Turkey

Much of the political thinking about violence in the United States comes from unfavorable comparisons between the United States and a series of cherry-picked countries with lower murder rates and with fewer guns per capita. This is, in turn, supposed to fill Americans with a sense of shame and illustrate that the United States should be regarded as some sort of pariah nation because of its murder rate. However, politically, historically, and demographically, the US has little in common with these nations.

“Adulterous women will be stoned; thieves will have their hands chopped off!" 

Iranian forces backed by Russian air power have officially begun the assault on Syria's largest city. A victory at Aleppo would effectively restore the Assad government just weeks after Moscow began bombing runs from Latakia. As Reuters notes, "the assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria's main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by Islamic State."

The European Commission will release €2 billion to Greece in the coming days to help the country manage the current migration crisis, a top Commission source told MNI Friday, but as German daily Wirtschaftswoche reports, the German Government is considering 'helping' Greece more financially – but only if Athens is more involved in the refugee crisis.

In the absence of any key economic developments in the Asian trading session, Asian stocks traded mostly under the influence of the late, pre-opex US ramp momentum courtesy of another day of ugly economic data in the US (bad econ news is good news for liquidity addicts), closing solidly in the green across the board, led by China (+1.6%) and Japan (+1.1%) thanks in no small part to the latest tumble in the Yen carry trade, which mirrored a bout of USD overnight weakness. And since a major part of the risk on move yesterday was due to Ewald Nowotny's comments welcoming more QE, news from Eurostat that Eurozone CPI in September dropped -0.1% confirming Europe's deflation continues, should only be greeted with even more buying as it suggests further easing by the ECB is inevitable.

"In many ways, EM is showing similar symptoms to its DM counterparts of weak economic performance and over- reliance on credit. The outcome is what we call the three EM debacles: de-leveraging, depreciation (or devaluation even de-pegging) and downgrades of credit ratings."

The reason these articles are so important, is not because they are based on intel leaked by an additional whistleblower (i.e., not Snowden), but because you can’t read the information without concluding quite simply that the U.S. empire is completely and totally out of control. That the plethora of American military adventures overseas are not only not making us safer, but are in fact making us far more vulnerable.

"As allied countries wouldn’t tolerate arms shipments to groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, Turkey definitely can’t accept weapons aid to groups linked to PKK."

"The big battle preparations in that area are clear. There is a large mobilization of the Syrian army ... elite Hezbollah fighters, and thousands of Iranians who arrived in stages in recent days."

The stage is being set for World War III, but most Americans are completely and totally oblivious to all of this because they are so wrapped up in their own little worlds. Most Americans still seem to assume that the Russians and the Chinese are our "friends" and that any type of conflict between major global powers is impossible. Well, the truth is that conflict has already begun in Ukraine and Syria, and tensions are rising with each passing day. It won’t happen next week or next month, but we are on the road to World War III.

After several purported incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian fighter jets, Ankara is "irate" at Moscow and now, tensions over Syria threaten to undermine the two countries' energy relationship. Thus, the Nord Stream line to Germany - the capacity of which is set to double - has now become more important than ever for Gazprom. 

Some things you CAN see coming, in life and certainly in finance. Quite a few things, actually. Once you understand we’re on a long term downward path, also both in life and in finance, and you’re not exclusively looking at short term gains, it all sort of falls into place. Of course, the entire global economy has been hanging together with strands of duct tape for decades now, but hey, it looks good as long as you don’t take a peek behind the facade, right?

So what's left in the toolbag of central banks and states to stimulate recessionary economies if QE has been discredited? The answer: Helicopter Money.