United States

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Stephen Lendman Explains that even US Vassals Gave Trump the Finger on Jerusalem

http://stephenlendman.org/2017/12/un-jerusalem-vote-postmortems/

The post Stephen Lendman Explains that even US Vassals Gave Trump the Finger on Jerusalem appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.

Multiple Russian state media outlets are reporting that President Vladimir Putin has stressed that Russia has a right to respond to US military build-up in Europe while furthering its strategic nuclear deterrence capabilities in a speech delivered before a Defense Ministry meeting on Friday in the city of Balashikha outside of Moscow.

The latest confirmation that the US consumer is now effectively tapped out came moments ago when the Dept of Commerce reported that in November, Personal Income rose by a lower than expected 0.3% (exp. 0.4%), while US consumers continued to splurge at an accelerated rate, with personal spending rising 0.6%, above the 0.5% expected, as Americans decided to splurge on holiday products and services.

A way of visualizing the historical change in income, spending - and savings - is the next chart below:

Spanish stocks and the euro fell, while Spanish government bond yields hit their highest levels in over a month after Catalan secessionists delivered an unexpected blow to the government of Spanish PM Rajoy by winning the Catalan regional election. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, U.S. equity futures and the dollar rose on the last trading session before the Christmas holiday. The MSCI index of world stocks was flat.