Why now?

The timing begs the question and leads me to believe there may be an official compromise with respect to Ukraine and oil prices.

Russia's central bank reversed course Friday and slashed interest rates to 15% from 17% as the nation grapples with a weak economic outlook caused in part by sanctions from the West over its actions in Ukraine and plunging oil prices.

All eyes on the Fed...

...which, like other global CBs, seems only to care about the Stock Market these days.  I doubt if they will rock the boat given choppy waters ahead.

More negative news...

Now public bonds are being issued below the zero boundary.  

The German State of Lower Saxony, Niedersachsen, indicated the EUR500m
no-grow 18-month Landesschatzanweisung at a price of 100.10 with a 0%
coupon for a yield of minus 0.067%.    

The Race is on!

The Bank of Canada just announced that it cut its main interest rate to 0.75% from 1%, joining the trend of central banks around the world trending towards easier monetary policy. 

The Danes que up.

Also noting that the Fed is fairly sanguine about the prospects for the U.S. economy in the coming quarters...quite the disparity.

Denmark on Monday became the latest European country to cut its interest rates as it attempted to dampen investor interest in the Danish krone ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting on Thursday.

Nationalbank cut its deposit rate to minus 0.2% from minus 0.05%, and its lending rate to 0.05% from 0.2%.

Chart of the day...

The vertical drop is only rivaled by Mount Thor (the largest vertical airborne drop on earth)...which will be scaled by yours truly someday.

Hopefully I will not experience the vertiginous effects that many levered CHF shorts and Stock market longs experienced within an amazingly short time interval.

The cascade effects...

...from the rapid CHF appreciation will be very painful for some countries.  The below snippet concerns Poland, but Ukraine, Hungary and other former Easter Bloc countries have significant percentages as well.

Polish banks had 131 billion zloty ($35 billion) of Swiss-franc mortgages in their portfolios as of Nov. 30, amounting to 46 percent of all home loans, according to data from the country’s financial market supervisor. Poles and other Eastern Europeans rushed for cheaper funding in francs and euros in the run-up to the global financial crisis in 2008, only to see their borrowing costs surge due to currency swings.