Europe

Via GEFIRA,

Two years have passed since Yanukovich was deposed and, as it turns out, another ruthless clan of oligarchs has taken power. No wonder then that Ukraine is heading for a new wave of violence and chaos. Oligarchs are fighting each other, the IMF is pulling out of the country, officials issue laws and regulations only to see them repealed within a day or two by others, and raided European companies are leaving the country after being robbed by the so-called pro-Brussels oligarchic elite. 

Fearful of a renewed rise in the US dollar, Saxo's chief economist Steen Jakobsen expects a "nasty March" as this will kill commodity stabilization as well as the ability of emerging markets to live up to their expectations to revitalize the global economy. Despite The Bank of Japan's clear "example of how not to do things," Jakobsen warns other central banks will follow Kuroda's cue and, as he explains below, is "shorting everything" as he sees two major canaries in the coalmine.

“The global economy risks becoming trapped in a low growth, low inflation, low interest rate equilibrium,” BOE governor Mark Carney warned, in a speech at the G20 summit in Shanghai. “For the past seven years, growth has serially disappointed—sometimes spectacularly,” he added.

That’s a bit of unwelcome “truthiness” from one of the world’s most powerful central bankers and it comes as his predecessor, the incomparable Mervyn King, warns that a new financial crisis is “certain.”

Two weeks ago, during the peak of the February market rout, UBS' credit strategist Matthew Mish looked at the latest round in the junk bond selloff and answered a rhetorical question: "Is it time to buy" the bonds that comprise some/any/all of the bonds that make up the USD-denominated $3 trillion speculative grade universe. His answer was hardly pleasant for those who have kept peddling junk credit (including bonds, loans and revolvers) for the past several months:

Last month, we introduced you to “The Soldiers of Odin.”

The “soldiers” are Nordic patriots dedicated to keeping the streets of Finland, Sweden, and Norway safe from the threat posed by marauding gangs of Mid-East migrants hell bent on accosting women.

Well that, or they’re the Nordic equivalent of a biker gang set to capitalize on a groundswell of nationalistic fervor drummed up by the far-right in the wake of Europe’s worsening migrant crisis.