Let's check the headlines, shall we?
U.S.-South Korea free trade talks aren't necessarily dead yet. I'm pessimistic. No way do Koreans want Uncle Sam's QE to have inflationary spillover into their economy.
A tax-cut extension is in the works. Fiscal madness continues as our mandarins prove unable to convince spoiled Americans to take their medicine. This is the perfect fiscal twin to the Fed's monetary irresponsibility.
Greece raises first itsy-bitsy warning flag that it won't be able to repay the EU and IMF on time. No kidding. Maybe all those protestors scared Athens. What's scarier is that no one in the Western nations seems able to tolerate austerity. The proverbial man on horseback in each country watches this folly and awaits his chance to put things "back the way they used to be" in exchange for power. This never ends well.
China is going bargain hunting. It's spending more on FDI and not just to lock in access to resources. They probably want to get ahead of any capital controls that emerging nations will erect to prevent the U.S. from exporting inflation.
