FBI

If you were trying to put together a global all-star team of the most authoritarian, human rights abusing nations on earth, not only would Saudi Arabia be at the top of the list, it would be captain of the squad. In a move as embarrassing, laughable and tragic as Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just as he was about to embark upon several overseas wars and drone countless civilians to death without due process, the United Nations has, remarkably, named Saudi Arabia head of it’s human rights panel.

As WSJ reports, "the FBI has opened an investigation into allegations of money-laundering related to a Malaysian state investment fund, a person familiar with the matter said. The scope of the investigation wasn’t known. It is the latest in a series of international investigations related to the fund that have been revealed in the past several weeks."

"It’s my sense that this is happening, unless they change their minds"...

Are drones coming to a police department near you? Possibly.

Every year, “NEVER FORGET” echoes through the neighborhoods, cities, and Facebook statuses of America. 14 years after 9/11, Americans still bear the cross of a nation victimized and scorned after the brutal attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. While Americans — and politicians who are still intent on capitalizing on the tragedy — vow never to forget the fateful day, far too many citizens forget the liberties they have relinquished as a result. Lest yesterday’s valiantly waving flags, government ceremonies, and TV news specials replaying the plane crashes coax you into forgetting, these nine essential freedoms have been usurped since 9/11

The legacy of the Clinton’s behind the curtain has also been one of questioning everything, two, three, if not four to ten times. The lack of honesty between the words seems to be catching up. Hillary and Bill have been rather notorious for doing whatever it takes to win while lining their pockets at the same time. So it is no surprise that Hillary may fight to the end without ever fearing prosecution for anything she has ever done is in the past.

Why are the global elite buying extremely remote compounds that come with their own private airstrips in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the planet?  And why did they start dumping stocks like crazy earlier this year?  Do they know something that the rest of us don’t?

As an investor, you have enough to be concerned about just taking into account factors like inflation, deflation, Fed policy and the overall state of the economy. Now you have another major threat looming – financial warfare, enabled by cyberattacks and force multipliers. What can you do to preserve wealth when these cyberfinancial wars break out? The key is to have some portion of your total assets invested in nondigital assets that cannot be hacked, wiped out or disrupted by financial warfare. The time to take defensive action by acquiring some non-digital assets is now.

Back in early 2014, when IRS director Lois Lerner pleaded the Fifth, it became clear that not all is well with the official narrative. Fast forward to this week when another prominent democrat caught up in another email scandal has just indicated they would plead the Fifth. And no, its not Hillary Clinton, at least not yet, but her former staffer, Bryan Pagliano, who oversaw her private email server. As reported by Politico, he too plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to answer incriminating questions before the House Benghazi Committee, according to a letter his lawyer sent the panel.

• U.S. Treasury's Lew says China will be held accountable on currency (Reuters) ... but not Japan
• Bank of Japan Not Convinced of Need for Further Easing (WSJ)
• Stocks Advance With Commodities on Signs of European Revival (BBG)
• IMF Says China Slowdown, Other Risks Threaten Global Outlook (WSJ)
• Xi Says China No Threat, Announces Military Cuts at Parade (BBG)
• China holds massive military parade, to cut troop levels by 300,000 (Reuters)
• Migrants leave Budapest for Austrian frontier; pressure builds for EU action (Reuters)

The latest set of Clinton e-mails released by the State Department reveals another 125 exchanges that contain classified information, establishing further (for anyone who still had doubts) that sensistive information was indeed transferred over Clinton's home e-mail server and leading to two rather obvious questions: 1) will Clinton be held accountable?, and 2) will her campaign be able to hold the 2016 Presidential bid together amid a rising tide of public mistrust?

While the US has had a surge in violence over the past several years, its defining feature was the generally chaotic and uncoordinated nature of each such - usually lethal - act. That changed over the weekend when the FBI announced three US citizens - Brian Cannon, 37, Terry Peace, 47, and Cory Williamson, 29, - were sentenced to 12 years in prison for "conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in attacks against federal government agencies. The defendants planned to attack critical infrastructure while motivating militia groups in other states to rise up and join them in removing government officials who they believed had exceeded their Constitutional power."

"It's born classified. If a foreign minister just told the secretary of state something in confidence, by U.S. rules that is classified at the moment it's in U.S. channels and U.S. possession. [To say otherwise is] blowing smoke."

Perhaps the biggest surprise about the overnight Chinese stock rout is which followed the lowest manufacturing PMI since March 2009, is that it happened despite repeat sellside pleas for a PBOC RRR cut as soon as this weekend: usually that alone would have been sufficient to push the market back into the green, and it almost worked when in the afternoon session stocks rebounded after dropping as much as 4.7% below the "hard" floor of 3500, but then a second bout of selling just before the close took Chinese stocks right back to the lows with the Shanghai Composite closing at 3,507, down 4.3% on the day, having wiped out the entire 18% rebound from July 8 when the PBOC first threatened both sellers and shorters with arrest.

"What, with a cloth or something?," Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said earlier this week, in a sarcastic and fairly condescending reply to a reporter who pressed her on whether she had attempted to wipe her private e-mail server clean before turning it over to the FBI. That was the second time in a week that Clinton has attempted to deflect questions about the server with a dark mix of humor and disdain, and it’s backfired both times. Now, the Clinton campaign has admitted that in fact, classified information was stored on the Democratic frontrunner's home e-mail server.