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We urge readers to do a word search for "Moody's" in the official department of justice release below. Here are the highlights:

DOJ COMPLAINT ALLEGES S&P LIED ABOUT ITS OBJECTIVITY - when it downgraded the US?
HOLDER SAYS S&P'S ACTIONS CAUSED `BILLIONS' IN LOSSES - did Moody's actions, profiled previously here, which happens to be a major holding of one Warren Buffett, cause billions in profits?
HOLDER SAYS `NO CONNECTION' BETWEEN S&P SUIT, U.S. DOWNGRADE - just brilliant

Pure pathetic political posturing, because it was the rating agencies, whose complicity and conflicts of interest everyone knew about, who were responsible for the financial crisis. Not Alan Greenspan, not Ben Bernanke, and certainly not Wall Street which made tens of billions in profits selling CDOs to idiots in Europe and Asia. Of course, the US consumer who had a gun held against their head when they were buying McMansions with no money down and no future cash flow is not even mentioned.

In the same way as any and every risk-asset in the world, the price of yield-providing CMBS (commercial mortgage backed securities) have risen to post-crisis highs in the last few months. These are some of the epicentric deals from the crisis that now trade close to par once again. However, the last month or so has not seen CMBS prices push higher with stocks and it appears, as the FT notes, that the reason is becoming clear in the post-holiday-shopping period. CMBS cash-flow streams are set to drop considerably as up to 15 per cent of the country’s suburban retail centres forecast to close over the next five years in the face of online competition. Retail is regarded as an especially risky component of CMBS as a mall can go downhill if an important tenant shuts its store because other tenants are usually able to renegotiate their leases if a traffic-driving anchor tenant leaves. That can have severe consequences for CMBS exposed to the mortgage on the property.

The Truth About Facebook That No Media Outlet Or Analyst Has Bothered To Notice

• 'London Whale' Sounded an Alarm on Risky Bets (WSJ)
• Deadly Blast Strikes U.S. Embassy in Turkey (WSJ)
• Abe Shortens List for BOJ Chief as Japan Faces Monetary Overhaul (BBG)
• Endowment Returns Fail to Keep Pace with College Spending (BBG) - More student loans
• Mexico rescue workers search for survivors after Pemex blast kills 25 (Reuters)
• Lingering Bad Debts Stifle Europe Recovery (WSJ)
• Peregrine Founder Hit With 50 Years (WSJ) - there is hope Corzine will get pardoned yet
• Deutsche Bank to Limit Immediate Bonuses to 300,000 Euros
• France's Hollande to visit Mali Saturday (Reuters)
• France, Africa face tough Sahara phase of Mali war (Reuters)
• Barclays CEO refuses bonus (Barclays)
• Edward Koch, Brash New York Mayor During 1980s Boom, Dies at 88 (BBG)
• Samsung Doubles Tablet PC Market Share Amid Apple’s Lead (BBG)

Nice try, but they still haven't addressed margin compression. They need a new business model to counter Android's "less than free" approach. Watch their chart imitate the cliff dive, once again!

As the world awaits the launch of the iBlackberry 10 this morning, we thought some reflection on the hope that is priced into RIMM's shares in comparison to the reality on the ground. The trends below will need violent distortion if the new BustBerry is to win and Thorsten Heins dreams come true... if you build it? Though, as Bloomberg notes, IDC estimates that RIMM will only have 4.1% of the market by 2016 - little changed from today..."The low-hanging fruit is the BlackBerry faithful, after that, they bump up against the Android and  Apple users out there."

• Fed Pushes Into ‘Uncharted Territory’ With Record Assets (BBG)
• Next up in the currency wars: Korea - Samsung Drops on $2.8 Billion Won Profit-Cut Prediction (BBG)
• China Warns ‘Hot Money’ Inflows Possible on Easing From Abroad (Bloomberg)
• BOJ Shirakawa affirms easy policy pledge but warns of costs (Reuters)
• Merkel Takes a Swipe at Japan Over Yen (WSJ)
• Wages in way of Abe’s war on deflation (FT)
• Italian PM under fire over bank crisis (FT)
• Senior officials urge calm over islands dispute (China Daily)
• Spain tries to peel back business rules (FT)
• Rifts Over Cyprus Bailout Feed Broader Fears (WSJ)
• Soros Says the Euro Is Here to Stay as Currency War Looms (BBG)

iBubble goes iPop bringing the iNaz down for the iFall. You know I just can't help myself...

