Rene Magritte Memory 1948 We are witnessing the demise of the world’s two largest economic power blocks, the US and EU. Given deteriorating economic conditions on both sides of the Atlantic, which have been playing out for many years but were so far largely kept hidden from view by unprecedented issuance of debt, the demise should come as no surprise. The debt levels are not just unprecedented, they would until recently have been unimaginable. When the conditions for today’s
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Carole Lombard 1926 • Fed’s Williams Says Bank Lending Slowdown Doesn’t Worry Him Yet (YF) • Retailing in America: Game Theory in Reverse (DiMartinoBooth) • ‘Deep Subprime’ Auto Loans Are Surging (BBG) • Margin Debt Hit All-Time High in February (WSJ) • US Oil Export Surge Steals More OPEC Share (CNBC) • Australia World’s Worst Money Laundering Property Market (TI) • Sydney, Melbourne House Price Gains Accelerate (AFR) • Auckland Housing Market Losing All Capital Gains Of The Last
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Dismantling clock outside Daily Telegraph building, Fleet Street, London, 1930 • Jim Rogers Says Fed Has No Clue, Will ‘Ruin Us All’ (BBG) • Article 50: British PM May Signs Letter That Will Trigger Brexit (BBC) • Scottish Parliament Votes For Second Independence Referendum (G.) • Why Brexit Is Best for Britain: The Left-Wing Case (NYT) • ECB Needs Democratic Oversight If The Euro Is To Survive (TI) • 12 People, Things That Ruined The EU (Pol.) • Le
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Dorothea Lange Abandoned cafe in Carey, Texas 1937 • A Nation of Landowners – But For How Long? (M.) • Middle-Class, Even Wealthy Americans Sliding Inexorably Into The Red (MW) • Italy’s Monte Paschi Bailout Has Some ECB Supervisors Grumbling • NY Fed: “Oil Prices Fell Due To Weakening Demand” (ZH) • Why Did Preet Bharara Refuse to Drain the Wall Street Swamp? (Bill Black) • A Detailed “Roadmap” For Meeting The Paris Climate Goals (Vox) • In UK
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Ray K. Metzker Chicago 1958 • Sharpest Credit Plunge Since 2008 Could Spell Disaster For US Economy (AEP) • Paper Wealth In US Stocks Reaches $32 Trillion (Fed) • Rich Chinese Race to Apply for a US Golden Visa (BBG) • Russia’s Banking System Has SWIFT Alternative Ready (RT) • Erdogan Setting Back Integration In Germany By Years: Schaeuble (R.) • France’s Le Pen Says The EU ‘Will Die’, Globalists To Be Defeated (R.) • Populism Is The Result
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Marion Post Wolcott “Center of town. Woodstock, Vermont. Snowy night” 1940 • Will Trump’s Victory Break Up the Democratic Party? (Michael Hudson) • Condo Flippers in Miami-Dade Face The End Of A Bubble (WS) • What Global Central Bank Normalization Would Look Like (ZH) • Populism: The Phenomenon (Dalio et al) • The Peak Of – Dirty – Cash? (ZH) • Explaining Why White Middle Aged America Is Killing Itself (Worstall) • Brexit Vote Is ‘Closed Nationalism’ That Belongs
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Dorothea Lange Drought hit OK farm family on way to CA 1936 • With Health Bill Down, Trump Can Still Unleash HHS To Bedevil Obamacare (MW) • The Heart Of The American Dream Has Stopped Beating (DiMartino Booth) • Pension Crisis Too Big for Markets to Ignore (Danielle DiMartino Booth) • The Swamp Drains Trump (Jim Kunstler) • It Was A Very Bad Earnings Season (Snider) • Flynn and Turkish Officials Discussed Kidnapping Erdogan Foe From US (WSJ) •
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DPC “Broad Street and curb market, New York” 1906 • Trump Ultimatum: Pass Health Bill Now Or Live With Obamacare (MW) • The US Has the Most Expensive Healthcare System in the World (Statista) • ‘Deaths of Despair’ Surge in White US Middle Class (Vox) • The Retail Apocalypse Has Officially Descended On America (BI) • WikiLeaks Releases Vault 7 “Dark Matter”: CIA Bugs “Factory Fresh” iPhones (WL) • China’s Property Bubble Risks Youth Revolt (CNBC) • China’s Largest
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Live cooking in Monastiraki Square, Athens Every time I write about my ‘adventures’ in Greece for the Automatic Earth for Athens Fund, which I initiated in June 2015, I think it’s been way too long, but also every time I realize that I’ve already written so much about it (which makes every new article harder to write as well). Still, it’s been three months since the last one, and as always lots has happened; we’re not sitting still. As
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Unknown GMC truck Associated Oil fuel tanker, San Francisco 1935 • I Don’t Think The US Should Remain As One Political Entity – Casey (IM) • Trump Tantrum Looms On Wall Street If Healthcare Effort Stalls (R.) • The US Student Debt Bubble Is Even Bigger Than The Subprime Fiasco (Black) • US Auto-Loan Quality To Deteriorate Further, Forcing Tighter Underwriting (MW) • Oil Price Drops Below $50 For First Time Since OPEC Deal (Tel.) • China Shadow Banks
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