United States

Last Friday, in the aftermath of the most recent mass shooting in San Bernardino and the latest attempt by Obama to impose further gun control measures, ostensibly by executive order, we pointed out the one thing, or rather person, who even the NYT begrudgingly admitted in an article on "What Drives Gun Sales" has been the primary driver of gun sales in the US: US president Barack Obama.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

As much as I dislike all the leading candidates for President of these United States, there’s no one on the Republican side who disgusts me more than Marco Rubio.

Submitted by Ben Hunt via Salient Partners' Epsilon Theory blog,

Can everyone saying “a 25 bps rate hike doesn’t change anything” or “manufacturing is a small part of the US economy today, so the ISM number doesn’t mean much” or “trade with China is only a few percent of US GDP, so their currency devaluation isn’t important” just stop?

 

Seriously. Can you just stop?

 

As regular readers are no doubt aware, the US has done a lot of really silly things over the course of the last four or so years in Syria. 

The start of the Fed's most eagerly awaited two-day policy meeting in years has finally arrived with the market expecting Yellen to announce the first 25 bps rate hike in 9 years tomorrow with nearly 80% probability, and so far US equity futures are enjoying a last minute relief rally, while emerging market stocks rose for the first day in ten after the longest losing run since June. Europe's Stoxx 600 Index has also rebounded from a five-day losing streak, the worst in over four months.