Real interest rates have rocketed. The trade-weighted rise in the yuan over the past two years has been spectacular. Fiscal policy is about to tighten drastically as the authorities clamp down on big-spending local governments. Put together, China is pursuing the most contractionary mix of economic policies in the G20, relative to the status quo ante. Collateral damage is already visible in the sliding global prices of iron ore, copper, nickel, lead and zinc over recent months, as well as thermal coal, oil, corn and even sugar.

Zhiwei Zhang, from Deutsche Bank, says China faces a "fiscal cliff" this year as Beijing attempts to rein in spending. "This year, China will likely face the worst fiscal challenge since 1981. This is not well recognised in the market," he said. The International Monetary Fund says China's budget deficit topped 10 percent of GDP in 2014 if measured properly, including borrowing by the regions through "financing vehicles" as well as land sales - a patently unsustainable form of funding that makes up 35 percent of local government revenue. This is the highest deficit of any major country in the world, and far above safe levels.

China is not the only country in Asia facing a hangover. Nomura's Rob Subbaraman says housing booms in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan all match or exceed the US bubble in 2008, with Malaysia not far behind. "Asia is setting itself up for a major credit crunch," he said.

The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, volunteers and ammo do filter into Ukraine across the Russian border, but that's about it.) Further south, the efforts to topple the government of Syria by aiding and arming Islamist radicals seem to be backfiring nicely. But that's the pattern, isn't it? What US military involvement in recent memory hasn't resulted in a fiasco? Maybe failure is not just an option, but more of a requirement?

Let's review. Afghanistan, after the longest military campaign in US history, is being handed back to the Taliban. Iraq no longer exists as a sovereign nation, but has fractured into three pieces, one of them controlled by radical Islamists. Egypt has been democratically reformed into a military dictatorship. Libya is a defunct state in the middle of a civil war. The Ukraine will soon be in a similar state; it has been reduced to pauper status in record time —less than a year. A recent government overthrow has caused Yemen to stop being US-friendly. Closer to home, things are going so well in the US-dominated Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that they have produced a flood of refugees, all trying to get into the US in the hopes of finding any sort of sanctuary.

But I would venture to guess that at some point failure will translate into meta-failure: America will fail even at failing. I hope that there is something we can do to help this meta-failure of failure happen sooner rather than later.

He said this was the result of "chaos and extremism in the Middle East, Russian aggression and expansion, and a weakened Europe threatened by horrendous unemployment, in no small measure caused by a failure to tackle structural reforms in many of the countries which form part of the European Union". This was a much gloomier assessment of the world than the picture painted in his statement a year ago.

Text for the bill, S.633, can be found below:

"The Stand with Israel Act of 2015 sends a clear message: Unless the Palestinian Authority recognizes the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, ceases to work with terrorist organizations such as Hamas, and agrees to a lasting peace, this legislation will halt all US taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority," said Senator Paul.

The ECB, which left interest rates on hold at record lows just above zero at its meeting in Cyprus on Thursday, lifted its growth forecast to 1.5 percent for this year, from the 1 percent it predicted in December. For 2016, growth of 1.9 percent is now expected, up from a previous 1.5 percent. "The latest economic data, and particularly survey evidence available up to February, point to some further improvements in economic activity at the beginning of this year," Mr Draghi told a news conference. "Looking ahead, we expect the economic recovery to broaden and strengthen gradually."

It is unclear whether the probe, the first targeting the Bank in the SFO's 28-year history, will focus on traders outside the BoE or officials inside the central bank. The move came after the SFO was handed the results of an inquiry conducted last year by Lord Grabiner into whether any senior staff at the Bank were aware its auctions may have been rigged in 2007 and 2008.

During that time the Bank lent money against low and negative interest rates in return for asset-backed securities, in a bid to keep lending markets open as the credit crunch struck.

Here is the report from WND.com. “Secretary of State John Kerry quietly presented a US plan for eastern Jerusalem that calls for an international administrative mandate to control holy sites in the area, according to informed Palestinian and Israeli diplomatic sources. The exact composition of the international mandate is up for discussion, the sources said, but Kerry’s plan recommended a coalition that includes the Vatican, together with a group of Muslim countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.” (WND)

There is also this shocking piece that I found from Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, that claims that the Vatican is hoarding Vessels from the Second Temple. “The Vatican is evading questions on whether or not it is holding religious artifacts from the Second Temple, Rabbi Yonatan Shtenzel told Arutz Sheva correspondents Wednesday, in what he calls ‘diplomatic evasion’.

