Submitted by Gregory Copley via OilPrice.com,
The Government of Turkey has now put itself in a position whereby it must act rapidly and precipitously to avoid moving to an ultimately losing strategic position in the war against Syria, which could result in being forced back to fight a full-scale civil war to prevent the break-up of the State into at least two components, one being a new Kurdish state.
As you might have noticed, the Fed made a policy mistake in December.
We could delve deeply into the specifics, but quite frankly it all boils down to this: Yellen hiked right into a recession.
There’s more to it than that obviously, including the fact that EM is circling the drain amid the global commodities rout, meaning excessive USD strength is especially damaging and the fact that the uncertainty swirling around the depth of the ongoing yuan devaluation has markets on edge from Shanghai to London to New York.
Trevor Thrall and John Glaser make an excellent case against U.S. support for the war on Yemen:
Beyond placating overexcited Saudi fears of a U.S. strategic tilt towards Iran, there simply is no moral, legal, or strategic justification for what the U.S. is doing in Yemen.
Since the January FOMC statement, Janet has spoken twice and what seems like every Fed speaker has hit the headlines to explain their decisions (only to confuse the market more) leaving bonds and gold outperforming amid their clear confusion. The Minutes appear to confirm that confusion:
In 17 of the 19 times in the last 100 years that Industrial Production has contracted for 3 consecutive months, the US economy has entered recession. Today 0.7% drop YoY is the 3rd month of declines.
The only times in the last 100 years that 3 months of US Industrial Production contraction has not coincided with a recession was in 1934 and 1952... (and the current decline is larger than 1952's in aggregate)