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The Muslim population of Britain surpassed 3.5 million in 2015 to become around 5.5% of the overall population of 64 million. In real terms, Britain has the third-largest Muslim population in the European Union, after France, then Germany. Islam and Islam-related issues were omnipresent in Britain during 2015, and can be categorized into five broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the security implications of British jihadists in Syria and Iraq; 2) the continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain; 3) the sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; 4) Muslim integration into British society; and 5) the failures of British multiculturalism.

It has come down to this: a year in which the US stock market (led by a handful of shares even as the vast majority of stocks has dropped) has gone nowhere, but took the longest and most volatile path to get there, is about to close either red or green for 2015 based on what happens in today's low-volume session following yesterday's unexpected last half hour of trading "air pocket" which brought the S&P back to unchanged for the year.

The last two years rents have been rising primarily due to supply and demand issues.

Thus ends KaloBios' "turnaround in progress" - two months after it was dragged out of bankruptcy by Martin Shkreli in an attempt to crush the company's shorts and unleash a massive squeeze, Kalobios is again, well, bankrupt.

• Oil rebound fizzles, sending global shares lower (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabia Won’t Change Oil Production (WSJ)
• China suspends forex business for some foreign banks (Reuters)
• Republicans come up short in search for diverse voters in 2016 election (Reuters)
• Oil Prices Become a Problem for U.S. Steelmakers (BBG)
• Oil-Producing States Battered as Tax-Gushing Wells Are Shut Down (BBG)

According to eKathimerini, Greek and Turkish jets just got into a dogfight over the Aegean Sea on Tuesday when Ankara's warplanes violated Greek airspace nine times. Two of the Turkish planes "were armed." 

I bet OPEC never factored into their analysis the lifting of the US Oil Exporting Ban in 2015 after being a non-starter for so many decades.

In a bid to shore up its finances in the face of self-inflicted oil wounds, Saudi Arabia is shaking up the welfare state by raising prices on everything from domestic fuel to water. Apparently, persisting in the war of attrition against the US shale complex is paramount - even if it means making life harder for everyday Saudis so the monarchy can buy itself some budget breathing room.

Imagine if Casinos told you in advance what the next card from the deck in a game of Blackjack was going to be?

More and more countries are jumping on the gold bandwagon...

“If you're not willing to change policy ... or you're not willing to change your goals, then what you do is you reorganize the deck chairs on the Titanic."

"There is a legitimate criticism of what I've been doing and our administration has been doing in the sense that we haven't, you know, on a regular basis I think described all the work that we've been doing for more than a year now to defeat ISIL."

Ten days ago, Delta CEO Richard Anderson sent shockwaves through the aviation industry when he announced he had just purchased a used Boeing 777 for the paltry price of $7.7 million. Here is the punchline: Boeing’s list price for a new 777-200ER is $277.3 million, meaning Delta is buying a used 777 at a price 97.2% lower than the value of a new 777.

"I've got Star Wars on Sunday, maybe later"...

Recently, former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told Charlie Rose on PBS that the reason the US had never actually gone after the lifeblood of the ISIS regime, its oil supply chain, infrastructure and products, was because "we didn’t want to do environmental damage, and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure." Luckily as the clip below shows, the Russian military has no such qualms.