Eastern Europe

It doesn't take any special insight into the situation in Ukraine to conclude that no one narrative illuminates all the dynamics. Various contesting Grand Narratives have emerged in the media--neofascist coup, rampant corruption, east versus west, to name a few--but these only describe a few of the regional fault lines and complexities... I describe the U.S. Deep State as the National Security State which enables a vast Imperial structure that incorporates hard and soft power--military, diplomatic, intelligence, finance, commercial, energy, media, higher education--in a system of global domination and influence.  One key feature of the Deep State everywhere is that it makes decisions behind closed doors and the surface government simply ratifies and implements the decisions. I have covered various aspects of geopolitics and the Deep State for years, for example:

Shortly after today's surprising announcement by Russia that it would conduct broad military drills in Central and Western Russia, which would include 150,000 troops, we posted a rhetorical question: How will NATO respond?  Moments ago NATO responded:

• NATO: INDEPENDENT, STABLE UKRAINE KEY TO EURO-ATLANTIC SECURITY
• NATO ALLIES CONTINUE TO BACK UKRAINE SOVEREIGNTY, ALLIANCE SAYS
• NATO BACKS `INVIOLABILITY OF FRONTIERS' ON UKRAINE: ALLIANCE
• NATO SAYS IMPERATIVE THAT UKRAINE ARMY DOESN'T INTERVENE

And as the military escalations - now on both sides - escalate some more, the algos are BTFATH. Let's sit back and watch which back off first.

It would indeed be supremely ironic if the "strong" foreign law bond indenture would be tested, and breached, not by Greek bonds, as so many expected in late 2011 and early 2012, but by one of the last contries in Europe which is still AAA-rated. We would find it less ironic if the next leg of the global financial crisis was once again unleashed by an Austrian bank: after all history does rhyme...

Global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50% of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013, according to analysis by Fideres, a consultancy. Pension funds, hedge funds, commodity trading advisers, futures traders and ordinary investors are likely to have suffered losses as a result. Many of these groups were "definitely ready" to file lawsuits.

East Asia is becoming, in the language of international relations theory, "bipolar." Until recently, Asia was arguably “multipolar” - there was no one state large enough to dominate and many roughly equal states competed for influence. China’s dramatic rise has unbalanced that rough equity. Until recently, China pursued a “peaceful rise” strategy, one of accommodation and mutual adjustment. This approach sought to forestall an anti-Chinese encircling coalition. Since 2009 however, China has increasingly resorted to bullying and threats. All this then sets up a bipolar contest between China and Japan, in the context of China’s rapid rise toward regional dominance and such goals would broadly fit with what we have seen in the behavior of previous hegemons and a potential Sinic Monroe Doctrine.

As Vladimir Putin proudly shows off his holiday vacation spot - Sochi - to the world and proclaims it clean, safe, and accepting of homosexuals ("just don't tell the kids"); there is a considerably darker side to Russia that he would very much like the outside world not to know about. As Bloomberg reports, hidden from the outside world and abetted by policies that critics say promote infections rather than curbing them, the HIV scourge plaguing Russia is one that even the poorest countries have begun to subdue. With an estimated 2.4 million users of injected drugs and 1.3 million of Putin's countrymen with the life-threatening virus that causes AIDS; among the top 20 global economies, only India, with a population almost nine times bigger than Russia’s 143 million, has more people living with HIV.

Sir Halford Mackinder’s 1904 speach in which he outlined his “Heartland Theory” was a founding moment for geo-politics. He argued that control of the Eurasian landmass (Europe, Asia and the Middle East), which contained the bulk of the world’s population and natural resources, was the major geo-political prize. As time passed, energy (first crude oil then natural gas), became increasingly integral to this concept and its strategic significance cannot be overstated. Remarkably, Mackinder’s theory has remained equally valid, if not more so, in the modern era - although key “pivot areas” for exercising control have evolved. In addition to Central Asia and Trans-Caucasus in Mackinder’s day, the oil producing nations of the Middle East took on increasing importance in the “New Great Game”. We see a “New New Great Game” emerging.

The US Senate moves toward the confirmation of Janet Yellen, now posited for next January 6th, as chair of the Federal Reserve System. Let us in this moment of recess reflect on eerily similar observations by two of history’s most transformational figures:  John Maynard Keynes and Nicolas Copernicus. One of Keynes’s most often-cited observations, from his 1919 The Economic Consequences of the Peace, chapter VI, contains an indictment of policies very like those which the Federal Reserve System has been implementing for the past dozen, and more, years.  These policies in slow motion are at the root of  the very political, social, and cultural dysphoria — uneasiness or generalized dissatisfaction — predicted by Keynes.

