Gold is up 19% year-to-date, by far the best performing asset-class, making this the best start to a year since 1974.
"Negative rates in Japan and Europe coupled with weak global growth have prompted a surge in interest," notes one trader as Gold-backed exchange-traded funds saw a record inflow of $7.2bn in February, surpassing the previous high set in 2009, according to BlackRock.
Submitted by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” is one of the essential axioms of economics. No doubt about it, there’s no getting around this simple truth. Everything has a price.
Julia Ioffe talked to some Russian officials and experts about the silly idea that refusing to attack Syria in 2013 encouraged Russian intervention in Ukraine, and this is what they told her:
“Wow, it’s kind of a revelation what you just said,” said a very surprised source from the Russian Foreign Ministry, who was not authorized to speak on the record, on hearing the question. “It’s not tied to any kind of reality. These things are not connected to each other in any way.”
As can be seen by the violently volatile markets themselves, over the past 24 hours there has been substantial confusion about the implications of the ECB's "all in" gamble, with the initial kneejerk euphoria leading to a rapid selloff and surge in the USD, followed by an overnight levitation in all risk assets as virtually the entire ECB move has now been faded on both sides.
Still, much confusion remains as can be seen by the following three reactions by financial pundits, two of whom even work for the same company.
Just hours after Mario Draghi unveiled another €20 billion in monthly QE, bringing the total in "unconventional monetary policy" asset purchases to €80 billion per month, and entering the market for corporate bond purchases for the first time, the ECB released the text of an interview that was conducted with the Guardian on February 18, in which the central banker not only lamented youth unemployment but said he is "worried about increasing inequality."
Here are the selected excerpts: