President Obama

This morning both the SNB stunner from two weeks ago, and the less than stunning ECB QE announcement from last Thursday are long forgotten, and the only topic on markets' minds is the startling surge of Syriza and its formation of a coalition government with another anti-bailout party - a development that many in Europe never expected could happen, and which has pushed Europe to the bring of the unexpected yet again. And while there is much speculation that this time Europe is much better positioned to "handle a Grexit", the reality is that European bank balance sheets are as bad if not worse than in 2014, 2013, 2012 or any other year for that matter, because none of ther €1+ trillion in NPLs have been addressed and the only thing that has happened is funding bank capital deficiencies with newly printed money. You know what they say about solvency and liquidity.

Israel indicated earlier today that it has finally had it with Obama, with the above sequence of events culminated in what Haaretz described was a reciprocal snub of the "leader of the free world" by Israel's president Reuven Rivlin, who declined a White House invitation to meet with Obama during his upcoming US trip: After consultations, Rivlin finally declined the American suggestion. His advisers explained to the Americans that the two leaders’ schedules do not overlap, because Rivlin is expected to return to Israel before Obama gets back to Washington.  “At this stage, it has been agreed not to hold a meeting during his visit, due to the schedule constraints of both leaders, and that a meeting would be scheduled at a later date,” the statement said.

The government’s health insurance website is quietly sending consumers’ personal data to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing... but it's for your own good - The Obama administration says HealthCare.gov’s connections to data firms were intended to help improve the consumer experience.

With President Obama shunning Bibi and cutting short his India trip (along with Michelle) to meet new Saudi Arabian King Salman (dementia and all), we thought this cartoon summed up the relationship between America and its oil-exporting ally...

Since last May (and likely long before) when the topic of "de-dollarization" was first uttered in official circles (and not just tin-foil-hat-wearing blogs), the rest of the world (un-isolated as they are) has been warming to the idea that perhaps - just perhaps - it is time to de-dollarize (more or less depending on the despotic region in question). From currency swap agreements to bi-lateral trade agreements to selling US Treasuries and greatly rotating USD reserves into gold, the world's nations (small and large) appear less and less comfortable holdings dollars in this tempestuous world. Among the supporters of that first "de-dollarization" meeting were China and Iran and while the former continues to work down its exposure, the latter - Iran, according to Tasnim news agency, has almost entirely eliminated USDollars from its reserves and is no longer using dollars in foreign trade. De-dollarization complete...

Well you have to laugh really...

Are you smarter than a 9th grader? Then you will be quite at home with President Obama's latest State of The Union speech. While the Flesch-Kincaid readability test shows SOTU 'smartness' has been plunging Woodrow Wilson, the collapse has accelerated post-Clinton with President Obama's average SOTO speech tailored to the intellect of a 14-year-old - the lowest on record.

Having explained to all the 10th graders in the nation how 'everything is awesome' and "the crisis has passed," President Obama starts his roadshow to populise the many myths and factnesses from his State of The Union speech. Speaking at Boise State University, we suspect the call for more research dollars will leads nicely into his package of "middle class economics" fixes...

• Obama Targets Income Gap in Address That Shapes 2016 Election (BBG)
• Republicans Reject Obama’s Main Economic Proposals (WSJ)
• Senate’s Shelby Says White House Bank Tax Is Dead on Arrival (BBG)
• Is Dollar Next? Investors Reassess After Swiss Shock: Currencies (BBG)
• Bank of Japan Cuts Price Forecast, Maintains Record Stimulus (BBG)
• Pound Weakens After BOE Policy Makers Drop Call to Raise Rates (BBG)
• Putin not flinching on Ukraine despite economic crisis (Reuters)
• Indonesia will not make public full preliminary AirAsia crash report (Reuters)
• Party Hasn't Stopped for Russians at Davos Even With Ukraine Sanctions (BBG)

UPDATE: Full SOTU Speech released - "THE SHADOW OF CRISIS HAS PASSED"

By now it is well known that The State of The Union tonight will be about President Obama's Robin-Hood Agenda. Furthermore, it is entirely clear that his proposals have no chance of becoming law. As WaPo's Marc Thiessen notes, Obama is not delusional, his move is completely and transparently political... And just as Eric Cantor suggests will merely serve to inflame the GOP. From taxes to cyber security and from community college to housing... in 50-65 minutes, all will be clear...

In Zero Hedge tradition we provide the thinking man's (unfortunately The State of the Union has just got dumber and dumber over the years) and drinking man's (for those who need libation to persevere through the populism) guide to tonight's imperial leader's prognostications of wealth redistribution. Last year's SOTU saw the most uses of the word "folks" and we are betting (figuratively of course) that tonight's speech will top that for "Peak Folks". Obama has used "love" more than Clinton and "Energy" more than Bush...

When President Obama ascends to the podium this evening to deliver his State of the Union address, he’ll undoubtedly shine a spotlight on the many strengths of America. The real issue, however, isn’t where the United States is today. The problem is where it’s going. And quickly...

Having noted that voter angst has been riled, propagandized, and fear-mongered to the point at which the most pressing priority for Congress is to 'fix' terrorism, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that we discover - deep down in the archives - that giving the public someone to 'hate' as opposed to something may have been an entire fiction. As The New York Times exposed in 2007, Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, the titular head of the Islamic State, according to Brigadier General Kevin Bergner - the chief American military spokesman at the time - never existed (and was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima). So he was a ghost back then.... is he a ghost again, designed purely to put a face on ISIS and the biggest bogeyman of the current global anti-terrorist mania?

"When we see the results of polls like the one below, we realize there is no chance the majority will do anything to reverse the course of America's terminal decline. It will take a complete collapse and bloody reset before we have a chance at putting this country back on a sustainable rational course..."

Top ten things that investors will likely be watching in the week ahead.