Business

In what appears to be a Doha party-pooping statement, Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman stated unequivocally that The Kingdom won’t restrain its oil production unless other producers, including Iran, agree to freeze output at a meeting this weekend in Doha. This a major problem because - if you remember - this week's melt-up in oil (and thus stocks) was predicated on an anonymous diplomat cited by Interfax saying a deal will get done without Iran (which the Russians refused to confirm).

Now that not only Mario Draghi but also Ben Bernanke have joined in the loud and growing chorus of "economic experts" debating the arrival of the monetary paradrop and suggesting that that helicopter money "may be the best available alternative", it is just a matter of time before helicopter money is actually implemented, "maybe not today, but in the next recession" according to Deutsche Bank.

And it is the same Deutsche Bank that provides a handy primer how to trade (or frontrun as the case may be) this now inevitable and terminal monetary policy.

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

I noted in yesterday’s post that individuals, while still fully invested in the financial markets, are saying they are extremely bearish on the market. To wit:

After a week like this:

• Retail Sales Tumble
• Industrial Production Plunge
• Inventories-to-Sales Surge
• 30Y Yield UNCH
• Oil UNCH
• Small Caps +3%

This seemed appropriate:

As the following chart showing the collapse in trading revenue across the banks who have reported Q1 earnings so far shows...

... it has been a very bad start to the year for America's largest, too big to fails/too big to prosecute.

It has been just as bad for bank employees, but while most US banks have seen the occasional drib and drab here and there, nothing compares to Barclays, which in the past 4 months has fired a stunning 8,000 workers.