(source: www.tweetping.net)

 

Jeez: finally the euro starts weakening again and along comes Weidmann, warning of inflation. If it goes to 1.40 we are talking deflation if you ask me…

·         http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5bef28f4-7471-11e2-b323-00144feabdc0.html

·         http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/bundesbank-praesident-weidmann-warnt-vor-waehrungskrieg-a-882712.html

 

…on the other hand, he has a point: look at the price of oil measured in Japanese yen (and ignore the yellow line below)

·         http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-11/immovable-object-path-abes-unstoppable-reflationary-force

 

Speaking of Japan: the Finance Minister just issued a price target for the Nikkei: 17% higher by March of this year!

·         http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/10/business/japans-economic-minister-wants-nikkei-to-surge-17-to-13000-by-march/

·         http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/02/11/when-the-finance-minister-targets-stock-prices/

 

A scary chart for sure, but the high multiple in Japan is for a big part related to the relatively low taxes over there…

 

·         http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-11/sovereign-defaults-past-and-present-one-chart

 

From last week’s Global Investment Returns Yearbook: the difference between various shocks…

·         http://www.businessinsider.com/vix-volatility-reversion-to-mean-2013-2

 

Correlation and causation: very difficult concepts apparently… Now that risk on/risk off has disappeared, watch this correlation decline…

·         http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-11/its-not-economy-its-inflation-fed-stupid

 

Talking about causation: this Pope abdication spells bad news for Welsh rugby…

·         http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2013/02/11/a-different-theory-for-why-the-pope-resigned/

 

Good news for them goldbugs out there: gold generates a dividend yield! “Unobservable”, so it is a bit like Higgs Boson… NBER

·         http://www.nber.org/papers/w18759.pdf

 

And speaking of gold: we do not have enough to pay off government debt. Not unless the price rises massively, that is!

·         http://www.bondvigilantes.com/blog/2013/02/11/should-eurozone-governments-use-their-gold-reserves-to-lower-their-borrowing-costs/

 

Volumes in traded stocks have gone down, but volumes in options have held out pretty ok…

·         http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-where-the-sp-500-trading-volume-went-2013-2

 

And a word of warning on Big Data…

·         http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/02/big-data-means-big-errors-people/

 

One thing is different from last recessions: government spending

·         http://www.businessinsider.com/janet-yellen-chart-shows-how-fiscal-policy-has-been-a-huge-drag-2013-2

 

Nice: it takes the median Romanian 350 years of work to earn 1 million USD. Without paying taxes that is

·         http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/02/daily-chart-4

 

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