A Nervous George Soros Lashes Out At Donald Trump: He Wants You To Be Afraid

It appears The Establishment has decided to bring in the big guns to dislodge The GOP's nightmare scenario as Donald Trump goes from strength to strength in the polls. Writing in an op-ed for The Guardian, billionaire puppet-master George Soros urges Americans "to resist the siren song of the likes of Donald Trump," adding that "the terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared. We mustn’t give in."

Furious Coal Baron Lashes Out: "Obama Is The Greatest Enemy I've Ever Had. It's Beyond Personal"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 15:21 “There’s no question that Barack Obama and his Democrat supporters constantly, daily, pick winners and losers depending on who supports them and their politics"...

The Death Of Decoupling

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 15:00 Despite the increasing perception of policy divergence between The US and the rest of the world, it appears 'factors beyond the control of the central planners' has stymied hope for any US-based sparking of global growth. Between The Fed's liquidity withdrawal and the deflationary tsunami from an emerging world buried in credit-fueled mal-investment, it is increasingly clear that central banks have lost control and everything is now going down together. As Citi's Willem Buiter recently noted, "everything's failed" so how long before we see the money drop?

The Crude Oil Export Ban - "What, Me Worry About Peak Oil?"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 14:40 Congress ended the U.S. crude oil export ban last week. There is apparently no longer a strategic reason to conserve oil because shale production has made American great again. At least, that’s narrative that reality-averse politicians and their bases prefer. Congress’ decision to lift the 40-year U.S. ban on crude oil exports reflects the same misinformed and distorted thinking that declares that the world’s highest cost producer - tight oil - can somehow also be the world’s swing producer.

The Year Nothing Worked

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 14:20 "This year is a wake-up call to think about lower returns for the next several years," notes BMO's Lowell Yura, warning that "investor expectations for both equities and bonds have been [mistakenly] elevated by recent history." According to data compiled by Bianco Research, 2015 could be the worst for asset allocation funds since World War I. Simply put, nothing worked, as for the first time since 2001, none of the major asset-classes returned more than 10%.  As Jim Bianco concludes, “The Fed stimulus lifted all boats, and then the Fed withdrawing the stimulus is holding the boats down."

Saudis Boost Gas Prices by 40%, Dismantle Welfare State To Wage War With U.S. Shale

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 14:02 In a bid to shore up its finances in the face of self-inflicted oil wounds, Saudi Arabia is shaking up the welfare state by raising prices on everything from domestic fuel to water. Apparently, persisting in the war of attrition against the US shale complex is paramount - even if it means making life harder for everyday Saudis so the monarchy can buy itself some budget breathing room.

ISIS Flees Ramadi, This Is What They Left Behind: Photo Album "From The Devil's Grasp"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 13:47

"The Mood Is Tipping" - German Economic Pessimism Surges Following Refugee Influx

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 13:43 Sadly, for Germany, this is precisely what is not happening. According to Deutsche Welle, a new survey has revealed that most Germans believe the influx of refugees will not provide an economic boost, in fact quite the opposite: only 16 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement "the influx of refugees will result in more economic opportunities than problems for us."  The worst news for Merkel is that a majority of Germans - 56 percent - believe the country is not up to the challenge of dealing with the influx. In small towns of less than 5,000 people, this figure rose to 66 percent.

Stocks Rip Higher On VIX ETF Slam

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 13:26 Crude is at the lows of the day. Credit markets are at the lows of the day. Treasury yields are near the lows of the day. So it makes perfect sense that as Europe closed, "someone" would take the monkey-hammer to VIX ETFs (in particular UVXY - the Ultra-VIX ETF) and that rips stocks higher. What is most odd is that VIX (the underlying index) is not falling (as the ETFs appear driven more by futures out-months shifts and position-squaring).

Schizophrenic 2 Year Auction Results In Huge Short Squeeze Despite Slumping Fundamentals

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 13:16 When the When Issued data hit minutes ahead of the auction pricing, we were expecting a number well through the 1.073% When Issued.This is precisely what happened as the Treasury confirmed moments ago when it announced it had sold $26 billion in 2 Year notes at a yield of 1.056%, a whopping 1.7 bps through the When Issued: just like that, the short squeeze worked again.

Techno-Narcissism - Hard Questions & Ignored Answers

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 12:55 We are lost in raptures of techno-narcissism. We’re convinced that all the unanticipated consequences of our brief techno-industrial orgy can be solved by… more and better technology! Notice that this narrative is being served up to a society now held hostage to the images on little screens, by skilled people who, more and more, act as though these screens have become the new dwelling place of reality.

