Human Interest

Ten days ago, when we were struggling to find the answer for the biggest March 1 rally in history, especially after abysmal economic data, we resorted to the following two Reuters headlines which made it all clear, first this:

Following in under two hours by this.

* * *

Fast forward to today when in the aftermath of the ECB's announcement in which Draghi "pulled out all stops with rate cuts, stimulus boost", the market first soared then tumbled. Here is the "explanation" once again courtesy of Reuters:

First this:

A person claiming to be a police insider has revealed that a civil war is coming to America and many people within police departments and in positions of authority are preparing for mass civil unrest this year.  The anonymous insider reveals that citizens must prepare for the coming unrest by: keeping a gun in their possession at all times, evacuating any major cities, and preparing to be able to defend themselves without the assistance of the police.

They don't call it a "currency war" for nothing. 

Moments ago, the RBNZ cut rates by 25 bps to 2.25% in the latest shot across the bow in what is now a years-long race to the bottom.

Here are the bullets: 

• NEW ZEALAND CUTS KEY INTEREST RATE TO 2.25% FROM 2.50%
• RBNZ SAYS FURTHER EXCHANGE RATE DEPRECIATION IS APPROPRIATE
• RBNZ SEES INFLATION REACHING 2% IN 1Q 2018 VS 4Q 2017
• RBNZ SEES 4Q 2016 ANNUAL INFLATION AT 1.1% VS 1.6%

Cue the kiwi plunge:

Yesterday marked the 40th day in a row that total known holdings of Gold in ETFs rose. Not since January 6th has the precious metal seen a reduction in holdings. This is the longest streak of increased holdings since ETFs were born...

It seems, despite exuberant equity bounces, reassurance about the awesomeness of the "jobs" recovery, and Fed confidence-inspiring jawboning that more than a handful of 'goldbugs' are hoarding the pet rock.

Charts: Bloomberg

This is a neat story. Last year, Christopher Ingraham, a Washington Post reporter who writes stories based on what he finds mining data sets, did a piece on the best places to live. According to the data he was using, the worst place in America was rural Red Lake County, Minn.

When he called it that in the paper, people in Red Lake County were upset — but very polite about it! Someone invited him out to visit, and Ingraham went. It turns out that Red Lake County is a beautiful place to live. He liked it a lot. And then he got to thinking: