The wave of anti-hedge fund sentiment that we have predicted ever since 2013 - a direct consequence of centrally planned markets in which central bankers have become marketwide Chief Risk Officers, who intervene every time there is even a 5% drop, and have made risk hedging moot - has finally been unleashed: "in less than seven days, hedge funds have been subject to a three-pronged attack by some of the biggest names in finance," Bloomberg writes.

Despite unleashing his bazooka, Mario Draghi - like his colleagues at The BoJ - appears to have hit the limit of his impotence as the European Commission cut its outlook for growth and inflation across the Union for 2016 and 2017. Citing the economic slowdown in China and other emerging markets, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty ahead of the U.K. referendum on EU membership, WSJ reports EU’s economists also cautioned that the strength of factors that have been supporting growth in the region, such as low oil prices and a weaker euro, could start to fade.

Andrew Sullivan is back, with a long reflection on how Plato predicted the rise of a figure like Donald Trump:

A key turning point in German public sentiment (and subsequent anger) against the unprecedented refugee wave swarming the nation took place during a NYE celebration in Cologne, when multiple reports suggested that as many as 1,000 men “of Arab or North African origin” participated in "monstrous" coordinated attacks on German women in Cologne.

As a major leg of many carry trades, the collapse of the Aussie Dollar in the last week has sent ripples through many risk-on positions. Following last week's plunge in inflation to record lows, one would have assumed that expectations for a 'stimulating' rate-cut were baked in to some extent (as AUD plunged then), but this morning's surprise RBA move has sparked another leg down in the commodity currency, breaking below a crucial uptrend off the January lows as the commodity currency decouples from exuberance in Chinese metals...