Authored by Scott Kristoff via Avondale Asset Management,
We started this year with the economy deteriorating and finished it with the second interest rate increase in ten years. There were a lot of ups and downs along the way, but ultimately 2016 was defined by three key story-lines: 1) Brexit 2) The Presidential Election 3) Fed Policy.
Brave independent journalist Eva Bartlett, one of the few reporters to actually set foot on Syrian soil during the bloody war, has returned to North America and declared that “Whatever you hear in the corporate media is completely opposite to reality.” Western mainstream media has been relying on government propaganda as their sole source of news for the Syrian conflict, rather than sending reporters into the war zone to find out the facts and provide unbiased reports.
The overnight exuberance in crude oil futures markets has faded notably as the day has worn on. While news of supply cuts are unquestionably bullish (should one choose to believe it or not, remember the Saudis admission "we tend to cheat"), but the last few days have also seen a plethora of bearish-biased news that for now is being ignored.
The excitement is fading...
Non-OPEC oil-producing nations struck a deal in Vienna on Saturday to cut crude output by 600,000 barrels a day, joining a pact meant to reduce a global oversupply of crude, lift prices and lend support to economies hurt by a two-year market slump.
The pact, the first between the two sides in 15 years, comes two weeks after OPEC agreed to reduce its own production by 1.2 million barrels a day.
How stable are the world's democracies? While there is a certain level of complacency among the citizens of most developed countries in the security of their freedom, at least one Harvard historian sees some glaring warning signs. Citing a "freedom index" compiled by Freedom House, Harvard historian Yascha Mounk notes that after rising steadily from the mid-1970s through the early 2000s, the number of countries globally that are considered "free" have been on a steady decline ever since.