United States

France are threatening President-elect Donald Trump with “serious consequences” if he moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned Trump against the embassy move, saying that it would threaten peace in the region. Yahoo News reports: Speaking as 70 countries gather in Paris to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, Ayrault told French TV he believed Trump would find it “impossible” to fulfil the pledge he made during his campaign to transfer the embassy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the US intelligence services of performing a massive cyberattack against Russia.  According to a senior security official, Russia is facing “increased cyber attacks” originating in the U.S. Reuters reports: U.S. intelligence agencies say Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber campaign aimed at boosting Donald Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign. Russia has dismissed the accusations as a “witch-hunt”.

We start our Sunday with some gloomy predictions from Morgan Stanley's appreciately named "Sunday Start" periodical, in which the bank's Chief Global cross-asset strategist, Andrew Sheets, explains why the market return under the Obama administration will be a tough act to follow. His argument in a nutshell: "good market environments often involve a shift from economic despair to optimism, and a shift in psychology from ‘fear’ to ‘greed’. Both occurred over the last eight years, producing returns well above the long-run average.

Following Rex Tillerson’s “astonishing” and “unprofessional” comments made during his confirmation hearing, Chinese state media has predicted a “large scale war” in the South China Sea if US tries stopping China accessing its man-made islands. The former ExxonMobil CEO likened China’s island-building in the South China Sea to “Russia’s taking of Crimea” during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

Fair warning, my family just received a 61.5% increase in our healthcare insurance premium of 2017, on top of last year’s 24.8% increase, so I am quite annoyed at the moment.  For my non-US readers, perhaps what follows will interest you as a means of understanding how and why Donald Trump came to be elected President.  I am going to be channeling some of my inner crank today.