Politics

The reason why the VIX has spiked by over 3 vols, or 3.13 to be precise, rising as high as 13.26 as this moment, is being attributed - by several buyside desks - to a "worst case" scenario analysis passed around the trader community from a prominent sellside analyst, according to whom a military outcome in North Korea now appears practically inevitable should North Korea launch its ICBM, as reports overnight have speculated it will do in the coming days.

Authored by Frank Shostak via The Mises Institute,

After the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, fears of ballooning public debt and worries about the drag on economic growth pushed authorities in some countries to lower government spending, a tactic that economists now think may have slowed recovery. Note that in the United States the total debt to GDP ratio stood at 349 in Q1 this year.

Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

An open military conflict in Northern Asia would disrupt more than a third of global seaborne crude oil trade, Wood Mackenzie warned last week amid yet another escalation between North Korea, its neighbors, and the U.S.

As part of South Korea’s response to the latest escalations out of its northern neighbor, the country's defense minister on Monday said it was "worth reviewing the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula" to guard against the North, a step that analysts warn would sharply increase the risk of an accidental conflict. On Monday, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said that he asked his American counterpart, Jim Mattis, during talks at the Pentagon last week that strategic assets such as  U.S.

After UN Ambassador Nikki Haley asked the security council to pass the “strongest possible” sanctions against North Korea following the isolated nation’s sixth nuclear test which took place over the weekend, Russia President Vladimir Putin has hinted that Russia may - and most likely will - use its Security Council veto power to stop any further sanctions from being implemented.