United States

Over the weekend, we gave the Dallas Fed a chance to respond to a Zero Hedge story corroborated by at least two independent sources, in which we reported that Federal Reserve members had met with bank lenders with extensive exposure to the US oil and gas sector and, after parsing through the complete bank books, had advised banks to i) not urge creditor counterparties into default, ii) urge asset sales instead, and iii) ultimately suspend mark to market in distressed instances.

John Bolton has some typically bad recommendations for U.S. China policy:

Via Christoph Gisiger of Finanz Und Wirtschaft,

Wall Street veteran Art Cashin warns that bankruptcies in the US oil industry could cause severe stress in the financial system. He believes the rate hike of the Federal Reserve was a mistake.

The 21st Century: An Era Of Fraud

Paul Craig Roberts

Iran has denounced new sanctions imposed by the US over its ballistic missile programme calling them illegal and hypocritical.