Putting the 'mad' in Maduro. Venezuela's heavy crude oil price just crashed almost 9% to $31.24... its lowest since December 2004. Time for another 'swap' with China?

Charts: Bloomberg

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” –  Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

By EconMatters

   David Crane Resigns

In case you missed it David Crane resigns Thursday and the stock gets hammered on Friday to the likes of almost 20% at one point in trading, putting in a low print of $8.81. Hopefully the more sophisticated investors out there bought some calls three month`s out as NRG Energy is a definite takeout candidate with this shockingly low stock price given its actual assets.

Time to go to Tijuana for Christmas vacations? The Mexican Peso just collapsed to all-time record lows against the US Dollar...

Charts: Bloomberg

Earlier this morning, we laid out a list of junk bond-focused mutual funds which based on their atrocious YTD performance, have the highest risk of being the next to follow Third Avenue in gating and/or liquidating, noting that Catalyst, or Nuveen or Franklin are most at risk.