Europe

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

Puigdemont's political twist could invoke a lethal response from Madrid: suspension of Catalonia's government

Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Once again, there has been a mass shooting in the United States and the usual script is in play.

America’s ‘gun culture’ is to blame!

  Before the blood was dry gun control advocates had trotted out their standard list of remedial measures, none of which would have prevented what had just taken place.

California’s burgeoning secessionist movement has been watching Catalonia’s struggle for independence with an eye toward the future. Proponents of transforming California into an independent republic have pointed out that there are many similarities between Catalonia and America’s largest state. For example, both are relatively wealthy.  

However, the circumstances of the two states diverge in one notable respect: The US constitution and California’s state constitution would make it easier for California to secede than Catalonia.

Authored by Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke.

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

For those of you who don’t know Andy Xie, he’s an MIT-educated former IMF economist and was once Morgan Stanley’s chief Asia-Pacific economist. Xie is known for a bearish view of China, and not Beijing’s favorite person. He’s now an ‘independent’ economist based in Shanghai. He gained respect for multiple bubble predictions, including the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 US subprime crisis.