Europe

Syrian authorities have urged the international community to intervene after US-backed rebels were caught illegally using mustard gas on civilians. According to the government in Syria, a batch of documents proving that chemical weapons were used against Syrian citizens was handed over to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on December 12. Authorities also delivered samples from the shell containing mustard gas to The Hague. RT.com reports: “We have provided all the documents to the mission, they were vetted and accepted.

Two years ago, as part of its one-year forward forecast issue, the ten "experts" polled by Barron's in its one year forward forecast, predicted that the S&P would close 2015 an average of 2210, roughly 7% higher then the final print of 2014, which was at 2,058.9.

Military experts are warning that North Korea has recently improved its weapons and military capabilities across the board and is far more dangerous than previously thought. Sputnik reports: Last week, it was reported that the country had developed an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the US mainland. Only a crucial insulation issue remained to be solved to make the device truly threatening.

By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at

This article is a follow on from two previous articles discussing the eurodollar system. Part one can be found here, and the following one here.

While the majority of sellside analysts predict that the impact of Trump's fiscal stimulus policies will be largely beneficial for US inflation and economic growth, if only in the short-term, with a knock on reverse effect following shortly after...

... one prominent strategist disagrees.

According to a recent report from Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg, in which he lays out is "out-of-the-box" call for 2017, "Trump will accidentally engineer a return to the disinflation trade" in the coming year, well ahead of most expectations.