United States

For the first time in two decades, according to a new study released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the life expectancy of the average American declined in 2015.  Of course, with America's obesity epidemic spiraling out of control it probably shouldn't be a surprise that the occurrence of deaths related to America's number 1 killer, heart disease, is on the rise (see "FatLivesMatter: At Least 1 Out Of Every 5 People Are Obese In All 50 States").

That the market has soared since the Trump election on hopes of a fiscal stimulus splurge, sending the Dow Jones to just 300 points away from 20,000 is by now familiar to most. However, what few may realize is that even in a best case scenario, one where Congress does not throw up on Trump's vague stimulus plan which is expected to add as much as $5 trillion to the already soaring US debt, little if any of the actual spending and economic boost will take place in 2017.

From "the end of cash" to "Trump muzzling The Fed" to "Russia going on the warpath", Nomura unveils its unlikely-but-impactful grey swan scenarios for 2017...

As Nomura writes, while we would like to be able to predict black swans, by definition they are unpredictable. However, its close cousin, the grey swan, can be envisaged.

Big Money Intends To Shut Down Our Website

Paul Craig Roberts

Big Money and the US government controlled by Big Money intend to close down Internet truthtellers. As Trump intends to reduce the tensions between nuclear powers, the 200 List prepared by the shadowy Internet site, PropOrNot, is in Trump’s way. Either Trump will be apprised and convinced of the “Russian threat,” or the dissident websites will be promoted to “Muslim apologists” and fall under the ire of Trump’s Iranophobic generals.

Considering that during the Obama administration, the only job category that has performed remarkably well has been fast food workers, waiters and bartenders, a category which has added 571,000 jobs since 2014 as the US has lost 34,000 manufacturing workers in the same period...

... it is perhaps fitting that the next Labor Secretary will be the CEO of fast food chains.

Trump and Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, walk from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J.