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Source: munplanet.com

We have heard a lot of chatter about a potential negative interest rate policy, and whilst the general market consensus in the USA is still expecting to see at least two rate hikes by the Federal Reserve before the end of this year, the situation is completely different in Japan and in Europe. The Japanese central bank was the first central bank to openly discuss a potential negative interest rate in an attempt to boost the country’s economy again, but the grand scheme of things seems to be going much further than that.

In his latest note tited "The Calm before The Storm", Nomura's traditionally downcast Richard Koo is not too excited about the market's future prospects, in fact quite the opposite and makes the point that since QE was no game changer, not only is there no clear way out, but "the price for QE has yet to be paid."

What does that mean for risk assets:

A man from Pittsburgh has pleaded guilty to robbing a bank and threatening bank tellers with a fake bomb made out of phone wires, duct tape and a sex toy! On Thursday, Aaron Stein pleaded guilty in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to charges of robbery, making bomb threats, making a fake bomb, aggravated assault and four counts of reckless endangerment. According to police a vibrator was used to construct the fake bomb.

Don’t look now, but Barclays just joined the chorus of European banks reporting horrific results.

Shares plunged by double-digits on Tuesday after the bank said it swung to a £1.9 billion pre-tax loss in Q4 and moved to cut the dividend and shed its African subsidiary.

Submitted by JP Koning via Moneyness blog,

Negative interests rates are the shiny new thing that everyone wants to talk about. I hate to ruin a good plot line, but they're actually kind of boring; just conventional monetary policy except in negative rate space. Same old tool, different sign.