Ford

• Saudi Arabia, allies launch air strikes in Yemen against Houthi fighters (Reuters)
• Pilot on Crashed Jet Was Locked Out of Cockpit, NY Times Says (BBG)
• Why Bombing This Tiny Oil Producer Is Roiling the Energy Market (BBG)
• U.S.-led coalition, Iraqis pound Islamic State in Tikrit (Reuters)
• Munger Says Prepare for Harder World as Buying Power Slides (BBG),Mocks Greek ‘Idiotic Idea’ You Can Vote Yourself Rich (BBG)
• The Central Banker Who Saved the Russian Economy From the Abyss (BBG)
• Bank of Canada says foreign buyers complicate housing market (Reuters)
• Investors Scoop Up Companies’ Bonds (WSJ)
• Espirito Santo Probe Turns Mariana Mortagua Into Portuguese Star (BBG)

Our views on some of the popular oil-market related topics including Saudi, 'Fracklog', E&P Funding Crisis, Dividend Cut by XOM? and final thought on Merit of the Integrated Model

Spending cuts for oil-directed drilling have dominated first quarter 2015 energy news but rig counts for shale gas drilling are too high. Investors should pay attention to this growing problem. Bank of America fears sub-$2 gas prices now that winter heating worries are over. Low natural gas prices affect the economics for gas-rich oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian basin plays as well as for the shale gas plays. Meanwhile, an orgy of over-production is taking place in the Marcellus Shale... Investors should carefully examine why shale gas players have not reduced rig counts more. Continued drilling in the Marcellus will crush natural gas prices further.

A shift in the mutual fund industry's stance towards grossly overvalued private tech startups may be embedding risk into the retirement accounts of unsuspecting Americans, suggesting that the rather creative valuations VCs and founders place on the latest app may be imperiling your 401k. It's called "chasing unicorns."

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 Billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. What they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 Trillion in federal business and support. Here is the visual representation of this stunning finding: for every dollar spent on influencing politics, the nation’s most politically active corporations received $760 from the government.

Having recently explained why the stock market is extremely overvalued (in his own words by Fed-driven multiple expansion alone), Alan Greenspan - seemingly brimming over with the need to remedy his years of lies/mistruths with some uncomfortable truthiness - is now taking on the US Dollar ("it is not from a strong US economy but a weak rest of the world") and oil prices (America has a massive surplus of oil and there may soon be nowhere to store all of it, "we'll be lucky if we can get $40 for it.")

Next week is all about the Fed, and the positioning or should I say De-Positioning will be taking place right up until the last minute of this all-important Fed Meeting.

Berkshire Hathaway is getting into the car-retailing business with the purchase of the country's biggest privately-held dealership chain. With auto sales set to stall thanks to subprime jitters, is the Oracle stepping into the wrong business at just the wrong time?

• ECB Starts Buying German, Italian Government Bonds Under QE Plan (BBG)
• Creditors Reject Greece's Reform Proposals (BBG)
• Is Apple Watch the Timex digital watch of the Internet era? (Reuters)
• Tesla shedding jobs in China as sales target missed (Reuters)
• Malaysia Airlines says expired battery on MH370 did not hinder search (Reuters)
• Gunmen kill more than 12 Islamic State militants in eastern Syria (Reuters)
• GM Plans Share Buyback, Averting Proxy Fight (WSJ)
• Wisconsin capital marked by third day of protests after police shooting (Reuters)

Goldman confirms precisely what we’ve been saying all along which is that the risks inherent in subprime lending are materializing and at the margin, growth in US auto sales has all been created by lowering credit standards and extending terms to a whole load of 'new' auto buyers.

A running theme here has been the great rotation of bubble-blowing credit from subprime housing to subprime auto-loans. Amid government probes of underwriting standards and soaring delinquencies, it appears when the least-creditworthy Americans are cut off from debt servitude, bad things happen in car sales... FORD FEB. U.S. LIGHT-VEHICLE SALES FALL 2.0%, EST. UP 5.8% (miss!). Worst Still - US Domestic Vehicle Sales Worst Start To The Year Since 2010. Of course, the real blame - as we will be told - is the weather... It seems Obama's new American Dream of a brand new Ford or GM (or Maserati) in every driveway may be another broken promise.

Exactly 15 years ago today, who said it?

"You want winners? [This] is what my fund is buying today to try to make money tomorrow and the next day and the next? You want my top 10 stocks for who is going to make it in the New World? You know what? I am going to give them to you. Right here. Right now. OK. Here goes. Write them down..."

Fifteen months later, Money magazine reported that [his] list had cratered 82%... Accountability ruins the game.

Those of us who are libertarians have a tendency to speak frequently of “the New World Order.” When doing so, we tend to be a bit unclear as to what the New World Order is. Is it a cabal of the heads of the world’s governments, or just the heads of Western governments? Certainly bankers are included somewhere in the mix, but is it just the heads of the Federal Reserve and the IMF, or does it also include the heads of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, etc.? And how about the Rothschilds? And the Bundesbank—surely, they’re in there, too?

• Central Banks With Negative Rates Spur Question of How Low to Go (BBG)
• DHS to keep running: Congress edges toward domestic security funding patch (Reuters)
• Setbacks for Tsipras Stir Discord in Greek Ruling Party (BBG)
• Greece’s Challenge: Appeasing Its Creditors and Its Population (WSJ)
• Buffett, a cheerleader for America, takes his checkbook abroad (Reuters)
• Oil’s Big Swings Are the New Normal: Market has rarely been more volatile (WSJ)
• Ukraine Left Behind as Russian Stock Gains Are Unmatched (BBG)
• Brent rises to $61, set for first monthly gain since July (Reuters)

• Goldman Employees Reaped $2 Billion From 2008 Options Last Year (BBG)
• On Bush turf, Obama blames immigration woes on Republicans (Reuters)
• Tougher Internet rules to hit cable, telecoms companies (Reuters)
• Russia's Gazprom says can exempt rebel-held areas from Ukraine gas contract (Reuters)
• Allianz Says Pimco Seeing ‘Substantially’ Lower Outflows (BBG)
• Merkel Faces Stepped-Up Dissent on Greek Bailout in Party (BBG)
• SEC Probes Companies’ Treatment of Whistleblowers (WSJ)
• 2-Year Trek From Turf to Table Delays Cheaper U.S. Beef (BBG)
• Turkish jets violate Greek air space (Kathimerini)