Saudi Arabia

Last month, when Saudi Arabia announced it would be heading (that's heading, not beheading) a 34-nation "anti-terror coalition", everyone who knows anything at all about the Mid-East and about the sectarian divide laughed hysterically. 

Why? Because Saudi Arabia is without question the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Riyadh would vehemently deny that charge but when your state religion is Wahhabism it's a bit difficult to explain how it is that you're not contributing to the rise of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Submitted by Dromeus Capital

Tampering with free markets is rarely successful, including in foreign currency exchanges—and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be the next nation to discover the limits of sovereign power. The oilexporting monarchy is burning up reserves in an expensive effort freeze a dated, 31-year-old currency peg of 3.75 Saudi riyals to the strengthening U.S. dollar.

One of the great unknowns facing the US shale industry, and threatening the recurring rumors of its imminent demise, is how it is possible that despite the collapsing number of oil wells, and despite the plunge in crude prices which supposedly are well below all-in shale production costs, does production not only refuse to decline, but in fact has been largely increasing in the past 6 months, with just a modest decline in recent weeks.

Submitted by Michael McDonald via OilPrice.com,

Russian authorities have confirmed that Saudi Arabia have uncovered and arrested members of a known CIA-ISIS terror network operating in Saudi Arabia, after Russian intelligence pointed Saudi authorities to an ISIS terror network funded and armed by the CIA.  The arrests come weeks after President Putin warned Saudi Arabia that Russia had “finite patience” regarding their complicity with the US CIA in arming and funding ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.