Israel promises troops legal backing over Gaza war
Last week, the military censor ordered local and foreign media in Israel to blur the faces of army commanders in photos and video footage of the Gaza war for fear they could be identified and arrested while traveling abroad.

When markets turn
GEORGE SOROS, one of the original hedge-fund managers, believes that every boom in the making is tested. Often the potential bubble succumbs and is forgotten. If it survives, the market’s misplaced faith is redoubled. That, Mr Soros says, is when things become dangerous.

Quick Overview

• (Reuters) President Barack Obama said on Friday he expected an $825 billion economic recovery plan to be approved by his target of mid-February.
  

• California's unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent in December
  

• The USDA said that frozen pork in storage rose 20% YoY
  

• U.K. GDP fell 1.5% QoQ but rose 0.7% YoY
  U.K. retail sales rose 1.8% YoY
  

• Canada’s consumer prices rose 1.2% YoY
  

• Japan Nov All Industry Index fell -2.3% from -0.5%
  

• Australia 4Q Import Price rose 10.8% from 5%; Export Price rose 15.9% from 13.8%.
  

• A new measure to pay owners of old cars €2,500 to junk their wrecks and buy something new has proven popular in Germany.
  

Merrill Lynch CEO Thain Spent $1.22 Million On Office
Area Rug $87,784
Mahogany Pedestal Table $25,713
19th Century Credenza $68,179
Pendant Light Furniture $19,751
4 Pairs of Curtains $28,091
Pair of Guest Chairs $87,784
George IV Chair $18,468
6 Wall Sconces $2,741
Parchment Waste Can $1,405
Roman Shade Fabric $10,967
Roman Shades $7,315
Coffee Table $5,852
Commode on Legs $35,115

Quick Overview

• U.S. jobless claims rose 62,000 to 589,000.
  

• U.S. housing starts fell 15.5% MoM and 33% YoY.
  

• Canada’s retail sales fell 2.4%
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of that crude oil rose 6.1 million barrels to 332.7 million
  Supplies of gasoline rose 6.5 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 1.4 million barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 85.2% to 83.3%.
  Gasoline demand fell 1.6% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 2.6% YoY.

Quick Overview

• U.K. unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 6.0%
  

• Canada’s wholesale sales fell 1.6% in November.

• Brazil cut interest rate a full point to 12.75%

• YoY China's gross domestic product grew 6.8% in Q4 -- slowest in seven years.
  
  

• YoY Japan’s exports fell 35% -- sharpest decline since 1980
  

• South Korean GDP shrinks 3.4% QoQ
  

• The forecast for Argentina remains hot and dry next five days
  

• The National Weather Service issued a hard freeze warning for central Florida on Thursday morning.
  

• Indian gold imports for 2008 fell by 47%.
  

• The level of idle containerships has risen to 255 -- 5.5% of the global fleet, a historic high.
  

Options on Eurodollars to Let Traders Bet on Negative Rates

This is sensible contingency planning as you don’t want to be caught out by something that might in other times seem impossible or unexpected,” said Nick Parsons, head of markets strategy in London at NabCapital, a unit of National Australia Bank Ltd., the country’s largest bank. “We’re in an era now where the return of capital is more important than the return on capital.”

Stock markets often decline on inauguration day
I will say, however, that sentiment in recent days has finally taken steps in the right direction. The Hulbert Stock Newsletter Sentiment Index (HSNSI) dropped nearly 17 percentage points on Tuesday, bringing this sentiment benchmark to below where it stood at the Nov. 20 market low

UK cannot take Iceland's soft option
Britain has foreign reserves of under $61bn dollars (£43.7bn), less than Malaysia or Thailand. The foreign liabilities of the UK banks are $4.4 trillion – or twice annual GDP – according to the Bank of England. The mismatch is perilous.

.. know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

Obama Inaugural Address

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) -- U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is “effectively insolvent,” said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini.

• U.K. consumer prices rose 3.1% YoY
  

• The British Pound fell against the dollar and hit a record low against the yen. Jim Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, said the “U.K. is finished” and investors should sell the currency.
  

• Japan’s consumer confidence fell from 28.4 to 26.2 in December -- the lowest on record
  

• Canada cuts rate to record 1% -- signals more easing.
  

• Germany's BMW is looking into applying for state guarantees to back up its borrowings.
  

• Fiat is acquiring a 35% stake in Chrysler.
  

• Continuing hot and dry weather in Argentina continues to support corn and beans.
  

• Gazprom resumed gas supplies across Ukraine to Europe
  
  

If the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our own money
It bypasses greedy banks. It recharges local economies. It's time to think seriously about an alternative currency

U.S. stimulus not enough, TARP bailout misused: Soros
"If they are successful...the deflationary pressures will be replaced by the specter of inflation and the authorities will have to drain the excess money from the economy almost as quickly as they pumped it in. Of the two operations the second one is going to be, politically, even more difficult than the first," he said.

Robert Fisk: So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?
After killing hundreds of women and children, Israel was the good guy again, by declaring a unilateral ceasefire that Hamas was certain to break. But Obama will be smiling on Tuesday. Was not this the reason, after all, why Israel suddenly wanted a truce?

Quick Overview

• RBS fell almost 67% after warning that it could face losses of up to £28bn for 2008 - the largest ever in UK corporate history.
  

• The U.K. has taken the first step towards quantitative (=printing) easing by authorizing the Bank of England to buy up to £50bn of private sector assets as part of a wider drive to get banks lending again.
  

• Germany's top 20 banks still have around 300 billion Euros of toxic securities on their books and have written off only a quarter of that, according to an official survey, SPIEGEL reports.
  

• The total cost of the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States will likely top $150 million.
  

• Hungary cut its interest rate to 9.5% from 10% – the fourth 1/2 point cut in less than two months.

• Standard & Poor cut Spain’s credit rating from AAA+ to AA
  

• Czarnikow estimates a global sugar shortfall of 5.8 million tons this year. Indian production is now estimated at 18 MT compared with 19.2 MT forecast in Dec.

Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing
A Report From Gaza

Monetary union has left half of Europe trapped in depression
Don't expect tremors before an earthquake – and there is no fault line of greater historic violence than the crunching plates where Latin Europe meets Teutonia.

21,000 Jobs Worldwide Erased in Day as Recession Chokes Demand
About 2.1 million U.S. jobs will be lost in 2009, Lonski predicted, with 80 percent of the layoffs by the 4th of July.

Citigroup’s Pandit Tries to Save the Little That’s Left to Lose
Relief isn’t in sight. North American credit-card losses, as a percentage of total loans, climbed to 8.04 percent in the fourth quarter from a third-quarter rate of 7.13 percent, the bank said. During the early 1990s recession, the losses peaked at 6.44 percent.

Forgive and Forget?
And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.