Russia'scentral bank said on Friday that net capital outflows in 2014 amounted to $151.5 billion, the largest on record. The bank also said the 2014 current account surplus amounted to $56.7 billion and the trade surplus stood at $185.6 billion.

$151 billion fled Russia in 2014

Of course, with everyone wanting to have their money in Switzerland, the franc exploded in value. In early 2010 one franc was less than 0.7 euro. By the middle of 2011 the franc was nearly at parity against the euro, a massive move in a very short period.

Here's What the Swiss Central Bank Just Did and Why It's Such a Shocker - Businessweek

Deflation is like a black hole, sucking seemingly everything into itself. Switzerland succumbed to the vortex on Jan. 15 when the central bank gave up trying to keep its currency from rising—a defeat that will punish the Swiss economy by making the nation's goods more expensive on world markets.

Can the U.S. Stay Out of the Deflation Vortex? - Businessweek

It's easy to demonstrate that growing income disparities have made life more difficult not just for the poor, but also for the economy's ostensible winners — the very wealthy. The good news is that a simple change in tax policy could free up literally trillions of dollars a year without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If that claim strikes you as far-fetched, you'll be surprised to see that it rests on only five simple premises.

Why have weddings and houses gotten so ridiculously expensive? Blame inequality. - Vox

Since 2011, the Eurozone’s current-account surpluses with the rest of the world have risen sharply, approaching 4% of nominal GDP, despite the debt crisis and even while the euro was very strong. The November trade surplus, reported today, jumped to €20 billion, up from €16.5 billion a year ago.

Without QE, “Eurozone Financial Markets Would Collapse” | Wolf Street

If you had a time machine, went back to (say) 1985, picked up Milton Friedman, brought him forward to 2015, and showed him the current debate over macroeconomic policy, he could immediately join right in. Is there anything important that would be really new to him?

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: There are no Friedmans today, except maybe Friedman himself

A Greek exit from the eurozone would be a step into the economic and political unknown.  An unmanaged exit would cause far-reaching financial and economic disruption. Huge capital flight from Greece would prompt runs on the country’s banks. This would force the newly independent Greek central bank to print large amounts of money to recapitalise the Greek banking sector, which might cause the drachma to collapse in value and lead to very high inflation.

Greece will remain in the euro for now | CER