America

• Oil Drops With Emerging-Market Currencies on Rig Recovery Signs (BBG)
• A plea for help - How China asked the Fed for its stock crash play book (Reuters)
• Obama to meet Raul Castro on historic Cuba trip (Reuters)
• Wall Street's Pile of Unwanted Treasuries Exposes Market Cracks (BBG)
• Dimon's Timing Looks Savvier by the Day as Equities Rebound (BBG)
• Brazilians Brace for More Drama at Top Court, Congress (BBG)
• Captured Paris Terror Suspect Salah Abdeslam Says He Planned More Attacks (WSJ)

The most fervent and polarized sides in the renewed debate on gun control share one piece of solid common ground: they both invest rather magical qualities in the cold, lifeless hardware of guns themselves.

Last Thurssday, the Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Joseph Dunford testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). The topic? The President’s defense budget request for next year.

The nearly three-hour hearing covered everything from the fight against ISIS in Syria to NASA’s research and development projects. But what was remarkable, other than senators using valuable time with Secretary Carter to broker pet projects, was the evident reevaluation of threats to the U.S.

The dream of transition to a 'consuming' economy just crashed into the wall of excess debt and leverage. 2016 has started with a 44% collapse in China passenger car sales. This is the biggest sequential crash and is 50% larger than any other plunge in history.

While there is a seasonal effect here obviously, the sheer scale of this 2-month drop - which removes the new year holiday affect - indicates something is terribly wrong in China.

Two weeks ago, Judge Jeannine Pirro hit it out of the ballpark with her stunningly honest and frank monologue that "there's an insurrection coming" and that "the American people are sick and tired of crony capitalism."