While Everybody Else Seems To Be Focused On Greece...

I am more interested in how much taller 

Christine Lagarde (Managing Director of The International Monetary Fund) is than Vladimir Putin.

In all likelihood, the drama that is Greece and Europe will likely find a way to "kick the can down the road" because the Euro needs the weakness that Greece brings with it so that the currency can stay depressed and thus stimulative for the Euro Area economy.

For our purposes this is just a lot of "noise" that distracts financial markets from more important issues.

So, as we head to the end of Q2 and the end of the first half of 2015, lets review some of our themes for 2015 and how they are playing out:

1) Expect The Unexpected

• Oil is back above $60, up 13% from Dec 31, 2014.
• C$ is just above $0.80, down from $0.86.
• S&P 500 is up 2.4%.
• S&P TSX is up 2.2% (anybody pick the TSX to match the S&P 500?).
• Canadian Preferred Share Index is down almost 11%.
• Canadian 10yr bonds are (for the most part) unchanged.
• Canadian Bank Rate is down by 0.25%.
• Japanese equity prices are up 20%.
• Chinese equity prices are up by 45%.
• German equity prices are up by 17%.

2) Oil Price Shock Repercussions:

3) Central Bankers Don't Like Volatility

4) The US economy will pull the global economy in the 2nd half of 2015:

More tomorrow....