call was our read of global forces, namely the paradigm shift in the global distribution of power away from American hegemony towards multipolarity (Chart 13). As the U.S. pivoted its geopolitical focus towards China, Iran became a thorn in its side, forcing it to maintain considerable presence in the Middle East. Without a formal détente with Iran - of which the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the fulcrum - such a pivot to Asia would be extremely difficult. On January 12, President Trump imperiled our forecast by threatening not to waive sanctions against Iran the next time they come due (May 12).22 To avoid that fate, President Trump wants to see three major changes to the JCPOA: An indefinite extension of limits on Iran's uranium enrichment; Immediate access for inspectors to all nuclear sites; Adding new provisions to limit development of ballistic missiles. These additions are likely to kill the deal, although Trump appears to have directed his comments to the European signatories only. This could potentially create a loophole in the crisis, by allowing Europe to agree to new thresholds for re-imposing sanctions outside of the deal's framework. Pressure from the U.S. president comes at a delicate time for Iran. Domestic unrest has been ongoing since December 28. Although protests have largely fizzled out, they have reopened the rift between the clerical regime, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and moderate President Hassan Rouhani. In a surprising statement, President Rouhani said, "it would be a misrepresentation and also an insult to Iranian people to say they only had economic demands ... people had economic, political, and social demands." He went on to say that "We cannot pick a lifestyle and tell two generations after us to live like that ... The views of the young generation about life and the world is different than ours." We agree with President Rouhani. First, 49% of Iran's population is under the age of 30 (Chart 14). Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader and the twelve members of the "Guardian Council" - which has the power to veto parliamentary legislation and to vet presidential candidates - have an average age of 73.23 As with the 2009 Green Revolution, which was brutally repressed, Iran's demographics provide the kindling for a potential regime change. Chart 13American Hegemony Ended,##br## Global Multipolarity Ascending American Hegemony Ended, Global Multipolarity Ascending American Hegemony Ended, Global Multipolarity Ascending Chart 14Iran's Youth:##br## A National Security Risk Iran's Youth: A National Security Risk Iran's Youth: A National Security Risk Second, Iran's economy is clearly not the main reason for the angst. While unemployment is elevated at 12%, it is only slightly above its two-decade average. Meanwhile, inflation is well below its average, with real GDP growth at 5.8% by the end of 2016 (Chart 15). Considering that inflation peaked at 44%, and real GDP growth bottomed at -16% during the most severe sanctions, the current situation is not dire. What has irked the population is that while the private sector suffered throughout the sanctions ordeal, government spending remained elevated (Chart 16). This is not merely because of automatic stabilizers amidst a deep recession. Instead, Iran has elevated its military spending as new geopolitical opportunities presented themselves in the region (Chart 17). It currently spends more on its military as a percent of GDP than any peer in the region (save for Saudi Arabia, its chief rival). It is openly engaged in military conflict in both Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, while it continues to support allies militarily, economically, and diplomatically across the region, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon. Chart 15Economic Situation Poor But Not Dire Economic Situation Poor But Not Dire Economic Situation Poor But Not Dire Chart 16Government Felt No Pain During Sanctions Government Felt No Pain During Sanctions Government Felt No Pain During Sanctions Chart 17Iran Overspends On Military Iran Overspends On Military Iran Overspends On Military Third, Chart 18 shows that Iran is becoming "dangerously wealthy." Both the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the 2009 Green Revolution occurred at, or near, the peak of Iran's wealth. The 25 years preceding each event saw the country's GDP per capita triple and double, respectively. Chart 18Wealth Is Also A National Security Risk Wealth Is Also A National Security Risk Wealth Is Also A National Security Risk Political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel have empirically shown that wealth changes people's basic values and beliefs, from political and economic beliefs to religion and sexual mores.24 This is the process of modernization. Economic development gives rise to cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and even democracy likely. Iran has essentially come full circle since 1979. We suspect that the conservative hardliners in the regime understand the revolutionary context well. After all, they were themselves in their 30s when they rebelled against the old corrupt regime. As such, they will welcome President Trump's pressure as it gives them a raison d'être and an opportunity to undermine the moderate President Rouhani who staked his presidency on the success of the nuclear deal. The risk in this scenario is that the domestic arena of the ongoing "two-level game" will prevent both the U.S. and Iran from backing away from a confrontation. Iranian hardliners, who control part of the armed forces, could lash out in the Persian Gulf, either by rhetorically threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz - as they did repeatedly in 2011 - or by boarding foreign vessels in international waters.25 Geopolitical tensions would therefore serve to undermine President Rouhani's embrace of diplomacy and to de-legitimize any further protests, which would be deemed treasonous. For Trump, a belligerent Iranian response to his pressure would in turn legitimize his suspicion of the nuclear deal. What about the global constraints of multipolarity that compelled the U.S. to seek a détente with Iran in order to pivot to Asia? They remain in place. As such, President Trump's simultaneous pressure on Iran and China runs counter to U.S. strategy, given its limited material resources and diplomatic bandwidth. It is therefore unsustainable. What we cannot forecast, however, is whether the White House will realize this before or after it commits the U.S. to a serious confrontation. Bottom Line: Domestic political calculus in both Iran and the U.S. make further Tehran-Washington tensions likely. The two countries are playing a dangerous two-level game that could spiral out of control in the Middle East. For the time being, however, we expect merely a minor geopolitical risk premium to seep into the energy markets, supporting our bullish BCA House View on oil prices. NAFTA: Of Global Relevance On a recent client trip through Toronto and Ottawa we were unsurprisingly asked a lot of questions regarding the fate of NAFTA. The deal is not just of importance to Canada but to the world. It is a bellwether for our low-conviction view that President Trump is going to moderate to the middle on policy issues ahead of the midterm elections. We encourage clients to read our November Special Report titled "NAFTA - Populism Vs. Pluto-Populism."26 In it, we cautioned clients that the probability of NAFTA being abrogated by Trump is around 50%. Why so high? Because there are few constraints: Economic: The U.S. economy has been largely unaffected by NAFTA (Chart 19) and would likely experience no disruption if Trump abrogated the deal and began negotiations on bilateral trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. Political: Investors and the media are overstating the importance of the Midwest automotive and agricultural sectors to Trump's base. Trump's Midwest voters knew well his view on NAFTA when they voted for him. In fact, they voted for him because of his NAFTA view. Investors have to realize that Americans do not support unbridled free trade (Chart 