Europe

• Oil eases off highs after output freeze agreement (Reuters)
• Saudis and Russia agree to oil output freeze, Iran still an obstacle (Reuters)
• China Loses Control of the Economic Story Line (WSJ)
• Obama starts work to pick Supreme Court justice amid political 'bluster' (Reuters)
• The Never-Ending Story: Europe’s Banks Face a Frightening Future (BBG)
• Apollo Global to buy security services company ADT for $7 billion (Reuters)
• Anglo Hastens Retreat From Coal, Iron Ore as Losses Double (BBG)
• Markets Putting Faith in QE4 (WSJ)

One day after markets saw a violent return of optimism, which sent stocks around the globe and US equity futures soaring (the US was closed for President's Day) driven by terrible Japanese and Chinese economic data which in turn hinted at more central bank easing, animal spirits have cooled off despite some truly unprecedented Chinese credit numbers.

Yes, you read that right. Amid a tumbling stock market, plunging trade data, weakening Yuan, and soaring volatility, China's aggregate debt (so-called total social financing) rose a stunning CNY3.42 trillion (or an even more insane-sounding $520 billion) in January alone.

In fact, since October, China has added over 1 trillion dollars of credit... and has nothing but margin calls, ghost-er cities, and over-supplied commodity-warehouses to show for it... oh and even-record-er debt-to-GDP ratio.

‘Ustina,’ by Matthew Teter

Above, the first winner of the Laurus contest: a portrait of the character Ustina from the celebrated Russian novel. Matthew Teter, the San Antonio, Texas, art teacher who produced the striking image above, writes:

Originally posted at The Saker,

The situation in Syria has reached a watershed moment and a dramatic escalation of the war appears imminent. Let’s look again at how we reached this point.