Up in arms
..America accounted for 45% of the world's military spending—$1.2 trillion in 2007—more than the next 14 biggest countries combined.

.. 10-Year Treasury Yields Fall Most Since 1962
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks and Treasuries surged and the dollar tumbled after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly announced plans to buy $1 trillion of bonds in an effort to lower consumer borrowing costs and end the recession.

Quick Overview

• (FOMC) ..Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.

• U.S. consumer price index rose 0.4% MoM and 0.2% YoY. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.2% in February and up 1.8% YoY.

• U.K. unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from from 6.3% a month ago
  

• Japan intends to buy $18 billion of government bonds this month to support the economy.
  

• Chile's central bank says the nation's economy grew by 3.2 % in 2008 down from 4.7 % growth in 2007.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 2.0 million barrels to 353.3 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline rose 3.2 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 1.0 million barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 82.7% to 82.1% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 1.1% YoY

Quick Overview

• U.S. housing starts rose 22% MoM better than expected, but fell 47% YoY.
  

• U.S. producer prices rose 0.1% MoM and fell 1.3% YoY. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.2% in February.
  

• Canada’s manufacturing sales fell 5.4% MoM.

Quick Overview

• Ben Bernanke predicts that America's worst recession in decades will likely end this year before a recovery gathers steam in 2010.
  

• U.S. industrial production fell 1.4% in February -- the lowest level in seven years.
  

• U.S. capacity utilization fell to 70.9%.
  

• The New York Fed’s regional index of manufacturing fell from -34.65 to -38.23.
  

• OPEC met and decided to keep the official production quota unchanged
  

• OPEC expects world oil demand to total 84.6 million barrels per day in 2009,
  

• In 2008 Canada’s industrial capacity utilization was at 77.8%.
  

• YoY consumer prices in the Euro area rose 1.2% in February.
  

• Obama said he has instructed Geithner to “pursue every single legal avenue” to block bonuses to the ailing AIG insurer’s executives.
  
  

• President Obama announced a permanent ban on the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own for use in human food.
  

• China has entered a free trade agreement on service trade with Pakistan.

• Vikram Pandit was paid almost $11 million to lead Citigroup in a year that the troubled US bank required $45 billion in handouts from the taxpayer.
  

• Millionaires who agreed to hefty divorce settlements during the economic boom are seeking to renegotiate the terms of the agreements now that the recession has hit.

AIG names recipients of its bailout money
The list released Sunday of "counterparties" that benefited from the bailout is topped by European banks Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, which received $4.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.
Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch round out the top four, receiving $2.5 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively.

Where Did the Money Go?
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has resisted calls from Congress that he release the names of the banks that were recipients of the bailout money the Fed gave to AIG to prevent it from collapsing. AIG insured its counterparties against losses from mortgage-backed derivatives. The Fed poured $85 billion into AIG, which paid out $37.3 billion of that money to counterparties that had purchased a certain type of derivative-based protection from AIG, called multi-sector credit default swaps.

The counterparties have never been disclosed but the Wall Street Journal reported that they included Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Deutsche Bank.

G20: the summit risks becoming the Kyoto of the economic meltdown
What all these policies assume, however, is that a propensity to borrow and spend still exists in the private sector, among consumers and companies. Borrow and spend (and tax and spend) is the Government's reflex action to any question but life is more complicated in the real world

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its forecast for the global economy for the second time in eight days after predicting a deeper recession in Europe. “Following the reduction of our Euroland growth forecast to minus 3.6 percent in 2009, the world economy is now likely to contract by 1 percent this year,” said London-based Goldman economist Binit Patel.
  
  

• The U.S. trade deficit fell in January to the lowest level in six years. Exports were down 6% while imports were down 7%. The result was $36.0 billion of net imports, less than expected.
  

• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose from 56.3 to 56.6
  
  

• Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 7.7%
  

• The European car market shrank 18% in February
  

Quick Overview

• U.S. retail sales fell 0.1% in February, not as bad as expected.
  

• U.S. new jobless claims rose 15,000 last week to 654,000.
  

• Japan's GDP fell 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008
  

• Australia's unemployment rate rose from 4.8% to 5.2%
  

• Switzerland reduced its interest rate from 0.50% to 0.25%

• China's Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern over the outlook for the U.S. government debt China holds and said he hopes the U.S. will ensure the safety of those assets.
  
