United States

Authored by Alberto Gallo via Algebris Investments,

“Your loving give me such a thrillBut your love don’t pay my billsNow give me moneyThat’s what I want”Money – Barrett Strong, 1959

Ten long years after the crisis, volatility and fear seem to have disappeared from financial markets. A synchronous global expansion coupled with persistently loose monetary policy has produced a goldilocks environment for all assets. Will it work for another year?

Moody's estimates that there is roughly $1.4 trillion dollars belonging to U.S. corporations that has been building up in foreign bank accounts for years now to avoid the 35% corporate tax that would be levied on them if they were brought back to the U.S.  Of course, getting that $1.4 trillion back to the U.S. has been a critical component of the Trump administration's tax reform bill as Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin have repeatedly argued that the money would be put to good use building factories and creating jobs for American workers.

Trump’s National Security Speech

Paul Craig Roberts

What do we make of Trump’s national security speech? First of all, it is the military/security complex’s speech, and it is inconsistent with Trump’s intention of normalizing relations with Russia.

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Last week, the International Energy Agency made a lot of OPEC brows furrow when it warned that 2018 may not be a very happy new year for the cartel.

U.S. shale supply, the IEA said in its December Oil Market Report, is set to grow more than OPEC has estimated and this could be the undoing of the production cut that boosted prices this year.

A New York makeup artist who accused Donald Trump of groping her in the 1990's - and whose mortgage was paid off by a donor arranged by Gloria Allred daughter Lisa Bloom, repeatedly solicited then-candidate Trump to become his campaign makeup artist so she could pitch her new line of men's cosmetics, according to The Hill's John Solomon.  The story has to be true, because one couldn't make it up if one tried.

In an October 1, 2015 email - Trump accuser Jill Harth emailed the President's New York Company headquarters, writing: