Germany

President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address came up short of the facts on several topics. Obama apparently omitted part of his presidency in boasting of nearly 900,000 manufacturing jobs “in the past six years.” Over his entire time in office, manufacturing jobs have gone down by 230,000.

Russia has just taken significant steps that will break the present Wall Street oil price monopoly, at least for a huge part of the world oil market. The move is part of a longer-term strategy of decoupling Russia’s economy and especially its very significant export of oil, from the US dollar, today the Achilles Heel of the Russian economy.

"Not wearing the kippa can save lives and nothing is more important. It really hurts to reach that point but I don't want anyone to die in Marseille because they have a kippa on their head."

As the towering forces that are prevailing against failing global economic architecture and the pit of debt beneath that structure, as laid out below, it is clear that the 'Epocalypse' - encompassing the roots "economic, epoch, collapse" and "apocalypse" - is here, and it is everywhere. The Great Collapse has already begun. What follows are the megatrends that will increasingly gang up in the first part of 2016 to stomp the deeply flawed global economy down into its own hole of debt.

...the Swiss canton of Zug is asking its citizens to delay paying their taxes for as long as possible, because the cantonal government doesn’t want to take in a pile of cash, only to end up paying the bank interest on all the tax revenue.

While mace may be effective as a kind of groper-be-gone defense tactic, it's not much help against a Kalashnikov...

On Tuesday we get the latest tragedy out of Turkey as at least 10 are dead in a suicide attack on Istanbul. The explosion rocked Sultanahmet Square outside the city’s Blue Mosque injuring 15 in addition to those killed.

“I’m not going to answer that. No, no, no. I don’t want to talk to you”...

"We are the people" "Resistance!" and "Deport them!" chanted the sign and flag-toting LEGIDA crowd. "Refugees not welcome!" read one sign, showing a silhouette of three men armed with knives pursuing a woman, while another declared "Islam = terror".

"Bikers, hooligans, and bouncers" - oh my! It's vigilante justice time in Cologne, where "gangs" of angry Germans organized a "human hunt" on Facebook before attacking a group of Pakistanis in the city center.

The man who ran into a police station in northern Paris wearing a fake explosive vest, waving a meat cleaver, and shouting "Allahu Akbar" on the Charlie Hebdo anniversary once lived in a German refugee center and may have been involved in the New Year's Eve "sex mob" attacks. Walid Salihi used at least seven aliases while roaming around Europe committing what police say was a string of petty crimes including, but probably not limited to: "touching women's behinds at the disco," strangling a roommate, attacking a "passerby," and beating up a homeless man. 

Initially both European stocks and US equity futures were grateful that China has picked at least one asset class to prop up overnight, and rose in an extremely illiquid market with European shares gaining for first time in 4 days, as S&P futures rise even as the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index just fell to the lowest level in more than 4 years. However, as of moments ago the Stoxx 600 had faded all its earlier gains and was trading near the flatline, as an algo takes out all stops on the top and bottom once more, and looks set to move on to US futures shortly.

Germany is rapidly descending into chaos on the heels of a wave of attacks allegedly perpetrated by refugees in Cologne on New Year's Eve. A PEGIDA protest had to be broken up by water cannon-wielding riot police on Saturday and in an eerie twist of fate, the seven decade ban on publication of "Mein Kampf" expired this month.

In principle, the BRRD, or “bail-in directive” as it is also known, is quite a good idea. The fact that lending money to fractionally reserved banks or even merely depositing it with them, involves risks needed to be firmly reestablished. One simply cannot expect that banks and their creditors will be bailed out by taxpayers at every opportunity. Besides, the admission that there are risks in banking that have hitherto been glossed over or have even been lied about was long overdue. However, Europe’s governments are now likely to find out that the current monetary system with its fractionally reserved banks is actually incompatible with this admission, so to speak.

It was an ominous beginning to what is poised to be a most tumultuous year. Market participants are quickly coming to appreciate that China does in fact matter. Few understand why. Most – from billionaires to fund managers to retail investors – will “Do Nothing.” This has worked just fine in the past – repeatedly. Not understanding and not doing anything will be detriments going forward.