More Mutual Funds Liquidating: Whitebox Calls It Quits

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 12:33

Even The Big Banks Now Admit It: "This Is How The Fed's 'Massive Manipulation' Broke The Market"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 12:16 "Essentially central banks, by unfairly inflating asset prices have compressed risk like a spring to unfairly tight levels. Unfortunately, the market is aware the price of risk is not correct, but they can’t fight it, and everyone is forced to crowd into the same trade. By manipulating markets they have also reduced investors’ inherent conviction by rendering fundamentals less relevant."

New Gun Control Bill Hits Congress: "To Ensure That The Right To Keep And Bear Arms Is NOT Unlimited"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 12:15 While Americans anxiously prepared for their Christmas festivities, anti gun proponents in Congress were hard at work drafting a new bill. If passed H.R. 4269 would literally redefine the Second Amendment as evidenced by the bill’s description, which in no uncertain terms clarifies its ultimate goal: “To regulate assault weapons, to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and for other purposes.”

Did China Just Clear The Way For A Mid-East Intervention With Passage Of New Anti-Terror Law?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 11:56 Apparently, China has finally gotten wise to what the West has known since at least 9/11: namely that you can always justify the state's nasty habits by claiming authorities require new powers to fight "terror." The NPC passed new legislation on Sunday that, in addition to granting Beijing new surveillance powers, also legalizes the PLA's deployment overseas to conduct anti-terror ops.

US Economy - A Year-End Overview

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 11:34 It becomes ever more tempting to conclude that the timing of the Fed’s rate hike was really quite odd, even from the perspective of the planners...

Treasury Curve Crashes To 9-Month Lows, S&P Slumps Into Red For 2015

Who could have seen that coming?

Dallas Fed Survey Crashes To June 2009 Lows, Warns "It Is Getting Ugly"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/28/2015 - 10:43 After a Q1 collapse, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook managed a bounce for a few months (though never got back above zero). It appears, Dallas Fed's aptly-named 'Dick' Fischer was entirely wrong when he progonosticated that "on net, low oil prices are good for Texas." December's Dallas Fed print crashed to -20.1 (from -4.9) massively missing expectations of -7.0 and back at the lows not seen since June 2009.

Assassinate Donald Trump Say Two GOP Strategists

by Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show:

I wrote a story this past fall in which I expressed fear for the safety of Presidential candidate, Donald Trump. In the article, and in detail, I pointed out that Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were all assassinated by lone nut gunmen, all of which possessed a diary which implicated them in the crime. The same cover story was used for all three assassinations. This is why I entitled the article, Will Trump Be Assassinated by a Man With a Diary?
The implication of the previous article was made crystal clear. If the establishment murdered three prominent political opponents using the same MO, why wouldn’t they do it for a fourth time?
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7 Investment Lessons From Mom

"Don't run with sharp objects" ... "If everyone jumped off the cliff - Would you do it too?" ...and "Don't talk to strangers!"

HELLO, WORLD: IS YOUR GOVERNMENT DRIVING YOU CRAZY?

from The Daily Sheeple:

Note: If, as you read this article, you think I’m saying ‘don’t worry, be happy’ or ‘just laugh it off’ or ‘forget all the suffering in the world,’ you’re viewing it from the wrong angle. The 1968 riot at the Democratic National Convention was very serious, and it did nothing to shorten the war in Vietnam. It might have prolonged it. In this article, I’m talking about a basic psychological and spiritual inhibition that keeps people from a kind of mass reaction they believe is unthinkable—but a reaction that would change reality in a revolutionary fashion, if it came from their deepest core…
I could write a few thousand pages as a mere introduction—but I want to focus on one factor: what people project into their leaders.
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How the Aristocracy Revs Up Its Suckers

from Washington’s Blog:

A standard technique by the aristocracy and its agents is to pretend that the existing government is too progressive, that it’s pandering to the masses, not doing the ‘right’ thing, which the ‘superior’ people know that it ought  to be doing — and which, coincidentally, will boost the wealth of the rich (and this wealth will then trickle down to everybody, as aristocrats routinely promise will happen). Here’s an example of it:
On December 10th, the far-right Rosemary Righter (“Righter” is her actual name, not merely her ideology), of Rupert Murdoch’s London Times, presented an opinion-piece in America’s Politico (which itself derives from Republican Joe Albritton’s now-defunct Washington DC conservative newspaper the Star), titled, “NATO’s ‘Obama problem’: The alliance is hamstrung by the least Atlanticist president since World War II.”
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