America

While US equity markets drift endlessly higher on sea of Trumptopian euphoria (and retail ETF ramps), European equity investors have hit the panic button this week.

In the last week, investors have been piling into European VIX futures - hedging for a potential catastrophic end to the market calm ahead of French and Dutch elections.

Historically, European 'VIX' has traded around 20% higher than US 'VIX' over the last 8 years. The current spike to an 80% premium is unprecedented.

Senator Bernie Sanders has blasted the Democrat Party, calling on its members to reject the organization as it stands today, and transform it into the ‘party of the people’. Speaking to CNN on Sunday, the former US Democratic presidential candidate urged Democrats to reject the corruption that has plagued the party for years, and has called for a “transformation” to enable the party to reconnect with working class people. Presstv.ir reports: “We need a total transformation,” said the 75-year-old Senator from the state of Vermont.

Via Robert Gore of Straight Line Logic blog,

The Michael Flynn Affair is one of those movies where you figure out a jumble of things that don’t make sense as you walk out of the theater.

Via Daniel Lang of SHTFplan.com,

Before Donald trump took office, he promised to rebuild the US military by diverting a lot more funding into the armed forces. And when he made that promise, he wasn’t just talking about our conventional forces. He also proposed expanding America’s nuclear capability; a position he recently reiterated in an interview with Reuters. He stated that “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.”

LendEDU, a private firm that connects students and their families with student loans and loan refinancing, has finally revealed a clue that helps us better understand the mystery of why so many college students across the country have become so comfortable haphazardly taking out $100s of thousands of dollars in student loans to  fund their degrees in anthropology.  According to a survey of 500 current college students conducted by LendEDU, apparently 49.8% of America's entitled youth is convinced that the federal government will simply forgive their student loans upon graduation...c