Mexico

Following the massacre of 43 students who were allegedly abducted by corrupt police in southwestern Mexico in September, violent anti-establishment protests have broken out across the nation. As Reuters reports, demonstrators set fire to the door of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's ceremonial palace in Mexico City as the Mexican people are angered at Nieto's visit to China (at a time when he should, in their eyes, be focused on domestic issues). The violence has been condemned, "You can't demand justice while acting with violence," said Nieto but it seems the people's restlessness is growing - not helped by the cancellation of a high-speed rail contract last week as opposition lawmakers accused the government of rigging the bidding.

We often hear that if there is not enough oil at a given price, the situation will lead to substitution or to demand destruction. Because of the networked nature of the economy, this demand destruction comes about in a different way than most economists expect–it comes from fewer people having jobs with good wages. With lower wages, it also comes from less debt being available. We end up with a disparity between what consumers can afford to pay for oil, and the amount that it costs to extract the oil. This is the problem we are facing today, and it is a very difficult issue.

“A Luxembourg structure is a way of stripping income from whatever country it comes from,’’ said Stephen E. Shay, a professor of international taxation at Harvard Law School and a former tax official in the U.S. Treasury Department. The Grand Duchy, he said, “combines enormous flexibility to set up tax reduction schemes, along with binding tax rulings that are unique. It’s like a magical fairyland.”

• Republicans expect gains, but many races close on election day (Reuters)
• Ahead of tough election, White House blames dismay with Washington (Reuters)
• On Election Day, a Tale of the Young and the Old (WSJ)
• Because the recovery: Sprint to Cut 2,000 Jobs as Mobile Customers Keep Leaving (BBG)
• Ukraine's rebel leader is sworn in, crisis deepens (Reuters)
• Brilliant: Burkina Faso Army Promises Religious Leaders It Will Step Down (BBG)
• More Unknowns Leave Central Banks Facing Greater Internal Strife (BBG)
• Scapegoat found: IBM to Change Leadership at Global Services Unit (WSJ)
• Explains why Europe just slashed its GDP forecast: Don’t Be Fooled by Warm Spell as Cold Air About to Return (BBG)

The Petrodollar, long serving as the US leverage to encourage and facilitate USD recycling, and a steady reinvestment in US-denominated assets by the Oil exporting nations, and thus a means to steadily increase the nominal price of all USD-priced assets, just drove itself into irrelevance. A consequence of this year's dramatic drop in oil prices, the shift is likely to cause global market liquidity to fall.  This decline follows years of windfalls for oil exporters such as Russia, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Much of that money found its way into financial markets, helping to boost asset prices and keep the cost of borrowing down, through so-called petrodollar recycling. But no more: "this year the oil producers will effectively import capital amounting to $7.6 billion.

• Futures rally after BOJ ramps up stimulus (Reuters), Japan's central bank shocks markets with more easing as inflation slows (Reuters)
• Kuroda Jolts Markets With Assault on Deflation Mindset (BBG)
• Japan Mega-Pension Shifts to Stocks (WSJ)
• Russia Raises Interest Rates (WSJ)
• Oil-Price Drop Has Saudi Officials Divided (WSJ)
• Not anymore, the BOJ is here: Fed Exit Could Spark Slump in All Markets, ATP CEO Says (BBG)
• Wal-Mart Weighs Matching Online Prices from Amazon (WSJ)
• Euro-Area Inflation Picks Up From Five-Year Low on Stimulus (BBG)
• Big Banks Brace for Penalties in Probes  (WSJ)
• Ex-UBS Trader Defense Could Be Threat to U.S. Forex Cases (BBG)

Ever since the April 2010 disaster on the BP-operated Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, there was one big outstanding question: where did the bulk of the oil gol? Now, thanks to a research team led by David Valentine, a microbial geochemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sampled more than 534 locations near the spill site, gathering more than 3,000 individual samples, we know the answer: the oil spill - some 10 million gallons of coagulated oil - left an oily "bathub ring" on the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico, about 25 miles from the well, that's about the size of Rhode Island.

