Politics

David Rothkopf is pleased by the foreign policy implications of Hillary Clinton’s drearily inevitable victory in the fall:

For these reasons, it is not unreasonable to assume that the manic, funhouse-mirror qualities that have made campaign 2016 so memorable and, at times, deeply disturbing are likely to be followed in 2017 by America returning to the most traditionalist, solid, dependable, foreign policy it has seen since the administration of George H.W. Bush and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Nearly 6,000 refugee children were recorded as missing in Germany in 2015. A new report carried out by the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper stated this week that 5,835 unaccompanied refugee minors vanished in Germany last year with as many as 555 of them under the age of 14. The majority of unaccompanied minors were from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Morocco and Algeria. Press TV reports: German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth confirmed media reports that the government had recently informed parliament about the disappearance of nearly 6,000 refugee children.

Total chaos reigns as equity market "participants" flip from manic-sellers (IMF un-growth and Italian sbank bailout failure) to panic-buyers after the following headline hits Bloomberg:

• SAUDI ARABIA, RUSSIA REACH CONSENSUS ON OIL FREEZE: INTERFAX
• *INTERFAX SAYS SAUDIS TO DECIDE ON OIL FREEZE REGARDLESS OF IRAN
• *INTERFAX CITES UNIDENTIFIED PERSON ON RUSSIA, SAUDI CONSENSUS

The nitial surge reaction...

Just a day after Algeria said Russia would not agree.

Politico reports that Paul Ryan isn’t running a phantom campaign for president despite some appearances to the contrary:

Ryan’s orbit firmly believes that, in a few months, everyone will look at this bubble and realize just how ridiculous it was.

Voters are returning their pro-EU leaflets back to Downing Street after it emerged that the Government is spending nearly £10 million of the tax payers money on a propaganda blitz. Angry taxpayers across the country are already returning EU “propaganda” leaflets in protest against David Cameron’s decision to post them out to every home in Britain at their own expense. The Daily Express reports: UKIP leader Nigel Farage has called on the public to return leaflets saying: “I hope millions of those who receive Government’s pro-EU booklet return to sender, back to Downing Street.