World stocks hit new record highs on Tuesday amid a continuation of Monday's risk-on theme which unleashed a dramatic relief rally on easing North Korea tensions and signs that Hurricane Irma caused less damage than feared (which according to Keynesians should be GDP negative). The MSCI All-Country World Index gained 0.2%, hitting the highest on record with a fifth consecutive advance.
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Brexit negotiations hit the rocks with the size of the Brexit divorce bill the key issue.
The Independent reports: Britain is ‘backtracking’ on its Brexit divorce bill commitments, moans Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator warns.
My response: Hooray for the UK!
British people have suddenly stopped buying cars and as BI's Jim Edwards notes, it's not clear why.
As the following chart from Barclays shows, both new- and used-car sales have collapsed...
While the slump in consumer confidence remains a major factor...
But as Edwards notes, a number of other factors are colliding simultaneously to hurt UK car sales:
As the two old, cold war adversaries, Russia and NATO, prepare to begin massive war games to show off their respective military strengths, it was the UK's turn to accuse Russia first of "testing the West" by conducting war games on NATO’s eastern flank in its biggest military exercise in four years. Speaking on BBC's “The Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that Russia's exercise "is designed to provoke us, it’s designed to test our defenses, and that’s why we have to be strong.
Authored by Matthew Jamison via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
The hackneyed international billionaire enigma known by the name of George Soros (redolent of the James Bond villain Blofeld – the head of the sinister shadow government organisation Spectre – in Ian Fleming’s novels) is up to his old tricks yet again in stirring up tensions and trouble to suit his own warped personal, political and financial agenda.