20). Constitutional/Legal: There is an argument that Congress could stop President Trump from withdrawing from NAFTA, but the only way to do so would be to nullify his executive orders or legislate a law that prevents the president from withdrawing. However, given the point from above, Congress is afraid to go against the median voter. The immediate implications for investors are that both the CAD and MXN could face downside pressure following the Montreal round of negotiations ending January 29. Both fell by 1.2% and 1.9% respectively in the week of trading following the third round of negotiations in September (Chart 21). Chart 19U.S. Economy:##br## Largely Unaffected By NAFTA U.S. Economy: Largely Unaffected By NAFTA U.S. Economy: Largely Unaffected By NAFTA Chart 20America Belongs To##br## The Anti-Globalization Bloc Watching Five Risks Watching Five Risks Chart 21NAFTA Negotiations##br## Are FX-Relevant NAFTA Negotiations Are FX-Relevant NAFTA Negotiations Are FX-Relevant More broadly, NAFTA is an important bellwether for the direction of Trump's policy. He has practically no constraints to abrogating the deal. If his intention is to renegotiate two separate deals - or simply reactivate the 1988 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement - then it makes sense for him to end NAFTA and score political points at home. As such, if he does not, it will indicate that the White House is not truly populist but has been captured by the Republican establishment. Bottom Line: If President Trump does not abrogate NAFTA, which comes with few constraints, then he has clearly decided to throw his lot in with the U.S. establishment, which has consistently been more pro-trade than the American voter. This would be highly bullish for investors as it would suggest that the (geo)political risk premium would dissipate going forward. In fact, the decision on NAFTA could be a broad indicator for future decisions on trade relations with China, Iranian sanctions, and policy writ large. For if Trump sides with the establishment on an issue with minimal constraints, then he is more likely to do so on issues with greater constraints. This month, we are closing our 2/30 curve steepener recommendation, which is down 90bps since inception. The two alternative ways we have played rising U.S. growth and inflation prospects - shorting the 10-year Treasury vs. the Bunds and shorting the Fed Funds December 2018 futures - are in the money, 27bps and 46bs respectively. We are keeping both open for now. In addition, we are closing our long French industrial equities relative to German industrials for a gain of 10.26%. Marko Papic, Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist marko@bcaresearch.com Matt Gertken, Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy mattg@bcaresearch.com Jesse Anak Kuri, Research Analyst jesse.kuri@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Upside Risks In U.S., Downside Risks In China," dated January 17, 2018, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Weekly Report, "Can Equities And Bonds Continue To Rally?" dated September 20, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 3 The playbook is really Nikita Khruschev's. 4 Please see "NK celebrates completion of nuke arsenal with fireworks," The Korea Herald, December 2, 2017, available at www.koreaherald.com. 5 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "North Korea: Beyond Satire," dated April 19, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 6 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Five Black Swans In 2018," dated December 6, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 Trump decided to impose tariffs on solar panels and washing machine, mostly affecting China and South Korea, on January 22. On steel and aluminum, Trump has until late April to decide, i.e. 90 days after reports from the Commerce Department due Jan. 15 and Jan. 22. Please see Andrew Restuccia and Doug Palmer, "White House preparing for trade crackdown," Politico, dated January 7, 2018, available at www.politico.com. 8 The U.S. Trade Representative's latest edition of an annual report to Congress over China's compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments declares that the U.S. "erred in supporting China's entry into the WTO on terms that have proven to be ineffective in securing China's embrace of an open, market-oriented trade regime." Please see "Joint Statement by the United States, European Union and Japan at MC11," December 2017, and "USTR Releases Annual Reports on China's and Russia's WTO Compliance," dated January 2018, available at ustr.gov. 9 Please see Lesley Wroughton, "Trump administration says U.S. mistakenly backed China WTO accession in 2001," Reuters, January 19, 2018, available at www.reuters.com. 10 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Scared Yet? Five Black Swans For 2016," dated February 10, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 11 Please see "China cuts communication with Taiwan," Al Jazeera, June 25, 2016, available at www.aljazeera.com; "Taiwan mistakenly fires supersonic missile killing one," BBC, July 1, 2016, available at www.bbc.com; Mark Landler and David E. Sanger, "Trump Speaks With Taiwan's Leader, An Affront To China," New York Times, December 2, 2016, available at www.nytimes.com. 12 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Party Congress Ends ... So What?" dated November 1, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 13 Please see "U.S.-China: From Rivalry To Proxy Wars" in BCA Geopolitical Strategy, "Strategic Outlook 2017: We Are All Geopolitical Strategists Now," dated December 14, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 14 Xi Jinping is rumored to have told Communist Party leaders in 2012 that the country would invade Taiwan by 2020. Please see Ian Easton, The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan's Defense and American Strategy in Asia (Project 2049 Institute, 2017). 15 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Taiwan's Election: How Dire Will The Straits Get?" dated January 13, 2016, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 16 National Chengchi University's long-running data series on Taiwanese identity shows that 58% of Taiwanese people identify as Taiwanese, and 70% under the age of 40. However, 77.5% of twenty-year olds also support the political status quo, i.e. do not seek political independence. Please see Marie-Alice McLean-Dreyfus, "Taiwan: Is there a political generation gap?" dated June 9, 2017, available at lowyinstitute.org. 17 Please see Richard C. Bush, "What Xi Jinping Said About Taiwan At The 19th Party Congress," Brookings Institution, October 19, 2017, available at www.brookings.edu. 18 Even the North Korea threat portfolio was bequeathed to him from former President Barack Obama, and it is being managed largely by the Pentagon and navy. 19 In other words, the incoming Trump administration implied that if China's leader Xi Jinping can speak directly to Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou, then U.S. President Donald Trump can speak to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. This is a sign that alliances are alive and well, and that there are tensions, but it is not a harbinger of war. 20 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Does It Pay To Pivot To China?" dated July 5, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 21 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Out Of The Vault: Explaining The U.S.-Iran Détente," dated July 15, 2015, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 22 The JCPOA did not actually legislate the removal of sanctions against Iran as the Obama administration was unable to get the Republican-controlled Senate to agree. Instead, the president has to use his executive authority to continue waiving sanctions against Iran. 23 That is only two years away from the average life expectancy in Iran. 24 Please see Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 25 Iranian military personnel - almost always the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards - seized British Royal Navy personnel in 2007 and U.S. Navy personnel in 2016. 26 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "NAFTA - Populism Vs. Pluto-Populism," dated November 10, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com.

