White House

• Tsipras backs down on many Greece bailout demands (FT)
• Creditors skeptical of Tsipras' offer (Reuters)
• Greek Pension Rationing Begins; Poll Shows Tsipras Backed (BBG)
• Greek referendum poll shows lead for 'No' vote, but narrowing (Reuters)
• Greek Bank Controls Heap More Pain on Crisis-Weary Citizens (BBG)
• Greek Crisis Ripples Across European Companies as Markets Swing (BBG)
• China Stocks Fall: Shanghai Composite Index Drops 5.2% (BBG)
• China June factory, services surveys fuel hopes economy leveling out (Reuters)
• Some Chinese Are Taking 22% Margin Loans to Finance Stock Purchases (BBG)

"On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so."

Four months after the UK opened the membership floodgates and dealt Washington a humiliating political blow, China has officially launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

• China’s Stocks Enter Bear Market as Rate Cut Fails to Stop Rout (BBG)
• Stocks Tumble Around the World on Greek Crisis (WSJ)
• Some say back to the drachma for a Greek reboot (Reuters)
• Greece Imposes Capital Controls as Fears of Grexit Grow (BBG)
• Panic Sets in Among Hardy Hedge Fund Investors Remaining in Greece (NYT)
• Euro off Greece-driven lows after SNB intervenes (Reuters)
• Western Union to close in Greece for rest of week (Reuters)
• European banks, bonds shaken by Greek turmoil (Reuters)

Have you picked up on the new trope du jour? We are all encouraged to bask in our innocence as we lament the advent of a new Cold War. The thought has been in the wind for more than a year, of course, at least among some of us. But we witness a significant turn, and I hope this same some of us are paying attention. As of this week, leaders who know nothing about leading, thinkers who do not think and opinion-shaping poseurs such as Tom Friedman are confident enough in their case to sally forth with it: The Cold War returns, the Russians have restarted it and we must do the right thing - the right thing being to bring NATO troops and materiel up to Russia’s borders, pandering to the paranoia of the former Soviet satellites as if they alone have access to some truth not available to the rest of us.

It’s happening. As expected, dynastic politics is prevailing in campaign 2016. After a tease about as long as Hillary’s, Jeb Bush (aka Jeb!) officially announced his presidential bid last week. Ultimately, the two of them will fight it out for the White House, while the nation’s wealthiest influencers will back their ludicrously expensive gambit. And here’s a hint: don’t bet on Jeb not to make it through the Republican gauntlet of 12 candidates (so far). After all, the really big money’s behind him.

Politicians have always labored under the entirely mistaken impression that one can keep people from doing what they actually want to do, or that markets can be suppressed by outlawing them. It turns out that kids don’t like to be told how their food should be prepared either. In fact, they absolutely hate it. Congress just received an update on the “unintended consequences” of Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules. Apparently the stuff she wanted to push on children just tastes really crappy and now a black market in salt, pepper and sugar has developed...

"A judicial victory doesn’t automatically translate into a political victory, let alone a policy success."

In a free society, debate is over only when the people decide it’s over.

MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction – is way over. It kept a somewhat uneasy peace during seven decades of Cold War. Cold War 2.0 is as hardcore as it gets. And with all those Breedhate Strangeloves on the loose, nuclear madness is now at five seconds to midnight.

President Obama is due to take the lectern to gloat address the decision of "the most liberal Supreme Court since the 60s" upholding his healthcare tax...saying that subsidies do not violate state law. Drink every time he smiles, says "right decision", "bipartisan", and neck the whole bottle of tequila if mentions that "justice was done," or uses the term "SCOTUSCare."

• This headline needs updating: Creditors set bailout ultimatum for defiant Greeks (Reuters)
• Greece’s Fragile Banks Leave Alexis Tsipras Few Options in Bailout Talks (WSJ)
• Dueling Greece Plans Presented as Ministers Race for Aid Deal (BBG)
• Icahn Cashes In His Netflix Chips (WSJ)
• Meet the Health-Law Holdouts: Americans Who Prefer to Go Uninsured (WSJ)
• ECB holds Athens lifeline unchanged as Bundesbank protests (Reuters)
• Supreme Court Guide: Six Big Decisions Remain (WSJ)
• The Rise of the Compliance Guru—and Banker Ire (BBG)

"Washington broke arms and heads to get that 60th vote—not one to spare—to impose on the American people a plan which imperils their jobs, wages, and control over their own affairs. It is remarkable that so much energy has been expended on advancing the things Americans oppose, and preventing the things Americans want. The same routine plays out over and again. We are told a massive bill must be passed, all the business lobbyists and leaders tell how grand it will be, but that it must be rushed through before the voters spoil the plan. And when ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don’t want the plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension."

The federal personnel chief said Tuesday that she does not believe “anyone is personally responsible” for the massive hack of federal employee data and security clearance files.

Translation - no one is accountable, it was a glitch.

Echoing the era of McCarthyism, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

Ten days ago it seemed as if America's corporatism would finally be slowed in its tracks after the House unexpectedly killed the fast-tracking of Obamatrade, aka the fast-tracking of the Trade Promotion Authority. Alas, it was not to last, and moments ago, in a "nailbiting" 60-37 vote, the Senate advanced Obama's fast-track tarde bill.