Business

America Is Being Destroyed By Problems That Are Unaddressed

Paul Craig Roberts

One hundred years ago European civilization, as it had been known, was ending its life in the Great War, later renamed World War I. Millions of soldiers ordered by mindless generals into the hostile arms of barbed wire and machine gun fire had left the armies stalemated in trenches. A reasonable peace could have been reached, but US President Woodrow Wilson kept the carnage going by sending fresh American soldiers to try to turn the tide against Germany in favor of the English and French.

Having seen New Home Sales disappoint and Existing Home Sales crash in November, Pending Home Sales plunged 0.9% MoM (against expectations of a 0.7% MoM rise). Having plateaued in October near 8-month lows, today's huge miss was driven by a plunge in sales in The West (-5.5%) and NorthEast (-3.0%). Home sales rose just 2.6% YoY - the weakest since October 2014.

In mid-August we warned that Noble Group's downgrade to junk by one or more rating agencies, was inevitable, a downgrade which finally took place yesterday when Moody's downgraded the firm from Baa3 to Ba1, keeping it on outlook negative (we expect S&P to follow suit in the next few days).

Sell Mortimer, Sell!

Traders are selling stocks...

And bonds (no safe haven there)

And gold (no safe haven there)

As Crude tumbles...

Even as the dollar drops..

And Europe is getting slammed...

Charts: Bloomberg

Last week, when the S&P rallied 2.8%, the smartest money in the room sold. At least, that's what happened according to BofA's equity and quant team, which provides a weekly snapshot of what its clients do in any given period.

Here are the details: