The IMF Just Entered The Cold War - Forgives Ukraine's Debt To Russia

The IMF has now been drawn into the U.S. Cold War orbit. On Tuesday it made a radical decision to dismantle the condition that had integrated the global financial system for the past half century... By doing so, it announced its new policy: “We only enforce debts owed in US dollars to US allies.”

Dow Roundtrips 600 Points, Back To Post-ECB Lows; S&P Negative Year-To-Date

Well that escalated quickly...

Draghi's Currency War Ceasefire Faces Test As Sweden, Switzerland, Norway Take Aim

“I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this trend. When I trained as an economist, negative rates weren’t in the textbooks. But that’s the world we live in now, and it hasn’t stopped turning."

MAINSTREAM MEDIA ADMITS GUN CONTROL DOESN’T WORK

by Kit Daniels, InfoWars:
During an interview with Hillary Clinton, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos apparently agreed with a statement by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) pointing out that strict gun laws didn’t prevent recent terror attacks.
“As you know, some of your Republican rivals have also criticized you for focusing on gun control after the San Bernardino attacks,” he told Clinton Dec. 6. “Sen. Marco Rubio points out that France has some of the strictest gun control in the world – that didn’t stop the Paris attacks.”
“California has some of the strictest gun control laws here – it didn’t stop those attacks, either. So what law would have stopped this?”
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"Something Disquieting Is Afoot" For U.S. Bond Markets

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 12:00  The analogy is as if you notice an ember smoldering in a combustible forest you might be only somewhat cautious, perhaps even rationalizing it away.  But if you then notice a second ember smoking up...

Crude Traders Puke Production Cut Gains, Stocks Follow

Who could have seen that coming?
  

Whispers Of Liquidation As Oil Trading "God" Loses 10% In November; Down 26% In 2015

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 11:41 Andy Hall's Astenbeck hedge-fund lost 9.7% in November, bringing 2015 losses to more than 26%. As a result of capital losses and mounting redemptions, Astenbeck’s assets under management fell to $2.4 billion, down from $3 billion at the start of the year and nearly $5 billion less than three years ago.

Marc Faber: Precious Metals Represent the Best Value Today

from McalvanyFinancial:

Inflation Soars To 12-Year High In Brazil As Supreme Court Jumps Into Impeachment Fight

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 11:16 Following a roudy session in Congress that nearly dissolved into "chaos," the Brazilian Supreme Court suspended impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff until December 16. Meanwhile, annual inflation rose to 10.5% in November, the highest in 12 years as the country's stagflationary nightmare continues unabated.

America Summarized In One Headline: "Better Living Through Layoffs"

 

Crude Surges After DOE Reports Biggest Inventory Draw In 4 Months

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 10:36 Following last night's unexpected inventory draw reported by API, DOE reported an even bigger draw of 3.568 million barrel (against expectations of a 1.3mm barrel build). The biggest draw in almost 4 months sent crude surging back to $39. Cushing continues to fill up, with a 423k build - the 5th week in a row. Production dropped the most in 2 months (with both Alaska and The Lower 48 dropping).

Iraq Seeks To Cancel Security Agreement With US, Will Invite Russia To Fight ISIS

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 10:13 “The government and parliament need to review the agreement signed with the United States on security because the United States does not seriously care about its fulfillment, We demand that it be annulled."

Wholesale Inventories Sink Q4 GDP Hope, Sales-Ratio Signals Looming Recession

Q4 GDP expectations are off to a bad start as October wholesale inventories dropped 0.1% (missing expectations of a 0.2% rise and well down from the September surge of 0.5%). Wholesale inventories rose only 3.7% YoY, the lowest since Sept 2013 but sales have now been negative YoY since December. This leaves the crucial inventories-to-sales ratio at 1.31 - post-crisis highs, and deep in recession territory.

Glencore CDS Are Soaring Again As Default Risk Rises Above 50%

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2015 - 09:50 As of today, with Glencore stock once again trading near all time lows sliding as low at 75p, the company's default risk just hit 54%, the highest in 6 years, as a result of its CDS blowing out past 900 and wider than the intraday spreads hit in September as the following chart from Markit shows.