  
  

• S&P lowered GE’s debt ratings one level to AA and raised the outlook to stable.

• Fitch cut Buffett’s Berkshire AAA debt rating to AA+
  

• Liechtenstein said it will relax its tradition of bank secrecy and promised closer cooperation with international tax-evasion probes according to OECD standards.
  

• Madoff pleaded guilty -- the judge ordered jail pending sentencing and revoked bail.
  

• (Bloomberg) -- U.S. household wealth fell by a record $5.1 trillion from October to December, almost twice the decrease in the previous quarter, as home values and stock prices plunged, Federal Reserve figures showed.
  

• U.S. Drought Monitor continues to show dry to severe drought conditions in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

• The China National Grain and Oils Information Center expects the country's output of grains in 2009 to be lower for the first time in six years.
  It projects wheat output to be down 1.3% to 111 million metric tons
  It projects corn output to be down 1.5% to 163 million tons
  It projects soybean output down 3.2% to 15 million tons
  
  

Quick Overview

• (FT) Democrats in the US Congress are drawing up plans for a second stimulus bill amid fears the first 787bn package was not enough.
  

• Canada’s new home prices fell 0.8% YoY
  

• Consumer sentiment in Australia fell from 85.8 to 85.6 in March
  

• The USDA's 2008-2009 U.S. ending crop report estimate for:
  Corn was lowered from 1.79 to 1.74 billion bushels.
  Soybeans were lowered from 210 to 185 million bushels.
  Wheat was raised from 655 to 712 million bushels.
  Sugar was reduced from 1.066 to .981 million tons.
  Cotton was reduced from 7.7 to 7.3 million bales.
  

• The USDA's 2008-2009 world ending stocks estimate for:
  Corn was raised from 137 to 145 million tons.
  Soybeans unchanged at 50 million tons.
  Wheat was increased from 150 to 156 million tons.
  Cotton was increased from 62 to 63 million tons.
  

• The USDA predicts 2009 U.S. beef production down 0.7% YoY
  

• The USDA predicts 2009 pork production down 1.4% YoY.
  
  

• The USDA predicts 2008-2009 Florida orange crops at 158 million boxes, down from 170 YoY.
  
  

• The U.S. DOE said that:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 700,000 barrels last week to 351.3 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline fell 3.0 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 1.3 million barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 83.1% to 82.7% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 1.6% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 6.1% YoY.
  

• The U.S. is protesting to Israel over restrictions on deliveries to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip of harmless goods such as soap and toilet paper.
  
  

Quick Overview

• Citigroup said the company showed an $8.3 billion operating profit in the first two months of this year. Pandit said his bank is having the best quarter since 2007, when it last posted a profit.
  

• U.S. wholesale sales fell 2.9% in January
  U.S. wholesale inventories fell 0.7%.
  

• MoM U.K. industrial production fell 2.6% in January and 11.4% YoY.
  

• China's consumer prices fell 1.6% in February.

• YoY China’s exports fell 25.7%

• China's February auto sales rose 25% -- after tax cuts

• Brazil's economy shrank a larger-than-expected 3.6% QoQ
  

• The USDA said 63% of the winter wheat crop in Texas and 43% in Oklahoma are rated poor to very poor.
  

• The International Coffee Organization reduced its guess of 2008-2009 world coffee production from 133.4 to 127.8 million bags
  

• (Reuters) - Iran lacks weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and has not yet made a decision on whether to produce any, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

Time to examine emotions? Alarmed? Shocked? Desolate?

Quick Overview

• YoY Japan’s exports fell 46% in January
  

• Merck said it would acquire Schering-Plough Corp for $41.1 billion

Thanks to the Bank it's a crisis; in the eurozone it's a total catastrophe
As it is we have seen industrial production collapse in every region. The drops in January were: Japan (-31pc), Korea (-26pc), Russia (-16pc), Brazil (-15pc), Italy (-14pc), Germany (-12pc). Falls that took two years from late 1929 have been compressed into five months.

Quick Overview

• U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.1% in February with a net loss of 651,000 jobs -- no worse than analysts had predicted.
  

