United States

“Clinton to Paint Trump as a Risk to World Order.”

Thus did page one of Thursday’s New York Times tee up Hillary Clinton’s big San Diego speech on foreign policy.

Inside the Times, the headline was edited to underline the point:

“Clinton to Portray Trump as Risk to the World.”

The Times promoted the speech as “scorching,” a “sweeping and fearsome portrayal of Mr. Trump, one that the Clinton campaign will deliver like a drumbeat to voters in the coming months.”

What is happening here?

NATO has always been more about offense than defense, and more about America controlling the policies of Alliance members, increasing their numbers, pressuring them to stress militarism more than they’d chose otherwise and of course, selling them lots of US weapons according to writer and activist Stephen Lendman. In an article for Global research he writes: When founded in April 1949, Soviet Russia was a North Atlantic Alliance enemy in name only, ravaged by WW II – needing years after Stalin’s April 1953 death to regain pre-war normality, peace essential to restore it.

"It is a sad day for Miami, the United States and the game of golf" is the way Donald Trump started his statement in response to the news that the PGA Tour has decided to move a long-standing golf tournament from Donald Trump's golf course in Miami, Florida.

The PGA Tour announced Wednesday that the event formerly known as the WGC-Cadillac Championship that was held at Trump National Doral will now be called the WGC-Mexico Championship, and will be held at a venue in Mexico City starting in 2017.

There are just two drivers setting the pace for today's risk mood: the OPEC meeting in Vienna which started a few hours ago, and the ECB's announcement as well as Mario Draghi's press statement due out just one hour from now. Both are expected to not reveal any major surprises, with OPEC almost certainly unable to implement a production freeze while the ECB is expected to remain on hold and provide some more details on its corporate bond buying program, although there is some modest risk of upside surprise in either case.