Europe

As the chaos surrounding the coordinated suicide attacks on Belgium unfolded on Tuesday morning, we reported that energy utility Electrabel was evacuating two nuclear power plants, Doel, made up of four reactors, and Tihange, comprised of three.

Electrabel would later dispute that account, drawing a distinction between a full evacuation and the utility’s generous offer to non-essential employees: “...people who are not strictly necessary on site can leave.”

Following yesterday's dollar spike which topped the longest rally in the greenback in one month, the prevailing trade overnight has been more of the same, and in the last session of this holiday shortened week we have seen the USD rise for the fifth consecutive day on concerns the suddenly hawkish Fed (at least as long as the S&P is above 2000) may hike sooner than expected, which in turn has pressured WTI below $39 earlier in the session, and leading to weakness across virtually all global risk assets.

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

A common misconception in America today is that our nation is evenly divided between conservatives and liberals in an absolute sense. This is not necessarily true.

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,