America

Amazon's willingness to sell almost any product imaginable at a loss, combined with a massive bubble in retail real estate square footage courtesy of decades of low interest rates seems to finally be catching up with the traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers of America. 

As evidence, Scott Krisiloff of Avondale Asset Management compiled the following sample of relatively downtrodden commentary from America's largest retail CEOs, all of who seem to be throwing in the towel on hopes of any near term upside for their industry:

On the surface, today's monthly budget statement was disappointing: in February the US Treasury brought in total receipts of $172 billion, versus outlays of $364 billion, resulting in a decicit of $192 billion, more than tha $190 billion expected (if in line with last year's $192.6 billion deficit). For the fiscal year through Feb. 28, the total US budget deficit was $349 billion, virtually identical to the $351 billion deficit over the same period in 2016 and set to keep rising this year and for the foreseeable future.

Authored by Darius Shahtahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org,

Last month, Anti-Media reported on leaked intelligence that forcibly ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn from the Trump administration. Flynn’s successor,  General H.R. McMaster, is far more hawkish, and in comparison to Flynn, takes a much more anti-Russian stance. It isn’t too much of a stretch to assume McMaster’s job will be secure if he continues to perpetuate the anti-Russian narrative we have become so familiar with in recent decades.

In his first public appearance since his wife's catastrophic loss in the presidential election, former President Bill Clinton appears to have gone off-script once again warning repeatedly against "us versus them" thinking that he said has become such an active part of politics in America, in the Brexit vote, in the Philippines and throughout Europe.

Via MauldinEconomics.com,

I’ve written about this before, but there are 10 million American males between the age of 24 and 64 who have literally dropped out of the workforce. It means that they have given up on finding a job or are simply not looking.

But, focusing on just one subset among those who are 24–64, we see that white working-class males’ labor force participation rate has dropped to 59%.