United States

It's no secret that trillions in global QE and the descent into the NIRP twilight zone have done very little to resuscitate global growth and trade in the wake of the crisis. 

Indeed, eight years on and the world is mired in subpar growth and faces a global deflationary supply glut that's driven commodity prices to their lowest levels of the twenty-first century on the way to undercutting central bankers' collective efforts to jumpstart inflation and keep the entire world from becoming Japanified.

• Oil lifts stocks off lows, yen and low-risk debt in favor (Reuters)
• Yes, this agaim: Oil gains after Russia says open to talking with OPEC (Reuters)
• More forecasts: Oil Prices Could Jump 50% by the End of 2016 (BBG)
• New Risks for Trump After Iowa Loss (WSJ)
• Yuan Gap Widens Again as Depreciation Bets Swamp PBOC Fightback (BBG)
• Germany Struggles to Assess Security Threats Ahead of Carnival Season (WSJ)
• Marco Rubio becomes early hope for mainstream U.S. Republicans (Reuters)

While the biggest news of the night had nothing to do with either oil or China, all that mattered to US equity futures trading also was oil and China, and since WTI managed to rebound modestly from their biggest 2-day drop in years, continuing the trend of unprecedented, HFT-driven volatility which has far surpassed that of equities and is shown in the chart below...

If Donald Trump has distanced himself from some of the positions held by two of the powerful wings of the conservative movement—free marketeers and evangelical Christians—he has provoked a fury among members of the third GOP wing, the neoconservatives, who for all practical purposes dominate the party’s foreign policy thinking.

Submitted by Daniel Bier via The Foundation for Economic Education,

Willie Sutton was one of the most infamous bank robbers in American history. Over three decades, the dashing criminal robbed a hundred banks, escaped three prisons, and made off with millions. Today, he is best known for Sutton’s Law: Asked by a reporter why he robbed banks, Sutton allegedly quipped, “Because that’s where the money is.”