United States

Almost two weeks ago, On April 14, we reported the striking news that DB has decided to "turn" against the precious metals manipulation cartel by first settling long-running silver and gold price fixing lawsuits which in addition to "valuable monetary consideration" would expose the other banks' rigging after DB also "agreed to provide cooperation to plaintiffs, including the production of instant messages, and other electronic communications, as part of the settlement."

Confirming The Conference Board's earlier disappointment, it appears the American public is chock-full of "cynics" and "fiction-peddlers" as Gallup reports Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy reached its lowest weekly level so far in 2016.

The latest figure represents a four-point drop from the previous week's average. The last time Gallup found a lower weekly score was in August 2015.

"Forgive the macros – they know not what they do."

With the Fed decision just one day away, followed the very next day by the increasingly more irrational BOJ, stocks had no desire to make significant moves and overnight's boring session was the result, as European stocks and U.S. index futures rose modestly but mostly hugged the flatline while Asian declined 0.2% for a third day as raw-material shares declined and Tokyo equities slumped before central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan this week. China’s stocks rose the most in almost two weeks, up 0.6% but failed to rise above 3000 on the Shanghai Composite, in thin trading.

Submitted by Josephine Bacon via The Gatestone Institute,

• Ever since the inception of the European Economic Community, British politicians across the entire political spectrum have been perceptive enough to realize that Britain will lose its sovereignty and turn into a vassal of the France-Germany axis.