Collapse Of U.S. Shale Oil Production Has Begun

by Steve St. Angelo, SRS Rocco Report:

We no longer have to wait for the collapse of U.S. shale oil production, it already has begun.  Unfortunately, this is bad news for the U.S. Government and domestic economy.  Falling U.S. oil production will put severe stress on the highly leveraged debt based financial system over the next several years.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) recent Drilling Productivity Report, shale oil production from the top fields is forecasted to decline 116,000 barrels per day in January 2016.  Even though overall U.S. shale oil production is forecasted to be down 12% from its peak in March 2015, one of the largest fields in Texas is down a whopping 30%:
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Erdogan: The Trojan Horse Of Terror

from The News Doctors:
Love him or hate him, Erdogan has been a survivor; a hero for some, and a stick in the mud that would not go away for many more others. He has thus far managed to dodge many serious decisive moments, the last of which was the recent parliamentary elections that he won with flying colours despite the predictions of many analysts, including myself, that he was destined to lose abysmally.
Even though the November elections did not give Erdogan the 66% majority that would enable him to change the constitution, after being in power for more than a decade, his initial domestic financial successes, one would imagine, became plagued by his failed regional gambles in Syria, however, the November elections came to give Erdogan a new lifeline that he himself perhaps did not believe he was going to achieve.
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The Fallacy that Weakening Your Currency Generates Prosperity

from Washington’s Blog:

Of the many economic policies that are accepted as true yet are absolute nonsense, perhaps none is more achingly nonsensical than the notion that weakening a nation’s currency will magically make that nation prosperous.
Like the equally nonsensical Keynesian Cargo Cult’s misplaced obsession with “aggregate demand” driving “growth,” the idea that devaluing one’s money makes one more prosperous does not make even rudimentary sense.
If devaluing one’s currency generated prosperity, then those nations that have destroyed their currencies should be the most prosperous on Earth.
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Feds use the BLM to gain control of local water Resources in Oregon .. UN AGENDA 21

from WardoRants:

Iran Just Utterly Embarrassed Obama With A Nuclear Move That Could Cost Them

from Western Journalism:

A new report says that Iran recently tested another mid-range ballistic missile, breaching United Nations restrictions. This is the same country that President Obama imagines is going to obey his nuclear agreements.
Fox News reported that Iran tested a medium range ballistic missile despite two separate U.N. resolutions supposedly prohibiting them from carrying out such tests.
On December 7, Fox reported that “the test was held Nov. 21 near Chabahar, a port city in southeast Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province near the border with Pakistan. The launch took place from a known missile test site along the Gulf of Oman.”
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Russia to Loan Egypt $25 Billion to Build NUCLEAR Power Plant

by Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire:

Russia is set to provide Egypt with a $25 billion line of credit to construct the nation’s first nuclear power plant.
The plant is set to built in Dabaa and the loan will cover 85% of the costs. It will be repaid over 22 years, with the first repayment scheduled for 2029, at an annual interest rate of three percent.
Russia is going to contribute engineers, scientists and general staff to help establish and run the plant.
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Globalist Puppet Angela Merkel Is Time’s Person Of 2015, Followed By Pentagon Puppet “ISIS Leader” Al-Baghdadi, And… Donald Trump

from Zero Hedge:
When Time magazine announced the short list of its Persons of the Year for 2015, there was some consternation that the winner could be ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or, maybe even worse according to the US press, Donald Trump. Instead, according to the just announced final results, the two gentlemen are in positions #2 and #3 respectively, with the winner being Germany’s iron chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose position however in the aftermath of Europe’s historic refugee crisis, has been downgraded from “iron” to quite shaky in recent weeks.
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25 Ways to Give the Gift of Preparedness

by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:

In a world that is becoming increasingly more dangerous, why don’t you start some new holiday traditions this year to take care of the ones you love? The gift of preparedness will be valuable well after the Christmas lights are taken down. In fact, some gentle nudges now might just save someone’s life later.
Even if your friends and family aren’t on board with preparedness, many of these gifts will be welcomed as thoughtful and useful. It’s all about HOW you give the gift – you don’t want to shove your prepping lifestyle down anyone’s throat. Figure out what aspect of preparedness is most likely to be acceptable to a person you hope to convert and start there.
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