Bubble

News

SOCGEN: The good times are coming to an end in 2018

By stopping their bond-buying programs, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve would leave credit, including the market for government bonds, more vulnerable to market movements, according to SocGen. 

Global credit already looks overvalued, the strategists said. Sustained demand for riskier corporate bonds has reduced the spread between their yields and comparable government bonds to the lowest levels in three years.

"We believe the US and the eurozone are heading for an economic slowdown in 2019," they said, "and given the rising levels of corporate leverage, this should have an impact on credit." 

War

Drums 

In "Largest-Ever" Military Drill, US Orders 16,000 Troops, 230 Jets To Simulate War With North Korea

The statement came after Yonhap News reported that six U.S. Raptor stealth fighters planes arrived in South Korea on Saturday for a joint air drill named "Vigilant Ace 18" scheduled for Dec. 4 to 8. The F-22s flew into South Korea together in a show of force. The stealth fighters, however, were just a small part of the upcoming show of force: according to local media, some 230 aircraft and up to 16,000 soldiers and airmen are taking part in the drill, which is one of the biggest ever of its kind.

In reality, it will likely provoke North Korea into yet another ICBM launch.  To be sure, while the Kim regime traditionally rages over the drills on its border, claiming they are rehearsals for invasion, although it may well be right: US forces have been flooding into the Pacific this year with warships, warplanes, missiles and the army all on standby.

Little Rocket Man’s Risky Game

 The rage of the president and bluster of Haley reflect a painful reality: As inhumane and ruthless as the 33-year-old dictator of North Korea is, he is playing the highest stakes poker game on the planet, against the world’s superpower, and playing it remarkably well.

While a Korean War II might well end with annihilation of the North’s army and Kim’s regime, it would almost surely result in untold thousands of dead South Koreans and Americans. 

And Kim knows that the more American lives he can put at risk, with nuclear-tipped missiles, the less likely the Americans are to want to fight him. 

For America’s post-Cold War enemies, the lesson is clear: 

Give up your WMD, and you wind up like Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein. 

Build nuclear weapons that can threaten Americans, and you get respect.

DYI