European and Asian stocks were modestly in the green, with U.S. futures higher, before a critical procedural vote on a Republican health-care bill to repeal Obamacare, while Janet Yellen is set to speak in Washington at 8:45am.
Just as Yellen & Co. has finally decided that 'Everything is Awesome' and started raising interest rates (the timing of which we're almost certain was in no way influenced by the conclusion of the recent election cycle), signs continue to mount that global economies are not as healthy as the Fed suddenly believes them to be. In fact, over just the past couple of days we've highlighted a litany of negative economic data points including crashing bank loan creation, surging auto loan delinquencies and continuous deterioration of the retail sector, just to name a few.
A court case in California has forced the release of emails between Monsanto and the EPA, and the contents are sickening. We now have certifiable proof that Monsanto has always known Roundup causes cancer. But [...]
Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
Sometimes you have to marvel at the absurdity of the financial universe in which we live.
On one side of the Atlantic, we have the United States of America, which triggered yet another debt ceiling disaster last Thursday when the US government’s maximum allowable debt reset to just over $20 trillion.
Of course, the US national debt is pretty much already at $20 trillion.
(That’s roughly $166,000 per taxpayer in the Land of the Free.)
By Nick Kounis of ABN Amro
Euro Rates Watch – Will the TLTRO spark carry trades?