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At the risk of sounding like a broken record we'd like to say a bit more about economists' tendency to get their monetary history wrong; in particular, the common myths about the gold standard. If there's one monetary history topic that tends to get handled especially sloppily by monetary economists, not to mention other sorts, this is it. Sure, the gold standard was hardly perfect, and gold bugs themselves sometimes make silly claims about their favorite former monetary standard. But these things don't excuse the errors many economists commit in their eagerness to find fault with that "barbarous relic." The point, in other words, isn't to make a pitch for gold.  It's to make a pitch for something - anything - that's better than our present, lousy money.

Newly disclosed NSA files expose the spy agency's relationship through the years with American telecoms companies. As NYTimes reports, The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. The documents, provided by the former agency contractor Edward Snowden, described the NSA-AT&T relationship as "highly collaborative," while another lauded the company’s "extreme willingness to help."

In case last week’s deadly chemical explosion in the Chinese port of Tianjin wasn’t enough to satisfy your thirst for black swan-ish disasters that could serve to accelerate the ongoing global currency wars, Japan is now warning that Sakurajima, one of the country’s most active volcanos which sits just 50 kilometers from a recently restarted nuclear reactor, is poised for a "larger than usual" eruption.

It appears efforts to form a coalition has failed as local nes report both the AKP and CHP will make separate statements from their party HQs.

A week before The EPA disastrously leaked millions of gallons of toxic waste into The Animas River in Colorado, this letter to the editor was published in The Silverton Standard & The Miner local newspaper, authored by a retired geologist detailing verbatim, how EPA would foul the Animas River on purpose in order to secure superfund money...

Hillary Clinton, bowing to pressure from GOP lawmakers, has turned over her private e-mail server to the FBI. Meanwhile, Democratic voters look to be turning on the former First Lady as a new poll has Bernie Sanders surging ahead in New Hampshire.

• China central bank under pressure to weaken yuan further (Reuters)
• Currency Rout Goes Global as Jen Sees Risk of 50% Loss on China (BBG)
• Europe Stocks Fall Most in Two Weeks as China Sparks Growth Fear (BBG)
• German Yields Drop to Record as China Boosts Bonds Around World (BBG)
• FT to Japan, Economist to Italy: Agnelli Family Raises Stake in Economist as Pearson Exits (BBG)
• Goldman Sachs to Give Out ‘Secret Sauce’ on Trading (WSJ)
• Greece's Preliminary Bailout Deal Faces German Turbulence (BBG)

With the economy imploding, currency collapsing, and credit risk soaring, it is perhaps no surprise that just under a year since she was re-elected, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is now Brazil's most unpopular democratically elected president since a military dictatorship ended in 1985, with an approval rating of just 8%. In a recent poll, 71% said they disapprove of the way Rousseff is doing her job... and two-thirds would like to see her impeached.

Things are getting downright scary in emerging markets as a "triple unwind" in credit, Chinese leverage, and loose US monetary policy wreaks havoc across the space. Between a prolonged slump in commodity prices and a structural shift towards weaker global trade, the situation could worsen materially going forward.

"The United States is on the brink of making another grave mistake under the name of protecting cyber security... If it stubbornly implements retaliatory measures against China in cyber space, it will be known for being a cyber bully and will have to shoulder responsibility for escalating confrontation and disrupting the peaceful order in the cyber space."

For years now China has been heralded as an economic miracle that will drive the global economy towards growth and eventually eclipse the US as THE superpower in the world.

• Deadline Draws Near for Puerto Rico (WSJ)
• U.S. to defend Syrian rebels with airpower, including from Assad (Reuters)
• Alpha Natural Resources to Seek Chapter 11 (WSJ)
• Iran’s Rouhani Says Nuclear Deal ‘More Than What Was Imagined’ (BBG)
• Cables Show Hillary Clinton's State Department Deeply Involved in Trans-Pacific Partnership (IBTimes)
• Win or Lose, U.S. Stocks Get Biggest Earnings Bang Since ’12 (BBG)
• Weaker China factories argue for more policy support as stocks swoon (Reuters)

We have argued that it is a perilous myth that central bankers these days control a general price level. They instead incentivize massive financial flows into securities markets and fashionable sectors. Over time, ramifications and consequences reach the profound. For one, excess liquidity promotes over/mal-investment. It’s only the scope and nature that remain in question. If major Bubble flows inundate new technology investment, the resulting surge in the supply of high-margin products engenders disinflationary pressures elsewhere. Policy responses to perceived heightened “deflation” risks then only work to exacerbate Bubbles, mounting imbalances and structural fragilities. This was a critical facet of “Roaring Twenties” analysis that was lost in time.