Highlights The "Pocketbook Voter Theory" says that voters will reward politicians who deliver economic success; Nevertheless, congressional Republicans face significant headwinds in the mid-term elections in November; The popularity of the GOP tax cuts, especially among independent voters, bears constant monitoring this year; Beyond 2018, voters will face persistent inequality and demand policies that provide sustainable income gains; Trade protectionism and redistribution will be on the bill in the 2020 elections. Feature There is little debate in the investment community that politics matters more today than it did in the past. But most investors are still unsure about how to assess political risk - both to the upside and downside. The Geopolitical Strategy team has been providing a framework for analysis and applying political science concepts since its inception in May 2012. This report introduces an important idea that has been guiding our analysis over the years: the Pocketbook Voter (PBV) theory. The PBV theory rests on the important observation that in politics, voters are price makers and policymakers are price takers. This makes understanding voter preferences fundamental for forecasting policy outcomes. This is particularly important today because the combination of declining potential growth rates and elevated debt levels is a recipe for continued heightened policy uncertainty (Chart 1). Over the coming years, voters will continue to demand legislation that attempts to overcome the absence of sustainable and satisfactory gains in household income. More consequentially, the slow growth of the income pie may push voters toward redistributionist policies. Chart 1Income Down + Debt Up = Higher Policy Uncertainty Income Down + Debt Up = Higher Policy Uncertainty Income Down + Debt Up = Higher Policy Uncertainty Investors should prepare for considerable change to both domestic and international economic arrangements. As this publication has been arguing for the past several years, many of the investor-friendly policies that underpinned the glorious bull market in risk assets since the early 1980s will be reversed.1 Voters will ultimately determine how far the pendulum will swing. Pocketbook Voter Theory The PBV theory states that voters reward political leaders who deliver positive economic outcomes.2 A strong economy increases the likelihood of re-election, whereas a weak economy decreases it. The link between economic conditions and voting patterns tends to be strongest in the United States.3 Most of the academic literature on the PBV theory has emphasized retrospective assessments of the economy. The pre-election performance of important economic variables, such as the unemployment rate, GDP growth, and consumer confidence, is shown to predict electoral outcomes. According to these metrics, Republicans (GOP) in Congress should be confident heading into this November's mid-term elections. The unemployment rate is near 50-year lows, consumer confidence is at a 20-year high, and GDP growth has gained some momentum in recent quarters - with BCA's economists expecting further strength in 2018 (Chart 2). The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will also put more money in voters' pocketbooks courtesy of Republican policymakers. However, both history and polling data are weighing on the GOP's chances in November. Currently, the U.S. government is unified, with Republicans controlling both the executive and legislative branches. Voters have rejected the incumbent party the last three times a mid-term election was held under unified government. Democrats were badly beaten in 1994, when Republicans won a stunning 54 seats in the House of Representatives; in 2006, voters rewarded Democrats with control of the House and de facto control of the Senate; and in 2010, Republicans thumped the Democrats in the House by the largest margin of victory in a mid-term election since 1938. The approval rating of Congressional Republicans and the president also present a problem for the GOP in November. As of December 11, 78% of voters disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job. That is slightly higher than the 77% congressional disapproval rating before the 2010 election loss for Democrats, and visibly higher than the 67% and 70% disapproval ratings before the 2006 and 1994 mid-term elections, respectively. Democrats also continue to hold on to a growing lead in the "generic ballot," which has some predictive power (Chart 3). Chart 2Cyclical Conditions Are Solid Cyclical Conditions Are Solid Cyclical Conditions Are Solid Chart 3Democrats Ahead In The Polls Democrats Ahead In The Polls Democrats Ahead In The Polls As we have highlighted in previous reports, President Trump's low approval rating of 39% also reduces the likelihood that Republicans will keep the 22 seats needed to remain the majority party in Congress (Chart 4). Chart 4Trump's Low Approval Ratings Is Bad For GOP In 2018 The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter On balance then, the deck is stacked against the Republicans in the coming election. The economy is firing on all cylinders, but that was also the case in November 2016 when Americans voted for dramatic political change. In fact, the unemployment rate had fallen from 6.6% in 2014 to 4.6% in November 2016, whereas it has only marginally improved more recently. Meanwhile, only 25% of independent voters approve of the GOP's tax legislation.4 Heightened partisanship will make voter perceptions among independents a particularly important factor in determining the outcome of the 2018 election. Investors should monitor Trump's approval rating among these voters and their evolving view of the Republican tax legislation, which will certainly underpin the GOP's campaign message on why they should be re-elected (Chart 5). But it remains to be seen how the equity bull market will translate into Republican political fortunes, given that the median American voter is not heavily invested in stocks (Chart 6). Chart 5Only Republicans Like Trump The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter Chart 6Most Voters Don't Directly Own Stocks The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter Partisanship And The PBV Theory Voter perceptions of the economy have always been influenced by party identification. The role of partisanship in politics has become especially important in the U.S. as political polarization has reached its highest recorded level in 150 years (Chart 7). Reflecting the growing divide between the policy preferences of each party, the core political values held by American voters are not best described by demographic factors such as race, income, or religion, but by party identification - and by a wide margin (Chart 8). A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 86% of Americans believe that conflict between Democrats and Republicans is either strong or very strong.5 The same survey found that the likelihood of conflict based on race or income was only 65% and 60%, respectively. And since 2012, the percentage of Americans who see very strong conflict between the Democrats and Republicans has risen substantially from 47% to 64%. Chart 7Highest Level Of Polarization In 150 Years Highest Level Of Polarization In 150 Years Highest Level Of Polarization In 150 Years Chart 8Party Affiliation Means A Lot Today The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter The link between partisanship and voter perceptions of the economy can be strong, and became very clear after the recent election. Before President Trump was elected, only 14% of Republicans felt that national economic conditions were excellent or good. After his victory, that same number skyrocketed to 57%.6 This implies that retrospective assessments of economic conditions will continue to be susceptible to partisan interpretations. However, the gap between some Republicans and Democrats on views regarding the role of government in the economy, the U.S.'s participation in the global