United States

Regular readers are no doubt familiar with The Pentagon’s ill-fated “train and assist” program for properly “vetted” Syrian rebels. 

The program was announced to quite a bit of fanfare - and quite a bit of ridicule due to the burgeoning debate over what counts as a “moderate” fighter - back in May and the idea was to field a group of fighters 5,400 strong by the end of the calendar year. In all, the effort was set to cost US taxpayers some $500 million. 

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

Yellen said at least one thing of importance last week, but not in a good way. She confessed to the frightening truth that the FOMC formulates its policies and actions based on forecasts of future economic developments.

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims here … and … around the world, that there is a ‘clash of civilizations.'”

So said Hillary Clinton in Saturday night’s New Hampshire debate.

Just as we warned, since the US export ban 'lift' loomed, so WTI prices have shifted notably, having today converged to Brent's price for first time since January. It may have a lot further to fall as some analysts suggest the lifting of the export ban "is going to end up ultimately being bearish everything."

Last week we said...

Brent-WTI set to converge as US begins exporting oil

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 16, 2015

Authored by Brahma Chellaney, originally posted at Project Syndicate,

Containing the scourge of Islamist terror will be impossible without containing the ideology that drives it: Wahhabism, a messianic, jihad-extolling form of Sunni fundamentalism whose international expansion has been bankrolled by oil-rich sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia. That is why the newly announced Saudi-led anti-terror coalition, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, should be viewed with profound skepticism.