America

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Few seem to ponder what global shortages in key commodities might do to prices.

If there is any economic truism that is accepted by virtually everyone, it's that inflation is low and will stay low into the foreseeable future. The reasons are numerous: technology is deflationary, globalization is deflationary, central banks will keep interest rates near-zero essentially forever, and so on.

U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson is set to deliver a statement to the media shortly, whose "topic is unknown" according to Reuters, although following today's report from NBC that he had called Trump a "moron" after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, there is speculation that Tillerson will offer his resignation.

Defense Secretary James Mattis told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that Pakistan might be dropped by the United States as a NATO ally due to its support for the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. Currently, Pakistan is formally designated as a major non-NATO ally (MNNA) - a defense relationship which confers military and financial benefits but does not automatically imply a mutual defense pact.

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

This latest mass shooting in Las Vegas that left more than 50 people dead and more than 500 injured is as obscure as they come: a 64-year-old retiree with no apparent criminal history, no military training, and no obvious axe to grind opens fire on a country music concert crowd from a hotel room 32 floors up using a semi-automatic gun that may have been rigged to fire up to 700 rounds a minute, then kills himself.

Authored by Chris Hedges via TruthDig.com,