Detroit

Having surged to the lead (according to some polls) in the GOP presidential nominee race, Ben Carson may have a problem. As Politico reports, Carson's campaign on Friday admitted that a central point in his inspirational personal story (his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point) was fabricated. This admission comes as serious questions about other points of fact in Carson’s personal narrative are questioned, including the seminal episode in which he claimed to have attempted to stab a close friend.

Shantytown, Stockton, California, USA

No, Ben S. Bernanke will be someday remembered as the world’s most destructive battleship admiral. Not only was he fighting the last war, but his whole multi-trillion money printing campaign after September 15, 2008 was aimed at avoiding an historical Fed mistake that had never even happened!

• Hilsenrath - The Fed Strives for a Clear Signal on Interest Rates (WSJ)
• Tentative Budget Deal Reached, Raising Debt Limit (WSJ)
• China Calls U.S. Challenge Over Island Threat to Regional Peace (BBG)
• UK economy slows more than expected in third quarter (Reuters)
• In China’s Alleyways, Underground Banks Move Money (WSJ)
• Inside the Secretive Circle That Rules a $14 Trillion Market (BBG)
• A Frustrated Koch Brother Decides It’s Time to ‘Spout Off’ (WSJ)

“We started Vote or Die, and the whole process was all full of shit. The whole shit is a scam... At the end of the day, I’m not telling you not to vote. But I’m saying be a realist and know that they’re motherfucking kicking some bullshit up there,”

From the bowels of Australia’s iron ore mines to the top of Dubai’s pointless 100 story office towers, the entire warp and woof of the global economy has been distorted and bloated by the central bank money printing spree of the last two decades, led by the red credit machines of Beijing. Everywhere economies have succumbed to over-building, over-consumption, over-financialization and endless dangerous, unstable speculation. Stated differently, China’s red capitalism is the new black swan. There is nothing rational, stable or sustainable about it.

It’s getting harder by the day to tell young people that we live in a nation that values freedom and which is governed by the rule of law without feeling like a teller of tall tales. Unless something changes and soon for the young people growing up, there will be nothing left of freedom as we have known it but a fairy tale without a happy ending.

• Democratic rivals back Clinton on emails, but little else in scrappy debate (Reuters)
• Hillary Clinton Shows Relentless Efficiency in First Democratic Debate (WSJ)
• U.S. Examines Goldman Sachs Role in 1MDB Transactions (WSJ)
• JPMorgan Says Trading Pain Isn't Over After Third-Quarter Slump (BBG)
• Islamic State battles insurgents near Aleppo as army prepares assault (Reuters)
• Oil Slide Means `Almost Everything' for Sale as Deals Accelerate (BBG)

As tensions boil on the international stage, eight U.S. cities in two months abolished a federal holiday that has long insulted and infuriated the indigenous population and many others - Columbus Day - but that’s not all. These eight cities (including three just last week) then replaced much-maligned October 12 “holiday” with one long overdue: Indigenous Peoples Day. Meanwhile, in Detroit, someone took an ax to the forehead of a Christopher Columbus bust (with fake blood spilling out).

If the only gun violence statistics you see are disseminated by the mainstream media or left-wing anti-Second Amendment groups, then in all likelihood you are horrified by America’s murder culture. But what if what we’re being sold as truth is merely a means to achieve an agenda focused on seeing the American people totally disarmed?

We have just witnessed one of the most significant steps toward a one world economic system that we have ever seen.  Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership have been completed, and if approved it will create the largest trading bloc on the planet.  In this treaty, Barack Obama has thrown in all sorts of things that he never would have been able to get through Congress otherwise.  And once this treaty is approved, it will be exceedingly difficult to ever make changes to it.  So essentially what is happening is that the Obama agenda is being permanently locked in for 40 percent of the global economy.

The scandal swirling around Germany's largest listed company had its beginnings in an attempt to crack the U.S. market, the missing link in VW's global footprint. But, as Handelsblatt details, what began as expansion ended in deception (piecing together the events that led up to the scandal, based on the facts as they are currently known).

As Case-Shiller clearly shows, Detroit - after staging a brief dead cat bounce in the aftermath of its bankruptcy and since sliding once again - may no longer be the worst city for home prices in the US. It has now been displaced by a city which many speculate will be nothing short of the "next Detroit."

For the 5th month in a row, Case-Shiller home prices missed expectations and dropped 0.2% MoM in July (the biggest drop since July 2014). Year-over-year, home prices have been stable around a 5% increase for 6 months which seems oddly linear and seasonally-smoothed, but broad price gains YoY also disappointed again, rising 4.7% (against 5.2% expectations). San Francisco and Denver continue to see the highest YoY gains (10.4% and 10.3% respectively) and Phoenix posted its 8th consecutive annual gain - the longest streak among the 20 major cities Case-Shiller track.

Over the past few years no institution has had more consequences beholden to their words than the Federal Reserve. So much so one could reasonably argue in response to prevailing circumstances their communiques overshadowed most others; including presidents and other leaders. The problem today is; in their effort to bring more clarity via press-ers, and more as to what might be transpiring behind the doors at the Eccles building, they’ve now communicated more confusion in the last two weeks nullifying all previous efforts. In our eyes it seems to be working exactly the same as its other policy outcomes: adding confusion, uncertainty, and having the exact opposite of intended results.