by Richard J. Maybury
Mises.org
Whether it is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump who stands on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C in January 2017 to take the oath of office as president of the United States, all public opinion polls suggest whomever emerges victorious will have among the highest unfavorable ratings for anyone beginning their time in the White House. Both Clinton and Trump represent a failure for American democracy.
According to an Associated Press poll taken in early July 2016, 57 percent view Clinton unfavorably and only 37 percent favorably. Sixty-three percent hold an unfavorable view of Trump, and only 31 percent are favorable. Of those planning to vote for either Clinton or Trump, only 26 percent, respectively, said they would be positively “excited” if their candidate wins. Plus, three quarters of prospective voters in the poll declared that they were making their decision based upon whom they wanted to vote against.
Summary
I can’t stop talking about Pokémon.
Whatever It Takes Wednesdays with 
You never know what you’re going to find at Freedomfest…
(ANTIMEDIA) Wikileaks claimed Monday it was under attack after it announced it would release hundreds of thousands of documents related to Turkey and the failed military coup attempted Friday, CNET reported.
I’m excited.
Quality, quality of life, and well-being are not easily quantified, so they are ignored.
Stocks opened higher Wednesday, putting the Dow industrials on track to log its seventh record closing high in a row, fueled by better-than-feared quarterly results. Notably, Morgan Stanley MS, +2.15% reported second-quarter results thatbeat Wall Street’s expectations, lifting the investment bank’s shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.24% rose 0.2% to 18,601, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.45% climbed 0.2% at 2,167, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +1.04% advanced 0.4% to 5,056. On Tuesday, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished lower as the broader market retreated after disappointing quarterly results from Netflix Inc. NFLX, +2.25% Meanwhile, crude-oil prices were trading 1.6% lower at $44.74 a barrel, ahead of data on inventories.
Turkey was convulsed by an attempted coup last week. Nominally democratic but in practice increasingly authoritarian, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has initiated a broad crackdown that goes well beyond the military. He has the makings of becoming another Vladimir Putin—except supposedly on America’s side, but even that is up for debate.
One of America’s most prominent hedge fund managers is betting the farm that China’s economic troubles are far from over. His bet centers around the U.S. dollar and by extension several Asian currencies. What happens to the dollar from here will determine whether this man’s epic trading positions pays off, and China suffers a major setback, and whether his worst case scenario for the global economic outlook is merely a mirage. If he’s right, the outcome of his bet will also affect the commodities market and perhaps even the equities market.
IMF officials were labelled ‘clowns’ with ‘serious credibility problems’ last night after saying the British economy will grow faster than Germany and France in the next two years – only weeks after its doom-laden warnings about Brexit.