G-7 Leaders Reject SPR Release Plan, But 'Stand Ready' After Initial Jawbone Efforts Fade

Remember: In A Crisis, Everyone Will Consider Themselves 'The Good Guys' Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via substack, The state has two monopolies it must protect whatever the cost: the monopoly on decreeing what is legal tender and on force. We’re entering an era in which push comes to shove will lead to immovable objects encountering irresistible forces. All sorts of verities and vanities will be bulldozed as kicking the can down the road descends into desperation to stave off collapse, a desperation that unleashes second order effects the desperate did not anticipate. The only responses at this...

"From Orderly Selloff, To Panic": Stocks, Bonds Plunge As Oil, Dollar Soar On Iran War US equity futures are down sharply, along with all global markets, as the Iran war expands and escalates (attack on US embassy in Saudi Arabia; uncertainty over duration of Strait of Hormuz closure; targeting non-military infra / businesses) rattling markets and sending oil and the dollar surging. Global bonds also plunge on fears that Trump’s “whatever it takes” vow on Iran will fuel energy prices and inflation. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 1.4%, off...

Iran Rejects Ceasefire In Formal Reply To US, As Israel Attacks Key Petrochemical Plants Summary:  A Sunday night Axios report on a US-proposed 45-day ceasefire has by Monday morning been rejected by Iran, which later on Monday issued a 10-point letter via Pakistan. Israel strikes large petrochemical plant at South Pars, which is responsible for half of the country’s petrochemical production. There's been another extension of what had been a 10-day deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz - a deadline that was initially set to expire on Monday evening. Now...