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The Bizarre Need to Take Sides and Our Foreign Policy Debates

Paul Pillar makes the case against taking either side in the Saudi-Iranian rivalry:

It would be just as much of a mistake for the United States to tilt in favor of Iran in this conflict as it is to tilt in favor of Saudi Arabia. Taking either side in this rivalry, as with many other international rivalries, entails several disadvantages for the United States.

UK Summons North Korean Ambassador Over Nuke Test

Britain’s foreign ministry  has summoned Hyon Hak Bong, the North Korean ambassador in London, to stress condemnation of Pyongyang’s reported nuclear test. Pyongyang said it had tested hydrogen bomb as a deterrent to curb potential aggression from the United States. “I summoned North Korea’s Ambassador today to stress in the strongest terms the UK’s condemnation of their nuclear test” minister Hugo Swire said in a Foreign Office statement. He added that the test violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The 10 Principles Of Bubbles Show Why The Whole Planet's On Central Planner "Crack"

Submitted by Harry Dent via Contra Corner blog,

The global markets just reacted to another 7% plunge in Chinese markets – the biggest bubble of our time.

Go on the Internet and look up any article about China’s economy. Nine times out of 10 they’ll acknowledge the problems in overbuilding, real estate vacancies, rising debt and everything else.

"The Least Important Payrolls Report In A While": What Wall Street Expects

Now that the Fed has commenced its rate hike cycle, the jobs report suddenly takes on far less significance because only a massively "outlier" print will have an impact on Fed thinking, thinking which so far appears undented despite a raging manufacturing recession across the US. This means that the December jobs could be the "most important ever" only in retrospect, with either a huge miss (think < 100,000) or huge beat (> 275,000) having a material impact at a time when algos are much more focused on China scrambling to prevent its economy - and market - crashing, hard.

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