Pension Crisis In U.S. and Globally Is Unavoidable
by Lance Roberts
There is a really big crisis coming.
Think about it this way. After 8 years and a 230% stock market advance the pension funds of Dallas, Chicago, and Houston are in severe trouble.
But it isn’t just these municipalities that are in trouble, but also most of the public and private pensions that still operate in the country today.
An alleged Russian hacker, Pyotr Levashov, has been detained in Barcelona at the request of the FBI, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the U.S. presidential election, AP reports. A spokeswoman for Spain's National Court said that the Pyotr Levashov was arrested in response to a U.S. computer crimes warrant while a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid confirmed the arrest on Sunday.
S&P futures point to a slightly lower open, while Asian and European stocks are likewise modestly in the red. Trading volumes are muted for most markets on Monday with investors spooked by rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the Korean peninsula. It is also a holiday-shortened week in much of the West. As Bloomberg puts it, there is a "sense of unease" across markets, with global stocks mixed as investors weighed looming security risks and French bonds retreating ahead of the election following the surprising surge of far-leftist Melenchon in the polls.
With the US now engaged in military conflict with, and targeting Syrian army forces, what the Trump administration has (un)wittingly done is provide support to Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and al-Nusra and other terrorist forces, all of which have been engaging with the Assad regime in a fight in which the Syrian president has gradually seen the tide of war turn in his favor. At least until last Friday's US cruise missile attack that is.