America

So bitcoin forked. You did not know this.

Well, if you’re saving in gold perhaps not. If you’re betting in the crypto coin casino, you knew it, bet on it, and now we assume happily diving into your greater quantity of dollars after the fork. You don’t have a greater quantity of bitcoins; bitcoin has no yield. Bitcoin simply sells for a greater quantity of dollars now than it did before. But who wants to sell? Bitcoin’s going to a million bucks—at least.

With the traditional post-payrolls market lull setting in, and most trading desks taking a week or two off, it will be a relatively quiet week with attention turning to inflation data with releases in the US, China, Norway & Switzerland, a key factor as central banks consider if/when to tighten in the near future. The US print will gain most attention: a strong number will validate the Fed's balance sheet unwind intentions and a potential December rate hike.

Just days after the Wall Street Journal and others reported that Trump's new Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, had taken steps to "control" the flow of information on the President's twitter feed, America will wake up this morning to one of his longest tweet storms yet.  Not surprisingly, this latest rant started off by ripping into the "Failing NYTimes" and other "24/7 Fake News" outlets...

The failing @nytimes, which has made every wrong prediction about me including my big election win (apologized), is totally inept!

 

For all the hope that this weekend's UN breakthrough, in which the Security Council voted unanimously 15-0 to impose $1 billion in sanctions on North Korea exports, that saw both China and Russia side with the US, would lead to a resolution of the North Korean crisis, it appears that the rogue regime refuses to even contemplate a negotiation or a cooling of tensions and on Monday, North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. if provoked militarily and said it would “under no circumstances” negotiate on its nuclear and missile weapons programs.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via InformationClearingHouse.info,

The Empire of Whiners simply can't get enough when it comes to huff, puff and pout as the Empire of Sanctions.

With an Orwellian 99% majority that would delight the Kim dynasty in North Korea, the "representative democracy" Capitol Hill has bulldozed its latest House/Senate sanctions package, aimed mostly at Russia, but also targeting Iran and North Korea.