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While it will hardly come as a surprise to many that after making it abundantly clear that Germany is in total disagreement with ECB monetary policies, culminating in the departure of Jurgen Stark from the European central printing authority, Germany will not permit irresponsible, Bernanke-esque monetary policies, it probably should be noted that even following the most recent escalation of adverse developments in Europe, which are now on the verge of unwinding the entire Eurozone and with it the affiliated fake currency, that the German central bank just said that any European QE could only come over its dead body. Today channeling the inscription to the gates of hell from Dante's inferno is none other than yet another Bundesbank board member, Carl-Ludwig Thiele, who said that "Europe must abandon the idea that printing money, or quantitative easing, can be used to address the euro zone debt crisis...One idea should be brushed aside once and for all - namely the idea of printing the required money. Because that would threaten the most important foundation for a stable currency: the independence of a price stability orientated central bank."

Business school curricula today completely lacks the necessary knowledge to survive the deepening and widening global monetary & economic crisis. We offer a video and a few thoughts below regarding the type of knowledge that will help you prepare.

It is not what the few do but what the many don’t do. That really represents what we are all about, co-conspirators in a sea of silence. Marines who view despicable acts committed by other marines remain silent; the officers, who are well aware of this behavior, condone it, invariably following the “ethical criminal” attitude in war morality of “when in war, shit happens”; and the nation prefers to play the part of Pontius Pilates.

Are countries which want to trade in their own currencies or to own their own central banks getting spanked ?

For months in a row, the core propaganda meme seeking to drag lambs into the ponzi, has been one of "ignore Europe - it is irrelevant." Naturally this "narrative" was primarily spread by expendable C-grade media elements whose careers will promptly terminate once this latest episode of artificial "decoupling" is over, as we have been warning for months (at a cost to the S&P of over 200 points). And judging by today's US Trade Balance, which came in at a whopping $47.8 billion on expectations of $45 billion, the widest gap since June, which was driven due a plunge in European exports as the European economy is shriveling in the grips of what is about to be a doozy of a recession, it may be time to polish those resumes as the inevitable decoupling approaches with every passing hour. Yet one of the best comments on what Europe really means for the world comes from none other than Bank of America. While we have discussed previously that BAC is doing its best to crush the market and to precipitate QE3, thus like everyone else, always having an agenda in its message, what it is saying is spot on. And it is as follows: "Europe matters, according to the most oft-heard arguments, because of its size and the euro’s reserve currency status. The Euro area’s systemic relevance (both in trade and financial terms) means that its governance crisis is a global menace. This narrative portrays Europe as a self-contained shock emitter, with the rest of the world cast as innocent bystander. Rather, much like the Lehman bust, the current Euro area crisis may be a symptom of faulty globalized finance. Europe is rightly being held to account for fiscal mismanagement, but there may be bigger cracks in the background." Spot on, and it gets even worse, which we urge everyone who still doesn't grasp the linkages between Europe and the US to read on.

2011 was a merry-go-round of more bailouts, more deferrals and more denial. Everyone is tired of the Eurozone. It’s not fixable. There’s too much debt. The politicians don’t know what’s going on. Nothing has structurally changed. We’re still on the wrong path. There’s more global debt than there was a year ago, and it’s the same old song: extend and pretend, extend and pretend,… around and around we go,… and it isn’t fun anymore. Just as we wrote back in October 2007, and again in September 2008, we feel compelled to state the obvious: that the financial system is a farce. It’s a complete, cyclical farce that defies all efforts to right itself. This past year continued the farcical tradition with some notable scandals, deferrals and interventions that underscored the system’s continuing addiction to government interference. With the glaring exception of US Treasuries and the US dollar (which are admittedly two of our least favourite asset classes), it was not a year that rewarded stock picking or safe-haven assets. Many developments during the year bordered on the ridiculous, and despite some positive news out of the US, we saw little to test our bearish view. If anything, our view was continually re-affirmed.

This is very likely the time to be fearful when others are greedy.

In plain terms, both the IMF and Germany have stated they will help Greece if and only if Greece agrees to various measures… which they KNOW Greece cannot agree to. And so the Greek issue has become a kind of “hot potato” that no one wants to keep holding. Meanwhile, every day that this issues doesn’t get solved, the EU as a whole moves closer to systemic failure.

