United States

Submitted by Ben Norton of Alternet

A highly influential top Emirati diplomat heaped praise on a prominent Washington Post columnist for writing pro-Saudi propaganda, a leaked email shows.

Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United States, applauded journalist David Ignatius for his writing on Saudi Arabia. Ignatius is notorious for fawning coverage of the kingdom, promoting its supposed efforts at reform and taking its line on regional conflicts without a shred of skepticism.

For 88-year-old Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, there is no better place to be invested right now than the U.S. and he's "all in" with his portfolio split between U.S. equities and bonds.  In an interview with Bloomberg, Bogle makes the rather surprising argument that buying U.S. equities at record highs is a contrarian play.

Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

Vladimir Putin: The Most Powerful Person In The World

Paul Craig Roberts

When the Treasury reported its monthly receipts and outlays data for the month of May at 2pm today, it was more of the same: far more spending than receipts, resulting in a 68.4% surge in the US budget deficit compared to a year ago. Specifically, outlays of $329 billion soared 19% compared to a year ago, offset by a modest 7% increase in receipts, resulting in a $88.4 billion deficit in May, more than the $87 consensus estimate, and well above the $52.5 billion a year earlier. The reason: government spending in areas such as Medicaid and defense rose at a far faster pace than revenue.