Giovanni Bellini St. Francis in ecstasy 1480 • Deflation Risk Rises as China’s Economy Keeps Faltering (ET) • Juncker: The EU Isn’t Trying To Keep Britain In The Union (R.) • UK Trade Minister Says ’50-50′ Chance Brexit May Be Stopped (R.) • Cross-Party Move Aims To Delay Hard Brexit (G.) • Brexit Is Full Of Hysterical Self-Pity – Fintan O’Toole (G.) • Italian Parliament Passes Budget After EU Standoff (BBC) • Yellow Vests Target French Media Companies And
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Sandro Botticelli Portrait of a Young Woman 1480 – 1485 • Can an Inverted Yield Curve CAUSE a Recession? (St. Louis Fed) • The Malaysia Scandal Is Starting to Look Dire for Goldman Sachs (Taibbi) • How Crazy This Week Was For The Stock Market, In One Big Chart (MW) • Record-Bad Year-End For $1.3-Trillion “Leveraged Loan” Market (WS) • US Debt Soars $1.4 Trillion From Last Christmas, $44,000 Per Second (RT) • US Home Sales Decline To Steepen,
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Berthe Morisot After luncheon1881 • Investors Fear Historic Market Rebound Was Just A ‘Wicked Bear Trap’ (MW) • US Stocks Follow Record-Breaking Rise With Day Of Wild Swings (G.) • VIX Is About To Do Something It Hasn’t Done Since 2011 (MW) • Watch Out When Men Of War Come To The Rescue (Fisk) • Giuliani: Mueller Must Be Investigated For Destruction Of FBI Evidence (Hill) • Donald Trump ‘Worst Perpetrator’ Of Fake News: UN Special Rapporteur (Pol.eu) •
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Francis Tattegrain La ramasseuse d’épaves (The Beachcomber) 1880 I haven’t really written about finance since April of this year, and given recent fluctuations in what people persist in calling the markets, maybe it’s time. Then again, nothing has changed since that article in April entitled This Is Not A Market. I was right then, and I still am. [..] markets need price discovery as much as price discovery needs markets. They are two sides of the same coin. Markets
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Giovanni Bellini The Feast of the Gods c1514 (completed by his disciple, Titian, 1529) • Trump Declares End To US ‘Policeman’ Role In Surprise Iraq Visit (AFP) • Dow Rallies 1,000 Points, Biggest Single-Day Point Gain Ever (CNBC) • Why Stocks Soared: US Pension Funds Rebalance With $64 Billion Buy Order (ZH) • Plunge Protection And/Or Deeply Underwater Public Sector Pension Funds (CI) • Pretty Much All Of Wall Street Thinks The Market Will Rally In 2019 (CNBC) •
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Caravaggio Burial of St. Lucy 1608 • US Prepares To Hit The Wall As Reckless Trump Undoes Years Of Hard Work (G.) • Trump Urges Americans To Buy The Dip; Voices Confidence In Mnuchin, Powell (ZH) • Trump’s Frustration With Mnuchin Rising – Source (CNN) • BOJ’s Kuroda Further Waters Down Pledge To Hit Inflation Target Quickly (R.) • Japan To Resume Commercial Whaling (AFP) • Asian Stocks Slip On US Shutdown Worries, Trump’s Fresh Criticism Of Fed (MW)
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Rembrandt van Rijn The Adoration of the Magi 16xx I still had some things I didn’t talk about in Sunday’s Trump Derangement International, about how the European press have found out that they, like the US MSM, can get lots of viewers and readers simply by publishing negative stories about Donald Trump. The US president is an attention magnet, as long as you only write things about him designed to make him look bad. The Guardian is only too
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Caravaggio Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence 1600 • The Stock Market Just Booked Its Ugliest Christmas Eve Plunge — Ever (MW) • Japan’s Nikkei Drops 5% After Wall Street Slide Deepens (CNBC) • US Crude Plunges 6.7%, Settling At 18-Month Low At $42.53 (CNBC) • ‘The Worst Is Yet To Come’: Experts Say Global Bear Market Coming (CNBC) • In Defense of the Fed (Stephen S. Roach) • Trump, Annoyed By Resignation Letter, Pushes Out Mattis Early
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Diego Velázquez The Spinners 1655-60 Dirk Kurbjuweit, deputy editor-in-chief of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine for the past 4 years, unwittingly put his foot a mile deep in his mouth this week when he reacted to a letter written by US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell. His reaction presents perhaps the most perfect example of the downfall of news, journalism, the media in general, that we’ve seen so far. Most perfect among very stiff competition. After Der Spiegel itself this
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Caravaggio Adoration of the Shepherds 1609 • Krakatau-Triggered Tsunami Kills At Least 168 In Indonesia (R.) • David Collum’s 2018 Year In Review: “The Year Everything Changed” • Corbyn Faces Furious Labour Backlash Over Backing Brexit (G.) • UK To Tackle Loneliness Crisis With £11.5m Cash Injection (G.) • If Truth Cannot Prevail Over Material Agendas We Are Doomed (PCR) • Mnuchin Refutes Report That Trump Wants Powell Fired (MW) • Trump’s Political Viagra (Jatras) • We Know How
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