An Empire Self-Destructs

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,
Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,
As if things weren't bad enough for America's mall owners, what with the having to filling their retail space with high schools, grocers and churches, it seems that retailers have grown so uncertain about the future of these 1980s relics that they're only willing to sign 1-2 leases these days.
As Bloomberg points out this morning, leases renewals used to be 5-10 years in length but are increasingly only being signed with 1-2 year terms. Meanwhile, thousands of stores are closing each year and it's only expected to get worse over time.
In a story published Wednesday, the New York Times alleged that President Trump revealed to Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte the location of two U.S. nuclear submarines lurking in the waters off the Korean peninsula, ready to counter any acts of aggression by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Here’s what Trump allegedly said, according to a transcript of the call, which was circulated to reporters by the Americas wing of the Philippines embassy. The contents of the document were later confirmed by "a senior White House official." Per NYT:
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
Why can’t brain dead liberals understand the need for a wall after seeing these statistics?
How can we have an unsecured border with a failed third world state, where murder and drugs are the two biggest imports?
* * *
Mexico was second deadliest country in 2016
Ahead of this week's AAPL earnings, investors were looking forward to more clues what the company with the quarter-trillion cash war chest would do with the funds that are now greater than the GDP of Greece, and aside from the token increase in shareholder distributions, they got little else, which has once again prompted speculation who Apple will acquire once the company decides to shift away from corporate bond holdings (recall that as of this quarter Apple now has more corporate debt on its books than the biggest bond mutual fund) to acquisitions.