Just like during the holiday "break" the market is euphoric, however, briefly, on the fact that Italy sold Bills , however many, in a period protected by the 3 year LTRO. And just like the last time this happened, about two weeks ago, this auction shows nothing about the demand for Italian paper longer than 3 years, which unfortunately Italy not only has a lot of, but is rolling even more of it. And none of this changes what World Bank President Zoellick told Welt yesterday, namely that the Europe’s interbank market is frozen and continent’s banks only lend to each other through ECB due to a lack of confidence within the financial industry, World Bank President Robert Zoellick is quoted as saying by German daily Die Welt. He continues: "If European banks don’t lend to each other, how can others in the U.S. or in China be expected to do it." Anyway, here courtesy of Bloomberg's Daybook are the key overnight events as we prepare for the ECB 7:45 announcement and subsequent conference.

Quick, what country is the economic engine that will power world growth? If you answered "China," you're far from alone. But there's another country that deserves as much attention and better yet, is much friendlier to investment: India, home to 1.2 billion people. To electrify all those houses, power the industries that keep all those people employed, and fuel the vehicles that more and more Indians own, India's energy needs are shooting skyward. First question to consider: what kind of energy does India need? Just about every kind, really. India encompasses significant reserves of coal, oil, and gas, but each year it has to import more and more to meet its rapidly rising demand. Domestic production increases have been hampered by land disputes, interminably slow permitting, and government-regulated pricing mechanisms that discourage development. That's got to change if India wants to keep up, and its government knows it. Domestic supplies always come with better reliability, better prices, and other benefits that we can shorten into two words: energy security. So India is reaching out to foreign oil majors, quietly setting up deals to exchange stakes in giant, underexplored oil and gas fields for the technical expertise it needs to best develop these resources. These partnerships are working into place slowly. However, they show Delhi is serious about the welcome mat it rolled out in 2000, when it passed a policy that allows foreign companies to own 100% of any oil and gas assets they may want to acquire for exploration and development. And what we really like is that explorers are welcome in a democratic and reasonably friendly country that harbors none of the risk of asset nationalization that clings to other underexplored locales, like Venezuela.

Weird ending to a weird story.

In each of the years 2008, 2009, and 2010, significant worries emerged that Western nations might attack Iran. Here again in 2012, similar concerns are once again at the surface. Why revisit this topic again? Simply because if actions against Iran trigger a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world's daily sea-borne oil passes, oil prices will spike, the world's teetering economy will slump, and the arrival of the next financial emergency will be hastened. Even if the strait remains open but Iran is blocked from being an oil exporter for a period of time, it bears mentioning that Iran is the third largest exporter of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia and Russia. Once again, I am deeply confused as to the timing of the perception of an Iranian threat, right now at this critical moment of economic weakness. The very last thing the world economies need is a vastly increased price for oil, which is precisely what a war with Iran will deliver. Let me back up. The US has already committed acts of war against Iran, though no formal declaration of war has yet been made. At least if Iran had violated US airspace with stealth drones and then signed into law the equivalent of the recent US bill that will freeze any and all financial institutions that deal with Iran out of US financial markets, we could be quite confident that these would be perceived as acts of war against the US by Iran. And rightly so.

While we have long asserted that any attempt to be bullish this market (and economy) by necessity should at least involve the thought experiment of eliminating such pro forma crutches as trillions in excess liquidity from the Fed, not to mention direct and indirect intervention by the central planners in virtually all asset classes, which in turn drives frequent periods of brief decoupling between various geographies and asset classes (which always converge) and thus economic performance (because as Bernanke will tell you gladly, the economy is the market), an exercise which would expose a hollow facade, a broken market and an economy in shambles, in never hurts to ask just what, if anything, do the bulls "see" and how do they spin a convincing case that attempts to sucker in others into the great ponzi either voluntarily, or like in China, at gun point. Alas, our imagination is lacking for an exercise such as this, but luckily David Rosenberg has dedicated his entire letter to clients from this morning precisely to answer this question. So for anyone who is wondering just what it is that those who have supposedly "climbed the wall of worry" see, here is your answer.

With the EURUSD below 1.27, it was time for today's Europe bailout, which just came courtesy of Frau Merkel, who in a press conference with Monti stated the following:

• Merkel says Germany willing to pay more capital into ESM at the start in order to give message to markets
• Merkel says if soldairy is necessary we are ready to react immediately
• Merksel says there is still much money in the European structure and cohesion funds

Of course, none of this is news, and merely means that Germany is delighted to prepay in order to subjugate Europe faster. We expect the kneejerk reaction in the EURUSD to be promptly reversed. But for now some of the weaker shorts have been burned.