Yesterday, I asked my girl what she thought lay behind the epidemic of mental health problems in young people. “You can never be good enough,” she shrugged. “I got really solid GCSEs but they could have been better. It’s not just academic work, it’s everything. Kids my age spend an average of eight hours a day online and 80 per cent of advertising features the female body, always perfect looking, so pretty much the whole time you know you’re not good enough.”

“Could do better” used to be the laconic teacher’s scrawl on a sub-standard essay; now it’s the self-lacerating mantra of our children during what are supposed to be the best years of their lives. A survey by the World Health Organisation in 2014 revealed that a fifth of 15-year-olds in England said they had self-harmed in the past twelve months. That finding bore out anecdotal evidence I had heard from other parents and teachers.

Like my daughter’s tutor in the sixth form who suggested that her persistent stomach complaint might have a psychological cause. I was taken aback. “Do you really think so?,’ I asked dubiously. “Probably a third of the year are suffering from depression, anorexia or self-harming,” he replied.

Maintaining the suspension of disbelief in the illusion, however, is often more comforting than acknowledging the magician’s secrets. We live in a world of illusion. So many of the concerns that occupy the mind and the tasks that fill the calendar arise from planted impulses to become someone or something that we are not. This is no accident.

As we are indoctrinated into this authoritarian-corporate-consumer culture that now dominates the human race, we are trained that certain aspects of our society are untouchable truths, and that particular ways of being and behaving are preferred.

Psychopaths disempower people in this way. They blind us with never ceasing barrages of suggestions and absolutes that are aimed at shattering self-confidence and confidence in the future. Advertising is just the tip of the iceberg. When we look further we see that the overall organization of life is centered around the pursuit of illusions and automatic obedience to institutions and ideas which are not at all what they seem.

We are in a very real sense enslaved. Many call this somewhat intangible feeling of oppression ‘the matrix,’ a system of total control that invades the mind, programming individuals to pattern themselves in accordance with a mainstream conformist version of reality, no matter how wicked it gets.

Robots deployed in manufacturing today tend to be large, dangerous to anyone who strays too close to their whirling arms, and limited to one task, like welding, painting or hoisting heavy parts. The latest models entering factories and being developed in labs are a different breed. They can work alongside humans without endangering them and help assemble all sorts of objects, as large as aircraft engines and as small and delicate as smartphones. Soon, some should be easy enough to program and deploy that they no longer will need expert overseers.

Some of the latest robots are designed specifically for the tricky job of assembling consumer-electronics items, now mostly done by hand in Asia. At least one company promises its robots eventually will be sewing garments in the US, taking over one of the ultimate sweatshop tasks.

Though the US, Europe and other high-wage areas should benefit from these trends, they won’t have the field to themselves. China also is investing heavily in robots as its wages soar and its population ages. For now, China has just 30 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees, trailing South Korea (437), Japan (323), Germany (282) and the US (152), according to the International Federation of Robotics, a trade group. But the federation projects that the total number of industrial robots being used in China will exceed that of North America next year. IHS Technology, a research firm, projects that robot sales in China will surge to about 211,000 units in 2019 from 55,000 last year.

Greater use of robots means fewer people are needed on factory floors; those doing routine tasks requiring little education are most vulnerable. Yet even highly automated factories create or sustain jobs in design, engineering, machine maintenance and repair, marketing, logistics and other services.

US President Barack Obama is expected to sign the USA Freedom Act after it was approved by the Senate 67-32 on Tuesday. “The Senate approving the NSA surveillance, it’s not a surprise, even with Rand Paul’s filibuster, the minor amendments,” Martin said. “The fact is that we are a surveillance society. There are no more civil liberties; there is no more right to privacy, regardless to the Constitution,” he added.

Although the Freedom Act would curtail some of the National Security Agency’s now-expired powers it gained under the Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, it would authorize the agency to still track those potentially deemed as threats. “The fact of the matter is that the Freedom Act is really no different than the Patriot Act. All the government has to do now is say that someone is dangerous or they’re suspected of being a terrorist, and they can collect the data,” he noted.

