United States

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,…”

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

I'm back -- Chris

This week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee is being set up in the financial media as a contest between the anti-inflation tendency led by Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the pro-growth forces led by President Donald Trump.  Would that it were so.  

European stocks declined for first session in five ahead of Wednesday's Dutch elections, debt ceiling expiration and the conclusion of the Fed's 2-day meeting where it is expected to raise rates by 25 bps. Tightening concerns emerged, also dragging down Asian shares and S&P futures, while the dollar continued its rise for a second day. Crude oil has ended its six-day drop. The pound tumbled 0.8% to the lowest since mid-January in a delayed reaction after Theresa May won permission to trigger the country’s departure from the EU.

Via The Gavekal USA Team,

We recently met with geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan to discuss world events since the American election and his new book, “The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World without America.” In the book, Peter credits energy and resource innovations with reshaping the global geopolitical environment.

 

Authored by Thierry Meyssan via VoltaireNet.org,

This article is a warning - in November 2016, a vast system of agitation and propaganda was set up in order to destroy the reputation and the authority of President Donald Trump as soon as he arrived in the White House. It is the first time that such a campaign has been scientifically organised against a President of the United States, and with such resources. Yes, we are indeed entering a post-Truth age, but the distribution of rôles is not what you may think it is.

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

New revelations from Wikileaks’ 'Vault 7' leak shed a disturbing light on the safeguarding of privacy. Something already known and largely suspected has now become documented by Wikileaks. It seems evident that the CIA is now a state within a state, an entity out of control that has even arrived at the point of creating its own hacking network in order to avoid the scrutiny of the NSA and other agencies.