A summary of the key things on traders' minds this morning, as reported by Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank

• CDC says returning Ebola medical workers should not be quarantined (Reuters)
• Sweden’s central bank cuts rates to zero (FT)
• Hacking Trail Leads to Russia, Experts Say (WSJ)
• Discount-Hunting Shoppers Threaten Stores’ Holiday Cheer (BBG)
• Apple CEO fires back as retailers block Pay (Reuters)
• Repeat after us: all China data is fake - China Fake Invoice Evidence Mounts as HK Figures Diverge (BBG)
• FX Traders’ Facebook Chats Said to Be Sought in EU Probe (BBG)
• Euro Outflows at Record Pace as ECB Promotes Exodus (BBG)
• Apple boosts R&D spending in new product hunt (FT)

• White House questions new Ebola rules, nurse plans to sue (Reuters)
• States stand firm on Ebola quarantines despite White House pressure (Reuters)
• Rousseff Naming Brazil Finance Minister Key to Regain Trust (BBG)
• Ukraine leader wins pro-West mandate but wary of Russia (Reuters)
• Single Firm Holds More Than 50% of Copper in LME Warehouses (WSJ)
• Treasury Liquidity Squeeze Seen as Dealer Shut Off Machine (BBG)
• CVS follows Rite-Aid, shuts off Apple Pay (USAToday)
• Oil Speculators Bet Wrong as Rebound Proves Fleeting (BBG)
• Draghi Sets Stimulus Pace as ECB Reveals Covered-Bond Purchases (BBG)
• German Ifo Business Confidence Drops for Sixth Month (BBG)

• Doctor with Ebola in New York hospital after return from Guinea (Reuters)
• Ebola Puts Spotlight on Bellevue, Key NYC Trauma Center (WSJ)
• Uber Driver Transported Ebola-Positive Doctor in New York (BBG)
• GOP Gains in Key Senate Races as Gender Gap Narrows (WSJ)
• ECB Tries for Third Time Lucky in European Stress Tests (BBG)
• Security tight in Canada as police probe Parliament gunman's ties (Reuters)
• Why Madrid's poor fear Goldman Sachs and Blackstone (Reuters)
• Fed’s $4 Trillion Holdings Keep Boosting Growth Beyond End of QE (BBG)

The common people are the cattle being led to slaughter. We are kept docile with incessant propaganda from the mainstream media; marketing messages to consume from Madison Avenue; filtered, adjusted, manipulated economic data fed to us by government agencies; an endless supply of iGadgets and other electronic distractions; government education designed to keep us ignorant; 24/7 reality TV on six hundred stations to keep us entertained; corporate toxic processed food to keep us obese and tame; and an endless supply of Wall Street supplied debt to keep us caged in our pens with no hope of escape. The butchers of the deep state have maintained control for decades, but we’re entering a new era.

In a tumultuous week for Ebola updates (which are only set to get worse with flu season about to unfold, and where every sneeze and fever will be interpreted as an early symptom of the deadly disease, likely choking hospitals and ERs around the nation), Friday brought us one of the more disturbing updates when it was revealed that an Ebola-handling healthcare worker had decided to break the "self-watch" protocol and had gone on a Caranival cruise in the Caribbean. Fast forward to this morning, when after what one assumes was a negative blood test, the Carnival Magic ship carrying the suspect, was cleared to return to port in Galveston, TX this morning. As AP reports, "The unidentified woman who is being monitored disembarked the Carnival Magic with her husband shortly after the ship returned to Galveston, Texas, about 6 a.m. EDT, said Vicky Rey, vice president of guest care for Carnival Cruise Lines. Rey said the couple drove themselves home, but offered no further details.

The level of micro-management by the Fed appears to have reached a new shockingly high plateau. Recently prices have been driven more by liquidity, fear, greed, and Fed policy, than by valuation.  It is time that the Fed stops being a source of interference and confusion. There are also two less obvious or less discussed economic reasons why the Obama administration may be urgently focusing more on the Ebola crises.