United Kingdom

Last month, S&P warned that UK lenders could incur £30 billion of losses on their consumer lending portfolios consisting of credit cards, personal and auto loans if interest rates and unemployment rose sharply.  Much like in the U.S., S&P warned that "loose monetary policy, cheap central bank term funding schemes and benign economic conditions" had fueled an "unsustainable" yet massive expansion of consumer credit that will inevitably end badly.  Per The Guardian:

Authored by Alberto Gallo via WEForum.org,

The American Dream is broken. Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, recently stated that "in our country, the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life."

Yet the idea that every American has an equal opportunity to move up in life is false.

S&P futures gave up early gains and were trading down -0.2%, as Donald Trump completes his first Asian tour and as pressure mounts on U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, sending the pound plunging. European stocks fell, tracking many Asian shares as the Nikkei plunge accelerated.

As we discussed (see here) when Brexit talks resumed this week, the EU is piling pressure on Theresa’s May’s weakened government to extort more money out of the UK in the divorce settlement – now termed “moment of clarification” in EU parlance. Despite rumours before the latest talks began, that Theresa May was prepared to increase the UK’s offer, if this was the case, the EU wasn’t impressed. In the post-talks press conference. the beleaguered Brexit Secretary, David Davis, stated that there is positive momentum in the negotiations…

Next month will mark seven years since Julian Assange first sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Even though Sweden dropped a sex crimes investigation into Assange back in May, he has been forced to remain confined to a cramped room, where he has no access to the outdoors, since AG Jeff Sessions reaffirmed that the DOJ intends to prosecute Assange for his role in leaking the Iraq war logs, State Department cables and DNC emails.