• 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.

The e-mail below just came in. I’m not going to use the reader’s name or geographical location, and have altered slightly a couple of lines, to protect the reader’s privacy:

I hardly know why I am writing to you except that I think you’re a good listener. You treat your readers very kindly. And on the internet to boot!

War is coming and Trump is one of the first indicators from our side.

Hold your real assets outside of the banking system in a private international facility  -->  http://www.321gold.com/info/053015_sprott.html 

The Mystery of the One Bank: its Owners? 

Written by Jeff Nielson (CLICK FOR ORIGINAL)

Last night when previewing today's main event, the "secret" meeting between the Saudi and Russian oil ministers, we explicitly said this deal would not "lead to a cut in production", and sure enough just two hours ago the meeting between the two oil superpowers concluded and as expected the two failed to agree to any production cut; instead what they did agree on was to "freeze" production at January's already record levels, and furthermore make the agreement contingent on other OPEC members complying, something Iran has al