France

"Sometimes, when the government tells you to do something, it’s best to do the opposite." When do you need a stash of cash? When the feds try to outlaw it. Hold some dollars. And some gold. But,what good will cash be after it is declared illegal, we hear you ask? We’re not sure. Maybe we’ve spent too much time in Argentina, where people have more supple and more subtle attitudes to monetary regulations. Trading pesos for dollars, on the black market, is illegal. Do it and they take you for a scofflaw. Don’t do it and they take you for a fool.

Presented with little comment aside to ask if someone is off-script?

NOONAN: THE CRISIS HAS COMMENCED
SCHAEUBLE SAYS `HELLISH DIFFICULT TASK' ON GREECE
NOONAN: I HAVE SYMPATHY FOR THE GREEK PEOPLE

But always remember, "Greece doesn't matter," which as Mohamed El-Erian explains, is somewhat true, since European leaders have two other existential issues to contend with also...

One of America's most notorious bank robbers, Willie Sutton (1901-80), is said to have remarked that he robbed banks "because that's where the money is." In a strange twist, the banks themselves are now beginning literally to rob their own customers.

Greek PM Tsipras just delivered the biggest Friday night bomb in recent European history: he stunned the Troika and his peers in Europe with the biggest shocker of all - a referendum announcement, aka the Greek "nuclear option", something which cost his predecessor George Papandreou his job. At this point there is no turning back, and the Greeks - of which 80% want to stay in the Euro even as 80% want an end to austerity - will get to choose their own fate. Whatever choice they make, they will now only have only themselves to blame.

As the Muslim world reflected during the height of Friday's Ramadan prayers, ISIS was busy.

GREECE’S CREDITORS PROPOSE EU15.5B TIED TO AID DEAL: OFFICIAL

• Chinese Stock Plunge Leaves State Media Speechless (BBG)
• China’s Market Selloff Accelerates (WSJ)
• Any Deal on New Greek Bailout Funds Put Off Until Weekend (WSJ)
• ECB keeps ELA funding limit for Greece unchanged for third day in a row (Reuters)
• Impoverished Greek City Stands With Alexis Tsipras (WSJ)
• Why It Won’t Be a Default If Greece Misses IMF Payment Next Week (BBG)
• Valeant Makes Takeover Approach to Zoetis (WSJ) - or how Ackman assures himself another good T+3 quarter
• Obamacare ruling puts Supreme Court on hot seat in U.S. presidential race (Reuters)

Six months after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead in Paris, France was hit by what officials are calling a terrorist attack on Friday. According to multiple reports, two men drove a car into the entrance of an Air Products factory in southeastern France triggering multiple explosions. A decapitated head covered in Arabic writing was pinned to the factory’s gate.

With levels of investors complacency at extremely high levels, it is a currently "fact" that little can go wrong. There is no recession in sight; the earnings decline was all primarily related to energy companies and most importantly, global Central Banks are continuing to support the financial markets. Of course, maybe it is the last point that should be questioned. If the economy is doing so well, then why are Central Banks still needing to intervene to support the growth? This is equivalent of saying the "the patient is cured, as long as we don't take him off of life support."

GERMANY'S MERKEL TOLD EU PARTY LEADERS THERE MUST BE DEAL ON GREECE BEFORE MARKETS OPEN ON MONDAY -PARTICIPANTS

There has been some confusion why Germany and the Eurozone are so strict in negotiating with France and unwilling to concede even to the smallest of what they deem as outlandish Greek demands. The reason is not so much whether Spain or even Italy, both countries with soaring unemployment, a lost generation and a sweeping movement against "austerity", follow with comparable demands should Europe concede to Tsipras, but France, where the frontrunner for the next president, the National Front's Marine Le Pen, has just warned that not only is a Grexit inevitable, but that France would follow shortly.

Chaos reigns, with contradictory headlines pushing and pulling futures in any one direction, only for the next headline to undo the previous one. And only headline scanning frontrunning algos have any chance of trading any of this...

Needless to say, not everyone is particularly enamored with US foreign policy under the Obama administration...

We have argued that as economic ties between China and Russia deepen Beijing could increasingly look to Moscow to meet China’s energy needs. This would of course only serve to further de-dollarize the global energy trade, dealing yet another blow to the petrodollar system. Sure enough, Russia has, for the first time in history, overtaken Saudi Arabia as China’s top oil supplier.

Angry and embarrassed, France summoned the U.S. ambassador Wednesday to respond to the revelations by WikiLeaks that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on three successive French presidents and other top officials. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the U.S. must do everything it can, and quickly, to "repair the damage" to U.S.-French relations from the revelations, which he called "a very serious violation of the spirit of trust" between the allies. "If the fact of the revelations today does not constitute a real surprise for anyone, that in no way lessens the emotion and the anger. They are legitimate. France will not tolerate any action threatening its security and fundamental interests."