Submitted by Erico Matias Tavares of Sinclair & Co.

The US Economy: Still On Track?

Raw materials and goods need to be transported regardless of how modern or sophisticated an economy is.

Every week the Association of American Railways (“AAR”) posts a free report on rail volumes transported across North America by major category. This provides some decent clues on the condition of the US economy, almost in real time.

Let’s see what the latest report covering virtually all of 2015 is telling us.

"The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians.”

That rather ominous quote is from Ayatollah Khamenei who was decidedly upset with Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that after a period of relative quietness on the European front, something was bound to happen again. Even though it has been less than six months since Greece had to close its banks in an attempt to stop a bank run, it feels like it has been an eternity as the mainstream media chose not to spend too much attention on a fait-divers like a bank run.

According to a new report issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Obama administration are very concerned following Turkish President Erdogan’s public praise of Nazi Germany.  The report states that Erdogan has requesting to become a “super president” by increasing the executive powers available to him, looking at Hitler’s Germany as inspiration for a constitutional reform in Turkey.

Russia have named the United States as a threat against its national security for the first time, signalling deteriorating relations between the two superpowers.  President Putin signed a document entitled, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation“, and for the first time in history it lists NATO and the U.S. as potential adversaries to Russia. Reuters.com reports: It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and international conflicts. That heightened role has caused a reaction by the West, it says.