Europe

Yes, you read that right. Amid a tumbling stock market, plunging trade data, weakening Yuan, and soaring volatility, China's aggregate debt (so-called total social financing) rose a stunning CNY3.42 trillion (or an even more insane-sounding $520 billion) in January alone.

In fact, since October, China has added over 1 trillion dollars of credit... and has nothing but margin calls, ghost-er cities, and over-supplied commodity-warehouses to show for it... oh and even-record-er debt-to-GDP ratio.

‘Ustina,’ by Matthew Teter

Above, the first winner of the Laurus contest: a portrait of the character Ustina from the celebrated Russian novel. Matthew Teter, the San Antonio, Texas, art teacher who produced the striking image above, writes:

Originally posted at The Saker,

The situation in Syria has reached a watershed moment and a dramatic escalation of the war appears imminent. Let’s look again at how we reached this point.

How quickly the official narrative changes.

Just several months ago, in October, we reported that the now-rattled largest European bank, Deutsche Bank, boosted its forecast for German 2016 GDP to 1.9% from 1.7% saying that "although the external and the financial environment have deteriorated we have lifted our 2016 GDP call... drivers are stronger real consumption growth due to lower oil prices/stronger EUR and the surge in immigration."

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,