economy, and the fairness of the current economic system has been narrowing. Specifically, the Pew Research Center recently divided Republicans into four distinct typologies: Core Conservatives, New Era Enterprisers, Country First Conservatives, and Market Skeptic Republicans. The latter two groups represented 43% of the Republicans surveyed - let's call them "Change Republicans," as they are most supportive of changes to the current economic system.7 Among Change Republicans, only 15% felt that the "U.S. economic system is generally fair to most Americans." Comparatively, 75% of the remaining two groups of GOP voters believe the current system is fair. This wide gap in current perceptions on the effectiveness of today's economic model makes Change Republicans more receptive to policies aimed at redefining the role of government and redistributing income. This conclusion has important consequences for policy beyond 2018. Prospective PBV Theory And The 2020 Election Although most analyses of the PBV theory have focused on retrospective assessments of economic well-being, scholar Michael Lewis-Beck and others have found that future expectations of income growth are statistically more important in determining voting patterns.8 As a result, prospective PBV theory suggests that voters will often look beyond current economic conditions and assess policy proposals that will influence future economic potential. In recent decades, income growth has slowed while debt levels have increased. In addition, inequality has increased on three important levels. Separating income inequality into three groups is useful because it helps forecast where voters will demand changes in policy. Chart 9Globalization: No Friend To DM Middle Class The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter The first level of unequal growth has unfolded on the global stage, as middle-class voters in developed economies experienced the slowest level of income gains among the world's population - and by a large margin (Chart 9). The second level of inequality has occurred within the U.S. economy, between capital (owners) and labor (workers) (Chart 10). And the third level of inequality has materialized most starkly within labor, as the highest income earners have reaped big rewards while the rest of Americans have experienced basically zero gains in real income since the early 1980s (Chart 11). Chart 10Politically Unsustainable Politically Unsustainable Politically Unsustainable Chart 11Will The GOP Tax Bill Make America More Unequal? Will The GOP Tax Bill Make America More Unequal? Will The GOP Tax Bill Make America More Unequal? These observations are likely going to play a central role in the policy prescriptions offered by both candidates in the 2020 presidential election. In terms of U.S. trade policy, Republicans under Trump have become much less inclined to support free trade. Before the global financial crisis, 57% of GOP voters felt that trade agreements were a good thing for the United States. Fast-forward to April 2017, and only 36% of Republicans felt the same way.9 The near-term risk of protectionism centers on the renegotiation of NAFTA. The U.S. is much less economically dependent on NAFTA compared to Canada and Mexico and, more importantly, the political benefits associated with abrogating the deal could push President Trump and his mercantilist cabinet toward doing so.10 Investors should remain short the Mexican peso. The greater risk associated with voter demands for trade protectionism centers on China. The Trump administration began with a mere "shot across the bow" and has not initiated a trade war with the Chinese so far. However, a diplomatic resolution of U.S. tensions with North Korea, or a failure to renegotiate NAFTA, would put more pressure on President Trump to turn his attention to the large American trade deficit with China - as he often did during the 2016 presidential election. (As long as North Korea remains the top foreign policy priority, Trump will need Chinese cooperation that will in turn, at least partially, reduce his appetite for trade conflict.) Ironically, the growing share of income that has accumulated to capital owners relative to labor over the past 20 years did not dissuade Republicans from cutting corporate taxes. This strategy could prove to be very risky. In fact, just a few months before the passage of the GOP tax plan, a majority of Americans surveyed by Pew believed that tax rates on corporations and large businesses should be increased.11 Perhaps a more important reason for the widening gap between capital and labor has been technology. But a recent survey showed that only 7% of Americans feel that their own job or profession will be very vulnerable to robots or computers during their lifetime (Chart 12). This implies that voter demand for policies that reduce the impact of technology on inequality remain less likely than tax policies that put gradual downward pressure on corporate profits. Investors should expect Democrats to focus squarely on the rise in corporate profits and the absence of meaningful wage growth in the 2020 election. Chart 12Most People Don't Think They##br## Are Vulnerable To Technology The American Pocketbook Voter The American Pocketbook Voter The final piece of the puzzle for Democrats in the 2020 election will be redistributionist policies that shift income from the top earners to the rest of the population. This political strategy is supported by the effects of previous tax reform on income inequality - highlighted in Chart 11. Specifically, while previous rounds of tax reform have obviously benefited the U.S.'s highest income earners, the vast majority of Americans, as mentioned, experienced zero gains in real income after the Reagan and Bush tax plans were implemented. Compared to protectionism or redistribution from the corporate sector, movement on legislation to tax high-income earners could be relatively slow moving. First, only 43% of Americans think that taxes should be raised on people earning more than $250,000; and only a quarter of Republican voters support that proposition.12 And second, despite stark inequality and a low level of upward mobility in the United States, six-in-ten Americans still believe that people who work hard tend to get ahead.13 These two observations of voter preferences could weigh on the appeal of policy proposals that aim to redistribute income from the top 1% to the rest of the income pool. Trade protectionism, and a reversal of some of the corporate tax cuts, are more politically feasible. Concluding Thoughts Retrospective assessments of economic well-being can be helpful in forecasting electoral outcomes. The U.S. economy has found its footing, the labor market is strong, and confidence is up. However, these factors will likely prove insufficient to protect Republicans from the difficult task of retaining a majority government in the face of declining popular support. Divided government is not necessarily a bad outcome for investors. Recall that during the most recent period of divided government from November 2010 to November 2016, the S&P 500 rose by 80%! Even impeachment proceedings against the president could fail to derail the rising stock market, as occurred in the late 1990s.14 But as the 2020 election approaches, presidential candidates will be increasingly responding to voter demands for more protectionism, policies that shift income from companies to workers, and proposals that raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The former two will have some chance of passage. Jim Mylonas, Vice President Client Advisory & BCA Academy jim@bcaresearch.com 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "The Apex Of Globalization - All Downhill From Here," dated November 12, 2014, and BCA Geopolitical Strategy and Global Investment Strategy Special Report, "Populism Blues: How And Why Social Instability Is Coming To America," dated June 9, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 For the seminal treatise on the PBV theory, please see Michael Lewis-Beck, Economics And Elections: The Major Western Democracies, (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2000). 