United States

One week ago we were stunned to learn, and report, that as part of the "sentencing" of former NY Fed employee Jason Gross who had admitted to stealing confidential Federal Reserve information and passing it on to his former boss Rohit Bansal, then employed at Goldman Sachs, in hopes of generating goodwill and a comfortable post-Fed job at 200 West, he somehow managed to avoid any jail time and instead was slapped with a draconian penalty: a $2,000 fine.... oh and some community service.

Jason Gross

Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via FirstRebuttal.com,

Free trade is a great concept, as are free markets and freedom.  The problem is none of these things exist in practice because they don’t provide sufficient advantages to the ruling class.  The Fed and HFT systems now dominate global markets, western nations systematically overthrow any (freely elected) foreign government that doesn’t bow down to them and free trade agreements are put in place to ensure investors maximize profits no matter what the costs to society.  Let’s focus on this last one.

Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Oil prices have climbed by about 50 percent from their February lows, topping $40 per barrel. But the rally could be reaching its limits, at least temporarily, as persistent oversupply and the prospect of new shale production caps any potential price increase.

For the past month, despite the biggest quarterly bounce back from its lows in Dow Jones history, the market skepticism has not only remained but intensified: JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, SocGen, all have warned that this is a sucker's "bear market" squeeze, not the start of a real rally. Techniclans have been just as vocal in their skepticism, while the smart money has been selling relentlessly (not in its 8 consecutive week - more shortly).

Russian military staff have warned the US they may unilaterally use force against groups “systematically” violating the Syrian ceasefire from March 22. They accuse the U.S. of dragging its feet on responding to Moscow’s proposals on rules for joint monitoring of the Syria cease-fire and response to violations, saying that delays are leading to civilian casualties.