Business

When the White House announced on Friday that Trump had signed an executive order deepening the sanctions on Venezuela, and confirming the previously rumored trading ban in Venezuelan debt that earlier in the week had sent VENZ/PDVSA bonds tumbling, we made what we thought at the time was a sarcastic comment that in light of the recent scandal involving Goldman's purchase of Venezuela Hunger Bonds, that Lloyd Blankfein's hedge fund, which now controls the presidency and next year will also take over the Fed courtesy of Gary Cohn, would be exempt from the trading ban:

For all the breathless newsflow over the past 7 days, the single most consequential event of last week was the sudden jump in debt ceiling/government shutdown odds following Donald Trump's confrontational Phoenix speech, which laid out a problematic dilemma: Trump's Mexican wall, or a government shutdown. While various financial pundits rushed to discount the odds of a worst case scenario, the market - in Treasury bills, if not so much equities - was spooked, sending the "pre-post default bill" spread to the widest on record...

If you had a million dollars, would you retire?

For most Americans, the answer to that question would be no. Which is especially problematic for millennials, who, having been permanently scarred by the financial crisis, are investing at lower rates than members of Generation X or the Baby Boomers, making it more difficult for them to build wealth. Furthermore, the generation that now comprises the largest share of working Americans is having trouble saving money, thanks in no small part to their $1.3 trillion in student debt.

Authored by Craig Wilson via The Daily Reckoning,

Jim Rickards joined Alex Stanczyk at the Physical Gold Fund to discuss current destabilizing factors that could drastically impact investors. During the first part of their conversation the economic expert delved into gold positioning for the future, the expanding threats from North Korea and liquidity in global markets.

Via StockBoardAsset.com,

Dramatic video has surfaced on liveleak.com of an intense firefight between a Mexican military unit and Cartel Del Golfo CDG members in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The video starts out with Government troops rolling up to an intersection only to be met with a hellacious firefight.