United States

In an unexpected diplomatic turn of events which underscores the seriousness of escalating tensions between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard (which last week were designated by the US as a terrorist organization), General Qassem Soleimani, arrived in Erbil on Sunday and met with Kurdistan regional president Masoud Barzani to discuss the growing crisis at a moment when Kurdish Peshmerga forces are blocking Iraqi Army access to Kirkuk oil fields and military installations. 

Having been responsible for the biggest flash crashes in recent years, it is no surprise that when it comes to the market's growing structural vulnerabilities, high frequency traders have emerged as the primary authority on how to crash the market in the blink of an eye. Which is perhaps why none other than the Pentagon is seeking advice from HFTs on how hackers could "unleash chaos" in the US financial system.

Two weekends after Trump publicly snubbed and mocked Rex Tillerson's attempts to achieve a diplomatic resolution with North Korea, when the president tweeted that "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...

Authored by John Curran via Barrons,

The petrodollar system is being undermined by exponential growth in technology and shifting geopolitics. What comes next is a paradigm shift...

The Unraveling of American/Russian Relations

Paul Craig Roberts

Dear Readers: I agree that the official Las Vegas story seems to be unraveling. A public mass shooting should be transparent, not opaque. I think we explored the story long enough to discover that without knowing the facts, we cannot arrive at an explanation with confidence.