Italy

Via Disobedient Media

The universe is almost certainly a giant complex hologram, according to a startling new report by scientists in the U.K, Canada and Italy. According to scientists at the University of Southampton, everything we see, touch, hear and smell is merely a “vast and complex hologram”. “Imagine that everything you see, feel and hear in three dimensions (and your perception of time) in fact emanates from a flat two-dimensional field,” said study co-author Kostas Skenderis.

As previewed last night, on Wednesday afternoon Italy’s Constitutional Court struck down parts of the electoral law for the lower house, effectively devising a new voting system for the country, and bringing the country one step closer to early elections in a boost to former Premier Matteo Renzi. The court, which had been tasked to rule on Renzi’s 2015 electoral reform, struck down a provision for a run-off vote for the lower house, saying it should be held in just one round. The rest of the law was left largely intact and the court ruled that it can be applied immediately.

While US markets take the day off for MLK holiday, the rest of the trading world has been busy, perhaps nowhere more so than the sterling which continued its volatile session in advance of May's pre-hard Brexit speech, falling below $1.20 for the first time since October after the Sunday Times said May is ready to withdraw from tariff-free trade with the region in return for the ability to curb immigration and strike commercial deals with other countries.

Authored by Oaktree Capital's Howard Marks,

In August, I mentioned that I had chosen the title “Political Reality” for my memo in part because of my liking for oxymorons.  I classed that title with other internally contradictory statements, such as “jumbo shrimp” and “common sense.”  Now I’m going to discuss one more: “expert opinion.”