Of course it's easy enough to dismiss or belittle these occasional reports, each with their unique methodologies and almost identical conclusions. Another approach, however, would be to look at them all together and conclude that they represent "mounting evidence." In that case, Houston (and Dallas, New Orleans, Tulsa, St. Louis, Baltimore, Chicago, and New York), we have a problem.''

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What's going on? Iran is actively trying to create a land corridor through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. To that end, Iran is pushing from within Iraq and Syria, using its Shia militia proxies on both sides of the border

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The administration understandably wants to keep the focus on ISIS and not get embroiled in a conflict with the Iranians or the Russians. While it is right to be careful, it also needs to convey another message: We will not challenge where the Iranians or Russians or the regime have control and a presence in Syria, but we will also not acquiesce to Iran's effort to create a land bridge through the Levant.

See also The Syrian Nightmare: No End in Sight; to wit:

At present, all of the warring parties are racing to seize as much land as possible. In some respects, that's a positive development because it suggests that everyone thinks the war may be coming to an end so they're positioning their armies in a way that best favors their territorial claims. But resolving the territorial issues won't alone bring peace. There are deeper issues that can't be resolved by merely granting greater autonomy to the Kurds, or allowing the Turks to maintain a "safe zone" in the northwest, or letting local (mainly Sunni) councils settle their own affairs in cities like Raqqa. For example, neither Putin nor Assad will ever agree to a deal in which Washington establishes a base in the east where it harbors and deploys jihadists back into Syria-proper to wreak havoc, terrorize the public, and threaten the central government. That's not going to happen. So while Putin may be flexible about Syria's borders or greater regional autonomy, he's not going to give ground on the fundamental issues of national security or terrorism. Those are non negotiable.

And this one: The United States is at war with Syria; to wit:

It's quite obvious, in fact, that the United States regime is deliberately making targets of its military personnel, in the hopes of provoking a response from Syrian or allied armed forces that will kill some Americans, and be used to gin up popular support for the exactly the kind of major military attack on Syria and/or Russia and/or Iran that the American people would otherwise reject with disgust. Anyone who professes concern for "our troops" should be screaming to stop that.

It's also quite clear now, that the War on ISIS is a sham, that ISIS was always just a pretext to get the American military directly involved in attacking the Syrian army and destroying the coherence of the Syrian state. If the U.S. wanted to defeat ISIS, it could do so easily by coordinating their actions with, and not against, the forces who have been most effectively fighting it: the Syrian Arab Army, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah.

Among Democrats in Washington, the setback in Georgia revived or deepened a host of existing grievances about the party, accentuating tensions between moderate lawmakers and liberal activists and prompting some Democrats to question the leadership and political strategy of Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader.

A small group of Democrats who have been critical of Ms. Pelosi in the past again pressed her to step down on Wednesday. And in a private meeting of Democratic lawmakers, Representative Tony Cárdenas of California, Ms. Pelosi's home state, suggested the party should have a more open conversation about her effect on its political fortunes.

But the most acute and widely expressed concerns were economic. Speaking after a meeting of the Democratic caucus on Wednesday morning, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the party was preparing to be "aggressively focused on job creation and economic growth." And Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, who represents an affluent district near New York City, said Democrats must do more to compete with what he described as expansive and unrealistic promises by President Trump.

"It's not enough to say, ‘I want jobs,'" Mr. Himes said. "You need more than that, particularly when you're competing with a guy who is telling fantasies."

Amazing that the Dems still don't see fit to abandon the "the economy was GREAT under Obama" message -- even as it's still killing them.

Investors still aren't demanding higher overall premiums for the riskiest corporate debt and the $18.4 billion iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF has gained 3.9 percent this year, even as credit spreads for energy companies widened to the highest since September after crude slid below $43 a barrel. 

"There may be more pain on the way" for the energy patch, warns Bloomberg Intelligence senior credit analyst Spencer Cutter.

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In 2015, "there was a significant lag between oil really cratering and credit catching up," writes Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Brean Capital LLC. "While I think the energy related credit selling was overdone by late 2015, it seems to me that we have hit a point yet again where the lag effect has to start kicking in -- credit can't ignore ongoing weakness for so long."

Yeah, everything bad is "contained" and will remain so, and everything bullish will continue forever... don't you just love it when we reach the point in market/crisis cycles that the word "contained" has to be trotted out? We're certainly reassured...

U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development officials say Starrett City has received $491.7 million in federal subsidies since May 2013, including $76.8 million last year and $38.3 million so far this year.

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The [HUD inspection score] drop from 89 to 70 put Starrett City closer to the score of 60 HUD deems unacceptable. HUD can terminate a contract with a landlord with two scores of 60.

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The difference from past inspections is that HUD is now run by Trump's appointee, Ben Carson.

The drop from 89 to 70 put Starrett City closer to the score of 60 HUD deems unacceptable. HUD can terminate a contract with a landlord with two scores of 60.

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Complex spokesman Bob Liff emphasized that Trump plays no role in managing the complex. Trump's father, Fred, was a limited partner when it was built in 1974 and Trump and his siblings inherited that interest when his father died.

