America

Late last night, Reuters published an "exclusive" report which was undoubtedly intended to be a "gotcha" hit piece on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, courtesy of some disgruntled Obama/Clinton holdovers at the State Department.  The report from Reuters came after they got their hands on a confidential "dissent" memo, signed by " a dozen U.S. State Department officials" accusing Tillerson of violating the "Child Soldiers Prevention Act."  Here's a summary from Reuters:

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

“The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles.”

— Oren Harari

Authored by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,

Billionaire founder of top hedge fund Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio got where he is by having keen insight into both human nature and economic trends.

Occasionally, he shares some of his wisdom publicly.

In one of his recent articles, Dalio argues that it is a serious mistake to think you can analyze or understand “the” economy because we now have two of them.

The recent spate of back-to-back hurricanes in the US is expected to compound the economic damage of an already over-extended debt. As the stock market braces for a correction, traders are inclined to sell out of riskier stock markets and take refuge in safe havens like gold.

Following September's positive housing data rebound, October data is starting well with existing home sales surging 2.0% MoM (better than expected 0.2%) to 5.48mm SAAR, as US existing home sales inventory tumbled 10.4% YoY, to 1.8 months, the lowest since 1999.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose to a four-month high, indicating demand was firming at the start of the quarter as the impact from hurricanes faded, according to a National Association of Realtors report released Tuesday.