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Several hours earlier, news broke that a bomb had exploded on a bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, a few hundred kilometers from Sochi where the winter Olympics will be held. Russian investigators announced they suspect a female suicide bomber was responsible for the bombing which killed at least five people according to Interfax. Citing a source in the regional Investigative Committee office, Interfax said identity documents belonging to the suspected bomber were found near the site and that she was believed to have been the wife of an Islamist militant. Below, we show the dash cam video which caught this terrorist act in process.

Disturbing as this video is, we believe it is only going to get worse as the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics approach. Recall from “Meet Saudi Arabia’s Bandar bin Sultan: The Puppetmaster Behind The Syrian War“:

Bandar told Putin, “…The terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya…. As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us…

Was today’s terrorist explosion just a warning shot ultimately funded and organized by none other than the biggest loser from the Syrian detente: Saudi Arabia, because recall that it was Saudi Arabia which orchestrated the near-US invasion after playing Obama and Kerry like a fiddle, in hopes of getting the natgas pipeline under Syria. Following the Putin-brokered peace plan, Saudi will now have to wait at least one more year before re-escalating tensions in the Syria region with hopes of installing its own puppet regime. 

In the meantime, is Saudi now openly lashing out at the one country that made this delay a reality. And if so, when, where and how will Putin retaliate against the country that serves as the anchor of the petrodollar system? We look forward to finding out.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/uEVm2aKXtjE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

For the first time since July 2009, the European equity markets have risen for 8 days straight. The 4.73% rise is the best run in 3 months and took Bloomberg’s European 500 index (akin to the S&P 500 in the US) to a perfect 61.8% retracement of the 2007/9 collapse. Greece and Spain are outperforming (the former +7% in the last 3 days alone). Away fdrom stocks, bonds are quiet, sovereign spreads are hardly moving as liquidity evaporates and while the EUR strengthened early on, as the US day session opened, the EUR sold off back to unchanged by the close of Europe. In the meantime, Europe’s VIX dropped to 9 month lows (below 16%) today. Oh – and by the way – European Macro data has collapsed to 3-month lows.

European stocks have retraced 61.8% of their 2007-9 losses…

 

and this makes perfect sense…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/dhzvefrHfJ8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

We’ve heard statement after statement from any and all talking heads (a sample of the best 25 here) and we’ve seen the numbers (both internally and in context)… and we’ve discussed the unintended consequences and what to expect in 2014. So now (due at 1125ET – so who knows what time he turns up), it’s the big man’s turn to become the Sham-Wow guy; explain how great it actually is (and ignore the bloggers); how any minute now it will all be fixed, and how awesome this will all be (one day)… Don’t forget you can always call 1-800-F U-CKYO for advice.

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7F0vnL0AUEM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

We’ve heard statement after statement from any and all talking heads (a sample of the best 25 here) and we’ve seen the numbers (both internally and in context)… and we’ve discussed the unintended consequences and what to expect in 2014. So now (due at 1125ET – so who knows what time he turns up), it’s the big man’s turn to become the Sham-Wow guy; explain how great it actually is (and ignore the bloggers); how any minute now it will all be fixed, and how awesome this will all be (one day)… Don’t forget you can always call 1-800-F U-CKYO for advice.

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7F0vnL0AUEM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Just two weeks ago we discussed the dismal smog that had closed roads and ariports around Beijing during the recent holiday. The situation has got worse, far worse, since then. As Reuters reports (and the stunning images below show), choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China’s largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspend classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport in the country’s first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people. A level above 300 is considered hazardous! China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.

 

Via Reuters,

Users of China’s popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site reacted with both anger and bitter sarcasm over Harbin’s air pollution.

 

“After years of effort, the wise and hard-working people of Harbin have finally managed to skip both the middle-class society and the communist society stages, and have now entered a fairyland society!” wrote one user.

 

Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog, including Tangshan, two hours east of Beijing, and Changchun, the capital of Jilin province which borders Heilongjiang.

Via EuroNews,

The World Health Organisation recommends daily levels of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers to be no more than twenty. Anything above 300 is considered dangerous. Levels around 1,000 were recorded in some parts of Harbin. All schools were shut and the airport was closed.

 

Harbin is home to some 11 million people and lies in the northeastern Heilongjiang province of China. Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog.

 

Visibility has reduced to only around 10 metres causing traffic jams.

 

China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.

 

The smog is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.

 

This is the freeway… (spot the cars)

 

Via CTV,

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/b8Yy6TEmqbk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Just two weeks ago we discussed the dismal smog that had closed roads and ariports around Beijing during the recent holiday. The situation has got worse, far worse, since then. As Reuters reports (and the stunning images below show), choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China’s largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspend classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport in the country’s first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people. A level above 300 is considered hazardous! China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.

 

Via Reuters,

Users of China’s popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site reacted with both anger and bitter sarcasm over Harbin’s air pollution.

 

“After years of effort, the wise and hard-working people of Harbin have finally managed to skip both the middle-class society and the communist society stages, and have now entered a fairyland society!” wrote one user.

 

Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog, including Tangshan, two hours east of Beijing, and Changchun, the capital of Jilin province which borders Heilongjiang.

