Iceland

• Facebook Researchers Manipulated News Feeds in 2012 Study (BBG)
• Argentina at Brink of Default as $539 Million Payment Due (BBG)
• Hedge fund correlation risk alarms investors (FT)
• As China Flexes Muscle, Obama Frets Over Rival’s Weakness (BBG)
• As caliphate declared, Iraqi troops battle for Tikrit (Reuters)
• Dubai Caps Worst Month Since 2008 as Real Estate Stocks Tumble (BBG)
• Russian Advisers Ready Iraq to Use New Combat Aircraft (BBG)
• Blackstone Readies Big-Bet Hedge Fund (WSJ) - so what was GSO?
• Pope says communists are closet Christians (Reuters)
• Thomson Reuters revising FX trading standards (Reuters)

Spend more than 30 minutes watching TV in California and you will be bombarded by politicians proclaiming they single-handedly balanced the budget, brought prosperity back to the Silicon Valley alone, and turned water into wine. Yet, oddly, there is one thing none of them seem too quick to admit to. As CBS reports, the state office in charge of keeping track of California taxpayers’ money made tens of billions of accounting mistakes. CBS added it up and came up with a big number: $31.65 billion in errors. That’s more than the gross domestic product of Iceland and Jamaica combined.

There are over 40.7 million foreign-born residents living in America. Iceland, Bermuda, and Samoa have the lowest level of foreign-born population in the United States but it is Mexico that is head, shoulders, and torso above the rest with 28.2% of the foreign-born population from just aross the border. Russia, interestingly, is 20th (just ahead of Iran in 21st place). We can only hope not all Russian immigrants are currently HFT "traders."

Silver is undervalued when compared with gold, platinum, palladium, base metals including copper, oil, stocks (S&P, DJIA, Nasdaq etc) bonds and the U.S. dollar ... There are very few, if any assets that remain at the same price levels that they were more than 30 years ago ...

• Ukraine forces kill up to five rebels, Putin warns of consequences (Reuters)
• Obama to Russia: More sanctions are 'teed up' (AP)
• Vienna Banks Bemoan Russia Sanctions Testing Cold War Neutrality (BBG)
• GE’s $57 Billion Cash Overseas Said to Fuel Alstom Deal (BBG)
• GM posts lower first-quarter profit after recall costs (Reuters)
• Apple Stock Split Removes Obstacle to Inclusion in Dow (BBG)
• U.S. regulators to propose new net neutrality rules in May (Reuters)

With the story of the day undoubtedly Yellen's first (bungled) press conference, it was easy to forget that the second coming of the Cold War is raging in the Ukraine. For those curious what they may have missed, here is a summary of the major events that took place in the troubled country this afternoon. Highlights from AP, AFP, Reuters, WSJ, Bloomberg, RIA and Interfax.

A new era is dawning in Chinese foreign policy as the country’s economic growth enables it to move from past timorousness in declaring itself a global leader and a relative inability to defend its interests, to one in which Beijing can seek adjustments in the security environment it has faced for the last sixty years. In the Chinese-language media, politicians are increasingly talking of China as a great power. Yet Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put Beijing’s new foreign policy to the test and raised questions about the extent of China’s global role. China is close to meeting all the measures of what defines a global great power: political, economic, and military might with a global reach. But it does not appear to act like a great power in terms of its contribution to international leadership during conflict situations such as in Ukraine. Instead we repeatedly only see Beijing being assertive when it comes to defending its own narrow interests.

The Whole World Has Gone Into Debt

• No need to use military force in Ukraine for now: Putin (Reuters)
• Russia Orders Drill Troops Back to Bases (WSJ)
• Ukraine premier agrees to reforms for aid package (FT)
• Japan Base Wages Rise for First Time in Nearly Two Years (WSJ)
• Only the algos are trading: Citigroup Joins JPMorgan in Seeing Trading-Revenue Drop  (BBG)
• Vietnam sends blogger to prison for critical posts (AP)
• At White House, Israel's Netanyahu pushes back against Obama diplomacy (Reuters)
• Obama to offer new tax breaks for workers in election year budget pitch (Reuters)
• China Banks Show Too-Connected-to-Fail Link to Shadow Loans (BBG)
• Ex-BOK Deputy Lee Named to Head South Korea Central Bank (BBG)
• No mortgage origination problem in the UK: Mortgage approvals climb to six year high (Telegraph)

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney surprised his audience at a conference late last year by speculating that banking assets in London could grow to more than nine times Britain’s GDP by 2050. These may be reasonable assumptions, but the estimate was deeply unsettling to many. Hosting a huge financial center, with outsize domestic banks, can be costly to taxpayers. In Iceland and Ireland, banks outgrew their governments’ ability to support them when needed. The result was disastrous. Quite apart from the potential bailout costs, some argue that financial hypertrophy harms the real economy by syphoning off talent and resources that could better be deployed elsewhere.

As we initially exposed over five years ago, with luminary frat brothers and sister such as Jimmy Cayne, Richard Fuld, Stan O'Neil, Martin Gruss, Michael Bloomberg, Jon Corzine, Mary Shapiro, Alan Schwartz, Larry Fink, Larry Fink, Wilbur Ross, James McDonald, this "secret" organization puts the Masons, Bilderbergs, Skull and Bones, Templars, Fight Club and all other secret societies to shame. Now, as New York Magazine infiltrates the inner workings of the "Kappa Beta Phi" society, Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes the following will confirm what everyone already thought - that a great many of these oligarch financiers are complete and total sociopaths and a menace to society. 

• Frustrated by Karzai, U.S. Shifts Afghanistan Exit Plans (WSJ)
• Yellen Testimony Guide From Payrolls Report to Emerging Markets (BBG)
• Gold hits three-month high, shares up ahead of Yellen (Reuters)
• Tightfisted New Owners Put Heinz on Diet (WSJ)
• Senator describes "gruesome" bin Laden photos (Reuters)
• More reasons for the ongoing economic contraction: U.S. Winter Storm Seen Spreading Snow, Sleet Across South (BBG)
• Barclays Cuts Up to 12,000 Jobs as Quarterly Profit Falls  (BBG)
• Boeing Considering 787-Size Medium-Range Jetliners (WSJ)
• AOL Chief Apologizes for ‘Distressed Babies’ Comment (BBG)

I predicted this clearly, with loads of evidence, last spring. I even tipped the SEC/UK authorities. Tthe chickens come home to roost. Let it be known, Wall Street's margin IS my business model!!!

As the saying goes, ‘desperate times call for desperate measures.’ The phrase is bandied about so frequently, it’s generally accepted truth. But I have to tell you that I fundamentally disagree with the premise. Desperate times, in fact, call for a complete reset in the way people think. Desperate times call for the most intelligent, effective, least destructive measures. But these sayings aren’t as catchy. This old adage has become a crutch – a way for policymakers to rationalize the idiotic measures they’ve put in place...