America

Submitted by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,

Saudi Arabia has been in the news recently for several interconnected reasons. Underlying it all is a spendthrift country that is rapidly becoming insolvent.

As we covered previously, in an effort to remain solvent the Central States Pension Fund has submitted an application to the Treasury for approval to cut member benefits.  While some plan participants could see pension incomes cut in half, the fund projects that it will become insolvent by 2025 if nothing is done.

Treasury is set to decide on the matter by May 7th, and as it turns out, the decision impacts more than just current plan participants...

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

The Fed has been sitting on the funds rate like some monetary mother hen since December 2008. Once it punts again at the June meeting owing to Brexit worries it will have effectively pegged money market rates at the zero bound for 90 straight months.

For the past year, Republicans had been pushing both the US Department of Justice and the FBI to move faster in their ongoing Hillary Clinton email probe, although as has been revealed recently, said probe is mostly being throttled by the DOJ allegedly for political reasons while the FBI, having scented blood, is eager to unveil its evidence against the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidate.

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via PeakProsperity.com,

That America is in the throes of a systemic health crisis can no longer be denied. According to the U.S. Department of Health And Human Services, more than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of adults are overweight or obese.  (Overweight is typically defined as a body-mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher. A BMI of 24.9 is not exactly featherweight; I would have to add 30 pounds to reach a BMI of 24.9. )