• YoY U.K. Producer prices rose 3.1% in February.
  

• Residents of two northern Japanese villages have received the first $65 per person, from the government's controversial Y2 trillion cash handout scheme aimed at boosting consumer spending.

China's stimulus package looks like it's stimulating
Yet official data suggest the money being pumped through the economy is already putting some juice back into China's industrial sector. New orders to the industrial sector rose in January, driven by heavy industry. Growth in bank loans has also shot up. Both look like early signs that the stimulus is stimulating.

China can afford more later, if need be. The package so far will leave a fiscal deficit of under 3pc of GDP - high for China, but frugal by today's international standards. Total government debt as a percentage of GDP sits in the teens, a minimal level. And Beijing can always green-light projects while telling them to find finance on a commercial basis.

Quick Overview

• U.S. factory orders fell 1.9% in January, not as weak as expected

• U.S. jobless claims fell 31,000 last week to 639,000.
  

• U.S. productivity fell 0.4%.

• No stimulus package from China. Instead, it reaffirmed its belief that the current package will do the job.
  

• The Bank of England cut its interest rate from 1.00% to a record low 0.50%,
  

• The ECB cut rates from 2.00% to a record low 1.50%, as expected.
  

• GDP in the Euro area fell 1.5% in Q4, but rose 0.8% for all of 2008.

• Mortgage delinquencies rose to a 7.88% of all loans, the highest on record since 1972

• General Electric's GE Capital will be profitable for the first quarter and full year and won't need fresh capital except under an unlikely disaster scenario, the company's financial chief said.

• Shares of US Bancorp (USB) have bounced on reports that Rep. Barney Frank has said it and Northern Trust (NTRS) will give back their TARP funds.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Institute of Supply Management index of services fell from 42.9 to 41.6

• (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday launched a $75 billion foreclosure relief plan, as new data showed one in five U.S. homeowners with mortgages owe more than their house is worth.
  

• Australia’s GDP fell 0.5%
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 700,000 barrels 350.6 million
  Supplies of gasoline rose 200,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 900,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 81.4% to 83.1% of capacity.
  Gasoline demand rose 2.2% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 4.5% YoY.
  

• The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association lowered its estimate of this year's coffee harvest from 17 to 16 million bags.
  

• The number of containerships sitting idle worldwide is said to have soared to an historic high of 453 ships, that is 1.35 million TEU or 10.7 per cent of the world's box tonnage, AXS-Alphaliner News reports.

• (Reuters) - Switzerland's largest bank held its ground on Wednesday in a dispute with the U.S. government, refusing to disclose the names of tens of thousands of rich American clients suspected by U.S. authorities of using secret Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.

• The collapse of the Historical Archive of Cologne on Tuesday buried more than a millenium's worth of documents under tons of rubble. Archivists and historians hope something can be salvaged, but the future of the city's past is grim.

EU pledges eurozone rescue Europe's financial authorities have revealed the existence of a contingency plan to rescue eurozone states at risk of default, giving the first clear assurance that the EU will mount a defence if monetary union comes under speculative attack.

China May Announce New Stimulus Measures Tomorrow (Update3)
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may announce new stimulus measures tomorrow, adding to a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) spending plan as the government tries to revive growth in the world’s third-biggest economy.

Quick Overview

• U.S. pending home sales fell 7.7% in January, weaker than expected.
  

• Australia kept rates unchanged at 3.25%
  

• Canada reduced its interest rate from 1.0% to .50%
  

• Fed Chairman Bernanke said policy makers may need to expand aid to the banking system beyond the $700 billion already approved.
  

• (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve lifted executive- compensation limits for sponsors of asset-backed securities accepted under a new $1 trillion loan program.
  

• The International Cocoa Organization expects world cocoa production down 5% in 2008-2009, and a supply deficit of 193,000 tons.

• Ford reports February sales fell 48.4%.

• Canada’s largest lumber producer, said it would expand shutdowns of sawmills

• (Bloomberg) -- Chinese state stockpiling of copper may mean the withdrawal of about a quarter of the metal held in warehouses

• CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers fanned out across Mexico's bloodiest drug war city on Tuesday, trying to prevent a collapse in law and order just south of the U.S. border.

