European Union

With the only thing that matters in the hours ahead, at least until China reopens and the Pandamonium repeats, is the sheer chaos out of Greece which now literally changes the narrative by the minute, here is a convenient timeline of everything that has happened so far this morning starting with Varoufakis' unexpected resignation and going from there.

"This 'No' from the Greek people must pave the way for a healthy new approach," said Marine Le Pen.  "European countries should take advantage of this event to gather around the negotiating table, take stock of the failure of the euro and austerity, and organize the dissolution of the single currency system, which is needed to get back to real growth, employment and debt reduction."

The rise and fall of great powers and their imperial domains has been a central fact of history for centuries.  It’s been a sensible, repeatedly validated framework for thinking about the fate of the planet.  So it’s hardly surprising, when faced with a country once regularly labeled the “sole superpower,” “the last superpower,” or even the global “hyperpower” and now, curiously, called nothing whatsoever, that the “decline” question should come up.  Is the U.S. or isn’t it?  Might it or might it not now be on the downhill side of imperial greatness?

The ECB is moving to backstop Bulgaria's banking sector in an effort to get ahead of a Greek contagion."The ECB would provide access to its refinancing operations, offering euros to the banking system against eligible collateral," Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. 

"...If the S&P500 were to come down by 50% look at the bright side. The Millennial generation can finally buy into America’s future at a good price. Look at what they are facing right now: very little return on their savings and very lofty prices that they have to pay to invest in their future.  So we often forget that these wrenching dislocating financial events, particularly for older generations, can create opportunities for the young, and often create space for something more durable for the times to be built. So I’ll just summarize it with Schumpeter’s phrase: creative destruction. That’s how I prefer to see what happens in a Fourth Turning."

"Greece is being 'hit', there's no doubt about it," exclaims John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, noting that "[Indebted countries] become servants to what I call the corporatocracy ... today we have a global empire, and it's not an American empire. It's not a national empire... It's a corporate empire, and the big corporations rule."

It appears the sovereign peoples of Europe would not go gently into a Federal States of Europe night. Investors need to prepare for the inevitable political solution: referendums across Europe on the constitution of the Federal States of Europe needed to sustain the Euro. Events this weekend will trigger the search for the democratic legitimacy for the single currency and the centralised constitution it requires... or the demise of the unelected 'king Juncker' and 'queen Lagarde' of the Federal States of Europe.

"...won’t a successful Greece show others that — much as many young people who cannot afford to pay their rent return home — they, too, can return to the way things used to be?..."

Simply put -  Europe can't 'afford' anything positive to come of Greece...

Financial experts in New York, London, and Brussels have tut-tutted Greece’s economic travails as Athens considers its future with the European Union. Why did they borrow so much money? How can they ever pay it back? Do they think that much debt is sustainable? Instead of pointing fingers at the innumerates running Athens, they should consider our own situation.

America’s grand strategy, its long-term blueprint for advancing national interests and countering major adversaries, is in total disarray. Top officials lurch from crisis to crisis, improvising strategies as they go, but rarely pursuing a consistent set of policies. Some blame this indecisiveness on a lack of resolve at the White House, but the real reason lies deeper. It lurks in a disagreement among foreign policy elites over whether Russia or China constitutes America’s principal great-power adversary.

Confused as to how to vote Sunday? Starting to understand having your cake and eating it to may not work? Greek FinMin Varoufakis has six simple reasons to "just say no"...

• Tsipras backs down on many Greece bailout demands (FT)
• Creditors skeptical of Tsipras' offer (Reuters)
• Greek Pension Rationing Begins; Poll Shows Tsipras Backed (BBG)
• Greek referendum poll shows lead for 'No' vote, but narrowing (Reuters)
• Greek Bank Controls Heap More Pain on Crisis-Weary Citizens (BBG)
• Greek Crisis Ripples Across European Companies as Markets Swing (BBG)
• China Stocks Fall: Shanghai Composite Index Drops 5.2% (BBG)
• China June factory, services surveys fuel hopes economy leveling out (Reuters)
• Some Chinese Are Taking 22% Margin Loans to Finance Stock Purchases (BBG)

The EU is blowing up itself by trying to exert far too much influence on the very member nations that made its existence possible. Brussels is a blind city. It will take a lot of pain, and probably even the very wars the EU was originally founded to prevent, to figuratively burn it to the ground.

The entire Western edifice rests on lies. There is no other foundation. Just lies. This makes truth an enemy. Enemies have to be suppressed, and thus truth has to be suppressed.

Europe is imposing capital controls…  next up will be border controls.