3 Please see Alberto Alesina and Howard Rosenthal, Partisan Politics, Divided Government, And The Economy, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995). 4 Please see Frank Newport, "Public Opinion And The Tax Reform Law," Gallup, dated December 21, 2017, available at news.gallup.com. 5 Please see John Gramlich, "Far More Americans Say There Are Strong Conflicts Between Partisans Than Between Other Groups In Society," Pew Research Center, dated December 19, 2017. 6 Please see Pew Research Center, "Views Of Job Situation Improve Sharply, But Many Still Say They're Falling Behind Financially," dated November 7, 2017, available at www.people-press.org. 7 Please see Pew Research Center, "Political Typology Reveals Deep Fissures On The Right And Left," dated October 24, 2017, available at www.people-press.org. 8 See footnote 2, pp. 120. 9 Please see Bradley Jones, "Support For Free Trade Agreements Rebounds Modestly, But Wide Partisan Differences Remain," Pew Research Center, dated April 25, 2017, available at www.pewresearch.org. 10 Please see Global Investment Strategy Special Report, "NAFTA - Populism Vs. Pluto-Populism," dated November 10, 2017, available at gis.bcaresearch.com. 11 Please see Hannah Fingerhut, "More Americans Favor Raising Than Lowering Tax Rates On Corporations, High Household Incomes," Pew Research Center, dated September 27, 2017, available at www.pewresearch.org. 12 Please see footnote 11. 13 Please see footnote 7. 14 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Break Glass In Case Of Impeachment," dated May 17, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. Geopolitical Calendar

2018 is a pivotal year for China, as it will set the trajectory for President Xi Jinping's second term ... and he may not step down in 2022. Poverty, inequality, and middle-class angst are structural and persistent threats to China's political stability. The new wave of the anti-corruption campaign is part of Xi's attempt to improve governance and mitigate political risks. Yet without institutional checks and balances, Xi's governance agenda will fail. Without pro-market reforms, investors will face a China that is both more authoritarian and less productive. Hearts rectified, persons were cultivated; persons cultivated, families were regulated; families regulated, states were rightly governed; states rightly governed, the whole world was made tranquil and happy. - Confucius, The Great Learning Comparisons of modern Chinese politics with Confucian notions of political order have become cliché. Nevertheless, there is a distinctly Confucian element to Chinese President Xi Jinping's strategy. Xi's sweeping anti-corruption campaign, which will enter "phase two" in 2018, is essentially an attempt to rectify the hearts and regulate the families of Communist Party officials and civil servants. The same could be said for his use of censorship and strict ideological controls to ensure that the general public remains in line with the regime. Yet Xi is also using positive measures - like pollution curbs, social welfare, and other reforms - to win over hearts and minds. His purpose is ultimately the preservation of the Chinese state - namely, the prevention of a Soviet-style collapse. Only if the regime is stable at home can Xi hope to enhance the state's international security and erode American hegemony in East Asia. This would, from Beijing's vantage, make the whole world more tranquil and happy. Thus, for investors seeking a better understanding of China in the long run, it is necessary to look at what is happening to its governance as well as to its macroeconomic fundamentals and foreign relations.1 China's greatest vulnerability over the long run is its political system. Because Xi Jinping's willingness to relinquish power is now uncertain, his governance and reform agenda in his second term will have an outsized impact on China's long-run investment outlook. The Danger From Within From 1978-2008, the Communist Party's legitimacy rested on its ability to deliver rising incomes. Since the Great Recession, however, China has entered a "New Normal" of declining potential GDP growth as the society ages and productivity growth converges toward the emerging market average (Chart II-1). In this context, Chinese policymakers are deathly afraid of getting caught in the "middle income trap," a loose concept used to explain why some middle-income economies get bogged down in slower growth rates that prevent them from reaching high-income status (Chart II-2).2 Chart II-1The New Normal The New Normal The New Normal Chart II-2Will China Get Caught In The Middle-Income Trap? January 2018 January 2018 Such a negative economic outcome would likely prompt a wave of popular discontent, which, in turn, could eventually jeopardize Communist Party rule. The quid pro quo between the Chinese government and its population is that the former delivers rising incomes in exchange for the latter's compliance with authoritarian rule. The party is not blind to the fate of other authoritarian states whose growth trajectory stalled. The threat of popular unrest in China may seem remote today. The Communist Party is rallying around its leader, Xi Jinping; the economy rebounded from the turmoil of 2015 and its cyclical slowdown in recent months is so far benign; consumer sentiment is extremely buoyant; and the global economic backdrop is bright (Chart II-3). Yet these positive political and economic developments are cyclical, whereas the underlying political risks are structural and persistent. China has made massive gains in lifting its population out of poverty, but it is still home to 559 million people, around 40% of the population, living on less than $6 per day, the living standard of Uzbekistan. It will be harder to continue improving these workers' quality of life as trend growth slows and the prospects for export-oriented manufacturing dry up. This is why the Xi administration has recently renewed its attention to poverty alleviation. The government is on target in lifting rural incomes, but behind target in lifting urban incomes, and urban-dwellers are now the majority of the nation (Chart II-4). The plight of China's 200-250 million urban migrants, in particular, poses the risk of social discontent. Chart II-3China's Slowdown So Far Benign China's Slowdown So Far Benign China's Slowdown So Far Benign Chart II-4Urban Income Targets At Risk Urban Income Targets At Risk Urban Income Targets At Risk Moreover, while China knows how to alleviate poverty, it has less experiencing coping with the greatest threat to the regime: the rapid growth of the middle class, with its high expectations, demands for meritocracy and social mobility, and potential for unrest if those expectations are spoiled (Chart II-5). Democracy is not necessarily a condition for reaching high-income status, but all of Asia's high-income countries are democracies. A higher level of wealth encourages household autonomy vis-à-vis the state. Today, China has reached the $8,000 GDP per capita range that often accompanies the overthrow of authoritarian regimes.3 The Chinese are above the level of income at which the Taiwanese replaced their military dictatorship in 1987; China's poorest provinces are now above South Korea's level in that same year, when it too cast off the yoke of authoritarianism (Chart II-6). Chart II-5The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge The Communist Party's Greatest Challenge Chart II-6China's Development Beyond Point At Which Taiwan And Korea Overthrew Dictatorship January 2018 January 2018 This is not an argument for democracy in China. We are agnostic about whether China will become democratic in our lifetime. We are making a far more humble point: that political risk will mount as wealth is accumulated by the country's growing middle class. Several emerging markets - including Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey and Brazil - have witnessed substantial political tumult after their middle class reached half of the population and stalled (Chart II-7). China is approaching this point and will eventually face similar challenges. Chart II-7Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs Middle Class Growth