END OF THE WEEK TIDBITS

I didn't like this week at all.  It seems to me that nothing good happened anywhere and life is getting more and more dangerous.  A couple of thoughts.

The Middle East has broken out into a cauldron of regional slaughter and a brutal continuation of the 1000+ year battle between Sunnis and Shias with M1A1 Tanks replacing chariots and horses.  The Saudis appear to be all in given the Shia threat from  Iran and its allies in Yemen with Egypt lending a hand.  Collateral Damage is not a phrase found in Arabic, and these guys have some serious weaponry to throw about so we can expect the newsreels from the region to be horrific in the coming weeks.  Inasmuch as Il Duce and his band of Merry Morons are about to capitulate to Iran, the influence of the United States is about to go from low to non-existent.  This could get really ugly and in case anyone has missed it, half of the world's oil supply goes through a choke point right in the region.  If somebody pops a tanker...being long XON might not be a bad trade.

The Russians continue to act ugly both in the Ukraine and all about the periphery of NATO.  They are probably well-enough trained that they will not stumble into something serious but with armed aircraft buzzing one another at supersonic speed, accidents can happen.

Leaving the Geo-political, revised Economic numbers for the forth quarter in the U.S. came out today and they stunk.  The projections of the N.Y. Fed stink as well.  The fear is job numbers on Friday will stink.  As a matter of fact, most everything stinks but our Girl, Janet, said today that there might well be a rate rise this year if events warrant the same.  Which of course means that there will not be unless everything that stinks turns around which right now doesn't look as though that will occur.  Funny, with the world awash in liquidity, everything stinks.  Is there a downside to this unworking state of affairs?  I wonder.

A piece of happy news: rumor has it that the Greek Finance Minister will resign.  He says he will not, but where there is smoke...A welcome event to be sure but perhaps too late in the game.  But another good piece of news for the Greeks is that next week is Holy Week and nothing will be decided.  Now if the Greeks are smart (?) they will present their "plan" this weekend and have open a back door discussion portal to see what has to be changed in order to get an acceptance from the EZ.  They will have over a week to work on it.  That's the way to work this thing P.M. Tsapris.  Hope you are listening.

Finally, the entire world has signed on to the Chinese-sponsored infrastructure bank save for Japan and the U.S.  In fact Il Duce has been lobbying hard against the idea.  No one has listened.  Wonder what the currency in play is going to be?

It is a nasty state of affairs out there, but on we go seemingly without a care.  Is that something to admire or simply another worry?  I am just not sure.

Have a lovely Palm Sunday weekend.