America

Remember Rachel Fox? For those who do not, here is a reminder courtesy of this blast from the February 2013 past interview of the then-16 year old Desperate Housewives "TV star" who became a "star trader" using her acting money, and after returning 30% in 2012 and outperforming 99% of hedge funds, was promptly interviewed by CNBC, unleashing the whole "17 year old hedge fund manager" meme:

Forget Ackman, Einhorn, Bass, And Hendry. There is only one name in the world of equity market performance in 2012 - Rachel Fox, of 'Desperate Housewives' fame.

The political establishment in America is terrified.

Donald Trump gets closer to securing the GOP nomination with each passing month and his rivals on both sides of the aisle are in disbelief.

Meet Abu Omar al-Shishani, or, “Omar the Chechen.”

Al-Shishani is Islamic State’s “minister of war,” and on March 4, the US tried to kill him.

Initially, reports indicated that an airstrike in the northeastern Syrian town of Shaddadi likely succeeded in “eliminating” the militant. But “on-the-ground” intelligence from London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (who else?) suggested that in fact, al-Shishani was still alive and had been transported to Raqqa where he was being treated for serious injuries.

As we detailed previously, the growth of federal income and employment tax withholdings, the broadest and most timely read on the health of the job market "has been sinking at an alarming rate." What is worse, as ConvergEx's Nick Colas notes, IRS and Treasury data show refunds tracking 2-3% below last year’s levels - not good news for companies that focus on the low-end consumer, the cohort that tends to spend (rather than save) their refunds.

Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

The Twitter-incited mob that shut down last week’s Donald Trump rally at the University of Illinois’ Chicago pavilion was the first skirmish in what is shaping up to be a civil war between a political Left that has lost its mind and a political Right that has lost its mind and its soul. The tensions between these two camps are so contorted and dishonest that even trying to unpack the issues puts the un-packer in jeopardy of being branded as one kind of thought-criminal or another.