Nomination

For all the drivelly, politically correct platitudes about how a great job is about emotional gratification, self-fulfillment and, of course, benefits such as a matching 401(k) and 2 weeks of paid vacation, the best job is the one where the least amount of effort generates the greatest compensation at the smallest amount of risk. In that case no job will ever match that of Coty CEO Elio Leoni Sceti, or rather non-CEO. Because whereas Sceti was scheduled to become Coty's CEO in about a week, decided not to take the job. The punchline, however, is that despite never actually having set foot in the company's Empire State Building headquarters, or even working one day for his new employer, Coty is contractually bound to pay Leoni Sceti a severance (or is that non-signing bonus) of $1.8 million... for quitting before he even started!

Billionaire real estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump announced Tuesday plans to run in the 2016 presidential election, marking the first time he will formally seek the Republican nomination after floating the idea in several previous election cycles. Here are some key facts to know about Trump...

Hillary Clinton actually supports Barack Obama’s trade-policy, and even supports the way in which he is trying to get it through Congress. However, the news-media didn’t report it that way. Hilary is repeating her earlier tactics, in 2008, when she tried to give the impression that she had opposed her husband Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, though in fact she had earlier bragged about how great it was for the country and claimed it as if it were her own.

The United States Department of Justice is using federal grand jury subpoenas to identify anonymous commenters engaged in typical internet bluster and hyperbole in connection with the Silk Road prosecution. DOJ is targeting Reason.com...

The reason why "investing" in the economy in the form of government spending always, without fail, leads to adverse results and negative returns, is because unlike the private sector, there are neither checks and balances, nor punishment if one fails at their job. Case in point, the much maligned Transportation Security Administration, aka the TSA, best known for groping women and infants at airport checkpoints is about to be even more maligned because according to an exclusive report from ABC, TSA screeners failed ailed to detect mock explosives and weapons in 95% of tests carried out by undercover agents.

The good news: A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the U.S. State Department to produce a schedule for the release of emails that Hillary Clinton sent and received while she was secretary of state, a legal move that could complicate her presidential campaign.

The other news: The State Department is proposing a deadline of January 2016 to complete its review...

You just can't make this up!

We present the likely winner of the next election...

Gen. Wesley Clark has been a busy man since retiring from public service with a plan to make $40 million. In addition to chairing notorious investment bank Rodman & Renshaw, the former NATO allied commander and one-time Presidential hopeful has thrown his face and fame behind a plethora of OTC-listed companies, Bloomberg reports. From grilled cheese sandwich trucks to hydroponic lettuce companies run by the real-life Bud Fox, Clark's name has become so synonymous with doomed penny stocks that one fund manager calls his very appearance on a company board "a red flag."

In the coming months, however many hours Clinton spends introducing herself to voters in small-town America, she will spend hundreds more raising money in four-star hotels and multimillion-dollar homes around the nation. The question is: "Can Clinton claim to stand for 'everyday Americans,' while hauling in huge sums of cash from the very wealthiest of us?" This much cannot be disputed: Clinton's connections to the financiers and bankers of this country - and this country's campaigns - run deep. As Nomi Prins questions, who counts more to such a candidate, the person you met over that chicken burrito bowl or the Citigroup partner you met over crudités and caviar?

“We are anointing an aristocracy that’s getting a stronger and stronger grip on democracy,”

Should Gary Gensler truly be Clinton's chief financial officer, and should Hillary become America's next president, then ladies and gentlemen, in the fine tradition started by Hank Paulson who nearly brought the entire wastern world to ruin, the next US Treasury Secretary will be the following fine former Goldman Sachs employee and "champion for everyday Americans."

• Shale Oil Boom Could End in May After Price Collapse (BBG)
• Oil above $58 on U.S. shale output report, Mideast (Reuters)
• Ackman Says Student Loans Are the Biggest Risk in the Credit Market (BBG)
• Alibaba Disputes U.S. Group’s Claim it Tolerates Fake Goods on Taobao (WSJ)
• Petrobras takes steps to avert a technical default (FT)
• Yen’s Drop Is Approaching Its Limit, Says Abe Adviser Hamada (BBG)
• 'Slicing and dicing': How some U.S. firms could win big in 2016 elections (Reuters)
• Fed official warns ‘flash crash’ could be repeatedv (FT)

The Middle East’s ongoing descent into chaos and China’s impending ascendancy to the status of global superpower are just two of the many threats that the US, European Union and Russia all share.  Each of these issues should certainly occupy a higher position on their respective agendas than the breakup of Ukraine or the insolvency of Greece.  Leaders of all three governments would be well-advised to set aside their differences, or at least to prevent those differences from obstructing cooperation on more important issues.  Unlike its predecessor, the Second Cold War will not be bilateral.  Today’s world is far more chaotic, kinetic and dangerous than it was fifty years ago.

For those who follow the endless soap opera of domestic politics, the biggest storyo  the weekend, if so far unsubstantiated, is the Post's report that the person behind Hillary Clinton's shocking e-mail story leak, is none other than Obama's personal advisor, Valeire Jarrett. "Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett leaked to the press details of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state."