Troubles Other EMs The comparison reveals that an inflection point exists for a society where the country's political establishment faces difficulties in negotiating the growing demands of a wealthier population. As political scientists have shown empirically, the very norms of society evolve as wealth erodes the pull of Malthusian and traditional cultural variables.4 Political transformation can follow this process, often quite unexpectedly and radically.5 Clearly the Chinese public shows no sign of large-scale, revolutionary sentiment at the moment. And political opposition does not necessarily result in regime change. Nevertheless, it is empirically false that the Chinese people are naturally opposed to democracy or representative government. After all, Sun Yat Sen founded a Republic of China in 1912, well before many western democratic transformations! And more to the point, the best survey evidence shows that the Chinese are culturally most similar to their East Asian neighbors (as well as, surprisingly, the Baltic and eastern European states): this is not a neighborhood that inherently eschews democracy. Remarkably, recent surveys suggest that China's millennial generation, while not wildly enthusiastic about democracy, is nevertheless more enthusiastic than its peers in the western world's liberal democracies (Chart II-8)! Chart II-8Chinese People Not Less Fond Of Democracy Than Others January 2018 January 2018 China is also home to one of the most reliable predictors of political change: inequality. China's economic boom is coincident with the rise of extreme inequalities in income, wealth, region, and social status. True, judging by average household wealth, everyone appears to be a winner; but the average is misleading because it is pulled upward by very high net worth individuals - and China has created 528 billionaires in the past decade alone. A better measure is the mean-to-median wealth ratio, as it demonstrates the gap that opens up between the average and the typical household. As Chart II-9 demonstrates, China is witnessing a sharp increase in inequality relative to its neighbors and peers. More standard measures of inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, also show very high readings in China. And this trend has combined with social immobility: China has a very high degree of generational earnings elasticity, which is a measure of the responsiveness of one's income to one's parent's income. If elasticity is high, then social outcomes are largely predetermined by family and social mobility is low. On this measure, China is an extreme outlier - comparable to the U.S. and the U.K., which, while very different economies, have suffered recent political shocks as a result of this very predicament (Chart II-10). Chart II-9Inequality: A Severe Problem In China Inequality: A Severe Problem In China Inequality: A Severe Problem In China Chart II-10China An Outlier In Inequality And Social Immobility January 2018 January 2018 "China does not have voters" unlike the U.S. and U.K., is the instant reply. Yet that statement entails that China has no pressure valve for releasing pent-up frustrations. Any political shock may be more, not less, destabilizing. In the U.S. and the U.K., voters could release their frustrations by electing an anti-establishment president or abrogating a trade relationship with Europe. In China, the only option may be to demand an "exit" from the political system altogether. Note that there is already substantial evidence of social unrest in China over the past decade. From 2003 to 2007, China faced a worrisome increase in "mass incidents," at which point the National Bureau of Statistics stopped keeping track. The longer data on "public incidents" suggests that the level of unrest remains elevated, despite improvements under the Xi administration (Chart II-11). Broader measures tell a similar story of a country facing severe tensions under the surface. For instance, China's public security spending outstrips its national defense spending (Chart II-12). Chart II-11Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chinese Social Unrest Is Real Chart II-12China Spends More On ##br##Domestic Security Than Defense January 2018 January 2018 In essence, Chinese political risk is understated. This conclusion may seem counterintuitive, given Xi's remarkable consolidation of power. But is ultimately structural factors, not individual leaders, that will carry the day. The Communist Party is in a good position now, but its leaders are all-too-aware of the volcanic frustrations that could be unleashed should they fail to deliver the "China Dream." This is why so much depends upon Xi's policy agenda in the second half of his term. To that question we will now turn. Bottom Line: The Communist Party is at a cyclical high point of above-trend economic growth and political consolidation under a strongman leader. However, political risk is understated: poverty, inequality, and middle-class angst are structural and persistent and the long-term potential growth rate is slowing. If we assume that China is not unique in its historical trajectory, then we can conclude that it is approaching one of the most politically volatile periods in its development. Chart II-13Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign Xi's Anti-Corruption Campaign The Governance And Reform Agenda Since coming to office in 2012-13, President Xi has spearheaded an extraordinary anti-corruption campaign and purge of the Communist Party (Chart II-13). The campaign has understandably drawn comparisons to Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Yet these are not entirely fair, as Xi has tried to improve governance as well as eradicate his enemies. As Xi prepares for his "re-election" in March 2018, he has declared that he will expand the anti-corruption campaign further in his second term in office: details are scant, but the gist is that the campaign will branch out from the ruling party to the entire state bureaucracy, on a permanent basis, in the form of a new National Supervision Commission.6 There are three ways in which this agenda could prove positive for China's long-term outlook. First, the regime clearly hopes to convince the public that it is addressing the most burning social grievances. Corruption persistently ranks at the top of the list, insofar as public opinion can be known (Chart II-14). Public opinion is hard to measure, but it is clear that consumer sentiment is soaring in the wake of the October party congress (see Chart II-3 above). It is also worth noting that the Chinese public's optimism perked up in Xi's first year in office, when the policy agenda on offer was substantially the same and the economy had just experienced a sharp drop in growth rates (Chart II-15). Reassuring the public over corruption will improve trust in the regime. Chart II-14Chinese Public Grievances January 2018 January 2018 Chart II-15Anti-Corruption Is Popular January 2018 January 2018 Chart II-16Productivity Requires Institutional Change Productivity Requires Institutional Change Productivity Requires Institutional Change Second, the anti-corruption campaign feeds into Xi's broader economic reform agenda. Productivity growth is harder to generate as a country's industrialization process matures. With the bulk of the big increases in labor, capital, and land supply now complete in China, the need to improve total factor productivity becomes more pressing (Chart II-16). Unlike the early stages of growth, this requires reaching the hard-to-get economic conditions, such as property rights, human capital, financial deepening, entrepreneurship, innovation, education, technology, and social welfare. On this count, the Xi administration's anti-corruption campaign has been a net positive. The most widely accepted corruption indicators suggest that it has made a notable improvement to the country's governance. Yet the country remains far below its competitors in the absolute rankings, notably its most similar neighbor Taiwan (Chart II-17 A&B). The institutionalization of the campaign could thus further improve the institutional framework and business environment. Chart II-17AAnti-Corruption Campaign