America

One week ago, Illinois passed its three year-overdue budget in hopes of avoiding a downgrade to junk status, however in an unexpected twist, Moody's said that it may still downgrade the near-insolvent state, regardless of the so-called budget "deal." In fact, a downgrade of Illinois may come at any moment, making it the first U.S. state whose bond ratings tip into junk, although as of yesterday, credit rating agencies said they were still reviewing the state's newly enacted budget and tax package.

America’s largest banks and their shareholders were quick to celebrate a recovery in trading revenues over the past year. But they may have spoken too soon.

Wall Street vets know they can’t fight the Fed – especially with the ostensibly “data-dependent” central bank committing to returning the Fed funds rate to 3% over the next two years.  But with the arrival of the summer doldrums ushering in low trading volumes across markets, traders are acknowledging that they can’t fight the seasons, either.

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Late last week, I came across a fascinating article published at Mondoweiss highlighting a recent study positing that Hilary Clinton may have lost the election to Donald Trump partly as a result of her well documented lust for imperial war and aggression.

Here are a few excerpts from the piece:

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

For decades suburbia was home to the highest concentration of wealth in America, and perhaps even the entire world. It was the seat of our nation’s thriving middle class and a beacon of economic mobility. The streets were clean and safe, the schools were highly regarded, and there were plenty of middle class jobs to be had.

You have Manipulation... But it's the Good Kind

We believe more than 180,000  Gold contracts traded on Comex in the last 2 hours. The price rallied $9.00 on the back of that flow from low to high. "This is NOT manipulation" as our colleague sarcastically said.

Sure we can attribute it to Donald Trump Jr.'s idiocy. Our colleague's point is well taken. But didn't we know that Trump was completely unfit to begin with?

Gold an hour ago

?

Now as we finish this, it first backed off and is resuming its climb.