• EU officials voted to impose a duty on biodiesel imports from the U.S. to counteract a U.S. tax credit.

• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called on world leaders to stop "whining and complaining" about the economic slowdown.
  
  

Quick Overview

• U.S. Personal incomes rose 0.4% in January
  

• U.S. consumer spending rose 0.6% -- snapping six months of declines.

• U.S. Construction fell 3.3% MoM -- the 13th consecutive month of declines.
  

• The U.S. Institute of Supply Management's index of manufacturing rose from 35.6 to 35.8
  

• Canada’s GDP fell 0.8% in Q4
  

• U.K.’s manufacturing index fell from 35.8 to 34.7 in February, the 10th consecutive month of declines.
  

• YoY Japan’s auto sales fell 32% in February.
  

• AIG, the walking dead insurance giant is back in the government trough for another $30 billion.

Buffett Says Economy ‘In Shambles,’ Promises Better Days Ahead
“The economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 -- and, for that matter, probably well beyond,” said Buffett. “Though the path has not been smooth, our economic system has worked extraordinarily well over time. It has unleashed human potential as no other system has, and it will continue to do so.”

New 'Iron Curtain' will split EU's rich and poor
The spectacular collapse of some of the post-communist tiger economies led to demands at an EU summit in Brussels for a rescue fund of €190 billion (£170 billion) to stop social collapse in the Eastern nations spilling over into the rest of Europe.

We need shock and awe policies to halt depression Factory output is collapsing at the fastest pace everywhere. The figures for the most recent month available are, year-on-year: Taiwan (-43pc), Ukraine (-34pc), Japan (-30pc), Singapore (-29pc), Hungary (-23pc), Sweden (-20pc), Korea (-19pc), Turkey (-18pc), Russia (-16pc), Spain (-15pc), Poland (-15pc), Brazil (-15pc), Italy (-14pc), Germany (-12pc), France (-11pc), US (-10pc) and Britain (-9pc). Norway sails blissfully on (+4pc). What do they drink up there?

Quick Overview

• U.S. GDP contracted at a 6.2% annual rate in Q4
  
  

• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell from 61.2 to 56.3 in January
  

• Chicago's purchasing managers' index rose from 33.3 to 34.2 in February
  

• Unemployment in the Euro area rose from 8.1% to 8.2% in January.
  

• Consumer prices in the Euro area rose 1.1% YoY
  

• Japan's factory output fell 10.0% in January
  Japan’s household spending fell 5.9% YoY
  

• India’s GDP grew 5.3% YoY
  

• The U.S. government will boost its equity stake in Citigroup to 36%.
  

• Sweden’s GDP contracted 10% on an annualized basis.

• General Electric Co. will cut its quarterly dividend to 10 cents a share from 31 cents, according to CNBC.

Exclusive: Derivatives for Dummies by The Other Katherine Harris
Imagine being able to insure a car that you don’t own or use. Imagine it’s the car your neighbors will let their teenage son drive, when he gets his license in a few weeks — and you know the kid is a reckless brat.
Now imagine that, by using financial derivatives called swaps, you can purchase as many insurance policies on this car as you can afford to pay premiums on.

BERNIE & THE DOMINOS
3 MORE 'SCAMS' EXPOSED
"There are potentially hundreds of millions of other dollars, and we have no idea where that money is," Klein said, adding that there could be more than 350 victims.

Las Vegas Running Out of Water Means Dimming Los Angeles Lights
In Asia, developing giants are battling pollution as their populations grow. China, home to 21 percent of the world’s people last year, has just 7 percent of the water. Nine in 10 Chinese-city groundwater systems are fouled by industrial toxins, pesticides and human waste..

..In India, with 1.2 billion people, three-quarters of the surface water is contaminated, that country’s government said in September.

The Iran-Israel nuclear endgame is now much closer
In recent days, four key developments have clicked in to edge Iran and Israel much closer to a military denouement ..

Quick Overview

• U.S. jobless claims rose 36,000 last week to 667,000, the most in over 16 years. Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits topped 5.1 million.
  
  

• U.S. durable goods orders fell 5.2% MoM.

