B+

There are effectively no tools left for governments and central banks to deal with another major crisis. Like Paris in 1940, they have no Plan B. They’re completely defenseless to support the financial system or the currency in the event of a major shock. We should all take a moment to appreciate this level of incompetence. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes decades of “blunder and neglect” to engineer financial vulnerability on this scale. But they’ve somehow managed to pull it off.

Nobody can deny that the chances of war are increasing in the world.

Net of the latest ELA increase, when adding some €38 billion in collateralized EFSF bonds and other collateral usage, we find that we have not only reached parity but crossed it: as of this moment Greek deposits, which are generously estimated at €120 billion but in reality are lower, are less than the total ECB claims on Greek banks and the Bank of Greece, amounting to €126 billion. And with that the possibility of a Greek bail-in which could amount to up to 100% of total Greek deposits, becomes all too real.

The amount of hate crawling through his soul must be mind-numbing.

We are running dangerously low on "conspiracy theories"

"Don't fight the Fed," unless The Fed says "sell." That appears to be the message loud and clear from an absolutely exuberant Biotech bubble that is now up over 75% from Janet Yellen's "stretched valuations" warning last year...

The Greece saga continues. This is a story that does not deserve to be derided by whines of “I’m sick of reading about Greece” and “If it weren’t for Greece”, blah, blah, blah. The next B level economic number that HFT traders can jump on is not more interesting nor important. This is a Western democracy, member of NATO and the euro zone in the throes of social and economic revolution. Their problems go to the very heart of EU problem... Today is the Fed’s day, but don’t dismiss this story for small mindedness.

We’re not trying to steal from the Little People to give to the Top-1%. We will just do anything and everything in our power to make sure it’s “probably impossible” for anything else to happen, ever.

The narrative being sold through the media is that Greece is to blame, that German taxpayers are on the hook for Greek debts (while they’re really on the hook for German banks’ losing wagers). And that is, no matter how you twist it, not the same story. It’s again just a narrative. Brussels is toxic - and so is the IMF - and Greece should leave as soon as possible, as should Italy, Spain, Portugal. We should all resist the spin-induced attempts to demonize Putin, Athens and China any further, and instead focus on the rotten apples in our own basket(s). In short, the propaganda we should be worried about is not Russia’s, it’s our own. And it comes from just about every news article we’re fed. We’re much less than six degrees removed from Orwell.

In Part 1 of “The New Silk Road,” we examined the China’s plan for rebuilding the silk road, stretching from Europe to Asia. In Part 2, we looked at currently proposed projects, and what could stall and hamper progress. In Part 3, we examine the geopolitical rivalries, prospects for success, and investment implications.

In what Rep Mike Rogers called "the mother of all spear-phishing attacks," AP reports a second cyberattack linked to China appears to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, according to several U.S. officials. Coming on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill and China's urhging US to reduce military activities in The South China Sea, 'anonymous' official sources noted this second cyberbreach of federal records could dramatically compound the potential damage. The question now is twofold: a) is this war? and b) how does US respond?

Step by step instructions on how to make money the old fashioned way in a new fangled technology world!

"Senior EU officials have formally discussed for the first time a possible Greek debt default as negotiations between Athens and its creditors have stalled ahead of an end-month repayment deadline," Reuters reports. Or, translated from political correctness into the truth: "EU officials have stopped pretending that no one has discussed a Greek default."