And all of this on a Dudley statement (that said nothing), an oil rumor (repeatedly uttered with no actual news), a billionaire bank CEO buying some more stock in his firm, and a seasonal adjustrment (which made retail sales 'appear positive')...
Public Service Announcement:
Submitted by Martin Armstrong via ArmstrongEconomics.com,
It was just two days ago when we laid out what could be "the trade of the year": namely, going long Chesakeapke's $500MM 3.25% bonds of March 15, which were then trading at 80 cents on the dollar in anticipation of a Chesapeake bankruptcy, yielding a whopping 299%.
This is what we said:
Authored by Steve H. Hanke of The Johns Hopkins University.
Since the Great Recession, politicians have obsessed over bashing banks and bankers. According to Pols of all stripes, bankers caused the 2008-09 crash and ensuing slump. To make the world safe from banks, the “all-knowing” have given us Basel III, Dodd-Frank, and a plethora of banking regulations. This has, among other things, provided Bernie Sanders and his ilk with an open field.
On Friday, we got confirmation of what everyone already knew: the Greek economy is still mired in recession. GDP contracted 0.6% in Q4 after shrinking 1.4% in Q3.
We also found out that Greek farmers have most assuredly not calmed down since they parked their tractors in the middle of the street blocking traffic late last month.