Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Trying to reduce the carefully choreographed drama to one stage and one audience risks misunderstanding the signal.
It seems many media observers are confused by events in Syria and the swirl of competing narratives. Did the Swamp drain Trump? Did the Neocons succeed in forcing Trump to follow their lead? Is the U.S. ramping up yet another endless war?
More Fake News From Washington
this time it is about employment
Paul Craig Roberts
The US government continues to lie about everything, not just Russia, Syria, Iran, and China. The US government is incapable of telling the truth about something as straightforward as employment. According to the government, March produced only 98,000 new payroll jobs, an insufficient amount to reduce unemployment, but the unemployment rate fell from 4.7 to 4.5 percent.
With Syria down, it's now North Korea's turn.
According to NBC News, the National Security Council has presented the suddenly ragingly bellicose President Trump with several options to respond to North Korea's nuclear program: put American nukes in South Korea or kill dictator Kim Jong-un.
After initially tumbling in the aftermath of the U.S. missile attack on Syria which jolted financial markets, boosting haven assets and temporarily shifting investor focus from today's jobs data , S&P futures have managed to recoup all losses (the Nikkei closed up 0.4% after sliding earlier in the session), with Europe also just fractionally lower and climbing fast.
Today’s China-U.S. summit meeting is an event that could also have enormous implications - in both directions. As Bloomberg's Richard Breslow notes, one can't help but be intrigued by the fact that while everyone is looking at the S&P 500, this morning the Shanghai composite traded at its highest level of the year.