“The fact is that the United States has devolved into a soft-core totalitarian dictatorship. There’s no right to privacy. And the American people, if they carry around a smart phone should seriously consider getting rid of it,” the journalist said. “They should very seriously consider what they write in their emails and be very cautious of that, because even dry humor can be construed by the government as ‘terrorism,’” he stated. “It’s a sad state of affairs, and hopefully other nations, particularly Europe and around the world would begin disassociating and disaffiliating with the United States,” Martin concluded.

In an article published in the Guardian and other European newspapers, Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s social democratic leader and vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s coalition government, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s young reformist economics minister, advocate a radical shift in integration of the eurozone, following five years of single currency crisis that have come close to tearing the EU apart.

They call for the setting up of “an embryo euro area budget”, “a fiscal capacity over and above national budgets”, and harmonised corporate taxes across the bloc. The eurozone would be able to borrow on the markets against its budget, which would be financed from a kind of Tobin tax on financial transactions and also from part of the revenue from the new business tax regime.

The eurozone’s current bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which is made up of national contributions under a deal between governments, would be made a common eurozone instrument and converted into a European Monetary Fund.

Now, the great uncertainty that has brought Greek commerce to a crashing halt will continue to the end of the month at least. Bad news indeed in a nation where business, banking, the broader economy and perhaps most importantly, the political system, are coming apart at the seams. As one emotional former government official warned me privately, Greece is ‘fast approaching its Lehman Brothers moment’. That is the point at which the full bankruptcy of the state is exposed, and not just the eurozone but the rest of the world is rocked as it was in September 2008 when the American investment bank collapsed.

You don’t have to be in Athens for very long to understand that the relative calm is no more than an illusion. Looking across the Athens skyline, cranes stand idle, while thousands of small stores are shuttered, and every inch of wall and frontage is covered in graffiti. At a small empty cafe, where the traditional Greek tiropita, cheese pie, was on offer, the chalkboard outside read: ‘No internet, but come inside and talk.’

Despite the stand-off that developed this week, it has long been my belief that the ECB and the European Commission will weaken the terms of the bailout and make it possible for Greece to meet the relatively modest repayments of €1.6 billion to the IMF demanded by the end of June. The consequences for the eurozone of not doing so would be huge shocks to financial markets across Europe and beyond. Regardless of that outcome, though, I discovered this week that tough EU policies combined with ineffectual Greek government are already creating their own economic and political disaster here.

Wealth and talent are fleeing the country, control of borders is being lost. At this point, I believe the best medicine would be a default on Greece’s debts, the return of the drachma, and a severe devaluation of that currency which would give the Greek people a chance to get back on their feet by attracting inward investment. It will be a terribly painful transition, but better than the economic death by a thousand cuts currently being forced upon this benighted nation.

This unwound in the war and Bosnia remains hamstrung by its legacy, divided along ethnic and religious lines. Francis listed the sufferings endured by Bosnians, mentioning refugee camps, destroyed houses and factories, and shattered lives. "You know this well, having experienced it here: how much suffering, how much destruction, how much pain!" he said, raising his voice as he read his homily in Italian. He issued another criticism of the weapons industry, condemning "those who speculate on wars for the purpose of selling arms".

Francis arrived in the city whose skyline is dotted by mosques and churches days after the entry into force of a landmark EU agreement on closer ties with Bosnia, part of a new Western initiative to encourage political and economic change. Earlier at a meeting with the three-member Bosnian presidency, Francis said peace initiatives between Bosnia's Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks showed that "even the deepest wounds can be healed by purifying memories and firmly anchoring hopes in the future."

Many conflicts across the planet amount to "a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we sense an atmosphere of war," the pontiff said in a mass at Sarajevo's Olympic Stadium during a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital. "Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately," he added, attacking those who want to foster division for political ends or profit from war through arms dealing.

"But war means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps, it means forced displacement, destroyed houses, streets and factories: above all countless shattered lives. You know this well having experienced it here."

