Europe

Back in the summer of 2014, when the ECB first unveiled NIRP, many were concerned that this submersion into the monetary policy twilight zone would first crush Europe's money markets. However, at least until now, European MM funds have proven relatively resilient,

The story in Japan is different.

When the Bank of Japan announced they were instituting NIRP back in January, they intended to spur lending and push inflation up. As often is the case with central planners, their academic theory was much different than the economic reality.

• Ties between Germany and Russia enter new chill (Reuters)
• Tax authorities begin probes into some people named in Panama Papers leak (Reuters)
• SEC investigates ex-JPMorgan debt traders (FT)
• Who Will Win Wisconsin? Here Are Six Credible Predictions (BBG)
• Victim in Wall St. Scheme Was a Classmate of Its Accused Architect (NYT)
• Makers took big price increases on widely used U.S. drugs (Reuters)
• Fed’s New Bank Critic Keeps Heat On (WSJ)
• Biggest Ever Saudi Overhaul Targets $100 Billion of Revenue (BBG)

Whether or not the IMF intended to use a Greek credit event to destabilize Europe as the Greek government first alleged, or whether this was "nonsense" as Lagarde responded to Tsipras letter, is irrelevant - ultimately the underlying premise was whether or not Greece gets debt relief, something the IMF has been insisting on since the third bailout package. And as is well-known, it was Germany - not Greece - that stood in the IMF's way.

What do Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, James Gorman, John Thain, Jimmy Cayne, and any of the revolving door of AIG CEO’s have in common? Three things come to mind rather quickly: 1) All were financial executives during the 2008 global financial crisis. 2) All of their firms received massive public bailouts. 3) None of them went to jail for their firm’s involvement in said crisis. As a matter of fact, most are still plugged in somewhere on Wall Street, presumably helping to facilitate the next great financial crisis.

The US has deployed around 350 airmen and a dozen F-15C fighter jets to Iceland and the NetherlanDs as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR). The Pentagon’s is attempting to demonstrate a show of force, designed to deter what the US  has called ‘Russian aggression’ against Europe. However, Moscow says the Western hawks are simply using the perceived Russian threat in order to justify greater military spending.