Dan Drezner considers the possibility that some Republican policy elites could start moving to the Democrats, but remains skeptical:

The thing is, that polarization has been going on for four decades now. Elites within the major political parties of 2016 are more ideologically distant than they were in, say, 1971. Indeed, this election cycle has exacerbated that polarization at the presidential level. So disaffected GOP intellectuals would have to travel a much longer ideological space to feel comfortable as Democrats.

Following the disappointment of Doha, US equities have soared off the dip with The Dow topping the all-important 18,000 level and now S&P back above 2,100...

All the while, earnings are collapsing.

Looks fine to us, right? What could go wrong?

Now this is funny:

Transparent, the Amazon-streamed show about transgender acceptance, is having a disagreement on its set related to its new unisex bathrooms. Some crew members are reportedly upset about having to use the restroom in the same space as coworkers of different genders, now that both bathrooms are open-access. TMZ reports the story, adding that many are allegedly afraid to complain about the issue over concern that they’ll be labeled transphobic.

Following Saudi threats to destabilize the financial system if the US were to enact a Bill that would allow an investigation into Saudi Arabia's support of September 11 terrorist attacks, many were watching closely how Obama would react. The president made it clear last night when as CNN reports, the White House threatened to veto the bipartisan bill to let families victimized by the 9/11 terrorist attacks sue Saudi Arabia while a GOP senator privately sought to block the measure.

Overnight a historic event took place when China, the world's top gold consumer, launched a yuan-denominated gold benchmark as had been previewed here previously, in what Reuters dubbed "an ambitious step to exert more control over the pricing of the metal and boost its influence in the global bullion market." Considering the now officially-confirmed rigging of the gold and silver fix courtesy of last week's Deutsche Bank settlement, this is hardly bad news and may finally lead to some rigging cartel and central bank-free price discovery.