The U.S. economy has contracted 3 times in this recovery It hasn't in any other since 1981 http://t.co/JuycFJohoZ pic.twitter.com/QiWJ2N9SU8

— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) May 31, 2015

(WSJ link requires subscription)

The most interesting close encounters between NATO and Russian planes since 2013 in one infographic.

Shanghai Duolon Industry’s stock price shot up 10 percent–the most it’s allowed in a single day–after it rebranded itself as P2P Financial Information Services Co. But, to be clear, it’s not actually developing a peer-to-peer lending business. It just bought the domain name www.p2p.com, which it asserts is worth $100 million. That’s actually the only thing that domain says right now: “This domain is worth $100 million.” That, though, was apparently all it took to convince investors that the company’s long-term prospects were 10 percent better than they had thought the day before.

h/t Robin

Via

Zerohedge: The war on cash is proliferating globally. It appears that the private members of the world’s banking cartels are increasingly joining the fun, even if it means trampling on the rights of their customers.
h/t Adrian

Wolfstreet;

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) that tracks shipping rates from Shanghai to Northern European ports plunged 14% from last week to $399 per twenty-foot container equivalent unit (TEU), down a vertigo-inducing 67% from the glory days just a year ago. It was the 11th week in a row of declines, and it set a new all-time low.
The index is now half of the key rate of $800 per TEU that a report by Drewry Maritime Research, released on April 19, considers the break-even rate for these routes even at the currently lower fuel costs. This leaves carriers deeply in the red.

h/t Melinda

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.
The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm.

Just a 20 hour drive from Minneapolis!
Related.

More British Muslims have joined Islamist militant groups than serve in Britain's armed forces http://t.co/oGxq7ueLlB pic.twitter.com/j51YCakTBt

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 15, 2015

h/t Davers6

Wolf Street;

…on Wednesday, a new thing happened: Switzerland sold 10-year government debt at a negative yield. They’d been selling debt at negative yields for a while, but with a 10-year maturity. No country had.
The little country with piles of money is defending itself against the influx of euros by repressing interest rates and making it in theory unpalatable to hold Swiss francs. But it isn’t working. What dreadful thoughts are rumbling through the heads of these investors that would scare them into lending their money to the Swiss government for ten years, not to earn a fair return, but for safekeeping apparently, and they’re even willing to pay for it!

CNN reports that a White House system containing sensitive information was compromised.
Just remember, AGW is the most pressing problem in the world.

Thus spake POTUS’ press secretary:

Believe Josh Earnest or your lying eyes
Reuters reports, “Houthi militia forces in Yemen backed by allied army units seized an air base on Wednesday and appeared poised to capture the southern port of Aden from defenders loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, local residents said. After taking al-Anad air base, the Houthis and their military allies, supported by heavy armor, advanced to within 20 km (12 miles) of Aden, where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa last month.” This is another instance in which Iranian-backed forces have destabilized a government reasonably friendly to the West. Just a few months ago President Obama held Yemen up as a success story.
Naturally the White House press corps wanted the press secretary to acknowledge things had not gone as planned. But no. Josh Earnest had his talking point and was sticking with it (just like the talking point that Obama meant what he said when he called the shooting of innocents in a French kosher market “random”). For over three minutes Earnest refused to acknowledge their model was not a mess. Pressed again, he insisted this is still a “template that has succeeded.” An incredulous Jonathan Karl of ABC News continued to press him, but Earnest refused to admit the obvious, namely that the administration had failed in its leading from behind, light footprint.
It was embarrassing and unbelievable. But it was also instructive…

Right.

“The numbers are sort of made-up.”

US Has Declining Real Wages But Rising Home Prices.

Once China’s largest shipbuilder, Rongsheng is on the verge of bankruptcy. More at Reuters. (h/t Maz2)

February 23rd: Third Dry-Bulk Shipper Files For Bankruptcy In Past 3 Weeks (h/t Adrian)

Adrian, via email: “So not the recovery we have been promised, what no increase in trade? Its like they lied to us!“

Samsung’s Eavesdropping TV…