We were speechless when we read this from Bloomberg

From Bloomberg:

The Bank of Israel will begin today a pilot program to invest a portion of its foreign currency reserves in U.S. equities.

More from Globes:

The Bank of Israel today began investing a small part of its $77 billion in foreign currency reserves in US stocks. The central bank’s latest Markets Division report states that the new Bank of Israel Law (5770-2010) allows the Bank of Israel to make equity investments, and that it began to do [...]

Bad Policy Alert: Spain’s economy contracts in 4th quarter, and its government remains committed to more austerity.

The slowdown in consumer spending is hitting Spanish retailers

From BBC News:

The Spanish economy has shrunk for the first time in two years, increasing fears the country could be heading for a recession.

The country’s economy shrank by 0.3% in the three months to December, after stagnating in the previous quarter.

Household spending fell by 1.1% from the previous quarter, while spending by public bodies dropped by 3.6%.

The country has the highest [...]