Business

• Oil lifts stocks off lows, yen and low-risk debt in favor (Reuters)
• Yes, this agaim: Oil gains after Russia says open to talking with OPEC (Reuters)
• More forecasts: Oil Prices Could Jump 50% by the End of 2016 (BBG)
• New Risks for Trump After Iowa Loss (WSJ)
• Yuan Gap Widens Again as Depreciation Bets Swamp PBOC Fightback (BBG)
• Germany Struggles to Assess Security Threats Ahead of Carnival Season (WSJ)
• Marco Rubio becomes early hope for mainstream U.S. Republicans (Reuters)

While the biggest news of the night had nothing to do with either oil or China, all that mattered to US equity futures trading also was oil and China, and since WTI managed to rebound modestly from their biggest 2-day drop in years, continuing the trend of unprecedented, HFT-driven volatility which has far surpassed that of equities and is shown in the chart below...

Ten years after the Greenspan Fed

Written by Peter Diekmeyer (CLICK FOR ORIGINAL)

Ten years ago this week, Alan Greenspan left his post as head of the US Federal Reserve, facing disgrace among hard money advocates, which largely persists to this day. 

An ‘invisible tsunami’ of methane gas has been pouring out from a broken well in Los Angeles, causing thousands to become ill as people’s lives and business’ have been turned upside down for over three months, as residents wait for the gas company to take action once and for all.  Huffingtonpost.com reports: The rotten-smelling air in and around the Porter Ranch community will begin to clear when the well is permanently sealed.

Paul Craig Roberts has said that Michael Hudson is not only the best economist in the world, but he is the only real economic in the world. Almost all of the others are “neoliberals” – not economists at all, but shills for financial interests. Paulcraigroberts.org reports: If you have not heard of Michael Hudson it merely shows the power of the Matrix. Hudson should have won several Nobel prizes in economics, but he will never get one. Hudson did not intend to be an economist. At the University of Chicago, which had a leading economics faculty, Hudson studied music and cultural history.