Recall that in the days leading to the Brexit vote, one of the most closely followed indicators of public sentiment was online bookmaker betting, where in a curious split, the majority of smaller wages was for Brexit, however the total amount better was skewed by a handful of far bigger bets on "remain." However, when it comes to Trump, there appears to be confusion - or interference - at least in the last several days.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who promised last week to stop cursing after a personal chat with god, once again slammed the United States on Wednesday for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country, calling those behind the decision "fools" and "monkeys" and indicating he might turn to Russia and China instead. Duterte's tirades against the US have become a virtiually daily event, and on Wednesday he said that he once believed in Washington, but had since lost respect for what is the Philippines' biggest ally, Reuters reported.

Well that escalated quickly... again...

Hope? Nope!

And bonds & bullion continue to strengthen...

Did you see Scott McConnell’s great TAC piece on the rise of the alt-right? In it, he talks about how whatever its excesses, the alt-right, in both its harder and softer versions, have a more realistic sense of what is going on in the West now than do many in the mainstream. I think this is correct, and the failure of the establishment parties and institutions to absorb the critique and to adjust for it makes for a dangerous and destabilizing situation.