United States

The U.S. have announced harsh new sanctions against North Korea in a bid to avert World War 3 and prevent Kim Jong-un from firing missiles at America.  The White House say the measures are intended to make it almost impossible for the communist regime to build or acquire nuclear weapons, but have admitted that the sanctions could provoke a world war. Dailystar.co.uk reports: The standoff started when the rogue nation conducted its first successful atomic bomb test in January. Soon after, the sinister socialist state warned its weapons could wipe out the whole US at once.

Two years ago, Victoria Nuland's new puppet state, Ukraine, celebrated its freedom from the clutches of its recently deposed president Yanukovich, a coup which U.S. foreign policy experts said would end crony capitalism, government corruption and unleash democracy and prosperity. Two years later, the county is caught in a historic depression, its financial system only exists thanks to the generosity of the IMF, the government is on the verge of daily collapse, radical nationalists run rampant while corruption has never been greater.

A Unified Europe: Born In the USA

The former Bank of England head Mervyn King said this week that the "depression" in Europe "has happened almost as a deliberate act of policy". Specifically, King said that the formation of the European Union has doomed Europe to economic malaise.

Following yesterday's modest drop in US crude production and yuuge build in inventories, headlines about possible Venezuela meetings sent algos into panic-buying mode. This morning the headlines are from Nigeria, whose Petroleum Minister "expects a dramatic price move" claiming a meeting between OPEC and NOPEC will happen on March 20th. Combine that idiocy with significant US Dollar weakness this morning and the surge in Oil ETF share creation and the perfect storm of higher prices in oil (as hedgies pile in).

Less than 24 hours ago we presented the latest reason by JPM's Mislav Matejka explaining why the equity strategist refuses to buy this market, to wit: "equities are down ytd, but notably the ’16 P/E is not much cheaper today than it was at the start of the year. In fact, for the US, the P/E multiple is currently higher than it was on 1st January, at 16.8x vs 16.6x then."