US non-farm productivity rose 0.9% QoQ in Q2, slightly better than the 0.7% growth expected and a notable bounce off the 'zero' in Q1.This rebound was largely due to disappointment in the growth of unit labor costs (which rose just 0.6% in Q2), but saw an outrageous upward revision in Q1 (from +2.2% to +5.4% QoQ).
Extending its overnight safe-haven buying within Asia, gold has spiked above recent highs - to its highest since early June - following President Trump's latest tweet on America's nuclear arsenal...
At the same time every effort is being made - by crushing VIX - to save stocks from a more perilous drop.
While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is quietly tamping down the flames of nuclear armageddon rhetoric, it appears President Trump is more than willing to play 'bad cop' with his bombing bragadocio. In a first tweet, he takes credit for "renovating" America's nuclear arsenal...
My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017
America’s opioid epidemic is now killing more than 100 people every day, fueling a public-health crisis that’s straining state and local resources – even forcing at least one Pennsylvania coroner to increase his freezer capacity to make room for all of the bodies.
Paul Craig Roberts writes that the admirable and honorable truth-teller John Pilger warns us that nuclear war is closer than we think.