United States

Authored by Wip via Jim Quinn's Burning Platform blog,

It’s hard to think of something so complicated that has become so popular as fast as bitcoin.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,

Australia is implementing its own “foreign agents” legislation modelled off of the US’.

The government recently announced that foreign lobbyists must register with the authorities and that political parties will be banned from accepting foreign donations.

The move to stop foreign funding is clear-cut and understandable, though there’s a lot of vagueness and prevailing uncertainty over what criteria will be used to designate someone as a “foreign agent”.

US intelligence believes North Korea is still between 12 and 18 months away from gaining the ability to load a nuclear warhead onto one of its ICBMs, but South Korean intelligence reportedly has credible evidence that Kim Jong Un and his regime have begun testing loading anthrax onto the country’s ICBMs, according to Japan's Asahi newspaper.

As Asahi reports (via Google Translate)

Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

Economists, including Ben Bernanke, give all kinds of reasons for the Great Depression of the 1930s. But what if the real reason for the Great Depression was an energy crisis?

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

U.S. individual vehicle miles traveled (VMT) growth has been flat since June 2017, and the potential end of the VMT growth that started in early 2014 may be an indicator of slowing oil consumption, according to government data compiled by Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc.

(Click to enlarge)