Private Equity

• Yuan suffers biggest weekly loss as PBOC punishes speculators (Reuters)
• Euro Gains as Bonds Decline With Stocks on Inflation Data (BBG)
• Biggest Sovereign Fund Forced to Sell Stocks as Mandate Breached (BBG)
• Because we don't already have enough fried foods.. (Reuters)
• Putin: Russia to Consider Aid to Ukraine (AP)
• Wall Street Hates JPMorgan Fee for $1 Trillion Junk Loans (BBG)
• Yellen Sticks to Plan Amid Weather Doubts (WSJ)
• U.S. Retail Chains See First Profit Decline Since Recession (BBG)

Just like the rental bubble whose bursting we chronicled here just last week, so the institutional bubble has just popped, which we know courtesy of RealtyTrac data reporting that institutional investors — defined as entities purchasing at least 10 properties in a calendar year — accounted for 5.2 percent of all U.S. residential property sales in January, down from 7.9 percent in December and down from 8.2 percent in January 2013. This was the biggest one month plunge in history. It gets worse: the January share of institutional investor purchases represented the lowest monthly level since March 2012 — a 22-month low.

A national average sounds an alarm: investors that drove up the housing market are bailing out

• European Bonds Surge on Slowing German Inflation, Ukraine Tumult  (BBG)
• Ukraine tensions hit shares (Reuters)
• Debating Geithner’s Appearances in 2008 Transcripts  (Hilsenrath)
• Tensions in Asia Stoke Rising Nationalism in Japan (WSJ)
• GM Investigated Over Ignition Recall Linked to 13 Deaths (BBG)
• Smartphone wars shift from gadgetry to price (Reuters)
• Some Companies Alter the Bonus Playbook (WSJ)
• London’s Subterranean Luxury Manors Lure New Breed of Lenders (BBG)
• Japan No Country for Old Farmers as 7-Eleven Takes Plow (BBG)
• Dream of U.S. Oil Independence Slams Against Shale Costs (BBG)

The Fed Is Very Political … And Serves the Big Banks and the Powers-That-Be

All you need to know about the New Normal breed of crony capitalism and unbridled hypocrisy is once again best exemplified by the following quote by Charlie Munger - the lifetime business partner of crony capitalist par excellence Warren Buffett - from May 2013, in which he said that "I think it is very stupid to allow a system to evolve where half of the trading is a bunch of short term people trying to get information one millionth of a nanosecond ahead of somebody else. It's legalized front-running. I think it is basically evil and I don't think it should have ever been allowed to reach the size that it did. Why should all of us pay a little group of people to engage in legalized front-running of our orders?" Noble, noble words Charlie. What Munger, however, did not disclose is that as part of the Berkshire Hathaway-owned Business Wire news service, the company was enabling just this "basically evil" frontrunning, by allowing some, those who could afford the hefty fee of course, to make Munger and Buffett even richer and to subscribe to BW's HFT direct news access which gave them a few millisecond headstart and in the process frontrun everyone else.

Society is about to turn decidedly against the Bankers

• Ukraine leader denounces coup bid, West weighs sanctions (Reuters)
• Time to buy Imodium calls: Kuroda Easing Doomed as Yen Seen Missing 120 Level (BBG)
• Teens Disappear From U.S. Workforce (BBG)
• Fed Sets Rules for Foreign Banks (WSJ)
• Quant Funds Feel Investor Bite After Underperforming (BBG)
• China Probes Qualcomm, InterDigital Over Monopoly Concerns (WSJ)
• Capital One says it can show up at cardholders' homes, workplaces  (LATimes)
• SEC Gains Power to Take Profit Made From Insider Trading (BBG)

As we initially exposed over five years ago, with luminary frat brothers and sister such as Jimmy Cayne, Richard Fuld, Stan O'Neil, Martin Gruss, Michael Bloomberg, Jon Corzine, Mary Shapiro, Alan Schwartz, Larry Fink, Larry Fink, Wilbur Ross, James McDonald, this "secret" organization puts the Masons, Bilderbergs, Skull and Bones, Templars, Fight Club and all other secret societies to shame. Now, as New York Magazine infiltrates the inner workings of the "Kappa Beta Phi" society, Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes the following will confirm what everyone already thought - that a great many of these oligarch financiers are complete and total sociopaths and a menace to society. 

Cynic in me says it must be a data problem, that the computers got hacked, or something. But that’s wishful thinking.

• Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion (BBG)
• Italian leadership squabble weighs as shares halt hot run (Reuters)
• Russia says Syria aid draft could open door to military action (Reuters)
• China trust assets rise 46% in 2013  (WSJ), China Trust Assets Surge to $1.8 Trillion Amid Default Risks  (BBG)
• Australian Unemployment Jumps to 10-Year High (BBG)
• Tea Party Scorns Republicans as House Lifts Debt Ceiling (BBG)
• Peso plunge forces Argentine soya hoarding (FT)
• BNP Paribas Net Falls After $1.1 Billion U.S. Legal Charge (BBG)
• Hacking Joins Curriculum as Businesses Seek Cyber Skills (BBG)
• Android's 'Open' System Has Limits (WSJ)
• Blackstone-Fueled Single-Family Home Boom Lifts Chicago (BBG)

Crowdfunding is set to disrupt the finance industry. Its about time!

• Frustrated by Karzai, U.S. Shifts Afghanistan Exit Plans (WSJ)
• Yellen Testimony Guide From Payrolls Report to Emerging Markets (BBG)
• Gold hits three-month high, shares up ahead of Yellen (Reuters)
• Tightfisted New Owners Put Heinz on Diet (WSJ)
• Senator describes "gruesome" bin Laden photos (Reuters)
• More reasons for the ongoing economic contraction: U.S. Winter Storm Seen Spreading Snow, Sleet Across South (BBG)
• Barclays Cuts Up to 12,000 Jobs as Quarterly Profit Falls  (BBG)
• Boeing Considering 787-Size Medium-Range Jetliners (WSJ)
• AOL Chief Apologizes for ‘Distressed Babies’ Comment (BBG)

• Here is why AAPL bounced off $500: Apple Repurchases $14 Billion of Own Shares in Two Weeks (WSJ)
• German Court Refers OMT Decision to Europe's Top Court (WSJ)
• Inflation Fuels Crises in Two Latin Nations (WSJ)
• U.S. job growth seen snapping back from winter chill (Reuters)
• Google to own $750 million Lenovo stake after Motorola deal closes: HK exchange (Reuters)
• Frigid Winter Spells Trouble for U.S. Economy (BBG)
• Winter Games to open, Putin keen to prove doubters wrong (Reuters)
• Regulators Ready to Proceed on Bank Leverage Limit (WSJ)
• Abe Eyes Window for Biggest Military-Rule Change Since WWII (BBG)

• Emerging-Market Rout Seen Enduring on Low Real Rates (BBG)
• After rocky January, markets eye data and central banks (Reuters)
• Europe will feel the pain of emerging markets  (FT)
• Lloyds delays dividend prospect after mis-selling charge (Reuters)
• Snow Set to Snarl New York Commute as U.S. Flights Halted (BBG)
• Rate Decision to Drive Yellen's Early Agenda  (Hilsenrath)
• Thai protesters move to downtown Bangkok in bid to topple PM (Reuters)
• China says Japan's 'hype' on air defence zone spreads tension (Reuters)
• Hedge funds seek 1.8 billion euros damages from members of Porsche's owning family (Reuters)