War

How close is the US to war with North Korea? That was the question several top military and national security advisors struggled to answer over the weekend, mitigating fears of an imminent nuclear war even as Trump raises geopolitical tensions and boosts bellicose rhetoric with every public appearance.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday", and walking a fine line of backing Trump's tough talk but not wanting to raise the alarm at home, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said there’s no indication war will break out.

Did central banks just lose control of the world... again?

For the first time in four months, BofAML's Global Financial Market Stress index has turned positive - signalling more market stress than normal.

As the spat between North Korea and the U.S. worsened, a measure of cross-asset risk, hedging demand and investor flows awakened from its torpor (after spending 78 straight days below zero - with stress below normal).

Authored by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,

This was the week that the logic of war collided with the illogic of bubbles. So far, the bubble is winning, but that’s about to change.

The “logic of war” is an English translation of a French phrase, la logique de la guerre, which refers to the dynamic of how wars begin despite the fact that the war itself will be horrendous, counterproductive, and possibly end in complete defeat.

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Any time we hear the term "privatize" coming from the usual suspects in Washington, DC we should immediately be suspicious. When this word is used, there's usually precious little actual privatization going on.

Thus, we should regard the Trump administration's proposed plan to "privatize" the war in Afghanistan with extreme amounts of skepticism. 

USAToday reports:

Update: A state of emergency has been declared for Charlottesville due to the "chaos" at the rally. As CBS reports, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the city to aid in the local response. He earlier said the Virginia National Guard will be "standing by to respond if needed." The city and county issued a declaration of local emergency for Charlottesville city and county, when the scene turned violent well before the "Unite the Right" rally, scheduled for noon, officially began.