The 4% stake Trump holds was placed in a trust shortly before he became President Jan. 20.

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Trump's receipt of income from Starrett City creates a potential conflict for Carson, who will have ultimate say over HUD's next score of the complex.

During his confirmation hearing, Carson wouldn't answer directly when asked if he would make sure Trump and his family didn't make any money via his agency.

"We tried to issue subpoenas. We tried to hold people in contempt and the Obama administration said ‘no,' and the Trump administration came in and did zero," Chaffetz said. "Nothing. Nothing changed."

This is a pretty damning indictment for the "lock her up!" crowd -- these scandals should be easy targets and low-hanging fruit for the Trump admin to fulfill promises to "drain the swamp" and to get some easy wins; we wonder, is it that the Trump admin. is too incompetent to follow through, or that there is really nothing to these scandals?

Joe Hinrichs, Ford's head of global operations, cited lower costs as the reason to outsource production to China. The company will save $1 billion by building the Focus in China instead of Mexico, he said.

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He said the savings would be so significant that even if Congress slapped tariffs on foreign-made imports, the change would still make financial sense.

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Ford stressed that no American jobs would be lost in the China move. Starting in late 2018, its Michigan plant will simply focus on making bigger, more profitable vehicles, including the Ranger midsize pickup truck. The automaker also announced on Tuesday that it will invest $900 million in a Kentucky factory to build big SUVs, like the Lincoln Navigator, which would secure 1,000 jobs at the plant.

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The case centers on agreements between Barclays and Qatari investors during two fundraisings in June and October 2008.

Qatar Holding, part of the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund, and Challenger, an investment vehicle of former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, invested around 5.3 billion pounds in Barclays.

Authorities have examined whether payments from Barclays to Qatar at the same time, such as around 322 million pounds in "advisory services agreements" (ASA), alongside the $3 billion loan, were honest and properly disclosed.

Wonder why this is being brought now... perhaps because Qatar "funds terrorism" (while Saudi Arabia doesn't)?

Now all three engines of "growth" have run out of steam. All three greatly exacerbated wealth and income inequality... The Exploitive Elites cannot turn back the tides of history, but they can immiserate millions. That seems to be "solution" enough for them, but you cannot destroy rising moral revulsion to soaring inequality and the abject failure of debt-based global capitalism with mere media propaganda.

I'm not the only one saying this about the Fed's reaction function. Far more influential Missionaries than me, people like Jeff Gundlach and Mohamed El-Erian, are saying the same thing. If you think that this Fed still has your back, Mr. Investor, the way they had your back in 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and 2012 and 2013 and 2014 and 2015 and 2016 ... well, I think you are mistaken. I think Janet Yellen broke up with you this week.

With the US military gone rogue in foreign lands, and the intelligence community off-the-reservation at home, and the Trump White House all gummed up in the tarbaby of RussiaGate, and the House and Senate lost in the shuffle, you also have to wonder what anybody is going to do about the imminent technical bankruptcy of the USA as the Treasury Department spends down its dwindling fund of remaining cash money to pay ongoing expenses...

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The Vancouver Sun adds that as a result of tighter federal lending rules, borrowers trying to buy million-dollar-plus properties in Vancouver's market "are increasingly taking out dangerous loans from shadow bankers in a fast-growing and poorly regulated financial market."

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"These properties in Vancouver are so expensive that you need people either laundering money or loan fraud or people borrowing such large amounts of money that should never be allowed, in order to keep it going," MacBeth said. "If everyone is reporting their incomes honestly in Vancouver, there is no way that housing prices can stay where they are.

For Amazon, another billion in cash doesn't really alter the equation for owning the organic food retailer. What it does though is highlight the vast differences between the retail giant and tech giants that are so commonly lumped into the same investment discussions.

On a related note, see Amazon Just Created A Huge Risk And Opportunity By Acquiring Whole Foods.

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The president's decision to leave the Paris climate accord is opposed by 57 percent in the poll. And 80 percent think it's appropriate for U.S. companies to continue to try to meet the accord's goals despite the U.S. plans to pull out. And 72 percent say it will be effective for companies to do it alone without the Federal government.

The optimism seems excessively peaky to us. We're 10 years on from the last financial crisis and overdue for a recession, with the market at insane inflated highs, so one would expect sentiment to be lagging like this.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. And I suggest that at least with respect to this policy, Trump's proving himself adept at hammering rhetoric that promises one thing-- particularly to a set of supporters-- while the actual policy changes he announces, let alone ultimately manages to implement-- whether or not we believe in them-- don't amount to all that much. Does that sound familiar?

The easing pressure will allow banks including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., which struggled with the tests in early years, to put about $30 billion more cash in shareholders' pockets, according to analysts' estimates.

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Wells Fargo & Co. is the wild card, the one U.S. bank that might fail the qualitative section, analysts at Morgan Stanley and UBS said in reports this month. The Fed could find the bank's control mechanisms insufficient in light of revelations last year that employees may have opened millions of accounts without customer authorization