United States

It has been a busy weekend for mostly negative newsflow.

A popular Iranian newspaper has called on the government to intercept US cargo ships stationed in the Persian Gulf in retaliation to America freezing Iran’s assets.  Kayhan newspaper urged the government to take action, after Iran’s appeal to the UN to stop US violations of state immunity and seizure of assets fell on deaf ears. Presstv.com reports: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday to ask him to intervene with his “good offices,” but the United Nations said it would intervene should both parties request it.

Authored by Eric Zuesse via Strategic-Culture.org,

Several weeks ago we learned that not all is well in the ongoing negotiations to impose Obama's landmark Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement, also known as the TTIP, when unexpectedly Europe threatened to impose visas on Americans and Canadians.

While perhaps not quite as dramatic (or confusing) as last week's announcement by Scottrade that the discount online broker would no longer allow Canadian citizens to hold accounts, in a new surprising development, another online broker, Charles Schwab has started informing some of its clients that "between June and October 2016, Schwab will update the cash feature on your account(s) from the current retail prime or municipal money market fund sweep to the Schwab Government Money Fund" or the SWGXX, which "will invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in cash, U.S.