United States

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

For those of you who don’t know Andy Xie, he’s an MIT-educated former IMF economist and was once Morgan Stanley’s chief Asia-Pacific economist. Xie is known for a bearish view of China, and not Beijing’s favorite person. He’s now an ‘independent’ economist based in Shanghai. He gained respect for multiple bubble predictions, including the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 US subprime crisis.

U.S. Mint Gold Coin Sales and VIX Point To Increased Market Volatility and Higher Gold

World stocks rose to a 4th consecutive record highs, while the dollar headed for its worst week; U.S. stock-index futures are steady, with European and Asian stocks higher ahead of much anticipated US inflation data, which is expected to give cues on the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s interest rates. MSCI’s all world equity index was up 0.1% after hitting record highs on Thursday. Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit a 10-year high, up 0.3 percent on the day.

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev the last Soviet leader, is urging Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump to meet face to face to resolve their differences as each side accuses the other of violating a Cold War-era arms-control treaty that Gorbachev believes is essential to maintaining peace between the two world powers.