United States

Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,

Our quarterly survey of “Off the Grid” economic indicators finds that the U.S. economy is still growing, but the pace seems to be slowing from Q3 2015.

 

On the plus side, used car prices remain robust and dealer inventories of new cars are in good shape.  Americans are driving more, with the growth rate for miles driven (and gas consumed) running at levels not seen in +10 years.  Lastly, workers are still quitting their jobs at a healthy clip.

 

Defeating ISIL in Iraq requires coordination between the Sunni tribes and the Shiite dominated Iraqi government. The problem is however that the U.S is empowering both the Shiites and the Sunnis and thus is able to direct the course of events. The Sunni tribes were the ones who defeated the original Al-Qaeda in Iraq and are now the ones capable of eradicating ISIL. They need to be free of the threat of sectarianism in order to free their own towns and villages.

Authored by Dave Barry, originally posted at The Miami Herald,

Sometimes we are accused - believe it or not - of being overly negative in our annual Year in Review. Critics say we ignore the many positive events in a given year and focus instead on the stupid, the tragic, the evil, the disgusting, the Kardashians.

OK, critics: We have heard you. This year, instead of dwelling on the negatives, we’re going to start our annual review with a List of the Top 10 Good Things That Happened in 2015. Ready? Here we go:

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and the death of the Soviet Union was confirmed two years later when Boris Yeltsin courageously stood down the red army tanks in front of Moscow’s White House, a dark era in human history came to an end.

Although ISIS releases nearly 40 pieces of propaganda each and every day via the group’s sprawling network of production units located in at least a dozen countries, one person you don’t hear from very often is TIME magazine’s runner-up for “person of the year”, Bakr al-Baghdadi.