Wait, isn't direct funding of the Treasury against US policy: after all, hasn't Bernanke been on the record countless times repeating that the Fed does not monetize the US deficit? Not anymore...

Operating largely out of public view - in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service - the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government’s ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans. This is precisely what Obama will be remembered for by history, bailing out and protecting the 0.01%, at the expense of everyone else.

Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur has decided to cancel the New Year's fireworks display, after receiving the advice of Belgium's coordinating unit for threat analysis.

2015's stock market range (from high to low) is among the narrowest since World War II. This 'compression' has led the horde of asset-gatherers and commission-takers to suggest that stocks are a "coiled spring" ready to burst higher from this newly-formed permanent plateau. However, as S&P Capital IQ's Sam Stoval notes, that is the exact opposite of what to expect based on history. In fact a narrow range year is typically followed by a low return year, not a high return year.

In a move that will surely raise even more eyebrows if not launch a shockwave across Palo Alto just yet, Fidelity Investments said in its monthly holdings report that it has slashed the valuations of even more unicorns, starting with the biggest one of all, Uber, when it lowered the value of its stake in the company's Series D shares by 7.5% from Oct. 30-Nov. 30, while adding more pain to Dropbox investors when it lowered its value of the cloud service company by another -2.2%.

First thing this morning, when previewing the key event of the day, namely today's auction of $29 billion in 7 Year Treasurys, we said that "with the issue not anywhere close to trading "special" in repo, the risk for a big tail - like in yesterday's 5Y auction - is high." And, just like yesterday, when we again correctly predicted the tail on the 5Year (following the very strong squeeze into the 2Year the day before) moments ago we got just what we expected when the Treasury announced that it had sold the $29 billion of Cusip N30 at a yield of 2.161%, the highest since September 2014, but more importantly tailing 0.5 bps to the 2.156% When Issued.