United States

Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,

Gross Output Remains Under Pressure

Submitted by Don Shay via TheAntiMedia.org,

According to the Council of Foreign Relations, a pro-government think tank, the Obama Administration in the last year alone has dropped over 23,144 bombs on predominantly Muslim countries. Whether or not one believes the force is justified on any pragmatic grounds, the carnage is irrefutable. In just Iraq and Syria, two of the most troubled countries today, over 20,000 of those bombs were dropped.

• Global stocks, dollar struggle ahead of Fed as oil falters (Reuters)
• Bond Bulls Bank on Fed Mention of Market Chaos as Drag on Growth (BBG)
• Fees on Mutual Funds and ETFs Tumble Toward Zero (WSJ)
• China Climbs Back Up Janet Yellen's Worry List (BBG)
• The World’s Favorite New Tax Haven Is the United States (BBG)
• New Jersey Gov. Christie backs Atlantic City takeover plan (Reuters)
• U.S. Universities Raised a Record $40.3 Billion Last Year (BBG)
• With China weakening, Apple turns to India (Reuters)

While the focus in the overnight session has traditionally been about two things, namely oil and China, today one can also throw in AAPL which is down 4% in the pre-market after its disappointing earnings yesterday in which it confirmed our channel-checked warnings about China from last summer, and the Fed which is set to release the January FOMC statement this afternoon.

For 175 years the United States was not a country known for its self-consciously conservative thought. America’s “Tories,” after all, had been on the wrong side of the Revolutionary War. The names of our great political parties—Whig, Republican, Democratic—were everywhere else labels for liberal or radical groupings. Americans may have had their own kind of conservatism, but they rarely called it that.