Is A Plus... January 2018 January 2018 Chart II-17B...But There's A Long Way To Go January 2018 January 2018 Third, the anti-corruption campaign can serve as a central government tool in enforcing other economic reforms. Pro-productivity reforms are harder to execute in the context of slowing growth because political resistance increases among established actors fighting to preserve their existing advantages. If the ruling party is to break through these vested interests, it needs a powerful set of tools. Recently, the central government in Beijing has been able to implement policy more effectively on the local level by paving the way through corruption probes that remove personnel and sharpen compliance. Case in point: the use of anti-corruption officials this year gave teeth to environmental inspection teams tasked with trimming overcapacity in the industrial sector (Chart II-18). And there are already clear signs that this method will be replicated as financial regulators tackle the shadow banking sector.7 Chart II-18Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, ##br##Reduced Need For Scrap Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, Reduced Need For Scrap Reforms Cut Steel Capacity, Reduced Need For Scrap These last examples - financial and environmental regulatory tightening - are policy priorities in 2018. The coercive aspect of the corruption probes should ensure that they are more effective than they would otherwise be. And reining in asset bubbles and reducing pollution are clear long-term positives for the regime. Ideally, then, Xi's anti-corruption campaign will deliver three substantial improvements to China's long-term outlook: greater public trust in the government, higher total factor productivity, and reduced systemic risks. The administration hopes that it can mitigate its governance deficit while improving economic sustainability. In this way it can buy both public support and precious time to continue adjusting to the new normal. The danger is that these policies will combine to increase downside risks to growth in the short term.8 Bottom Line: Xi's anti-corruption campaign is being expanded and institutionalized to cover the entire Chinese administrative state. This is a consequential campaign that will take up a large part of Xi's second term. It is the administration's major attempt to mitigate the socio-political challenges that await China as it rises up the income ladder. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely? The problem, however, is that Xi may merely use the anti-corruption campaign to accrue more power into his hands. As is clear from the above, Xi's governance agenda is far from impartial and professional. The anti-corruption campaign is being used not only to punish corrupt officials but also to achieve various other goals. Xi has even publicly linked the campaign to the downfall of his political rivals.9 In essence, the campaign highlights the core contradiction of the Xi administration: can Xi genuinely improve China's governance by means of the centralization and personalization of power? Chart II-19China's Governance Still Falls Far Behind January 2018 January 2018 Over the long haul, the fundamental problem is the absence of checks and balances, i.e. accountability, from Xi's agenda. For instance, the National Supervision Commission will be granted immense powers to investigate and punish malefactors within the state - but who will inspect the inspectors? Xi's other governance reforms suffer the same problem. His attempt to create "rule of law" is lacking the critical ingredients of judicial independence and oversight. The courts are not likely to be able to bring cases against the party, central government, or powerful state-owned firms, and they will not be able to repeal government decisions. Thus, as many commentators have noted, Xi's notion of rule of law is more accurately described as "rule by law": the reformed legal system will in all probability remain an instrument in the hands of the Communist Party. Likewise, Xi's attempt to grant the People's Bank of China greater powers of oversight in order to combat systemic financial risk suffers from the fact that the central bank is not independent, and will remain subordinate to the State Council, and hence to the Politburo Standing Committee. This is not even to mention the lamentable fact that Xi's campaign for better governance has so far coincided with extensive repression of civil society, which does not mesh well with the desire to improve human capital and innovation.10 Thus it is of immense importance whether Xi sets up relatively durable anti-corruption, legal, and financial institutions that will maintain their legitimate functions beyond his term and political purposes. Otherwise, his actions will simply illustrate why China's governance indicators lag so far behind its peers in absolute terms. Corruption perceptions may improve further, but there will be virtually no progress in areas like "voice and accountability," "political stability and absence of violence," "rule of law," and "regulatory quality," each of which touches on the Communist Party's weak spots in various ways (Chart II-19). Analysis of the Communist Party's shifting leadership characteristics reinforces a pessimistic view of the long run if Xi misses his current opportunity.11 The party's top leadership increasingly consists of career politicians from the poor, heavily populated interior provinces - i.e. the home base of the party. Their educational backgrounds are less scientific, i.e. more susceptible to party ideology. (Indeed, Xi Jinping's top young protégé, Chen Miner, is a propaganda chief.) And their work experience largely consists of ruling China's provinces, where they earned their spurs by crushing rebellions and redistributing funds to placate various interest groups (Chart II-20). While one should be careful in drawing conclusions from such general statistics, the contrast with the leadership that oversaw China's boldest reforms in the 1990s is plain. Chart II-20China's Leaders Becoming More 'Communist' Over Time January 2018 January 2018 Bottom Line: Xi's reform agenda is contradictory in its attempt to create better governance through centralizing and personalizing power. Unless he creates checks and balances in his reform of China's institutions, he is likely to fall short of long-lasting improvements. The character profiles of China's political elite do not suggest that the party will become more likely to pursue pro-market reforms in Xi's wake. Xi Jinping's Choice Xi is the pivotal player because of his rare consolidation of power, and 2018 is the pivotal year. It is pivotal because it will establish the policy trajectory of Xi's second term - which may or may not extend into additional terms after 2022. So far, the world has gained a few key takeaways from Xi's policy blueprint, which he delivered at the nineteenth National Party Congress on October 18: Xi has consolidated power: He and his faction reign supreme both within the Communist Party and the broader Chinese state; Xi's policy agenda is broadly continuous: Xi's speech built on his administration's stated aims in the first five years as well as the inherited long-term aims of previous administrations; China is coming out of its shell: In the international realm, Xi sees China "moving closer to center stage and making greater contributions to mankind"; The 2022 succession is in doubt: Xi refrained from promoting a successor to the Politburo Standing Committee, the unwritten norm since 1992. Markets have not reacted overly negatively to these developments (Chart II-21), as the latter do not pose an immediate threat to the global rally in risk assets. The reasons are several: Chart II-21Market Not Too Worried About ##br##Party Congress Outcomes Market Not Too Worried About Party Congress Outcomes Market Not Too Worried About Party Congress Outcomes Maoism is overrated: While the Communist Party constitution now treats Xi Jinping as the sole peer of the disastrous ruler Mao Zedong, the market does not buy the Maoist rhetoric. Instead, it sees policy continuity, yet with more effective central leadership, which is a plus. Reforms are making gradual progress: Xi is treading carefully, but is still publicly committed to a reform agenda of rebalancing China's economic model toward consumption and services, improving governance and productivity, and maintaining trade openness. Whatever the shortcomings of the first five years, this agenda is at least reformist in intention. China's tactic of "seeking progress while maintaining stability" is certainly more reassuring than "progress at any cost" or "no progress at all"! Trump and Xi are getting along so far: Xi's promises to move China toward center stage threaten to increase geopolitical tensions with the United States in the long run, yet markets are not overly alarmed. China is imposing sanctions on North Korea to help resolve the nuclear missile standoff, negotiating a "Code of Conduct" in the South China Sea, and promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will marginally add to global development and growth. Trump is hurling threatening words rather than concrete tariffs. 