United States

Paris -- Here's another great post from my friend and co-author Fred Feldkamp that talks about why credit spreads are crucial to understanding our economic prospects. His comment also illustrates how the SEC handed the large banks a monopoly on short-term finance in 1998 by amending Rule 2a-7 and made the 2008 financial crisis inevitable.  Few significant players in "corporate finance land" are willing to take on the bank monopoly/monopsony over short-term funding for fear of being cut off.

The Kremlin have announced the possibility of using Special Forces against the U.S. and Turkey after proof emerged that both of these nations support ISIS, and that ISIS are planning to attack Russian soil.  Russia have accused Turkey of training terrorist armed fighters “Majlis of Crimean Tatars” who are preparing to launch guerrilla warfare inside the Crimea Oblast. They also say that the U.S.

One of the most amusing things about Russia’s headlong plunge into Syria’s five-year conflict is the extent to which it effectively represented Moscow calling time on Washington’s strategy of seeking to bring about regime change in the Mid-East by intentionally destabilizing otherwise strong (if not always benign) governments.

Submitted by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org,

A growing number of US cities are declaring states of emergency as the number of people becoming homeless continues to rise Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington as well as the entire state of Hawaii have become the latest to take drastic measures to fight the growing crisis. Press TV reports: Los Angeles has yet to declare its own state of emergency, but campaigners describe its current condition as “the worst man-made disaster in the US.” The 50-block area of downtown LA, called Skid Row, has been a national emblem of homelessness for over a decade.