Joe Biden

White House attacks Russian financial markets and oil, Merkel suffers from “moral cowardice,” Russia develops “Putin Doctrine,” in crescendo of sanctions and counter-sanctions

Amid the growing Crimea crisis, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which like Ukraine were all parts of the old Soviet Union and have very significant concentrations of ethnic Russian-speaking citizens - have expressed growing apprehension over Moscow's intentions. As Reuters reports, Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian. "Language should not be used to segregate and isolate groups," the envoy noted, referencing the same 'linguistic tensions' that supported its annexation of Crimea.

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.

In an overnight session that had little in terms of macro and news flow, the most notable event was that the Dollar-Renminbi finally crossed above 6.20 which as a reminder is the suggested "max vega" point beyond which even more max pain lies for levered accounts long the Yuan. However, in a world in which nothing is discounted and in which no news matters, the "market" broadly ignored this significant development (which as we explained further yesterday means an accelerated unwind of Chinese Commodity Funding Deals, and a potential drop in global commodity prices), and eagerly awaited today's non-event of an FOMC conference, where nothing new will be announced save for the novelty of it being Yellen's first appearance before the press as the head of the Fed. And of course the Fed will almost certainly scrap the 6.5% employment threshold, as the FOMC scrambles to make the economy appear worse than it is reported to be, in a stark reminder that the biggest optically manipulated tool meant to boost confidence in the recovery was nothing but a number meant to serve political purposes.

Listening to the media gleefully hype the numerous construction flaws and rumors of corruption at the Sochi Olympics, we couldn't help thinking that Americans in general have no clue about Russia.  Here are some of the similarities and differences... "Russia is rising.  Maybe we can give her a high five on our way down.  Instead of criticizing others, look in the mirror America."

President Obama unveiled 12 key executive actions in his 6,778 word tome this evening at a reading level that was lower than the average of George W. Bush's SOTUs and the same as Clinton's (Flesch-Kincaid 9.8). From 'raising the minimum wage' to 'myRA' savings plans ("a guaranteed return with no risk"?) and from redesigned high schools to teach real-world skills (like EBT-card-usage?) to increasing college opportunities (blowing that bubble even bigger), it was a corporate-bashing, hopeful-job-creating manifesto that had less "hopes" and "dreams" than MLK's speech, but more "believing."

• NSA phone data control may come to end (AP)
• China to rescue France: Peugeot Said to Weigh $1.4 Billion From Dongfeng, France (BBG)
• China to rescue Davos: Davos Teaches China to Ski as New Rich Lured to Slopes (BBG)
• Hollande’s Tryst and the End of Marriage (BBG)
• Iran has $100 billion abroad, can draw $4.2 billion (Reuters)
• Target Hackers Wrote Partly in Russian, Displayed High Skill, Report Finds (WSJ)
• Nintendo Sees Loss on Dismal Wii U Sales (WSJ)
• Goldman's low-cost Utah bet buoys its bottom-line (Reuters)
• Royal Dutch Shell Issues Profit Warnin: Oil Major Hit by Higher Exploration Costs and Lower Oil and Gas Volumes (WSJ)
• EU Weighs Ban on Proprietary Trading at Some Banks From 2018 (BBG) - so no holding of breaths?
• Sacramento Kings to Accept Bitcoin (WSJ)

• Nelson Mandela: 1918-2013 (Reuters)
• South Africans Flock to Nelson Mandela’s Home to Mourn His Death (BBG)
• Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden? Obama says won't choose between them for 2016 (Reuters)
• Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor (Reuters)
• Sears Holdings Files to Spin Off Lands' End Business (WSJ)
• Way cleared for landmark global trade deal (FT)
• U.S. Oil Prices Fall Sharply as Glut Forms on Gulf Coast (WSJ)
• German Factory Orders Decline in Sign of Uneven Recovery (BBG)
• FCC Unlikely to Bless a Comcast-TWC Deal: Regulator (WSJ)

• Apple, China Mobile Sign Deal to Offer iPhone (WSJ)
• Japan approves $182 billion economic package, doubts remain (Reuters)
• Volcker Rule Won't Allow Banks to Use 'Portfolio Hedging' (WSJ)
• He went, he saw, he achieved nothing: Biden's Trip to Beijing Leaves China Air-Zone Rift Open (WSJ)
• Britain announces sharp upward revision to growth forecasts (Reuters)
• U.S. Airlines to Mortgage-Backed Debt Top List of Best ’14 Bets (BBG)
• Thaksin's homecoming hopes dashed as Thai crisis reignites (Reuters)
• Age of Austerity Nearing End May Boost Global Economy (BBG) - or it may expose that it was just corruption and incompetence at fault all along
• China aims to establish network of high-level FTAs (China Daily)

