Davos

On January 22, 2012, candidate François Hollande called banks the “enemy.” Now you’d think he is being tutored by Jamie Dimon.

While we know that most of the world's billionaires are currently holed up in Davos, Bloomberg has created a visual extravaganza for tracking the great and good of our fair world. The real-time billionaire tracker maps the world's richest people to their country of citizenship, industry, gender, age, and source of wealth. We assume this is the new deal target for our administration - how long before we see these headshots on the back of a set of playing cards?

Hey there Breuer, who you jiving with that cosmic banksta debris?

Those wondering if Steve Cohen is attending the most epic of "economic forum" boondoggles elsewhere known as Davos (where for some reason Derek Jeter is present and accounted for) was just to get a hot tip, or to interact with the Swiss branch of Gerson-Lehrman, the one where not every conversation is being recorded by the feds, the answer is neither. The man, whose fund as most by now have been made aware is one turned informant away from greeting the men in gray coats on its front porch at 72 Cummings Road, is in Davos to learn about... "Resilient Dynamism."

HSBC has quietly moved into acquiring large amounts of silver bullion. The bank has secured another deal to buy silver bars from KGHM which brings their total purchases of silver from KGHM alone in the last 12 months to $876 million or PLN 3.65 billion. KGHM is one of the largest producers of silver in the world and is the second-largest producer of refined silver in the world. They produce silver bars registered under the brand KGHM HG that are attested to by “Good Delivery” certificates issued by the London Bullion Market Association and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. Listed metals producer KGHM signed an estimated PLN 1.67 billion deal on 2013 sales of silver to HSBC, KGHM said in a market filing yesterday. The deal puts the total value of deals between KGHM and HSBC in the last 12 months to PLN 3.65 billion or $876 million, the filing read.  KGHM is one of the largest companies in Poland and one of the largest mining & metallurgy companies in the world.

Listen up all you fringe low brow ZH clowns: Mundus Vult Decipi-Ergo Decipiatur!

Think you've made it? Consider yourself the BSD in the room? Well, in Davos, only one thing matters and its about color; the color of your badge. From the holographic awesomeness of the elite badge that enable secret elevators (and handshakes) to the less-than-awesome base colors associated with the press that are both follower and enabler of this event; Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker, with his tongue somewhat buried in its cheek, exposes what really matters in Davos among the elite of the elite...

In the most anticipated (and likely most strawman/leaked) policy actions, the BoJ and the Japanese government (still independent entities theoretically) have unveiled the new monetary policy to complement the $116bn fiscal stimulus plan to boost growth:

• *BOJ TO ADOPT 2% INFLATION TARGET
• *BOJ WILL INTRODUCE OPEN-ENDED PURCHASING FROM JAN 2014
• *BOJ TO BUY 2T YEN OF JGBS MONTHLY FROM JAN 2014
• *BOJ TO BUY ABOUT 10T YEN OF T-BILLS MONTHLY FROM JAN 2014

With epic amounts of JPY shorts and NKY longs, JPY was notably bid versus the USD (from Friday's close) going in, 30Y JGBs bid relative to 10s, and the NKY and TOPIX were leaking lower. Now is the time to see just how effective this efficient market is at pricing in the stabilization-to-retaliation phase of the current actions. Though of course, there is no intent to cough-'weaken'-cough the JPY:

• *AMARI TO SAY AT DAVOS NO POLITICAL INTENTION TO MANIPULATE YEN

So, as expected, the BoJ joins the Fed and ECB on the unlimited "open-yended"^(TM) printfest bandwagon. So far JPY is not totally impressed.

• With array of challenges, Obama kicks off second term at public inauguration (Reuters)
• Uneasy in the Political Climate, Mickelson Talks Like Someone Ready to Step Away (NYT)
• BOJ Should Slow Easing If Yen Weakens Too Much, Hamada Says (BBG)
• Spain Recession Scars Exposed as Jobless Seen at 6 Mln (BBG)
• Davos Doom Loses to Merkel-Draghi as Euro Defies Roubini (BBG)
• Algeria finds dead Canadian militants as siege toll rises (Reuters)
• Beijing tries to clean up its act (FT)
• Investigators probe Boeing 787 battery maker (Reuters)
• Netanyahu Gets Landslide in Markets Masking No Peace Process (BBG)
• Google aims to replace passwords with ID ring (Telegraph)
• Kim Dotcom launches new upload site (FT)
• Dell Said to Hire Evercore to Seek Higher Bids After Buyout (BBG)
• Hostess Bakers Union Hires Investment Bank Gordian in Asset Sale (BBG)

To some, today is Martin Luther King day and as a result the US markets are closed, especially since today is also the day when Obama celebrates his second inauguration with Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor at his side (hopefully not on the taxpayers' dime). To others, January 21 is nothing more than the anniversary of the real beginning of the end, when five years ago a little known SocGen trader named Jerome Kerviel could no longer hide his massive futures positions and was forced to unwind them, sending global indices plunging resulting in the biggest single day drop in the Dax (-7.2%), and punking the Fed into an unannounced 75 bps cut. Luckily, today such cataclysmic unwinds are impossible as the market is priced perfectly efficiently, without central bank intervention, price transparency is ubiquitous and the Volcker rule has made prop trading by banks, funded by Fed reserves (which are nothing more than the monetization of excess budget deficits) and excess deposits, impossible.

Presenting Dave Collum's now ubiquitous and all-encompassing annual review of markets and much, much more. From Baptists, Bankers, and Bootleggers to Capitalism, Corporate Debt, Government Corruption, and the Constitution, Dave provides a one-stop-shop summary of everything relevant this year (and how it will affect next year and beyond).

The following is a list of key events to watch over the next several weeks and months – events that could have bearing on how the euro sovereign debt crisis evolves.

Meet the man, who many say (most of whom correctly) has been running pretty much everything from deep behind the scenes.

There is one last irony in Bernanke's constant promotion of his powers to unleash QE. Having talked up the market for years with his promises/threats of QE, the market has priced in ever higher doses of QE, in effect bidding expectations of QE's effectiveness to the sky. Bernanke has lost the power to surprise the market. Having raised expectations to the sky, he must deliver something beyond the stratosphere to surprise the market. But he doesn't have anything capable of matching the absurd expectations he's inflated, never mind exceed them. The only surprise left is a negative one. Chairman Bernanke and his fellow doves will soon realize the consequences of over-promising and under-delivering. It works better the other way around, but now it's too late.

There is a strange delayed reaction between the initial exposure of weakness in the financial system and the public’s realization of the truth, sort of like Wile E. Coyote dashing off a cliff in the cartoons only to continue running in mid-air above the abyss below.  It is a testament to the fact that beyond the math, there is an undeniable power of psychology in our economy.  The investment world naively believes it can fly, even with the weight of endless debt around its ankles, and for a very short time, that pure delirious oblivious belief sustains the markets.  Eventually, though, gravity always triumphs over fantasy…