Europe

Last week we explained how junk bond managers were buying increasing amounts of equities to “juice” their portfolios and propel their funds higher in the performance rankings.

While this struck us as a relatively recent development, the tried-and-trusted method of trading more risk for more yield is going gangbusters in the CLO (Collateralized Loan Obligations) market in 2017...

In “Hunt for Yield Fuels Another Boom in Another Complex, Risky Security”, the WSJ notes:

Authored by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

There’s a debate raging over what, exactly, bitcoin and the thousand or so other cryptocurrencies actually are. Some heavy-hitters are weighing in with strong, if not always coherent opinions:

Jamie Dimon calls bitcoin a ‘fraud’JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon did not mince words when asked about the popularity of virtual currency bitcoin.

 

In an otherwise quiet session, Sunday's convincing election victory for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition, which gave it another constitution-changing supermajority, pushed the Nikkei to the highest level since 1996, after a record 15 consecutive days of gains - the longest winning streak on record - and sent world stocks to new all-time highs on Monday.

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

A 40-year-old essay predicted the end of an empire and current events sure make it look like we’re watching it happen in real time.