United States

How The American Neoconservatives Destroyed Mankind’s Hopes For Peace

Paul Craig Roberts

When Ronald Reagan turned his back on the neoconservatives, fired them, and had some of them prosecuted, his administration was free of their evil influence, and President Reagan negotiated the end of the Cold War with Soviet President Gorbachev. The military/security complex, the CIA, and the neocons were very much against ending the Cold War as their budgets, power, and ideology were threatened by the prospect of peace between the two nuclear superpowers.

Following yesterday's OPEC "production freeze" meeting in Doha which ended in total failure, where in a seemingly last minute change of heart Saudi Arabia and specifically its deputy crown prince bin Salman revised the terms of the agreement demanding Iran participate in the freeze after all knowing well it won't, oil crashed and with it so did the strategy of jawboning for the past 2 months had been exposed for what it was: a desperate attempt to keep oil prices stable and "crush shorts" while global demand slowly picked up.

Christopher Preble adds to the discussion about U.S. allies and clients:

We can see, then, that for all the talk of free riding, for all those instances when some U.S. government official expresses concern or frustration that allies don’t do more to defend themselves and their interests, it’s just that: talk. For the dominant foreign-policy community, allies are the equivalent of Facebook friends. U.S. officials count them, rank them, and occasionally thank them. But we don’t ever expect these “allies” to actually do anything for us in return.

A Russian SU-27 fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, barrel-rolling on top of it over the Baltic Sea, according to the US military. But why is the US flying spy missions off the Russian coast? CNN reports: The incident Thursday occurred when a Russian jet “performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers” as it flew within 50 feet of the U.S. aircraft’s wing tip, Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, said in a response to a question from CNN. The Russian Su-27 began the barrel roll from the left side of the U.S.

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Is The Bull Market Back, Or Is It A Trap?

I wish I had a more definitive answer for you this week, but the market is standing at the proverbial “crossroads” of bull and bear.