Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
“Forget Germany, Spain Is The Real Problem”, reads a headline. Eh… no. Germany is definitely the problem in Europe. Spain is a bit player. That doesn’t mean nothing major could happen in Spain in its fight with Catalonia, and soon, but Spain, like all EU nations, is a de facto province of Germany.
S&P futures are flat after Monday’s drop in the S&P 500 where a rout in Apple weighed on tech companies and tensions with North Korea persist; Asian stocks are modestly lower while Europe has shaken off the Korean crisis and is in the green on the back of a sharp drop in the EURUSD which has tumbled below 1.18 as the USD rises ahead of much anticipated speeches by the Fed Chair and the French president.
Greeks are working longer for less pay, suffering from depression and committing suicide at a record pace, and seeing a mass exodus of young talented workers amid continued capital controls and pension cuts.
So it should be no surprise that Greek government bonds are being bought with both hands and feet by global investors reaching for yield, sparking GGBs to a return of almost 17% year-to-date - the best across Europe - even as concerns linger about the sustainability of Greece’s economic recovery once the current rescue program ends in 2018.
Authored by James Bovard via The Future of Freedom Foundation,
This year is the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s pulling America into World War I. Many people celebrate this centenary of America’s emergence as a world power.
But at a time when the Trump administration is bombing or rattling sabers at half a dozen nations and many Democrats are clamoring to bloody Russia, it is worth reviewing how World War I turned out so much worse than the experts and politicians promised.
Roger Ver - a.k.a bitcoin Jesus - and Olivier Janssens are trying to transform a long-sought after libertarian ideal into a reality. As CoinTelegraph reports, the pair has announced that they’re in the process of creating the first independent state governed by libertarian values – and they’ve invited any like-minded individuals to join them.