New Orleans

• Virginia TV journalists killed by suspect with 'powder keg' of anger (Reuters)
• Policeman shot to death and three women stabbed, one fatally, in Louisiana (Reuters)
• China Intervened Today to Shore Up Stocks Ahead of Military Parade (Reuters)
• Margin Calls Bite Investors, Banks (WSJ)
• "Computer glitch" is preventing dozens of mutual funds, ETFs from promptly pricing their securities (WSJ)
• Oil prices rise more than 4 percent as equities rally (Reuters)
• Oil Industry Needs Half a Trillion Dollars to Endure Price Slump (BBG)

Donald Trump is holding a campaign rally at a football stadium. Enough said.

Don’t let anyone tell you that crime is going down in America.  All over the United States, rates of violent crime in our major cities are increasing by double digit percentages.  Murders are way up, shootings are way up and rapes are way up.  So what is behind this sudden spike in crime?  In Baltimore, authorities are pointing to the racial tensions that were stirred up by the riots that erupted in protest to the death of Freddie Gray.  But what about the rest of the country?  From coast to coast, we are witnessing a dramatic increase in violent crime, and the economy is not even crashing yet.  So what is going to happen when the next great economic crisis hits us, unemployment skyrockets, and people really start hurting?

There's Always Been Some Corruption in the U.S. ... But Never Like THIS

Ever wondered what life would be like if a country actually disappeared off the face of the planet or at least transformed into something else?

The “inconsequential” war certainly and drastically changed America, of that there is no doubt. Whether for the good, or bad, you’ll have to decide for yourself. On the positive side, the war did cement American independence. It proved that to defeat America on its home ground, a very, very large army, and a great commitment to prolonged and bloody war, was going to be needed. On the negative side; the war left the country with constitutional revisionism, centralized power, protectionism, mercantilism, expansionism, blind patriotism, and militarism. That decentralist small-government thingy conceived by the Founding Fathers didn’t last very long, did it? One must wonder “War, what is it good for? Was it all worth it?”

Obama-style immigration reform could be dead in the water as the DoJ's decision not to seek a Supreme Court end-around on the President's stalled executive order presents a number of possibly insurmountable problems.

On the heels of a tough Senate fight that initially saw Democrats oppose granting fast-track authority on trade deals, President Obama was just dealt a fresh blow related to what some say is another example of Presidential overreach after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that an executive order on immigration designed to prevent the deportation of undocumented immigrants will remain on hold.

As the years have passed without Washington hearing, Russia and China have finally realized that their choice is vassalage or war. Had there been any intelligent, qualified people in the National Security Council, the State Department, or the Pentagon, Washington would have been warned away from the neocon policy of sowing distrust. But with only neocon hubris present in the government, Washington made the mistake that could be fateful for humanity.

"Sustainability is so 2007. Those were the heady days before the Global Financial Crisis, before the failed Copenhagen Climate Summit, before the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)... the list continues. Since 2008, informed conversations on the economy, the environment, and energy have shifted from ‘sustainability’ to ‘resilience’. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this shift, but I’ll focus on just two: undeniable trends and a loss of faith. Let me explain."

"Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, a result of both plunging oil-tax revenue and the state’s failure to enact adequate tax increases or spending cuts after the economic downturn in 2009. The latest plans would mean an 82 percent cut to the state’s public colleges and universities."

What’s so shocking about the story below is not that a 20-year veteran of the Houston police force, who was previously named one of the “Officers of the Year” by the Officers Union, was trafficking weapons for drug cartels. What’s shocking is that he was actually indicted and faces life in prison. He should’ve worked for a federal agency like the DEA or TSA, in which case he might not have even been fired.

Saudi Arabia is not trying to crush U.S. shale plays. Its oil-price war is with the investment banks and the stupid money they directed to fund the plays. It is also with the zero-interest rate economic conditions that made this possible. Saudi Arabia intends to keep oil prices low for as long as possible.

Wiping out creditors by inflation is the easy part. Re-establishing money to restart the world economy is the harder one.

Greenspan believes that in five years gold will be “measurably higher” than current levels because of the excess liquidity that will eventually be released into the open market. Such an event will undoubtedly lead to riots across America as the general public, woefully unprepared for rapidly rising prices when the pin finally pops the dollar bubble, loses access to affordable critical supplies like food, gas and other resources. The collapse of the dollar, an inevitability suggested by Alan Greenspan, will be a game changer that results in the quadrupling of the cost of living for the average American.