“Talmudic sources, including passages from Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yossi, note that several of the holy vessels from the Second Temple ended up in the Vatican’s hands, Rabbi Shtenzel said. Artifacts said to be transferred to the religious city-state via the Roman Emperor include the shulchan (Shewbread table), the menorah (candelabra), several priestly garments, and others.

“Pope Francis knows full well where the vessels are, the Rabbi claimed, lamenting that ‘diplomatic evasion’ is the status quo. The Vatican is concerned, according to Shtenzel, that they will be brought to the Hague over the issue and be forced to give the artifacts back to the Jewish people” (Israel National News).

If they are truly hoarding vessels from the second temple then could that mean that they have their own plans to build a Third Temple? One last piece of the puzzle I found was a video by Steven Ben-DeNoon, author of IsraeliNewsLive. In it he exposes his belief that Pope Francis does have a secret plan to build the “Third Jewish Temple.” However his plans are not just for the “Jewish” people, no, he is planning on using it as a universal place of worship for all faiths. Steven Ben-DeNoon grabs his information from a book called, The Royal Secret — a book which he claims contains all the secrets of the elite.

"German medical engineering companies are very much in demand in the world right now," Fiagon Chairman Timo Krüger told USA TODAY. "The entire branch is also benefiting from strong growth in markets like Asia, without a shadow of a doubt." Just about all German exports are very much in demand around the world right now, thanks to a weak euro that is proving to be a boon to Germany by making its goods less expensive to foreign customers.

The currency is now trading at an 11-year low against the dollar: $1.11. That's an 18% drop from $1.35 in the first half of 2014. The euro's decline has boosted sales to China and the United States, which accounted for more than half of Fiagon's revenues last year, said Krüger, whose company recently opened an American headquarters in Austin.

"If the exchange rate in the US and China against the euro remains where it is, we could see our revenue increase somewhere in the double digits," said Krüger.

The filming of the incident and the extreme two-year police ban removed the ruling from directly impacting on the much more narrow but important issue of whether an individual Jew can pray on the Temple Mount. As the court stated, there are powerful competing constitutional principles in play here. Jews wanting to pray there want to exercise their freedom of speech and religion at Judaism’s holiest site. The police and the state want to prevent actions and reactions that could cause public disorder not only on the Mount itself, but across the country and even the region.

The courts have also recognized that actions on the Temple Mount can impact foreign policy interests of the state and that this variety of interests can limit an individual’s right to pray, if authorities are concerned about a specific and concrete danger. Technically, the Supreme Court’s principles and the police policy that Jews can pray on the Temple Mount as long as they do not do so openly or “offensively” (not in groups) to Muslims on the Mount, were merely upheld by the lower court.

What the court essentially said was that the police could limit Glick’s or other’s right to openly pray on the Mount, but that Glick had done his prayer in a quiet and unassuming manner, neither violating the general policy nor violating a specific statement of obligations which the police made him sign in order to be permitted to ascend the Mount. Rather, the court blamed Channel 10 for breaking its commitment to the police not to film or air any of Glick’s time on the Mount, and questioned why the police had not gone after Channel 10.

In that sense, the ruling did not make any broad policy change. But that is not the end of the story. The new ruling was much more explicit and unequivocal in confirming the right of Jews to pray (even if not openly) on the Temple Mount than many previous court decisions. Also, the court questioned the police’s own estimation of what could constitute a threat to security or public order – an area that courts usually avoid so as not to second-guess security officials’ expertise.

Next, the court slammed the police policy of having Glick and other select activists signing special commitments in order to ascend the Mount, a rebuke which activists could try to use to challenge the policy going forward. Further, the court went so far as to slam a confidential police report about police concerns about Glick as inadequate and essentially useless. It is rare that courts rebuke or reject a secret police report and the court even implied that censured portions of the report might have been censured to cover-up how much of a black eye the police has on the issue.

The degree to which the ruling could be used to change the playing field is further emphasized by hints from the state that it will appeal the ruling, even though it has not created a broad precedent. So both before and after the ruling, Jews can pray modestly on the Temple Mount, but not openly, and the court decision in and of itself did not change the playing field. But the court did open the door for activists to challenge the status quo on a range of issues. The likely next round on appeal and future spinoff disputes promise to prolong the battle over Temple Mount prayer.

On Sunday, Judge Malka Aviv said the police ban on far-right extremist Yehudah Glick visiting the compound was issued “without appropriate consideration, was arbitrary, and only out of concern for the consequences of the broadcast.” As Israeli media reported, the Supreme Court upholds Jews’ “theoretical” right to pray at the compound, but gives the security services the green light to ban Jews from performing rituals should such action result in potential unrest.

