United States

One of the charms of the future is its powerful element of unpredictability, its ability to ambush us in lovely ways or bite us unexpectedly in the ass. Most of the futures I imagined as a boy have, for instance, come up deeply short, or else I would now be flying my individual jet pack through the spired cityscape of New York and vacationing on the moon. And who, honestly, could have imagined the Internet, no less social media and cyberspace (unless, of course, you had read William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer 30 years ago)?

Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

Critics of today’s fiat currency/fractional reserve banking world have (for what seems like forever) made the common sense point that when debt rises faster than cash flow, bad things are bound to happen. In every cycle since 1980 this has been dismissed by the vast majority who benefit from inflating bubbles — until the bubble bursts.

Amid the so-called "ceasefire" in Ukraine, yet ongoing shelling in many regions, the Donbass news agency reports that more than 20 Ukrainian solders have died and over 200 soldiers are hospitalized after an apparent leak of a deadly virus called "California Flu" from a US lab near the city of Kharkov.

As Donbass News International reports,

• Oil Drops as Saudis to Maintain Spending, China Diesel Use Falls (BBG)
• Saudi Arabia is able to withstand low prices says Saudi Aramco Chairman (WSJ)
• Recession Warnings May Not Come to Pass (WSJ)... or they May
• Problems Found at Theranos Lab (WSJ)
• New York rebounds after blizzard, Washington shuts down government (Reuters)
• China business confidence, recruitment hit record lows in January - SMI survey (Reuters)
• Twitter to Revamp Leadership Under CEO Jack Dorsey (WSJ)

After the biggest two-day surge in oil in seven years, early in the overnight session both Brent and WTI continued their run for a third day, entering a bull market, 20% up from recent lows hit just last week (yet still 15% down on the year) when Saudi Arabia spoiled the momentum party after  the world’s biggest crude exporter said it’s keeping up investments in energy projects while diesel consumption in China dropped for a fourth consecutive month, signaling an industrial slowdown.