8.5%

• Stock Halts Added to Monday’s Market Chaos (WSJ)
• Fed Up Investors Yank Cash From Almost Everything Just Like 2008 (BBG)
• Drop in Stock Futures Signal Halt to S&P 500's Relief Rally (BBG) - at least until the BOJ ramps USDJPY up again
• Hacker Killed by Drone Was Islamic State’s ‘Secret Weapon’ (WSJ)
• Greece's Syriza to win election but face setback, poll shows (Reuters)
• Puerto Rico Spends More Than $60 Million on Debt Restructuring (BBG)

Earlier today FCX announced that in order to save its business, it would lay off 10% of its employees, and that it now expects $4 billion in capital expenditures for 2016, down from a prior estimate of $5.6 billion. Its 2015 capital expenditure budget currently stands at $6.3 billion. The resultant surge in the company, which exploded by 30% in the regular hours, made many wonder if there wasn't more to the story. The answer is: yes, there was, and moments ago none other than Carl Icahn announced an 88 million, or 8.46% stake in the copper miner, in a 13D which said that said the company was "undervalued" and that Icahn is now seeking a board seat.

• CHINA PBOC CUTS INTEREST RATES
• CHINA PBOC CUTS REQUIRED DEPOSIT RESERVE RATIO
• CHINA PBOC CUTS 1Y DEPOSIT RATE BY 25 BPS
• CHINA PBOC CUTS 1Y LENDING RATE BY 25 BPS
• CHINA PBOC CUTS BANKS DEPOSIT RESERVE RATIO BY 50 BPS

News That Matters

"Gold and silver will be your only lifeboats as they are no one’s liability in a world where everything including the money in your pocket is someone else’s liability.”

We warned on Friday, after last week's China rout, that the market is getting ahead of itself with its expectation of a RRR-cut by China as large as 100 bps. "The risk is that there isn't one." We were spot on, because not only was there no RRR cut, but Chinese stocks plunged, with the composite tumbling as much a 9% at one point, the most since 1996 when it dropped 9.4% in a single session. The session, as profile overnight was brutal, with about 2000 stocks trading by the -10% limit down, and other markets not doing any better: CSI 300 -8.8%, ChiNext -8.1%, Shenzhen Composite -7.7%. This was the biggest Chinese rout since 2007.

But... but... pension funds are "allowed" to buy stocks. Judging by the first few minutes of trading in the first thing to open this evening on the mainland, the CSI 300 Index Futures which immediately tumbled by 4% to 3340, China's attempt to deflect attention from the fact that it did not do a 50-100 bps RRR cut is not doing too well.

Just hours after the PBOC announced a modestly "revalued" fixing in the CNY, which curiously led to weaker trading in the onshore Yuan for most of the day before a forceful last minute intervention by the central bank pushed it back down to 6.39 it was the local stock market spinning plate - which had been relatively stable during the entire FX devaluation process - that China lost control over, and after 7 days of margin debt increases the Shanghai Composite plunged by 6.2% in late trade, tumbling 245 points to 3748, just 240 points above its recent trough on July 8, a closing level some 27% off its June peak.

At this point, you can crowdfund just about anything. Campaigns to raise funds for medical bills, student loans, movies, new inventions, and startup capital have sprung up from all over the world, which led the crowdfunding industry to generate $16.2 billion globally last year in funding transactions. A new trend is emerging within the industry – platforms designed solely for litigation crowdfunding.

We've been brainwashed into financializing the human experience. This is not a problem that can be fixed by tweaking state-cartel policies (Obamacare, banking, etc.) i.e. fake fixes. This is a problem that requires a complete rethinking of centralization, money creation, empire, wealth, prosperity, consumption and how we live.

If GDP growth only averages 2.0% in the Second Half (which I think is likely), then 2015 growth will only be about 1.7% annually. Given that the Fed didn't raise rates in 2012, 2013, and 2014, when growth was well north of 2%, why would they do so now? Yet Wall Street and the media stubbornly cling to the notion that 3% growth and rate hikes are just around the corner. Old notions die hard, and this one has taken on a life of its own.

Strangely enough, every easily foreseeable financial crisis is presented in the mainstream media as one that "nobody saw coming." No doubt the crisis visible in these three charts will also fall into the "nobody saw it coming" category.

So where did all this growth of the economy end up? How can the economy grow by roughly one-third in real dollars while real median household income drops like a rock and real wages/salaries are essentially unchanged for 15 years?

"I am speechless. Not since yesterday or last week. I have been speechless since July 13th when the Greek left-wing coalition government agreed to burden the country and the people with a new loan, the third bailout for Greece since 2010 together with the strictest austerity program ever.  I really don’t care if Varoufakis wears tasteless shirts and why he wanted to ‘hack’ taxpayers’ numbers while sitting with his team of skilled hackers and childhood friends... I just don’t care. It doesn’t affect my life, not even a tiny little bit. I give neither a a whole dam nor half of it for this so-called Greek political agenda after July 13th. What do I care about is watching  my country and the people falling into pieces."