United States

Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,

Ten civilians including children were killed by U.S.-led airstrikes on Monday in Syria’s al-Raqqah province, according to state news agency SANA. US warplanes had targeted a cotton mill near the de facto capital of ISIS. Xinhua reports: The airstrike targeted a cotton mill in the village of Salhiyeh in the northern countryside of al-Raqqah, killing three workers and a displaced family of six as well as another person from the village. Children were among those killed, SANA said, noting that the killing is another massacre by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition.

Authored by Steve H. Hanke of The Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke.

The United States has recorded a trade deficit in each year since 1975. This is not surprising. After all, we spend more than we save, and this deficit is financed via a virtually unlimited U.S. line of credit with the rest of the world. In short, foreigners in countries that save more than they spend (read: record trade surpluses) ship the U.S. funds to finance America’s insatiable spending appetites.

Over the weekend we reported that as Obama was speaking at the APEC summit in Peru, hoping to salvage his global trade legacy, the TPP, China's President Xi Jinping officially called for the launch of the Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific for "institutional guarantee of open economy", a move many had expected would take place as China was eager to fill in the void left by the US in any trans-Pacific trade treaty.

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,