Europe

The Financial System Is A Larger Threat Than Terrorism

Paul Craig Roberts

In the 21st century Americans have been distracted by the hyper-expensive “war on terror.” Trillions of dollars have been added to the taxpayers’ burden and many billions of dollars in profits to the military/security complex in order to combat insignificant foreign “threats,” such as the Taliban, that remain undefeated after 15 years. All this time the financial system, working hand-in-hand with policymakers, has done more damage to Americans than terrorists could possibly inflict.

Those algos who scrambled to paint yesterday's closing tape with that last second VIX slam sending the S&P back over 2,000, forgot one thing - the same thing that China also ignored - central bankers can not print trade, something we have repeated since 2011.

Submitted by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a press conference with about 150 journalists from around the world, including representatives of the western media.

The G-20 Shanghai summit was a dud; China's People's Congress fizzled (even if it unleashed the biggest iron ore rally in history, however brief); and so - in a month full of expectations for major policy stimulus (which have so far been vastly disappointing), we approach the one event that is most actionable: the ECB's March 10 meeting and press conference, where expectations are, just like back on December 3, so great - some expect up to a 20 bps rate cut to -0.5%, others expect QE to be increased from €60BN to €70BN per month, yet others believe that Draghi will either extend the TLTRO,

Just when you thoughjt it was safe to chase the biggest short squeeze in history Fed vice-chair Fischer f##ked it all up...

The US equity market has only been more overbought 3 days in history...