The Islamic Waqf and Heritage reported that it is the right time to stipulate clear administrative rules regarding Jewish prayer in the compound. It explained that the rise in such provocative incursions into the compound coincides with an Israeli trend to take control over the Islamic site in order to permanently allow Jews to pray in al-Aqsa Compound and turn it into Jewish site.

Netanyahu knows his identity and his nation's. He believes Israel is not merely a Jewish state, but, a giver and guardian of profound civilizing values. As Winston Churchill wrote long ago, "The Hebrew tribes wandering in the wilderness, though indistinguishable from numberless nomadic communities, grasped and proclaimed an idea of which all the genius of Greece and all the power of Rome were incapable." It's no wonder Cal Thomas called Netanyahu's speech "Churchillian". Whether one agrees with Churchill's assessment or not, Netanyahu, as he spoke, pointing at Moses' visage displayed in the congressional chamber, certainly does. He no doubt sees such a legacy as integral to his leadership of Israel. Because he has such a grasp of his country's historic identity he has piercingly clear understanding of its interests.

Netanyahu's speech March 3 showed that he doesn't only know his history, but is passionate about it. It made one yearn to watch an American President at that august podium speaking with such conviction of his nation's historic richness and core identity. Which brings us to the search for Obama. In recent times it has been literal. During the "I Am Charley" marches in Paris – where Netanyahu, by the way, was helping lead the pack whether people wanted him there or not – the world asked, "Where is Obama?" And yet there is a deeper, more urgent question: "Who is Obama?"

I do not mean this in a "birther" sense, but as it relates to presuppositions, worldview, and the philosophies that guide his policies. Captain Queeg was terribly confused about those fundamentals personally, and sailed the good ship Caine toward the shoals and shipwreck. While Netanyahu seeks to steer his ship of state out of harm's way, Obama seems to be guiding America into a collision with the rocky beach. Why does he do this? The question can only be answered against the backdrop of the other, again: Who is Barack Obama?

Here's the harsh reality of the contemporary complicated world: Israel knows who it is and what its interests are. Iran knows who it is and what its interests are. ISIS knows who it is and what its interests are. North Korea knows who it is and what its interests are. In such a world a foreign policy of ambiguity and uncertainty about national interests and identity is irrelevant to the situation – deadly so. As many Americans – and others, Netanyahu, maybe – are searching for Obama, there's a sense in which Obama is searching for America. Let us hope he finds it soon.

March represents a crucial four weeks for Syriza. Greece is due to make a €1.5 billion repayment of its loans to the International Monetary fund this month. Its first €300 million payment is due on Friday, in addition to more than $4.5 billion in short-term bond redemptions that will also mature later this month. Given that the country will not receive its bail-out cash until April at the earliest, the new Leftist government has already hinted that it may have to delay fulfilling its obligations to the IMF.

Should it fail to make its loan repayments, Greece would join an ignominious list of international pariahs and war-torn failed states, and become the only developed economy to renege on its commitments to the Fund in 70 years. But the squeeze on the country's public finances shows no sign of abating. Capital flight accelerated to €64 million last week, according to JP Morgan. Greek bank deposits have reached their lowest level in more than a decade and tax revenues have collapsed since January.

Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has sought to calm the tensions by vowing to "squeeze blood out of stone" in order to pay back the IMF. "We shall do it," he told the Associated Press earlier this week. But the Greeks are running out of options fast. "Even if Greece can avoid a default over the coming months, they will not be able to honour bonds worth a total of €6.7 billion between July and August without further official funds," said Diego Iscaro at IHS Global.

Taxpayers have had enough of paying for the country’s increasingly crisis-ridden banking sector, and have determined to bail in private creditors to the remnants of this financial road crash instead - to the tune of $8.5 billion in the specific case of Hypo Alpe-Adria. Finally, creditors are being made to pay for the consequences of their own folly.

You might have thought that a financial crisis as serious as that of the past seven years would have ended the world economy’s addiction to debt once and for all. It has not. If anything, the position has grown even worse since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Where the West left off, Asia has taken up the pace, with a credit-induced real estate bubble that makes its pre-crisis Western counterpart look tame by comparison, much of it fuelled, as in Western economies, by growth in the shadow banking sector.

China’s total indebtedness has quadrupled since 2007 to $28 trillion, according to estimates by McKinsey. At 282 percent of GDP, the debt burden is now bigger, relative to output, than the US. The world is sinking under a sea of debt, private as well as public, and it is increasingly hard to see how this might end, except in some form of mass default. How might the present explosion in debt end? The only thing that can be said with certainty is “badly”.