SATURDAY 5/17/14

Portugal exits the bailout program but the economic problems remain. The BOJ stabbing the yen during 2013 created the huge rally to six-year highs for the European stock markets as well as the record low yields on notes and bonds. The rise in these asset prices creates the illusion that all is well but if you travel to Portugal, panhandlers will hound you for loose change. The youth unemployment is shamefully 37% but leaders say the skies are blue.

[Text is Redacted: Purchase May 2014-05 to Read the Complete Chronology]

A large orange box sitting at a busy intersection in San Francisco, California, placed by AMZN, creates a mystery. Social media is abuzz as to what is inside the large garage-sized box. The giant locker is revealed as a promotional gimmick by Nissan and Amazon to promote a new SUV model.

A third person in America contracts the deadly MERS virus. This is the first case in the US where MERS is transmitted to another person (the two other cases are health care workers that were exposed in Saudi Arabia) from a simple handshake.