• UK Feb. House Prices fell 17.6% YoY vs. 17.1% expected
  
  

• GM lost $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

• The number of troubled U.S. banks rose 47% to 252 in Q4 the FDIC said.

• PepsiCo has announced it will be introducing a new line of ‘pure sugar’ soft drinks in late April.
  

Quick Overview

• Existing-home sales fell 5.3% to a nearly 12-year low in January, and the median home price fell to $170,300 from $199,800 YoY.
  

• U.K. GDP fell 1.5% in the fourth quarter
  

• Industrial new orders in the Euro area fell 5.2% MoM and 22% YoY.

• YoY EU steel production fell 45.9% in January
  

• Czarnikow increased its estimate of the 2008-2009 world sugar production deficit from 5.8 to 10.4 million tons.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 700,000 barrels to 351.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline fell 3.4 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 300,000 barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 82.3% to 81.4% of capacity
  Gasoline demand fell 1.7% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 1.6% YoY
  

• South Africa's Chamber of Mines said the nation's gold production fell 14% in 2008 to the lowest level since 1922.
  

• Bernanke said at risk homeowners need a bailout - even if they knew they couldn't afford their home in the first place.
  

• (Reuters) - The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than previously thought, raising world sea levels and making drastic global climate change more likely than ever, international scientists said on Wednesday.

Quick Overview

• YoY the S&P's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities fell 18.5% in December
  

• U.S. consumer confidence fell to a record low of 25 from Januarys 37.4 the Conference Board said
  

• German business confidence index (IFO) fell to 82.6 from 83 in January
  

• Pimco's Gross said that any effort by the U.S. government to nationalize floundering banks wouldn't work, partly because of the number of banks involved.
  

• YoY air cargo flying on Latin American airlines fell 25.4% in December

Will Germany deliver on the Faustian bargain that created monetary union?
The vast imbalances that have been allowed to build up under the seductive protection of EMU leave German taxpayers facing bail-out liabilities that exceed the cost of reparations after the First World War, in proportional terms.

Obama’s Policy on Civil Liberties: Bush Lite?
.. Unfortunately, instead of prosecuting Bush administration officials, including George W. Bush, for violating criminal statutes against torture, illegal wiretapping of Americans, and other misdeeds—thus avoiding the bad precedent of giving a president a free pass on illegal acts—Obama appears ready to vindicate the prior administration’s anti-terrorism program by adopting Bush Lite.

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) -- U.S. financial regulators pledged to inject additional funds into the nation’s major banks to prevent their collapse and will this week begin examinations to determine if they have enough capital.
  

• (Bloomberg) -- Asian nations will form a $120 billion pool of foreign-exchange reserves that can be used by countries to defend their currencies in an expansion of efforts to battle fallout from the global financial crisis.
  

• Hillary is pleading with China to continue buying US Treasury bonds amid mounting fears that Washington may struggle to finance bank bailouts and ballooning deficits over the next two years.
  

• Obama has set the goal of cutting the federal government's budget deficit in half by the end of his first term.
  

• Canada’s retail sales were down 5.4% in December
  

• Political unrest by Argentinean farmers continues over the issue of export taxes.
  

• The USDA said cattle on-feed were down 5.7% YoY
  

• The USDA said frozen pork supplies were up 3.5% YoY.
  

• The USDA said frozen supplies of orange juice concentrate were up 42% YoY
  

• Cocaine has fallen in price. It's now cheaper than beer, says the Telegraph.
  

UBS wobbles as Swiss fear for banking icon
"Without banking secrecy, we would have a million people unemployed over the next years," Freysinger said. "People cannot imagine how much depends on the banking secrecy and what it means for Switzerland's welfare."

Jumbo Loan Defaults Rise at Fast Pace as Rich Suffer (Update2)
“They’re telling me the house is only worth $1.3 million,” said Young, 46. “I’m upside down. I’m stuck. I’m in bailout mode but they’re bailing out banks and they’re not bailing out homeowners.”

Quick Overview

• U.S. consumer price index rose 0.3% MoM and is unchanged YoY. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.2% MoM and up 1.7% YoY

• (FT) US financial stocks endured more heavy losses early as fears persisted that the government would be forced to nationalise a key institution and thus wipe out shareholders
  

• U.K. retail sales rose 0.7% MoM and up 3.6% YoY

• UK car production fell 58.7% in January.
  

