So far this morning computerized gaming is continuing yesterday’s bets on a weaker Yen and renewed carry trade: stocks are ramping on volume fumes, while bonds are continuing to decouple and warn of deepening deflationary trends.
US job creation disappointed the optimistic forecasts for January (but I know…who needs jobs when we have trading algos running currency, commodity and stock markets.) Last night we also learned that the Chinese services sector contracted in January to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years, amid falling export demand and a growing credit crisis. In Germany (that sole powerhouse of the Eurozone) imports and exports “unexpectedly” fell in the month of December, confirming that 2013 was the first full year of a contraction in exports since the Great Recession in 2009. Industrial output also tanked (but who’s counting). While, the German Constitutional Court ruled that the ECB’s OMT (Outright Monetary Transactions) Program invented by Mario Draghi’s 2012 “we will do whatever it takes” speech was actually in contravention of German law. The US Fed’s ongoing QE program is also very likely an overstep of US law as well. But then again, the bankers are in charge these days not constitutions, so things like due process and democratic principles are all irrelevant.
“There are important reasons to assume that [the OMT] exceeds the European Central Bank’s monetary policy mandate and thus infringes the powers of the member states, and that it violates the prohibition of monetary financing of the budget,” the German court said Friday. “Subject to the interpretation by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Federal Constitutional Court considers the OMT decision incompatible with primary law.” See: German Court refers OMT decision to Europe’s top court
If only gambling was a better form of governance and management. Maybe then this whole new world would work out well. Alas, the numbers don’t corroborate such wishful thinking. Mayhem and madness on reckless leverage always end in a spectacular ‘shit show’, and this time is destined to be like every other. In related news–gambling of every kind is sweeping the world, and the results speak for themselves, see: Gamblers lost a record 440B in 2013, and may not slow down.
Sane people are wise to steer clear and let this fever break without them.
;
