European Central Bank

Back in November, when describing the perverse global fund flows in which record money creation out of the BOJ and ECB amounting to roughly $200 billion per month was being used indirectly, via spread differentials, to create demand for US Treasuries by foreign official and private investors - an observation first made by Deutsche Bank - we dubbed it "global helicopter money", and were surprised that "nobody has noticed" what is going on.

In a relatively quiet session, which may see US traders sleep in a bit after last night's Superbowl thriller, European and Asian shares rose ahead of Mario Draghi’s testimony at the European Parliament, while US equity futures were fractionally higher (up 0.1% to 2,293) after stocks jumped the most in a week, as traders assessed the trajectory for interest rates while scrutinizing every new Trump tweet.

Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis strikes back and, as KeepTalkingGreece reports, urges Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to turn his back on Greece’s lenders, adopt a parallel payment system  and to unilateral restructure the loans held by the European Central Bank.

In an op-ed in Efimerida ton Syntakton, Varoufakis, Varoufakis calls on Tispras to prepare for break with creditors in order to avoid rupture.

In surprising comments that may rekindle a verbal currency war between president Trump and Europe, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble told German newspaper Tagesspiegel that in his opinion the Euro is "too low" for Germany, echoing criticism from Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro, who last week told the FT that Germany was exploiting its US and EU partners by using a “grossly undervalued” euro to create a vast trade surplus.

European bonds fell and stocks rose led by banks and retailers as surging inflation data prompted investors to switch into reflationary assets even as speculation about ECB tapering has returned. Asian stocks and US equity futures declined. The Yen and gold advanced after Trump’s firing of the U.S. acting attorney general added to concern over the unpredictability of decisions in the new administration.