Europe

Update: the all-important inflationary forecast has been raised modestly, as follows: 2017 from 1.3% to 1.7%, 2018 from 1.5% to 1.6%, 2019 kept unchanged at 1.7%. He also said the  council will continue to look through changes in inflation if judged to have no implication for medium-term outlook for price stability, and notes that substantial degree of monetary accommodation is still needed. As usual, he adds that the "ECB stands ready to increase asset purchase program in terms of size, duration."

As had been periodically leaked over the past several weeks, overnight both Poliico and the WSJ confirm that President Trump has offered former Utah governor Jon Huntsman the job of U.S. ambassador to Russia and is in the process of submitting paperwork to accept the position; Huntsman is said to have accepted the offer. This is the latest sign of backtracking from plans for Washington-Moscow conciliation, a development which will make future reports based on "anonymous sources" that Trump is a Kremlin puppet even more problematic.

Via Justin Raimondo of AntiWar.com,

Everyone is suddenly talking about the Deep State – the configuration of spy agencies, career bureaucrats, and overseas spooks whose murky omnipresence has been brought to light by President Trump’s contention that he was “wiretapped” by his predecessor.

Via Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com,

It is an unfortunate reality that most people tend to be oblivious to massive sea changes in geopolitics and economics. You would think that these events would catch the immediate attention of everyone as they happen, but usually it is not until they realize that the microcosm of their personal lives is subject to the consequences of the macrocosm that they wake up and take notice.

The Germans are once again angry at the Americans over spying. Just a few years after Obama's infamous apology for hacking Merkel's phone, Germany's chief federal prosecutor announced plans to carefully examine documents from Wikileaks (related to a secret CIA cyber-spy hub in Frankfurt), and will launch an investigation if it sees concrete indications of wrongdoing.