United States

Authored by Robert McKeown via The Mises Institute,

As Hurricane Harvey, now tropical storm Harvey, makes its way across the southern US, estimates have already come in as to the cost of the storm. According to AccuWeather, Harvey is expected to cost upwards of $190 billion in damages, one percent of the national GDP. This makes Harvey the costliest storm ever to hit the United States, more than Katrina ($100 billion) and Sandy ($60 billion) combined.

Here Come The Clowns

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

On Monday, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, and today became an "extremely dangerous" category 5 hurricane, with some meteorologists are projecting that it will remain so until it eventually makes landfall in the United States.  And since a “category 6” has not been created yet, category 5 is as high as the scale goes at the moment. 

President Trump has threatened a quick termination of NAFTA a countless number of times, with the latest coming just last weekend via twitter:

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

As part of South Korea’s response to the latest escalations out of its northern neighbor, the country's defense minister on Monday said it was "worth reviewing the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula" to guard against the North, a step that analysts warn would sharply increase the risk of an accidental conflict. On Monday, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said that he asked his American counterpart, Jim Mattis, during talks at the Pentagon last week that strategic assets such as  U.S.

After UN Ambassador Nikki Haley asked the security council to pass the “strongest possible” sanctions against North Korea following the isolated nation’s sixth nuclear test which took place over the weekend, Russia President Vladimir Putin has hinted that Russia may - and most likely will - use its Security Council veto power to stop any further sanctions from being implemented.