Europe

Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,

Authorerd by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

Recently, a columnist-friend, Matt Kenney, sent me a 25-year-old newspaper with his chiding that my column had been given better play.

Both had run in The Orange County Register on June 30, 1991.

“Is there no room for new nations in the New World Order?” was my title, and the column began:

Six years ago, Kyle Bass provided a crucial context for the debt-laden world of ever-increasing sovereign debt:

"Buying gold is just buying a put against the idiocy of the political cycle. It's That Simple"

And now, as interest in Bitcoin surges, Arthur Hayes, a former CitiGroup trader who runs BitMEX - a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange - asks an interesting question - In the coming war between digital currencies, which side will your money be on?

World stocks hit new record highs on Tuesday amid a continuation of Monday's risk-on theme which unleashed a dramatic relief rally on easing North Korea tensions and signs that Hurricane Irma caused less damage than feared (which according to Keynesians should be GDP negative). The MSCI All-Country World Index gained 0.2%, hitting the highest on record with a fifth consecutive advance.

British people have suddenly stopped buying cars and as BI's Jim Edwards notes, it's not clear why.

As the following chart from Barclays shows, both new- and used-car sales have collapsed...

While the slump in consumer confidence remains a major factor...

But as Edwards notes, a number of other factors are colliding simultaneously to hurt UK car sales: