Business

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Oil prices are set to close out the year somewhere around 15 percent up, and the oil market looks more stable than it has in years.

But what does 2018 have in store?

Most analysts believe more of the same – inventory declines, some shale growth, a gradual increase in the oil price and eventually an end to the OPEC deal. But a lot of uncertainty remains.

Here are 5 key issues to watch as we head into 2018.

#1 U.S. shale growth

Having passed 6,000 for the first time in April, Nasdaq has now soared 17% since then to surpass 7,000 today...

As soon as cash markets closed last Friday (quad witch), US equity futures spiked... then spiked again on Sunday night's open, and again at the US equity cash open this morning...

And VIX has been crushed this morning...

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Nations that attempt to limit cryptocurrencies' ability to solve these problems will find that protecting high costs and systemic friction will grind their economies into dust.

There's a great deal of confusion right now about the regulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Many observers seem to confuse "regulation" and "banning bitcoin," as if regulation amounts to outlawing bitcoin.

Update: Well that escalated quickly...

The stock is now up over 500% today and has been halted numerous times...

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Having closed last Thursday on its IPO-day at $5.38, news of the acquisition of Ziddu - a blockchain solutions provider (whatever that means in the real world) - LongFin has since exploded to $44.80 in today's pre-market... up 730% in 2 days.

The financial system is preparing for an inflationary shock.

The single best means of measuring inflation vs deflationary forces in the US financial system is the TIP to Long-Treasury (TLT) ratio. When this ratio rallies the system is predicting inflation. When it falls, the system is fearing deflation.

Running back to 2010, we’ve been in a long-term deflationary downtrend on this ratio.

This deflationary pull has dragged down the entire commodity complex over the same time period.