The U.S. employment report confirmed reasonable labor force growth. As much as these figures can ever be said to confirm anything.

Some media sources have commented on the subdued wage growth, which is quite remarkable as there were no wage figures released on Friday. There were average hourly earnings numbers, but these have nothing to do with wages.

The absence of new economic information means therefore that political noise and other distractions are likely to create the entertainment for financial markets.

On the political noise side, there were a variety of events to choose from.

The Trump Twitter feed was uncharacteristically quite over the weekend.

There were some comments on the new era of U.S. taxes. These comments are perhaps somewhat undermined by media reports that the Senate bill is currently proposing a marginal tax rate of a little over 105 percent for some businesses.

Presumably, this is not the intention and amendments will be made over the course of the formal House-Senate conference committee that will be held on Wednesday and that is intended to reconcile the different bills being proposed.

Elsewhere in the world, North Korea was making noise about the proposed U.S. naval blockade qualifying it as another declaration of war.

Now, North Korea is always making noise, and besides that, markets do not pay attention when North Korea makes noise.

Several countries were making noise about the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the wake of President Trump’s attacks on the institution, which has provoked a backlash from WTO fellow members as ministers from the 164-member body are gathering for their biennial meeting that started on Sunday in Buenos Aires, Argentine

Markets aren’t likely to pay too much attention to this either.

Members of the UK government were clarifying the deal done with the European Union. Clarifying in the sense, meaning making things as unclear and unsecure as possible without actually breaking the so-called breakthrough divorce deal that should pave the way for arduous talks on future trade ties and that was reached on Friday in the early morning hours in Brussels.

Markets are unlikely to pay too much attention to this either, though it might make trade negotiations more complex.

Under the heading of other distractions, there is bitcoin, which is rapidly assuming “the mantle of the bubble to end all bubbles.”

The opening of futures contracts has fueled the hysteria, but bitcoin was a bubble at $6,000 and is now a bubble at $16,000.

Bitcoin’s value rests on being used as a currency, but bitcoin cannot be used for the most important transaction in any economy and the supply of cryptocurrencies can only rise and never fall, rendering it a highly dangerous "store of value."

Moreover, at the moment it is impossible to buy anything with bitcoin. Goods are sold at a bitcoin price that converts bitcoin into useful currency, but while the dollar price of a good for example is constant, the bitcoin price changes day to day.

That’s what transactions represent is a simultaneous asset sale and purchase of goods and services. That is not what a currency does.

Etienne "Hans" Parisis is a bank economist who has advised investors on financial markets and international investments.