Konstantinos Polychronopoulos, Athens December 2016 Apologies, but I have to talk one more time before Christmas about why I’m in Greece, again. Some of what I am about to say will repeat earlier articles, but I promise, there’s plenty of new things. Because I’m coming to grips with the situation I’m in here, seeing the landscape, seeing things in their perspective. I never had much use for -humanitarian- aid, I always had the same suspicion of what was going
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Laurits Andersen Ring At Breakfast 1898 • Most Expensive Housing Ever: A 1% Mortgage Rate Surge Changes Everything (MH) • This Christmas Americans Will Spend An Average Of $422 Per Child (EC) • Ray Dalio Says Animal Spirits Under Donald Trump Just Getting Started (F.) • Someone Has to Tell The Fed Inflation Is Not Accelerating (CEPR) • Brace Yourself For Italy’s Bankruptcy (Gavekal) • Italy Bank Rescue Won’t Fill $54 Billion Hole in Balance Sheets (BBG) • Top French
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Dorothea Lange Homeless mother and child walking from Phoenix to Imperial County CA 1939 • China Talks the Talk on Property Curbs, but Can it Walk the Walk? (BBG) • China May Be Losing Cat-and-Mouse Game With ‘Hong Kong Insurance’ Buyers (BBG) • New Italy PM Asks Parliament To Approve Borrowing €20 Billion For Banks (BBC) • After Aleppo: We Need A New Syria Policy (Ron Paul) • We’re About To Sign A Deal With Canada That’s Just As Bad
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Oil wells in Venice, California, bringing oil up from beach area 1952 • Amid The Bombs of Aleppo, All You Can Hear Are The Lies (Peter Hitchens) • Coup Or No Coup: The Electoral College Votes On Monday (ZH) • A Spy Coup in America? (Robert Parry) • Trump Wants To Hear Hacking Evidence Direct From FBI (WSJ) • The $12 Trillion Credit Risk Juggle (BBG) • Gone in 60 Seconds: Chinese Snap Up Dollars as Yuan Tanks (BBG) •
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Dorothea Lange Country store, Person County, NC Jul 1939 • Here’s How Americans Spent Their Money In The Last 75 Years (MW) • Global Debt, Equity Markets Lose $1 Trillion In Value This Week (ZH) • January 2017 Earnings Is Going To Be a Bloodbath (EconMatters) • Trump Talked, the Fed Listened: Shrink the Balance Sheet, Bullard Says (WS) • Pentagon Says China to Return Drone; Trump Says They Can Keep It (BBG) • Free Cash in Finland. Must Be
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Dorothea Lange Country filling station, Granville County, NC 1939 • Debt Nation: The Problem, the Solutions (Valentin Schmid) • American Credit Card Debt Nears All Time Highs (BI) • It’s Been A Nightmare Year For Australian Retail (News.com.au) • Italy Prepares To Pump €15 Billion Into Ailing Banks (R.) • Euro Parity With Dollar ‘Only A Matter Of Time’ – ING (CNBC) • The Fed Is Pushing China Into A Messy Catch-22 (CNBC) • China Vows To Contain Asset Bubbles,
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Parisians duck down to evade German sniper fire following Nazi surrender of Paris, 1945 If you ever wondered what the odds are of mankind surviving, let alone ‘defeating’, climate change, look no further than the essay the Guardian published this week, written by Michael Bloomberg and Mark Carney. It proves beyond a moonlight shadow of a doubt that the odds are infinitesimally close to absolute zero (Kelvin, no Hobbes). Yes, Bloomberg is the media tycoon and former mayor of
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John Vachon Big Four Cafe, Cairo, Illinois 1940 • Obama’s Blunder; Trump’s Gambit (Rickards) • Trump Rally May Not Last Long – Marc Faber (CNBC) • This Stock Rally Is More Hope Than Substance (WSJ) • China, Others are Dumping US Treasurys as Never Before (WS) • The Longer China’s Record M&A Spree Lasts, The Stranger The Deals Get (BBG) • ECB Bond Buying Props Up Oil, Cars, Guns, Drones, Gambling, Handbags (DQ) • EU Agrees Dutch Demands On Ukraine
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William Henry Jackson Hand cart carry, Adirondacks, New York 1902 • Dollar at 14-Year Peak as Fed Rejuvenates Trump Rally (R.) • Dollar Jumps as Fed Pulls the Trigger While Stocks, Debt Decline (BBG) • Fed Fallout Escalates: China Bond Market Crashes Most On Record (ZH) • Higher US Interest Rates Next Year Could Make Big Problems For China (CNBC) • Shadow Banking in China Appears to Have Made a Roaring Comeback (BBG) • Trump Meets With Tech Titans: “No
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Louise Rosskam General store in Lincoln, Vermont 1940 • Janet Yellen Needs To Announce Her Resignation — Not A Rate Hike (Crudele) • Stephen Roach Flags Trade, China Under Trump, Tillerson (CNBC) • Trump May Be Turning China’s $1.16 Trillion Of Treasuries Into A Weapon (F.) • China To Fine Unnamed US Automaker For ‘Monopolistic Behavior’ (R.) • Top US Spy Agency Has Not Embraced CIA Assessment On Russia Hacking (R.) • Lavrov Hints ISIS Recapture Of Palmyra Orchestrated By
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