• With website improved, Obama to pitch health plan (Reuters)
• Joe Biden condemns China over air defence zone (FT)
• Tally of U.S. Banks Sinks to Record Low (WSJ)
• Black Friday Weekend Spending Drop Pressures U.S. Stores (BBG)
• Cyber Monday Sales Hit Record as Amazon to EBay Win Shoppers (BBG)
• Ukraine's Pivot to Moscow Leaves West Out in the Cold (WSJ)
• Investment banks set to cut pay again despite rise in profits (FT)
• Worst Raw-Material Slump Since ’08 Seen Deepening (BBG)
• Democrats Face Battles in South to Hold the Senate (WSJ)
• Hong Kong reports 1st case of H7N9 bird flu (AP)
• In Fracking, Sand Is the New Gold (WSJ)

• America’s Role as Consumer of Last Resort Goes Missing (BBG)
• Holiday sales sag despite blitz of deals (WSJ)
• Abe Support Falls Below 50% for First Time Amid Secrecy Drive (BBG)
• U.S. airlines give China flight plans for defense zone (Reuters), while Japan: no change to airlines' notification policy when flying in East China Sea zone (Reuters)
• Thai protesters seek to topple PM after clashes (Reuters)
• Hilton Seeks as Much as $2.4 Billion in Biggest Hotel IPO (BBG)
• Biden on delicate mission to defuse tensions in East Asia (Reuters)
• Fed eyes financial system weak link (WSJ)
• Pentagon in line of fire in US budget war (FT)
• China’s monetary squeeze collides with housing bubble (FT)

Asian equities have gotten off to a rocky start to the week despite some initial optimism around the twin-Chinese PMI beats at the start of the session. That optimism has been replaced by selling in Chinese equities, particularly small-cap Chinese stocks and A-shares after the Chinese security regulator issued a reform plan for domestic IPOs over the weekend. The market is expecting the reforms to lead to a higher number of IPOs in the coming quarters, and the fear is that this will bring a wave of new supply of stock to an already-underperforming market. Indeed, the Chinese securities regulator expects about 50 firms to complete IPOs by January 2014 – and another 763 firms have already submitted their IPO applications and are currently awaiting approval. A large number of small cap stocks listed on Hong Kong’s Growth Enterprise Market were down by more than 5% this morning, while the Shanghai Composite is down by 0.9%. The Hang Seng (+0.4%), Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (+0.8%) are performing better on a relative basis, and other China-growth assets including the AUDUSD is up 0.5%. The Nikkei (-0.1%) is also a touch weaker after Japan’s Q3 capital expenditure numbers came in well below estimates (1.5% YoY vs 3.6% forecast). Elsewhere Sterling continues to forge new multi-year highs against the USD (+0.3% overnight).

When the US government said the sequester would cripple its ability to single-handedly rule over the world, it wasn't kidding. Either that, or Joe Biden's Joint Strategic Plan to "curb" copyright infringement was just a case of very confused humor by the vice president gone badly wrong, and he meant to "encourage." Whatever the reason, the fact that the Obama administration was just busted with a $50 million case of software piracy involving none other than the US Army, is indicative that while the Bureau of Labor Statistics was adopting all the best features of the Chinese Department of Truth, the US government was busy copycatting China's respectful approach toward intellectual property. Yet what is even worse, is that the software that was pirated managed the US army's troop and supply movements: in other words, the US government relied on pirated software to prepare for and engage in eventual war.

In the aftermath of the latest House Republican debacle, the Senate had no choice but to go back to where it was on Thursday morning, and attempt to cobble a deal together. Only unlike Thursday, it now has just a little over 24 hours, and a House that it knows will not play ball with pretty much anything that the Senate proposes (at least not until that ultimate arbiter Joe Biden shows up and starts laughing). So while the outcome of this latest regression to square 0 is unknown, one thing we do know is that when it comes to matters such as these, Harry Reid is one very optimistic guy.

Update: Sure enough, NO HOUSE VOTE TONIGHT ON FISCAL IMPASSE PLAN, LAWMAKER SAYS

In a repeat of the Sequester farce, in which Boehner was unable to even get the needed votes to pass the House Republicans' version of their own bill, the debt ceiling impasse is becoming a sequester sequel deja vu when McConnell and Joe Biden had to hammer out a deal over the impotent political corpse of John Boehner. The reason, as various beltway journalists report, in this case the NRO, that House Republicans are now set to postpone tonight’s vote on their plan to end the fiscal impasse is that "The votes aren’t there," says a leadership aide. "We’ve been amending the bill all day, but we’ve been unable to get people around this strategy." As the NRO's Robert Costa adds, this development leaves Speaker John Boehner with few options as Thursday’s debt-ceiling deadline nears, and it throws the action back toward the Senate, which has been working on a bipartisan package.