Submitted by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,
A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has revealed that most of the world’s nations hiked their military budgets last year, marking the first increase in spending since the 2008 crisis.
It seems that the only ones not taking part in this military spending hike are some of the world’s biggest oil producers.
Following this weekend's snafu in which Spiegel said that Germany is considering suing the ECB if it launched QE, Mario Draghi reportedly made attempts to "mollify" Germany with promises that this won't happen (it will) and that it was willing to meet - literally - with the German finance minister to appease any concerns he may have. Moments ago, Reuters reports that the meeting appears to have gone... badly.
Moments ago the IMF did what it does better than anyone (with the exception of the Fed): it once again admitted its forecast of world growth had been too optimistic, and as a result in its just released quarterly World Economic Outlook report, it cut its forecast for 2016 global GDP growth from 3.4% to 3.2%, and from 3.6% to 3.5% for 2017. Indicatively, back in July 2014 the IMF was forecasting 4.0% GDP growth in 2016. It is now 20% lower.
The latest confirmation of the pain global megabanks are suffering as a result of an abysmal trading environment, in no small part made even worse due to constant central bank tinkering, comes from Japan's largest brokerage, Nomura, which eight years after buying Lehman's European and Asian units has decided to fire 15% of its European staff and is abandoning most of its European equities business.
A giant spherical rock could be proof of a lost European civilization, according to an archaeologist. Semir Osmanagic discovered the strange stone sphere in Podubravlje village near Zavidovici, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He claims the round boulder with a radius of between four and five feet (1.2 to 1.5 metres) is the world’s oldest man-made stone sphere, pointing to an advanced lost civilization in Europe some 1500 years ago. Daily Mail reports: Controversial archaeologist Semir Osmanagic made the sensational claims in a forest at Podubravlje.