Following last week's dramatic 31 rig decline, Baker-Hughes reports another major decline of 28 oil rigs (dropping the total oil rigs to 439 - lowest since Jan 2010 - for the 8th consecutive week). The total rig count dropped 30. On the heels of OPEC rumors overnight and then re-rumored bullshit from Venezuela, oil prices had already surged during the day and the biggest 2-week rig count decline in 10 months after initially being sold, is rallying once again.

Ron Paul gets to work on untangling another set of common myths. He sets the eminent domain argument straight, shines light on several Bernie Sanders fallacies, revisits his questioning of Ben Bernanke, and much more!

A group of British and American scientists have said that the world needs to prepare itself for global food shortages in the near future.  Speaking at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the scientists unveiled disturbing new research that suggests future extreme events could affect the global food system so dramatically that it will result in ‘food shocks’ across the world. Eurekalert.org reports: Food shocks have the potential to wreak havoc on food markets, commodity exports, and families around the world.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the collapse of global credit markets... as Markit warns the number of distressed bonds (trading greater than 1000bps) is "escalating at an alarming pace."

26% of the entire high yield bond universe is now at "distressed" levels - the highest since the financial crisis.

As we noted previously, credit is screaming and for now stocks are shurgging... and credit is always right in the end!

1,100 is the target...

Earlier today, we discussed how after 8 long years spent wandering punch drunk through a dream-like Keynesian wonderland where all financial assets rise inexorably, the world finally woke up last month with a terrible hangover only to discover that after 637 rate cuts and $12.3 trillion in asset purchases, “quantitative easing” has been a “quantitative failure.”