Switzerland

Think the Fed (with its balance sheet amounting to over 20% of US GDP), or the ECB (at 30% of GDP) is bad? Then take a look at the balance sheet of the Swiss National Bank, whose assets now amount to some 75% of Swiss GDP and which has now "literally bet the bank" in the words of the WSJ not once, not twice, but three times in a bid to keep the Swiss Franc - that default flight to safety haven - low, and engaging in what is semi-stealth currency warfare by buying other sovereigns' currencies for over two years now, although he hardly expect the US Treasury to even consider it for inclusion on its list of currency manipulators - after all, "everyone is doing it".

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the usual cadre of politicians, pundits and commentators are hitting the airwaves and condemning believers of the “guns don’t kill” rationale. This exercise in demonization is being followed with pleas to strip Americans of their guns and place a ban on vaguely-defined “assault” weapons. What’s been lacking in the flurry of proposals that inevitably followed a catastrophe like Sandy Hook has been a deeper look at the kind of environment impressionable minds are coming of age in. Far too often, politically-minded observers fall back on reactionary emotion for the solution to problems without actually engaging in critical thinking as to the root of what they are trying to solve. What must be considered is why some individuals are so drawn to violence, what effect has the increased prescription rate of antidepressants had, and why casualties in war have become so dehumanized. There is an uncomfortable but common denominator in all these factors. I would hope anti-gun zealots notice it before they ramp up their War on Firearms.

It is one thing for Pineapple republics like Greece (because only the US has full faith and credit in the "Banana" adjective) to have their former Prime Minister's mom be uncovered with $700 millions in Swiss accounts, or its former finance minister get caught literally whiting out his relatives (and perhaps himself?) from a list exposing tax evaders and offshore bank holders, but when the rulers of that bastion of neo-socialism, where everyone is equal, are shown as having done the same, and ostensibly "laundering tax fraud" and hiding unpaid taxes in some bank vault deep under the Swiss alps, implicitly having been part of that group of much hated "rich people" that the same regime is doing all it can to expel to progressive places such as Russia and Belgium, one can't help but wonder, are some more equal than others?

Gold dropped $8.20 or 0.49% in New York on Friday and closed at $1,656.30/oz. Silver slipped to as low as $29.22 in London, but it then rallied to as high as $30.25 in New York and finished with a gain of 0.2%. Gold finished down 0.05% for the week, while silver was up 0.53%.

Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls for December were 155K, 150K was expected and this was down from the previous data of 161K. The unemployment rate was still an elevated 7.8% suggesting a frail U.S. jobs market.

Something is going on that reeks of the dreaded phrase, “this time, it’s different”: secret discussions in Germany.

Though the banking elite are now increasingly being exposed for their criminal activities against humanity in their theft of citizens’ wealth, rarely is another one of their greatest transgressions, their theft of citizens’ minds and the process by which they target and transform young adults into docile, obedient creatures through institutional academia, ever discussed.

"Are the key governments and their leaders able to maintain confidence in this fragile system?" "Are 'they' going to do the 'right' things?"

My thoughts on what is headed our way

It’s getting hot: “unprecedented waves” of people are bailing out — not just the super-wealthy

Presenting Dave Collum's now ubiquitous and all-encompassing annual review of markets and much, much more. From Baptists, Bankers, and Bootleggers to Capitalism, Corporate Debt, Government Corruption, and the Constitution, Dave provides a one-stop-shop summary of everything relevant this year (and how it will affect next year and beyond).

Following on the heels of Byron Wien, Morgan Stanley's Surprises, and Saxo's Outrageous Predictions, Deutsche Bank's FX strategy team has created a who's who of 13 outliers for 2013. Quite frankly, given the extreme nature of monetary (and now fiscal) policy, asset allocation decisions, and bankers' and politicians' willingness to go into the media and lie directly to our faces, the comprehension of the possible (no matter how improbable) is far more important for risk management than the faith in the centrally-planned unreality our markets (and therefore ourselves) currently find themselves in. As they note, all too often, the tendency to not stray too far from a self-anchoring recent-history-extrapolated consensus (while apparently highly profitable for some for a microcosm of time) leads to unrecoverable drawdowns exactly when career-risk was the limiting factor. From Malaysian elections and EM bubbles bursting to Fed monetizing equities and South China Sea escalation, these outliers seem all to 'normal' in our brave new world.

Our biggest concern here on the cusp of 2013 is the current odd combination of extreme complacency about the risks presented by extend-and-pretend macro policy making and rapidly accelerating social tensions that could threaten political and eventually financial market stability. Before everyone labels us ‘doomers’ and pessimists, let us point out that, economically, we already have wartime financial conditions: the debt burden and fiscal deficits of the western world are at levels not seen since the end of World War II. We may not be fighting in the trenches, but we may soon be fighting in the streets. To continue with the current extend-and-pretend policies is to continue to disenfranchise wide swaths of our population - particularly the young - those who will be taking care of us as we are entering our doddering old age. We would not blame them if they felt a bit less than generous. The macro economy has no ammunition left for improving sentiment. We are all reduced to praying for a better day tomorrow, as we realise that the current macro policies are like pushing on a string because there is no true price discovery in the market anymore. We have all been reduced to a bunch of central bank watchers, only ever looking for the next liquidity fix, like some kind of horde of heroin addicts. We have a pro forma capitalism with de facto market totalitarianism. Can we have our free markets back please?

Presented with little commentary except to note that EURUSD's inexorable rise has pushed it to over 1000pips rich to the USD vs EUR swap-spread fair-value - or over 4 sigma rich from its three-year mean. Of course, critically, the EUR strength / USD weakness is doing wonders for risk assets, even if correlation had dropped a little. Simply remarkable. Meanwhile, Swiss 2Y rates have seen the biggest 2-day drop (safe-haven seeking flows) in 3 months... So Euro is bid and flows are flying into Switzerland? Doesn't exactly sound risk-on eh?

The United States is the only country that taxes American citizens even if they have never lived in the United States at any time. Once born American, you owe taxes as an economic slave even when you receive nothing and have never lived in the USA. This law passed last December that authorizes the confiscation of any firm’s assets if they do not report what an American citizen does overseas has been devastating. How Americans are being treated by their own country is not as a free individual, but as economic property to pay revenue to the government regardless of where they live. No other nation does this but the USA. We are in such serious trouble with this Sovereign Debt Crisis that all liberty is being lost. The desperate need for revenue to pay the bond holders has destroyed everything the constitution was intended to secure.

The following is a list of key events to watch over the next several weeks and months – events that could have bearing on how the euro sovereign debt crisis evolves.