United States

In a note from Goldman's cross-asset strategist Ian Wright, the bank points out something troubling: on one hand, over the past six months, or rather since the US elections, equity markets around the globe have soared, and returns across regions have been "strong" - S&P 500, Stoxx 600, Nikkei 225 and MSCI EM ($) have returned roughly 11%, 16%, 20% and 11% in local currency price terms, respectively, with MSCI World ($) up 12% over the same period.  In other words, everything is up.

In some good news for the distressed US retail sector, on Monday morning handbag retailer Coach confirmed long-running speculation, when it announced that it would acquire peer Kate Spade in a $2.4 billion deal. Coach will pay Kate Spade shareholders $18.50 a share in cash, a 28% premium to Kate’s closing price as of Dec. 27, the last trading day before the Wall Street Journal first reported that Kate was exploring a sale of the company after coming under pressure from an activist shareholder. In February, Kate Spade confirmed it was reviewing such options in February.

Authored by Paul Atwood via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

A few months ago I received a message from a professor at the Khomeini Institute for Education and  Research in Tehran, Iran, informing me that my 2010 book “War and Empire: The American Way of Life” (London, Pluto Press) had been translated into Farsi. He requested that I write an Introduction for Iranian readers. What follows is that Introduction. Two years ago the Xinhua Peoples’ Press in Beijing, China also published a translation in Mandarin.

by Stefan Stanford via AllNewsPipeline.com,

In the new story over at Survival Dan called “During The Collapse: Where To Go And What Places To Avoid”, he reports that when IT hits the fan, America’s ‘population hubs’ will likely explode with violence, looting and the total breakdown of law and order as resources become next to impossible to get and the masses suddenly realize the government isn’t coming to save them.

Submitted by Nicholas Colas of Convergex

April Was Cruel… To the US Tre