I'll let the numbers and facts speak for themselves as the #FanBois grope for something to retort... It's "knowledge how", not "knowledge that"!!!

It looks like what may be good for the environment is actually bad news for the government.  

As the video denotes below, here we have big brother traded on an exchange

As the world's equity markets prepare to rally on the back of yet more central bank printing as Japan's Shinzo Abe takes the helm with a 2% inflation target and a central bank entirely in his pocket, The Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard suggests a rather concerning analog for the last time a Japanese prime-minister attempted to salvage his deflation/depression strewn nation. The 1930s 'brilliant rescue' by Korekiyo Takahashi, who removed Japan from the Gold Standard, ran huge 'Keynesian' budget deficits intentionally, and compelled the Bank of Japan to monetize his debt until the economy was back on its feet managed to devalue the JPY by 60% (40% on a trade-weighted basis). Initially this led to exports rising dramatically and brief optical stability, but the repercussion is the unintended consequence (retaliation) that the world missed then and is missing now. Though the economy appeared to stabilize, the responses of other major exporting nations, implicitly losing in the game of world trade, caused Japan's policies to backfire, slowed growth and left a nation needing to chase its currency still lower - eventually leading to hyperinflation in Japan (and Takahashi's assassination). With no Martians to export to, why should we expect any difference this time? and how much easier (and quicker) are trade flows altered in the current world?

With the BoJ and the Japanese government set to announce the now much-anticipated (and oft-repeated rumor) 2% inflation target in a joint (yet, rest reassured completely independent) statement, we have seen JPY swing from a 0.4% weakening to a 0.6% strengthening (sell the news?) and back to middle of the day's range by the time Europe closed. Cable (GBPUSD) has quite a day, dropping almost 100 pips top to bottom before bouncing back a little. This is 5 month lows for GBP as the triple-dip response of Mark Carney's new deal starts to get discounted. The USD ended practically unchanged despite all this as European sovereigns leaked wider, CHF strengthened modestly (2Y Swiss positive) and US equity futures did a small stop-run helped by the JPY crosses. It seems the zero-sum game in global FX competitive devaluation, as Steve Englander notes, has a long way to go, for if the UK and Japan, among others, are determined to crowd in growth by boosting exports, their currencies will have to fall a lot more than is now priced in.

AAPL stock is currently trading at or just under the $500 "generational bottom" in the premarket session, or nearly a one year low, following news first from Japan's Nikkei that Apple has slashed orders for iPhone 5 components, and then from the WSJ, that demand for the flagship phone was far less than expected, resulting in a cut in orders in the supply chain. Per the WSJ: "Apple's orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had previously planned to order, the people said.  The Cupertino, Calif., company has also cut orders for components other than screens, according to one of the people.  Apple notified the suppliers of the order cut last month, the people said."

• London Quantitative Hedge Funds Report Second Year of Losses (BBG)
• Berlusconi Forms Alliance in Comeback Bid (WSJ)
• Japan to Buy ESM Bonds Using FX Reserves to Help Weaken Yen (BBG)
• Japan Mulling BOJ Accord Linked to Employment, Mainichi Says (BBG)
• Samsung Expects Record Operating Profit (WSJ)
• Boeing 787 Dreamliner Fire Probed, Blaze Adds to Setbacks (BBG)
• BOJ's Shirai: Open to Firmer Inflation Target (WSJ)
• HSBC N.J. Client Admits Conspiracy in Offshore Tax Case (BBG)
• Lampert to Assume CEO Role at Sears (WSJ)
• Abe prepares fresh stimulus measures (FT)
• U.S. Set for Biggest State-Local Jobs Boost Since 2007 (BBG)
• Pakistan Seen Needing IMF Bailout as Rupee Drops Before Vote (BBG)