Business

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

Forget for a moment that U.S. stock markets have seen their worst start to a new year since the Great Depression or that some $2.5 trillion in wealth has been evaporated in less than two weeks.

CNN says it’s hardly the time to panic:

Time to panic? Hardly.

 

There are plenty of reasons to relax, especially if you are a U.S investor. Here are the top two:

 

1. America’s economy is still in good shape.

 

JPMorgan shifts to the dark-side...

It would be hard for a year to start any worse than 2016 has. 

The economy was supposed to fire on all cylinders in 2015. Sufficient time had passed for the often-mentioned lags in monetary and fiscal policy to finally work their way through the system according to many pundits inside and outside the Fed. Surely the economy would be kick-started by: three rounds of quantitative easing and forward guidance; a record Federal Reserve balance sheet; and an unprecedented increase in federal debt from $9.99 trillion in 2008 to $18.63 trillion in 2015, a jump of 86%.

"Hands Up... Don't Nuke"?

Source: Investors.com

It’s nearly that time again.

On the heels of December’s “big disappointment” wherein Mario Draghi cut the depo rate by a “measly” 10 bps and extended PSPP by an underwhelming six months, the ECB meets again next week, and this time around, expectations are low.

Despite the fact that markets have descended into outright turmoil, the ECB “is very unlikely to change its QE dynamics or cut the deposit rate at the upcoming meeting,” Barlcays says. “The earliest QE tweak opportunity for the ECB is the March meeting, if at all.”