United States

As stagnant wages and rising tuition and medical costs squeeze middle class families, Bloomberg reports that US employers cut employee bonuses this year for the first time in seven years, further straining household budgets despite an ostensibly bright economic outlook. Bonuses slipped a tenth of a percentage point to 12.7% of total compensation this year, according to data from Aon Hewitt, which conducts an annual survey of more than 1,000 employers.

Two weeks ago, Goldman's clients were so worried about an imminent crash, the investment bank's chief equity strategist, David Kostin enumerated no less than 7 reasons why, as Goldman itself admitted, "the question every client asks: Is an equity correction imminent?” As a reminder, the reasons - summarized - were the following:

In the latest sign of the paranoid times we live in, startled Southern Californians flooded 911 with calls Saturday night after the US launched its newest spy satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, forcing local fire and police departments to issue an alert clarifying that everything is fine and people shouldn’t panic, the Associated Press reports.

With Venezuela 'almost' defaulting on their government debt this week, Daniel Osorio, of Andean Capital Advisors, has had a front-row seat in the collapse of the socialist utopia, spending at least a week every month in the almost-failed state.

In a brief but fascinating interview on CNBC, Osorio discussed the fact that as Washington unleashes ever tougher sanctions on Maduro, China and Russia are all that's left for the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

Then exposed the realities of living under Maduro's crazed policies:

The war of words between Trump and Kim escalated once again in the late hours on Saturday night, when President Trump sent another belligerent tweet directed at North Korea saying that if the country's foreign minister was speaking for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his threatening speech at the United Nations, "they won't be around much longer."

"Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!"