When I had arranged to take yesterday off, I could hardly have chosen a busier day to step away from the markets. However sometimes you get so close to the markets you can’t actually see what is going on. You can’t see the wood for the trees. So the Bank of Japan will bring an end to their 5 year quantitative easing policy (which is a bonus because it is hell to type), but the end to Zero Interest Rate Policy ( ZIRP ) is some way off. So, it is likely that the Japanese economy will still be seriously out of kilter with those economies of the US, Europe, and China. The ’carry’ trade will still be ’on’ for a while yet. The US Trade deficit reached a whopping, gynormous, 68.5 billion US Dollars. Yes, some of it can be explained by the high level of oil prices, however, the rise in automobile and consumer imports will have the knock-on effect of severely affecting domestic manufacturing capability. Reading through all the commentaries this morning the overwhelming sentiment is ’ this is temporary, it will go away, its rising oil prices’. Don’t you believe it. This is a growing monster. It does matter, it has to be addressed now. This is not an argument for protectionism, it is the opposite, it is precisely this protectionism which makes industry complacent and un-competitive, competition promotes innovation and quality, which in turn makes goods competitive in price. I will deal with the Forex markets and the individual currencies in the next up-date, along with today’s economic data. All this is taking place against the background of Iran and nuclear confrontation, and forever stalled World Trade Organization ( WTO ) Trade talks.