• YoY Canada consumer price index rose 1.1% in January.
  

Quick Overview

• Europe's institutions are scrambling to prevent financial contagion from Ukraine and potentially setting off a full-blown banking crisis in Austria.
  

• Daily Telegraph: Global fund managers are betting that a powerful rebound in China will revive demand for commodities and lead global industry out of slump.

• U.S. Leading indicators rose 0.4% in January, more than expected, and led by a jump in money supply.
  

• U.S. producer price index rose 0.8% MoM and fell 1.0% YoY
  

• U.S. jobless claims were unchanged at 627,000.
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing fell from -24.3 to -41.3
  

• Japan kept rates unchanged at 0.10%
  

• Canada’s leading indicators fell 0.8%

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 200,000 barrels to 350.6 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 1.1 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 700,000 barrels
  Refinery use rose from 81.6% to 82.3% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 0.8 YoY
  Distillate demand rose 0.3% YoY
  
  

Ukraine must be rescued from tragi-comedy for Europe's sake
Meanwhile gross domestic product has contracted by 20pc over the last year, apparently worse than early Bolshevism or the Stalin famine.

UBS Will Disclose Names, Pay $780 Million to End U.S. Tax Case
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, will pay $780 million and disclose the names of some secret account holders..

Madoff Loss Spawned in ‘Bargain With Devil’ at Cerberus Bank
..As many as 50 percent of companies owned by private-equity firms may default by 2011, according to a study of 328 holdings by Boston Consulting Group.

Obama Sets $75 Billion Plan to Stem U.S. Foreclosures (Update1)
Homeowners also are eligible for $1,000 annually for five years for remaining current on their loans, according to the plan.

Quick Overview

• U.S. housing starts plunged 17% percent last month to an annual rate of 466,000.
  

• The Mortgage Bankers' Association said mortgage applications rose 46% last week.
  

• Australia’s retail sales rose 0.8%
  

• Canada’s wholesale sales fell 3.4% in December
  

• Construction output in the Euro area fell 2.2%MoM and 10.1% YoY.
  

• Demand for gold rose by 29% to $102bn last year, according to the World Gold Council.
  

• Latvia's Finance Ministry announced that the economy will shrink 12% this year.
  

• Greenspan said the U.S. government may have to nationalize banks “temporarily”.
  

• The number of idle containerships has increased to 392, aggregating to 1,100,000 TEU, or 8.8% of the box fleet, according to Paris-based AXS-Alphaliner News.
  

• E*Trade reported a 30% slide in new accounts opened in January as it deals with a waning appetite for the equities markets.

Quick Overview

• The New York Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing fell from -26.14 to -39.08
  

• YoY, the number of U.S. airline passengers fell 12.8% in November – the biggest drop in domestic and international passengers since January 2002.
  

• Singapore January exports fell 35% as global demand collapses.
  
  

• Japan's GDP fell 3.3% in Q4
  

• YoY U.K. consumer prices rose 3.0%
  

• Canada’s manufacturing sales fell 8.0% in December
  

• (CNN Money) There's a nice windfall for some homebuyers in the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Obama's signature on Tuesday. First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 - or 10% of the home's value, whichever is less - on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

• The SEC filed charges against R. Allen Stanford, alleging he orchestrated a multi-billion dollar scheme centering on an $8 billion CD program.

• General Motors said it needs $16.6 billion in new U.S. loans. Chrysler needs another 5 billion

Eastern European currencies crumble as fears of debt crisis grow
Austria’s banks are the most exposed with the share of risk-weighted assets tied to the region reaching 54pc for Raffeisen and 38pc for Erste Bank. The exposure of Germany’s Bayern Bank is 48pc, Italy’s UniCredit is 45pc, and Swedbank is 29pc.

Banks Face Downgrades on Eastern European Losses, Moody’s Says
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Austrian, Swedish and other banks with subsidiaries in eastern European may face rating downgrades as economies in the region deteriorate, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Still aglister
..world gold supply will contract more slowly than demand, causing excess supply to rise by 21% to 553 tonnes. Only the worldwide flight to safety and the lack of appeal of other assets, it seems, will keep gold prices high.