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Turkey’s shoot-down of a Russian jet and the Saudi execution of a revered Shiite cleric, who threatened no one in prison, should cause the United States to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the alliances and war guarantees we have outstanding, many of them dating back half a century. Do all, do any, still serve U.S. vital national interests?

Eighty-two leading Democrats have cosponsored a House Resolution (H.Res. 569) "Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States". As of now, H.Res. 569 has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Americans had better hope that the House Committee will see it for what it is: An attempt to destroy the First Amendment, shield Islam from criticism, and bring "Death to Free Speech."

Here are 25 deeply distressed companies, whose banks we found have quietly shrunk the borrowing base of their credit facilities anywhere from 6% in the case of Black Ridge Oil and Gas to a whopping 51% for soon to be insolvent New Source Energy Partners.

Last year amid China’s ongoing financial crisis, the government there tightened some forms of capital controls (curiously while loosening others). For any Chinese citizen with savings right now, it’s pretty obvious what’s happening. And they want to get their money out of the country. Bitcoin has been a popular alternative in China because people can easily cross borders with vast sums of money encrypted inside their mobile phones. But there’s a new tactic that Chinese are using now: domains.

"Shock and awe"...

We are currently in a transitional phase of geo-political-monetary power struggles, capital flow decisions, and fundamental economic choices. This remains a period of artisanal (central bank fabricated) money, high volatility, low growth, excessive wealth inequality, extreme speculation, and policies that preserve the appearance of big bank liquidity and concentration at the expense of long-term stability. The potential for chaotic fluctuations in any element of the capital markets is greater than ever. The butterfly effect - the flutter of a wing in one part of the planet altering the course of seemingly unrelated events in another part - is on center stage.

"He stopped studying and rented bouncy castles for children's parties while supporting banned militant group Al-Muhajiroun and running 'roadshows' aimed at attracting troubled youngsters in inner-cities"...

For several years now, we’ve periodically observed that China’s increasingly aggressive crackdown on dissent serves as a harbinger of far more difficult times ahead. The thinking goes that if anyone is privy to the severe fragility the country’s economic situation, it would be Chinese leadership. As such, desperate moves by Chinese leadership should foretell drastically worse economic and social conditions to come.

"...The Wholesaler and HFTs then cover their short-sales, buying from Retail investors near the temporary low, just prior to the stock recovery...Instant profits, massive gains for Wholesalers... Rigged Stock Market."

For the last week of December - typically a month when inventories are drawn down dramatically to avoid year-end tax-burdens - API reports a huge 5.6 million barrel inventory draw (massively bigger than expectations of a 488k build). It would appear, after 3 mixed weeks, that energy firms waited for the very last week to dump inventories into year-end (as seasonally occurs). Of course the transit of the first post-export-ban tanker may have also helped. While WTI spiked higher it is fading a little as Cushing reported a very large build of 1.4mm barrels (the 9th week in a row).

The S&P 500 first crossed yesterday's levels in August 2014 - that is 501 days ago, confirming our belief that the stock market casino has just begun its descent has only been further reinforced. In terms of the fundamental economic and financial rot now coming to the visible surface, the analysis we presented last week is even more timely now.

We wonder how many of "non-red" checks would be flashing angry burgundy, if it wasn't for the latent effect of $13 trillion in central bank liquidity injections, and what these checklists will show after a few more rate hikes and a few trillion in petrodollar FX reserve liquidations.