America

Via EricPetersAutos.com,

We live in a lunatic asylum .. the lunatics being us.

A funny thing happened when US slapped a major tariff on China's steel exports... prices exploded higher. But the almost 50% surge in steel prices since mid-December back to 15-month highs have left traders equally split on what happens next.

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

Donald Trump has brought out the largest crowds in the history of primaries. He has won the most victories, the most delegates, the most votes. He is poised to sweep three of the five largest states in the nation - New York, Pennsylvania and California.

If he does, and the nomination is taken from him, the Republican Party will be seen by the American people as a glorified Chinese tong.

Judging by the exuberant equity market, it is not 'low' gas prices, but high gas prices that are "unequivocally good" for America - after all the market is ultimate arbiter of how the average joe feels, right? However, if you drive a car - or gas-hungry truck - you may have noticed something in the last month or so - gas prices at the pump are up almost 25% from the mid-Feb lows, the biggest surge since July 2009.

Despite the proclamations from any and every Federal Reserve talking-head, Sam Zell appears to be willing to 'peddle some fiction' about the less than awesome reality in America. Having correctly called the top of the last commercial real-estate cycle, Zell is predicting global problems will likely push the U.S. into a recession in the next year...

"I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic,” he said last week at a real-estate conference in New York. The U.S. economy is now “in the ninth inning,” he said.