United States

After a furious three day "dash for trash", no volume, no breadth, commodity-driven rally, even Santa is now exhausted and overnight US equity index futures were little changed with European and Asian shares mixed. The dollar has declines as gold, silver gain, with WTI initially continuing its recent meteoric rise (up over 8% in the past three days, nearly hitting $38), only to reverse and give up all overnight gains moments ago.

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

Donald Trump, judging by polls as of December 21, 2015, is the most likely candidate to be the next president of the US.

Trump is popular not so much for his stance on issues as for the fact that he is not another Washington politican, and he is respected for not backing down and apologizing when he makes strong statements for which he is criticized. What people see in Trump is strength and leadership. This is what is unusual about a political candidate, and it is this strength to which voters are responding.

Over the past several months, we’ve attempted to explain why Washington’s strategy to arm anti-Assad elements in Syria is even more absurd now than it was initially. 

If there’s a silver lining in Turkey’s brazen move to shoot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border late last month, it’s that it gave Putin the excuse he needed to expose Ankara’s role in bankrolling Sunni extremism in the Mid-East.