Gross Domestic Product

• Nikkei tops 20,000, Europe hits 15-year high (Reuters)
• GE to sell real estate holdings, sets $50 billion share buyback (Reuters)
• Iran’s Middle Class Plans for Life After a Deal (BBG)
• Walgreens to Close 200 Stores as It Expands Cost Cuts (WSJ)
• Hillary Clinton expected to announce presidential run as soon as this weekend (Reuters)
• It will cost $1.5 billion to keep Deutsche Bank Libor Manipulators out of prison  (USA Today)
• Police Cameras Bring Problems of Their Own (WSJ)
• Obama says concerned China bullying others in South China Sea (Reuters)
• Investors Revive Appetite for Asian Junk Bonds (WSJ)

When discussing the Iran "deal" which isn't a deal, but merely a " Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action", there are two key things one must keep in mind: the location of Iran's nuclear facilities and its oil infrastructure. Here is a quick take on both.

In a move presaged by objections from politicians and some smaller EU financial institutions, the German lender L-Bank is suing the ECB in a bid to avoid falling under the central bank’s direct supervision. WSJ calls this "the most radical step by a European bank against ECB supervision [and] highlights the headwinds the ECB is facing from some politicians and smaller lenders in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy."

This long-term weakening of the economy is the direct result of financialization and the Federal Reserve's policy of propping up impaired debt with more debt and constantly bringing demand forward with zero interest rates.  The U.S. economy is slowing to stall speed--the point when gravity overcomes the lift provided by central bank free money. This deceleration is evident in a number of indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), which is now at 0% according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow model.

There is only one way to end the financial tyranny of the Federal Reserve--abolish it, and put an end to the predatory pathologies of its policies...

• Setbacks and progress as Iran, six powers meet to end nuclear impasse (Reuters)
• Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Leave Iran Nuclear Talks (WSJ)
• Obama Ramps Up Lobbying on Iran as Deadline Looms (WSJ)
• Greek yields edge up as lenders scrutinise reform pledge (Reuters)
• Oil prices drop on possible Iran deal, dollar (Reuters)
• Yemen’s Houthis Battle for Aden as Saudi Strikes Hit Rebels (BBG)
• Iran nuclear deal to see $20 oil if Tehran floods crude market (Telegraph)
• China’s Zhou Says PBOC Has Room to Act on Growth Slowdown (BBG)

• Germanwings Airbus crashes in France, 148 feared dead (Reuters)
• Greece promises list of reforms by Monday to unlock cash (Reuters)
• Merkel Points Tsipras Toward Deal With Greece’s Creditors (BBG)
• Banks Shift Bond Portfolios -Move to ‘held to maturity’ category aims to guard against rising rates, shield capital  (WSJ)
• Beijing to Shut All Major Coal Power Plants to Cut Pollution (BBG)
• As Silence Falls on Chicago Trading Pits, a Working-Class Portal Also Closes (NYT)
• Oil below $56 as Saudi output near record, China activity slows (Reuters)

*FISCHER SAYS RATE LIFTOFF LIKELY WARRANTED BEFORE END-2015

With the world now convinmced that Janet Yellen is as dovish as she has ever been on rate hikes, today comes the first post-FOMC speech. None other than Vice-chair Stanley Fischer is due to address The Economic Club of New York on the topic of "Monetary-policy lessons and the way ahead." As Art Cashin warned this morning, Fischer "seems to feel that the Fed must raise rates this year. He is also the only Fed official to concede that any rate hike will be different than any seen before."

In the previous installments of this series, we discussed the hidden and often unspoken crisis brewing within the employment market, as well as in personal debt. The primary consequence being a collapse in overall consumer demand, something which we are at this very moment witnessing in the macro-picture of the fiscal situation around the world. Lack of real production and lack of sustainable employment options result in a lack of savings, an over-dependency on debt and welfare, the destruction of grass-roots entrepreneurship, a conflated and disingenuous representation of gross domestic product, and ultimately an economic system devoid of structural integrity — a hollow shell of a system, vulnerable to even the slightest shocks.

Less than three weeks ago, when the PBOC proceeded with its latest "surprise" rate cut, we showed a chart that should scare everyone who is hoping that China will avoid a hard-landing would prefer would never have been revealed: the annual collapse in Chinese home prices is now so sharp and so widespread, that it has surpassed the housing collapse in the aftermath of the Lehman collapse." Overnight things went from bad to worse, when China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that contrary to hopes for a modest rebound, China's average new home prices fell at the fastest pace on record in February from a year earlier.

In the first part of this article series, we discussed the true state of global demand, along with the unstable situation within numerous indicators from exports to retail. Swiftly falling global demand for raw materials as well as consumer goods is an undeniable reality. This is a distinct problem in terms of the U.S., which has been, up until recently, the primary consumption driver for much of the world. As we will show, U.S. demand is about to fall even further into the abyss as real unemployment and personal debt take their toll.

There is no mystery anywhere to be found in the fact that US retail sales don’t follow the jobs trend. Not if you look at what kind of jobs they are, let alone at all the other made up and manipulated numbers that are being thrown around about the US economy. The only mystery is why everyone persists in talking about a recovery. That recovery will never come, simply because all 90% of Americans do is pay for the other 10% to get richer. There are many other factors, but that all by itself makes a recovery a mathematical mirage.

"Exceptionally" optimistic, "exceptionally distracted" ignorance, or "exceptionally blind" faith?

Simply put -  the Greek economy still consumes more than it earns. Despite a 25% contraction in its economy, a plunge in domestic consumption and a sharp decline in imports, as WSJ reports, Greece is still exporting less than it imports, i.e. its current account is still negative. The reason... Shipping.