Archive - Dec 2, 2015

Decoding the war in Syria is not for the faint of heart. For those looking to make sense of it all, we present the following infographic which should go some ways towards untangling what has become one of the most complex, convoluted wars in recent memory.

The resistance to such an awakening is understandable if still lamentable. If recession is truly the looming assurance, as it increasingly appears, that would mean not just the end of the recovery but the end of “accommodation” as a given force. In other words, Janet Yellen and the OECD start backwards from their endpoint because of their unshakable faith in monetarism, a faith that actually defines how they think an economy does work (and how they produce the core assumptions in their models); should that path from here to there completely unravel, so, too, does their assumed power and philosophy.

"The US Security Council is requested to form committees to put in effect the previously adopted resolutions on smuggling. According to said resolutions, all involved in these activities, be they individuals, companies or states, will be branded as criminals."

Moments ago Brazil lower house chief Eduardo Cunha announced that he has accepted an impeachment request filed by Helio Bicudo. Cunha told reporters in Brasilia that the decision is not political, and while one can debate that, the implications will have a tremendous impact on both Brazil's political situation not to mention its already imploding economy. Cunha told reporters in Brasilia on Wednesday he "profoundly regrets" what’s happening. "May our country overcome this process." The impeachment process could take months, involving several votes in Congress that ultimately may result in the president’s ouster.

Spot the year that the "data-dependent" Fed will raise interest rates...

The global Central Banks have literally bet the financial system that their theories will work.  They haven’t. All they’ve done is set the stage for an even worse crisis in which entire countries will go bankrupt.

It's official: the start to the holiday shopping has been a disaster, and it's not simply due to a shift to online spending.

Presented with no comment...

Between collapsing crude, crashing economic data, a hawkish Yellen, and now another domestic mass shooting, US equities are plunging...

If you follow geopolitics, you might have noticed that many of the world’s emerging markets are beset with fractious political dynamics, violence, protests, and any number of other tail risks that could at any time mushroom into black swan events with ramifications for the developed world. As we head into 2016, it’s worth taking stock of the geopolitical events that have shaped EM in 2015 and it's also worth cataloguing what we know about the landscape for the coming year.

The day after the disaster in Paris, Marine Le Pen - leader of France's right-wing 'Front Nationale' party - called for the nation to "re-arm itself" and "eradicate" radical Islam, warning the French people that they are "no longer safe." So, it is hardly surprising that the inevitable fall-out from this ultra-nationalist commentary has resulted in Frenc citizens taking their own protection into their own hands...

In a world of get-rich-quick, fear-of-missing-out "investing," today's epic pump-and-dump is on an old favorite of the manipulators - Avon Products...

In arguably the most important ECB meeting since the introduction of QE, Draghi and Co. are expected by the majority of analysts to act further, with the most likely actions including a cut to the deposit rate and an increase in the Quantitative Easing program. Signalling from the central bank, and particularly Draghi himself over the past month has heavily indicated further stimulus, with Draghi notably saying that `the ECB will do what it needs to in order to raise inflation, as quickly as possible`.