2022 is a long way away: Markets are unconcerned with Xi's decision not to put a clear successor on the Politburo Standing Committee, even though it implies that Xi will not step down at the end of his term in five years. Investors are implicitly approving Xi's strongman behavior while blissfully ignoring the implication that the peaceful transition of power in China could become less secure. Are investors right to be so sanguine? Cyclically, BCA's China Investment Strategy is overweight Chinese investible equities relative to EM and global stocks. Geopolitical Strategy also recommends that clients follow this view and overweight China relative to EM. Beyond this 6-12 month period, it depends on how Xi uses his political capital. If Xi is serious about governance and economic reform, then long-term investors should tolerate the other political risks, and the volatility of reforms, and overweight China within their EM portfolio. After all, China's two greatest pro-market reformers, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, were also heavy-handed authoritarians who crushed domestic dissent, clashed with the United States from time to time, and hesitated to relinquish control to their successors. However, if Xi is not serious, then investors with a long time horizon should downgrade China/EM assets - as not only China but the world will have a serious problem on its hands. For Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin always reaffirmed China's pro-market orientation and desire to integrate into the global economic order. If Xi turns his back on this orientation, while imprisoning his rivals for corruption, concentrating power exclusively in his own person, and contesting U.S. leadership in the Asia Pacific, then the long-run outlook for China and the region should darken rather quickly. Domestic institutions will decay and trade and foreign investment will suffer. How and when will investors know the difference? As mentioned, we think 2018 is critical. Xi is flush with political capital and has a positive global economic backdrop. If he does not frontload serious efforts this year then it will become harder to gain traction as time goes by.12 If he demurs, the Chinese political system will not afford another opportunity like this for years to come. The country will approach the 2020s with additional layers of bureaucracy loyal to Xi, but no significant macro adjustments to its governance or productivity. It is not clear how long China's growth rate is sustainable without pro-productivity reforms. It is also not clear that the world will wait five years before responding to a China that, without a new reform push, will appear unabashedly mercantilist, neo-communist, and revisionist. Bottom Line: The long-run investment outlook for China hinges on Xi Jinping's willingness to use his immense personal authority and concentration of power for the purposes of good governance and market-oriented economic reform. Without concrete progress, investors will have to decide whether they want to invest in a China that is becoming less economically vibrant as well as more authoritarian. We think this would be a bad bet. Matt Gertken Associate Vice President Geopolitical Strategy Marko Papic Senior Vice President Chief Geopolitical Strategist Geopolitical Strategy 1 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Taking Stock Of China's Reforms," dated May 13, 2015, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 2 Chinese policymakers are expressly concerned about the middle-income trap. Please see the World Bank and China's Development Research Center of the State Council, "China 2030: Building A Modern, Harmonious, And Creative Society," 2013, available at www.worldbank.org. Liu He, who is perhaps Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, had a hand in drafting this report and is now a member of the Politburo and shortlisted to take charge of the newly established Financial Stability and Development Commission at the People's Bank of China. 3 Please see Indermit S. Gill and Homi Kharas, "The Middle-Income Trap Turns Ten," World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 7403 (August, 2015), available at www.worldbank.org 4 Please see Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: the Human Development Sequence (Cambridge: CUP, 2005). 5 For example, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Arab Spring, as well as the downfall of communist regimes writ large, were completely unanticipated. 6 Specifically, Xi is creating a National Supervision Commission that will group a range of existing anti-graft watchdogs under its roof at the local, provincial, and central levels of administration, while coordinating with the Communist Party's top anti-graft watchdog. More details are likely to be revealed at the March legislative session, but what matters is that the initiative is a significant attempt to institutionalize the anti-corruption campaign. Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China's Party Congress Ends ... So What?" dated November 1, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 7 China has recently drafted top anti-graft officials, such as Zhou Liang, from the powerful Central Discipline and Inspection Commission and placed them in the China Banking Regulatory Commission, which is in charge of overseeing banks. Authorities have already imposed fines in nearly 3,000 cases in 2017 affecting various kinds of banks, including state-owned banks. On the broader use of anti-corruption teams for economic policy, please see Barry Naughton, "The General Secretary's Extended Reach: Xi Jinping Combines Economics And Politics," China Leadership Monitor 54 (Fall 2017), available at www.hoover.org. 8 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "Three Questions For 2018," dated December 13, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 9 Please see Gao Shan et al, "China's President Xi Jinping Hits Out at 'Political Conspiracies' in Keynote Speech," Radio Free Asia, January 3, 2017, available at www.rfa.org 10 Xi has cranked up the state's propaganda organs, censorship of the media, public surveillance, and broader ideological and security controls (including an aggressive push for "cyber-sovereignty") to warn the public that there is no alternative to Communist Party rule. This tendency has raised alarms among civil rights defenders, lawyers, NGOs, and the western world to the effect that China's governance is actually regressing despite nominal improvement in standard indicators. This is the opposite of Confucius's bottom-up notion of order. 11 Please see BCA Geopolitical Strategy Special Report, "China: Looking Beyond The Party Congress," dated July 19, 2017, available at gps.bcaresearch.com. 12 Xi faces politically sensitive deadlines in the 2020-22 period: the economic targets in the thirteenth Five Year Plan; the hundredth anniversary of the Communist Party in 2021; and Xi's possible retirement at the twentieth National Party Congress in 2022. At that point he will need to focus on demonstrating the Communist Party's all-around excellence and make careful preparations either to step down or cling to power.