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For the first time since October 2010, VIX has fallen for 10 straight days (crashing from over 28 to under 17). The collapse in the 'fear' index has also broken it back below its 200-day moving-average for the first time since breaking above on August 19th.

It appears Chinese authorities want to be the monopoly manipulator of their stock markets. Just a week after BlackRock suggested (and Hillary spewed) plans for transaction taxes in US markets to effectively kill high-frequency-trading (and all its ills), China's Securities Regulator Commission (CSRC) has proposed limiting the use of automated trading programs in the stock market. Of course, just as we saw last nght in China futures, we assume CSRC only wants to ban "selling" algos and not "spoofers" pushing stocks higher.

We have exasperated ourselves on the subject to a manipulated mass of deafened sycophants. Just because the veil is lifted doesn’t mean anyone will look. So we will leave you with strictly the facts...According to state-run Makkah Newspaper in Saudi Arabia, the wealthy Gulf-nation is threatening its citizens with the death penalty for spreading rumors about the government on social media.

The Fed needs to extricate itself from manipulating the financial markets. It needs to end backstopping market liquidity. It must never again print Trillions of new “money” out of thin air. Because so long as the marketplace perceives that the markets are "too big to fail", there will be speculative excess, major securities markets mispricings and Bubble fragilities. No one – average investor or sophisticated financial operator – has a clue as to the degree Fed policies have distorted asset prices.

Get used to the fact that the Fed won't act...

The very foundation of the free Internet is under severe threat from copyright laws that could ban independent media outlets, according to Matt Drudge. "I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me,” said Drudge, warning web users that they were being pushed "pawn-like" into the cyber "ghettos" of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

250,000 Germans marched in Berlin today in protest against the planned "free trade" deal between Europe and the United States which they say is anti-democratic and will lower food safety, labor and environmental standards.  "This is the biggest protest that this country has seen for many, many years," Christoph Bautz, director of citizens' movement Campact told protesters in a speech.

Earlier today, around 10am local time, Turkey’s capital Ankara, was rocked by two blasts which according to NBC killed over 52 demonstrators, who had gathered for a peace march, as the country grapples with mounting security threats just three weeks before snap elections. The explosions also wounded more than 120 people, the Turkish Interior Ministry said. The cause of the blasts was unclear, the ministry said, adding that it had launched an investigation.

The following is extraordinarily creepy and disturbing. It’s also extremely clever, from a jackbooted, fascist thug perspective. When massive censorship itself isn’t enough...

It appears there is a minimum wage threshold below President Obama's mandated thresholds that are "fair" and "livable." As NYPost reports, Urban Outfitters has asked workers at the company’s home office to "volunteer" for extra weekend shifts at a new fulfillment center in the town of Gap, Pennsylvania. In other words, the true minimum wage is $0 per hour. Bear in mind that if the labor market were growing as it should, in sharp contrast to how it has been presented over the past year, minimum wage laws would be the furthest from the mainstream.

• Global stocks eye biggest rally in four years on Fed relief (Reuters)
• FOMC Minutes Sap Confidence in Fed's 2015 Rate Hike Resolve (BBG)
• Glencore to cut annual zinc production by a third (FT)
• Tea Party wave that lifted Republicans threatens to engulf them (Reuters)
• Why Kevin McCarthy Came to Quit Speaker Race (WSJ)
• A U.S. Recession Just Got a Little More Likely (BBG)

Just two weeks after House speaker John Boehner dramatically announced his premature resignation without cause from his position seemingly in an attempt to difuse the tension within the GOP, there has been another just as dramatic development when moments ago we learned that Boehner's chosen successor Kevin McCarthy has withdrawn his candidacy for the speaker position: "While I am grateful for the encouragement I’ve received, I will not be a candidate." This puts in jeopardy not only any future negotiations over US government funding when the continuing resolution expires in mid-December but more importantly puts into question what happens with the US debt ceiling when the US government runs out of emergency measures some time in early November as Jack Lew has warned is the deadline for getting a deal struck.

It was supposed to be the day China's triumphantly returned to the markets from its Golden Holiday week off, and with global stocks soaring over 5% in the past 7 days, hopes were that the Shanghai Composite would close at least that much higher and then some, especially with the "National Team" cheerleading on the side and arresting any sellers. Sure enough, in early trading Chinese futures did seem willing to go with the script, and then everything fell apart when a weak Shanghai Composite open tried to stage a feeble rebound into mid-session, and then closed near the day lows even as the PBOC injected another CNY120 bn via reverse repo earlier.

• Endangering national security, leaking state secrets, subverting the government, and undermining national unity;
• Inciting ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination, and undermining national unity;
• Spreading rumor, disturbing social orders, undermining social stability;
• Spreading obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, terrorism or instigating others to commit crimes;
• Insulting or slandering others, infringing upon the legal rights and interest of others;

"This morning from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke by telephone with Doctors Without Borders International President Dr. Joanne Liu, to apologize and express his condolences for the MSF staff and patients who were killed and injured when a US military airstrike mistakenly struck an MSF field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan over the weekend," Earnest said in the White House briefing.