Corruption

The news of Navinder Sarao's arrest, the scapegoat for all that is broken with the world's equity markets, may have come, gone and be largely forgotten, but while the CFTC is happy to have washed the corruption and incompetence off its hands by destroying the career of one insignificant trader (whatever happens, redirect public attention from the HFT firm that just came public and boasted of one trading loss day in 6 years) Sarao is facing decades in prison. And, what is worse for the alleged mastermind of the May 2010 flash crash, he won't even be able to enjoy a few weeks in quasi-freedom. Why? Because this lonely 36 year old, who "crashed" the entire market 5 years ago from his parents' basement (literally), can't even afford bail.

The European Parliament continues to surprise as the parliamentarians got to vote on raising their own paycheck (always a good idea). The best thing about the story is that not everyone voted in favor; but most did... and the numbers are stunning. Given all their failures over the last decade, why would anyone, any country, want to have these people take their decisions for them?

• Maryland Governor Calls in National Guard to Control Baltimore Riots (BBG)
• Fed Seen Delaying Liftoff to September to Push Down Unemployment (BBG)
• Nepal PM says toll could rise to 10,000 (Reuters)
• China Readies Fresh Easing to Tackle Specter of Debt (WSJ)
• ‘Damned Lies’ Threaten to Overshadow U.K. GDP in Election Fight (BBG)
• Uncertainty Over Impact of a Default by Greece (NYT)
• Why the Cost of Hedging European Banks Stocks Has Soared (BBG)
• Carinthia cash crunch gives Austria its own mini-Greece (Reuters)

What does it mean to be an effective advocate of liberty?

All problems, all crises, have at least one solution, if not many solutions. There is no such thing as an unwinnable scenario. Some may not be smart enough or courageous enough to see it, but the solution is always there, waiting to be discovered. The only fight that cannot be won is the fight in which the enemy makes all the rules and we foolishly abide by those rules. Life is not a game of chess, and a man can choose to be more than a pawn anytime he has the guts to do so. Collapse is already upon us; now we must decide who will determine what happens next.

"The downside risk would be to have broad-based outflows if the macro story deteriorates further or the stock exchange collapses, which would create a confidence crisis,” one analyst tells Bloomberg, as capital continues to flow out of China. The country faces accelerating capital outflows, a looming economic downturn, and an epic stock market bubble, and ironically, efforts to combat the latter two problems are very likely to exacerbate the former.

• Clinton charities will refile tax returns, audit for other errors (Reuters)
• China Warns North Korean Nuclear Threat Is Rising (WSJ), or another country realizes war is the only "exit"
• Shares, euro sag after euro zone PMIs disappoint (Reuters)
• China Manufacturing Gauge Drops to Lowest Level in 12 Months (BBG)
• Deutsche Bank Said to Pay $2.14 Billion in Libor Case (BBG), or roughly a €20,000 per banker "get out of jail" fee
• Brazil’s Petrobras Reports Nearly $17 Billion in Asset and Corruption Charges (WSJ)
• Can This Oil Baron’s Company Withstand Another Quake? (BBG)
• Bad for Q1 GDP: Raytheon sales fall amid weak U.S. defense spending (Reuters)

Appalled doesn’t cover it. Disgusted won’t do either. Angry doesn’t come close. Maybe we have yet to learn of a word that would express our feelings on the following topic. There’s a disease, an epidemic, that spreads through out the western world. We are all turning into accomplices to murder. And we still believe we are better than that. Just perhaps not all of us.

• Just How Leaky Is the Fed? More Than You May Realize (BBG)
• Republican Presidential Candidates Spar Over Party’s Future (WSJ)
• Euro Area Seeks Greece Roadmap to May Agreement (BBG)
• The $320 Billion Bogey Needed to Placate U.S. Stock Market Bulls (BBG)
• Seeking Obamacare alternative, Republicans eye tax credits (Reuters)
• Gundlach Says Market Hasn’t Seen Full Impact of Fed Moves (BBG)
• EU meets on migrant crisis as shipwreck corpses brought ashore (Reuters)
• Canada’s Own Oil Pipeline Problem (WSJ)

• Fed Shies Away From June Rate Hike (Hilsenrath)
• Europe Stocks Fall Most in Three Weeks Amid Greece as Banks Drop (BBG)
• China Futures Tumble on Trust Curbs, Expansion of Short Selling (BBG)
• Oil slips below $64 as ample supplies weigh (Reuters)
• Fed officials lean all ways on rate hikes, data in focus (Reuters)
• Eurozone deflation eases in March (FT)

The American people remain eager to be persuaded that a new president in the White House can solve the problems that plague us. Yet no matter who wins this next presidential election, you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we - the permanent underclass in America - will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private. It really doesn’t matter what you call them - the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex - so long as you understand that no matter which party occupies the White House in 2017, the unelected bureaucracy that actually calls the shots will continue to do so.

If you said these are all things that current or former IMF heads are or have been accused of, you are 100% correct.

A “soft landing” is unlikely. 

• Euro zone bond yields sink to historic lows (Reuters)
• Clinton Foundation to Keep Foreign Donors (WSJ)
• Russia says U.S. forced it to act on Ukraine (Reuters)
• Bankers to China's Rescue (BBG)
• Saudi Arabia Adds Half a Bakken to Global Oil Market in a Month (BBG)
• Valuations of Hong Kong's stock market operator go interstellar (Reuters)
• Switzerland Attracts Fewer Firms as Politics Hurt Business Image (BBG)