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Every quarter ConvergEx's Nick Colas reviews a raft of unusual and less examined datasets with an eye to refining and adding perspective to the more traditional macroeconomic analyses. This quarter’s assessment of everything from large pickup truck and firearms sales to Google search autofills for “I want to buy/sell” shows a U.S. economy that is reasonably strong but growing only very slowly. The chief areas of concern: Food Stamp participation is still very high at 45.6 million Americans (14% of the total population) and indicators like used car prices and large pickup sales are flat.

We are watching the total collapse of Democracy and the birth of a new era – Economic Totalitarianism from Arrogant people who are totally clueless beyond their own greed for power and money.

After 28 consecutive weeks rig counts declines in America - despite crude production levels hitting new cycle record highs - Baker Hughes reports Total Rig Count increased 2 to 859 this week. The oil rig count dropped 3 to 628. Crude's price reaction is negligible.

"China, the world’s largest car market by sales, has been the main engine of profitability for the likes of BMW, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz car division and Audi in recent years, helping paper over structural weakness in Europe. But according to one Chinese dealer representative: “the cash cow is dying”.

• Greek central bank issues 'Grexit' warning if aid talks fail (Reuters)
• Kerry says 'patience wearing thin' on Syria's Assad (Reuters)
• Juncker accuses Athens of misleading Greek people (FT)
• Al Qaeda kills two Saudis accused of spying for America (Reuters)
• Hedge-Fund Bet Hits Pensions (WSJ)
• ‘Flash Crash’ Trader Navinder Sarao Worked With Fund Network Now Under Investigation (WSJ)
• 'Me? Rich?' U.S. presidential hopefuls play middle-class card (Reuters)
• You’ve Been Warned: Central Bankers Turning Less Market-Friendly (BBG)

U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed ‘Trade’ deals are actually about whether the world is heading toward a dictatorial world government - a dictatorship by the hundred or so global super-rich who hold the controlling blocks of stock in the world’s largest international corporations - or else toward a democratic world government - which will be a global federation of free and independent states, much like the United States was at its founding, but global in extent. These are two opposite visions of world government; and Obama is clearly on the side of fascism, an international mega-corporate dictatorship... What’s at stake here is nothing less than whether the future of the United States, and perhaps even of the world, will be democracy, or else fascism.

During the last 27 years the financial system has ballooned dramatically while the US economy has slowed to a crawl - a divergent trend that has intensified with the passage of time. While the rationale for monetary central planning is bogus, the model on which state intervention is based is even more invalid.

There have been a steady stream of articles championing the ingenuity of U.S. tight oil producers for figuring out how to maintain production with fewer rigs. It doesn’t strike me as ingenious to produce more oil at low prices that ensure losing money. OPEC will meet on Friday (June 5, 2015) and most doubt that a production cut will result. If that is the outcome, expect the recent rally in oil prices to end badly.

Will a robot steal your job? It turns out that the answer depends on the prevailing macroeconomic conditions much more than people think.

• No change in Greek debt talks after another day of spin (Reuters)
• G-7 Weighs In on Greece as Government Told to Be Serious (BBG)
• FIFA Faces Mounting Pressure From Sponsors as Visa Threatens to End Deal (WSJ)
• U.S. hopes Chinese island-building will spur Asian response (Reuters)
• Japan Inc.’s $104 Billion Investor Payout Set to Surge (BBG)
• Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine (Reuters)
• China Says Its Most-Wanted Fugitive Is in U.S. Custody (BBG)

The emperor has no clothes: there are markets (finance included) screaming out for disruption!

If millions of young Americans don't start earning more money, they can't afford to have children, or take care of them properly, and that is the end of us as a nation.

• FIFA Raided by Swiss Authorities in 2018, 2022 World Cup Probe (BBG)
• Companies Send More Cash Back to Shareholders (WSJ)
• Time Warner Cable Deal Stirs Debt Concerns (WSJ)
• Qatar $200 Billion World Cup Under More Scrutiny Amid FIFA Probe (BBG)
• Philippine, Vietnamese troops play soccer and sing on disputed island (Reuters)
• The G-7's Problem: Can the World Deal With a Greek Default? (BBG)
• SocGen Deal for Bache Illustrates Commodity-Trading Woe (WSJ)
• China’s Naval Abilities Test Asia’s Insecurities (WSJ)

Storage withdrawals and falling rig count have been the main sources of hope that U.S. tight oil production will fall and that oil prices will rebound. That hope is fading as it is now clear that recent withdrawals from U.S. crude oil storage are because of price, not falling supply, and that the drop in rig count has stalled. Present data, however, suggests that the global over-supply has gotten worse, not better, that overall demand for liquids remains weak, and the world economic outlook is discouraging. At the same time, market movements are not always based on fundamentals. In the long run, however, fundamentals rule suggesting the current price surge is at best premature.