Iran

• Chinese shares tumble 8.5 percent in biggest one-day drop since 2007 (Reuters)
• Japan’s Economy Shrank Last Quarter, Top Forecaster Says (BBG)
• Creditor teams in Athens to work on third bailout (AFP)
• Tsipras’s Paradox Is Six Months of Pain and Enduring Popularity (BBG)
• Goldman-Backed Instant Messaging Company Seeks New Investment (WSJ)
• Best Buy will sell the Apple Watch on August 7th (Engadget) - when is it coming to Dollar General?
• Senate votes to revive Ex-Im (Hill)
• U.S.-Turkey Deal Paves Way to Set Up Buffer Zone in Northern Syria (WSJ)

If the neoconservatives have their way again, US ground troops will reoccupy Iraq, the US military will take out Syria’s secular government (likely helping Al Qaeda and the Islamic State take over), and the US Congress will not only kill the Iran nuclear deal but follow that with a massive increase in military spending.  In other words, more and more fires of Imperial “regime change” abroad even as the last embers of the American Republic die at home. Much of this “strategy” is personified by a single Washington power couple...

There are times when a loud cry of “The emperor has no clothes!” can be most copacetic. And so, let me point out something quite simple, yet very important. The old world order, to which we became accustomed over the course of the 1990s and the 2000s, its crises and its problems detailed in numerous authoritative publications on both sides of the Atlantic - it is no more. It is not out sick and it is not on vacation. It is deceased. It has passed on, gone to meet its maker, bought the farm, kicked the bucket and joined the crowd invisible. It is an ex-world order.

Tehran, Beijing, Moscow, Islamabad, and New Delhi have been actively establishing interlocking security guarantees. They have been simultaneously calling the Atlanticist bluff when it comes to the endless drumbeat of attention given to the flimsy meme of Iran’s "nuclear weapons program."  And a few days before the Vienna nuclear negotiations finally culminated in an agreement, all of this came together at a twin BRICS/SCO summit in Ufa, Russia -- a place you’ve undoubtedly never heard of and a meeting that got next to no attention in the U.S.  And yet sooner or later, these developments will ensure that the War Party in Washington and assorted neocons (as well as neoliberalcons) already breathing hard over the Iran deal will sweat bullets as their narratives about how the world works crumble.

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With all eyes currently transfixed on Iran’s nuclear future, there is seemingly little attention being paid to another landmark Middle Eastern nuclear trend, spearheaded by Russia.

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• Murder, Poisoning, Raids: It’s Election Season in Russia (BBG)
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• China's Richest Man Marks Push Into Hollywood With Jake Gyllenhaal Movie (BBG)
• West Africa's alarming growth industry - meth (Reuters)

• Greek PM keeps lid on party rebellion to pass bailout vote (Reuters)
• Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Remains Popular Despite Tough Bailout Deal (WSJ)
• Beijing's stock rescue has $800 billion bark, small market bite (Reuters)
• Capital exodus from China reaches $800bn as crisis deepens (Telegraph)
• Why Investors Shy Away From China’s $6.4 Trillion Bond Market (WSJ)
• Oil Rigs Left Idling Turn Caribbean Into Expensive Parking Lot (BBG)
• Bank of America replaces CFO in management shake-up (Reuters)
• The Financial Buzz? Pearson to sell Financial Times (Reuters)

As President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is compared to Richard Nixon’s opening to China, Bibi Netanyahu must know how Chiang Kai-shek felt as he watched his old friend Nixon toasting Mao in Peking. The Iran nuclear deal is not on the same geostrategic level. Yet both moves, seen as betrayals by old U.S. allies, were born of a cold assessment in Washington of a need to shift policy to reflect new threats and new opportunities. Several events contributed to the U.S. move toward Tehran.

This seemingly inexhaustible credit line is now drying up, with severely negative consequences for oil producers with debt that's coming due. The row of dominoes swaying unsteadily in these stiff winds won't take much to topple.

• Stocks sour as Apple results leave bitter aftertaste (Reuters)
• Awkward Alliance Running Germany Exposed by Greek Crisis (BBG)
• Apple Faces Old Question of What’s Next After Record Profit (BBG)
• Lawmakers, White House Explore Tax Revamp for U.S. Firms Overseas (WSJ)
• Digital Misfits Link JPMorgan Hack to Pump-and-Dump Fraud (BBG)
• More Debt Traders at Risk as European Banks Report Results (BBG)
• Iran rejects sanctions extension beyond 10 years (Reuters)

In what may be the biggest story of the year, if confirmed, Greek newspaper To Vima reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for 10 billion dollars in order to print drachmas. But the real shocker: on the night of the referendum, word came from Russia that Putin did not want to support Greece’s return to the drachma. After that, Tsipras had no choice left but to “surrender” to German Chancellor.

Surprise! Just days after the 'deal' to bring world peace a little closer amid much crowing by the Obama administration (ahead of Congress' 60-day decision process), Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowed to defy American policies in a speech punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". As Reuters reports, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the speech was "if it is the policy, it's very disturbing, it's very troubling," seemingly surprised at the rhetoric.

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• Overtime Rules Send Bosses Scrambling (WSJ)
• As Markets Swing, Beijing Steadies Yuan (WSJ)
• Tennessee rampage suspect went to Qatar in 2014 (Reuters)
• Kathryn Dominguez to Be Nominated for Fed Governor (WSJ)