Via EuroNews,

The World Health Organisation recommends daily levels of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers to be no more than twenty. Anything above 300 is considered dangerous. Levels around 1,000 were recorded in some parts of Harbin. All schools were shut and the airport was closed.

 

Harbin is home to some 11 million people and lies in the northeastern Heilongjiang province of China. Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog.

 

Visibility has reduced to only around 10 metres causing traffic jams.

 

China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.

 

The smog is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.

 

This is the freeway… (spot the cars)

 

Via CTV,

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/b8Yy6TEmqbk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Thanks to a considerable downward revision of the magical NAR numbers, the existing home sales MoM ‘beat’ expectations for September but the two-month average shows the largest drop in sales since June 2012. From the “cylical peak” in July, of course extrapolated by any and all apologists as confirming the voyage to the moon, it seems, just as we noted, that “affordability” – long shunned by the bulls (because, like you know, interest rates are still low compare to the 1970s…) – has collapsed to five-year lows; worse, in fact, than we expected. With 33% of all transactions cash, it is little surprise that affordability has fallen to a five-year low as home price increases easily outpaced income growth.

 

 

 

From the NAR statement:

Affordability has fallen to a five-year low as home price increases easily outpaced income growth

 

…

 

Expected rising mortgage interest rates will further lower affordability in upcoming months.  Next month we may see some delays associated with the government shutdown.”

Just as we warned in June:

It also means that a buyer who could previously afford a $506K house with a $2,000 monthly budget at an interest rate of 2.5% will be able to afford only $316K if and when the average 30 Year fixed hits 6.5%: a 40% drop in affordability based on just a 4% increase in interest rates!

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/PRWRvmNRyl8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

What we can expect to happen generally happens, as the causal chain cannot be disrupted by wishful thinking.

If I go to Las Vegas and gamble with abandon, what do I expect to happen? If I wander alone through a tough part of town waving my iPhone around, what do I expect to happen? If I insist on hiking up a muddy rain forest trail in street clothes in the pouring rain, what do I expect to happen?

We all know what is likely to happen: In Las Vegas, we will lose our stake; in the tough part of town, our iPhone will be stolen, and on the tropical trail, we will get soaking wet.

These consequences are easily predictable. What we can expect to happen generally happens, as the causal chain cannot be disrupted by wishful thinking.

Yet when we re-elect the same politicos who have failed miserably for years, we somehow expect they will magically succeed in providing leadership the next time around. When we eat visibly unhealthy packaged junk food that is engineered to trigger our reward centers with massive doses of fat, salt and sugar, we somehow expect there will be no consequences of eating this "food."

We sit in front of digital devices all day and eliminate physical fitness from our schools, yet we expect there will be no consequences from this inactivity.

We create trillions of dollars from thin air and borrow trillions of additional dollars into existence, yet we expect there will be no consequences from this unprecedented monetary and credit expansion.

We borrow a third of all government expenditures, yet we expect there will be no consequences from this monumental dependence on public debt to maintain the Status Quo.

We buy the cheapest quality goods, yet complain about the poor quality.

We pursue a plan of borrowing our way to prosperity, yet we are flummoxed that prosperity is elusive.

We push everyone with any assets into risky asset bubbles with zero-interest rates, yet we are surprised when asset bubbles pop.

What do you expect to happen? The causal chain cannot be disrupted by wishful thinking. Bubbles will pop, and increasingly leveraged, fragile systems will crash. Hoping causal consequences will magically vanish is a strategy doomed to catastrophe.
 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/QETFsFo-OKw/story01.htm Tyler Durden

That the US is set to have its third consecutive quarter with revenue declines (followed by the fourth in a few months, when all the misses will be blamed on – what else – the Tea Party), is by now well-known and greeted by stocks which have given up on any fundamentals (that this happens even as “one-time” restructuring charges which actually recur every quarter, such as JPM’s most recent $9 billion in fees, are added back to non-GAAP EPS, and make EPS increase is just as well-known). But it is not so much the US we focus on in this blurb, but Europe, where for some mindboggling reason the consensus has rapidly shifted in recent months, toward a prevailing sentiment of recovery. So here is a quick datapoint from Deutsche putting the European “recovery” in context.

You read that right: of 17 companies on the DJStoxx600 reporting so far in Q3, 13 have missed.

Welcome to the [European] recovery, indeed.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/4XhyU0vUINM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

That the US is set to have its third consecutive quarter with revenue declines (followed by the fourth in a few months, when all the misses will be blamed on – what else – the Tea Party), is by now well-known and greeted by stocks which have given up on any fundamentals (that this happens even as “one-time” restructuring charges which actually recur every quarter, such as JPM’s most recent $9 billion in fees, are added back to non-GAAP EPS, and make EPS increase is just as well-known). But it is not so much the US we focus on in this blurb, but Europe, where for some mindboggling reason the consensus has rapidly shifted in recent months, toward a prevailing sentiment of recovery. So here is a quick datapoint from Deutsche putting the European “recovery” in context.

You read that right: of 17 companies on the DJStoxx600 reporting so far in Q3, 13 have missed.

Welcome to the [European] recovery, indeed.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/4XhyU0vUINM/story01.htm Tyler Durden