• Late Surge in Web Buying Blindsides UPS, Retailers, Some Christmas Packages Aren't Delivered (WSJ)
• Yen Slides as Turkish Stocks Drop, U.S. Futures Rise (BBG)
• Turkish lira drops to record low against dollar, as Turkey’s Erdogan replaces 10 ministers (FT)
• Egypt designates Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group (Reuters)
• Thai elections in doubt after political violence (AFP)
• Batista Cedes Oil Unit Control in $5.8 Billion Debt Deal (BBG)
• China celebrates Mao's birthday, but events scaled back (Reuters)
• First-class stamps to cost 49 cents as of Jan. 26 (AP)
• Obamacare Hits Snag in States as U.S. Site Finds Footing (BBG)
• NSA Struggles to Make Sense of Flood of Surveillance Data (WSJ)

Now that Athens' Syntagma square has been put on indefinite hiatus since everyone has finally figured out the game between Greece and Athens (Greece grudgingly promises to reform but doesn't, at the same time Troika grudgingly threatens to cut off funding for Greece unless reforms are implemented but doesn't... even as the fate of the people gets worse), a new square has emerged as the focal point in the fight for (and against) Europe - Kiev's Independence Square.

While events in the Ukraine continue down a very slippery path, and just a few short minutes ago the Prime Minister Azarov fired the Kiev chief of Police who got into hot water over the weekend for various clips showing Police brutality in dealing with demonstrators, one specific party that is keeping a very close eye on the ongoing developments is Russian leader Vladimir Putin who scored a major victory over Europe when he managed to realign the Ukraine away from the EU and sign a trade pact with the "European bread basket" nation, an event which according to the prevailing narrative the main reason for the surge in civil discontent as hundreds of thousands took to the streets over the weekend. As such, it is important to keep track of news not only from Kiev but also from Moscow. One such update which came moments ago was the following:

• President Vladimir Putin has said Russia respects any choice made by Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov tells Bloomberg in Yerevan, Armenia.
• Russia not in talks with Ukraine on loans, bailout
• Russia not involved in current unrest in Ukraine: Peskov

This came just hours after Putin stated that events unfolding in Ukraine should not be described as a revolution, but were rather more reminiscent of a “pogrom.”

While moderate recovery in growth and inflation is BofAML's rates team's base case, there are numerous risks to that forecast. The risk of tapering is already quite well known and they suspect it may not result in the significant market-moving event many expect when it actually happens; however, the following downside and upside risks threaten BofAML's central scenarios for 2014 as well.

The following Top Ten Market Themes, represent the broad list of macro themes from Goldman Sachs' economic outlook that they think will dominate markets in 2014.

1. Showtime for the US/DM Recovery
2. Forward guidance harder in an above-trend world
3. Earn the DM equity risk premium, hedge the risk
4. Good carry, bad carry
5. The race to the exit kicks off
6. Decision time for the ‘high-flyers’
7. Still not your older brother’s EM...
8. ...but EM differentiation to continue
9. Commodity downside risks grow
10. Stable China may be good enough

They summarize their positive growth expectations: if and when the period of stability will give way to bigger directional moves largely depends on how re-accelerating growth forces the hands of central banks to move ahead of everybody else. And, in practice, that boils down to the question of whether the Fed will be able to prevent the short end from selling off; i.e. it's all about the Fed.

• J.P. Morgan, U.S. Reach Historic Settlement (WSJ)
• OECD cuts global growth forecast (AP)
• Guess the profit margin: Wal-Mart Touts $98 TV as Holiday Seen Weakest Since 2009 (BBG)
• Republicans defy threat, block another Obama judicial pick (Reuters)
• Fed Ponders How to Temper Tapering Without Rate Increase (BBG)
• Wall Street uses 'merchant' workaround to cling to commodity assets (Reuters)
• PBOC to ‘Basically’ End Normal Yuan Intervention, Zhou Says (BBG)
• Italy’s leader warns Germany of rise of anti-European sentiment (FT)
• Yellen Nomination for Fed Chairman to Get Vote This Week (BBG)
• As U.S. default threatened, banks took extraordinary steps (Reuters)
• NSA vowed repeatedly to fix its collection errors (AP)

Venezuela's relatively new government has adopted arguably the best and brightest socialist policy wielded by both Hollande and Obama, namely the "fairness doctrine." However, in this case it is not about what is a "fair" tax for the wealthy (as taxes in Venezuela's socialist paradise will hardly do much to build up the desperately needed foreign currency reserves), but what is a "fair" price for electronic appliances like flat screen TVs, toasters, and ACs. The result is that Maduro's government now determines what equilibrium pricing should be. The reason for this latest socialist victory over the tyranny of supply and demand is that overnight Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro ordered the "occupation" of a chain of electronic goods stores in a crackdown on what the socialist government views as price-gouging hobbling the country's economy. Various managers of the five-store, 500-employee Daka chain have been arrested, and the company will now be forced to sell products at "fair prices," Maduro said late on Friday.