Europe

In a mostly quiet Wednesday session, Asian stocks rose overnight along with European bourses, which were led higher by miners after Rio Tinto posted higher profits for the first time in three years and a bigger-than-expected dividend, while India’s Sensex extended declines after the central bank unexpectedly left rates unchanged. US futures were little changed as oil continued to fall after API reported a huge inventory build in the last week.

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

For the umpteenth time, the IMF has warned that Greece cannot meet fiscal targets set by its creditors. And once again, the IMF insists that it will not be a part of the “Troika” unless the goals on Greece are realistic.

History suggests the IMF will cave in to Germany and agree to some half-baked plan (make that 1/8th baked plan) that will supposedly put Greece back on track. Such nonsense has been going on for years.

Mercy, Please!

Submitted by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

SUMMARY

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

What is going to happen to society when robots are able to do just about everything better, faster and cheaper than human workers can? 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent inspection of Russia’s aerospace forces in readiness for a potential war with NATO.  Putin’s unannounced inspection on Tuesday comes after Moscow announced that it would be ramping up efforts to counter provocative NATO drills in the Black Sea. Ibtimes.com reports: “In accordance with the decision by the Armed Forces Supreme Commander, a snap check of the Aerospace Forces began to evaluate readiness of the control agencies and troops to carry out combat training tasks,” Shoigu said at a meeting, according to Russian news Agency TASS.