The Year of the Rabbit 2023 is associated with longevity, peace, prosperity, and fecundity. All would be welcome after the Year of the Tiger, which was correctly associated with competition, challenges, rebellion, short-temperedness, unpredictability, and an official decline in the Chinese population. Markets started 2023 off rabbit-like, and while the 'buy stocks' trade may be fading, the 'buy bonds' trade is still going strong, as is 'sell US, buy anything else', assuming there are now no tigers to sink their teeth into defenceless, fluffy things like Europe.

If only we could rely on astrology and Wall Street projections!

"Tanks for nothing"; parallel unparalleleds

A new Russian offensive in Ukraine looms but Berlin won't send German tanks. However, it might finally allow others with German-made tanks to send them. Yet geopolitics experts agree that while Germany doesn't want Russia to win, it doesn't really want Ukraine to win either, as that would decouple from Russia permanently, create a new Poland/Balts/Scandies/Central Europe/Ukraine bloc, and EU gas would flow from the south via Italy, not from the east via Germany, shifting intra-EU power dynamics. The German press says its defence industry fears every Deutsche tank will be replaced by an American, entrenching US market position. In short, the risks are still of an extended war, not rabbit-like peace, and the damage to peaceful Germany's reputation within the EU and US, not just as an arms dealer, is not to be taken lightly.