H-E-B, which operates some 350 supermarkets, is one of the largest chains not only in the state, but in the whole country. And it has begun, as the casual but foreboding notices warn, to ration its eggs. "The United States is facing a temporary disruption in the supply of eggs due to the Avian Flu," a statement released on Thursday said. "H-E-B is committed to ensuring Texas families and households have access to eggs. The signs placed on our shelves last week are to deter commercial users from buying eggs in bulk."

As of this month, some 46 million chickens and turkeys have been affected, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Nearly 80 percent of those are egg-laying hens, a reality that has been crippling for the egg industry.

But it's becoming increasingly clear that it isn't merely those who produce eggs that will suffer. Those who eat them will pay a price, too. The wholesale price of eggs sold in liquid form (also known as egg beaters, the kind used by large food manufacturers) has skyrocketed — from $0.63 per dozen to more than $1.50 — since the virus began to spread. While that stands to affect the price of breads, pastas, cakes and other commercial confections made with eggs, it also bodes poorly for food service providers, such as McDonald's, which sell millions of egg-filled meals every morning.

“On May 6th of this year, I sent you a letter regarding your request for Congress to grant you fast-track executive authority,” Session wrote to Obama on Friday in a letter provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release. “Under fast-track, Congress transfers its authority to the executive and agrees to give up several of its most basic powers.

“These concessions include: the power to write legislation, the power to amend legislation, the power to fully consider legislation on the floor, the power to keep debate open until Senate cloture is invoked, and the constitutional requirement that treaties receive a two-thirds vote.

“The latter is especially important since, having been to the closed room to review the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is clear it more closely resembles a treaty than a trade deal. In other words, through fast-track, Congress would be pre-clearing a political and economic union before a word of that arrangement has been made available to a single private citizen.

“Reviewing the secret text, plus the secret guidance document that accompanies it, reveals that this new transnational commission – chartered with a ‘Living Agreement’ clause – would have the authority to amend the agreement after its adoption, to add new members, and to issue regulations impacting labor, immigration, environmental, and commercial policy. Under this new commission, the Sultan of Brunei would have an equal vote to that of the United States.

“I would therefore ask that you provide to me the legal and constitutional basis for keeping this information from the public and explain why I cannot share the details of what I have read with the American people. Congress should not even consider fast-tracking the transfer of sovereign power to a transnational structure before the details of that new structure are made fully available for public review."

He underlined that the Iranian nation will never give in to what he called the “excessive demands” being made by the “arrogant powers” during the course of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers. The sides made a major breakthrough at talks with Iran on April 2 by agreeing on the parameters for a final deal to scale back its nuclear capabilities, but still have a series of technical issues to resolve by the final deadline of June 30.

One of the issues of contention is the question of inspections. France has made clear it will not sign off on a deal with Iran if it rules out inspections of its military sites as part of the final agreement. Iran has categorically denied reports that it would allow inspectors as part of a final deal, describing them as mere rumors and as wrong interpretations of the understanding reached in early April in Switzerland.

Last week, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi, who is Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, also rejected calls for inspections of Iran’s military sites and interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists. Top Iranian commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami recently reiterated those statements, saying his country will never permit “foreigners” to inspect its military sites.

It’s limited war for Americans, and total war for those fighting Americans. The United States has more power; its foes have more willpower. Armed conflict is an expression of American identity and a trial of national vitality. General Douglas MacArthur said, “There is no substitute for victory.”

It’s time to reckon with the hard truths of conflict. As the black banner of ISIS rises above Ramadi and Palmyra, is the next chapter being written in America’s age of unwinnable conflicts?

The German Chancellor, whose support is crucial to the success of David Cameron's renegotiation of relations with Brussels, said history showed the group could successfully address member states' concerns. "Some of the things that David Cameron is asking for I can support," Mrs Merkel told the BBC - six days after meeting the Prime Minister for preliminary talks in Berlin over his plans to hold an in/out referendum by 2017.

"There are other points where we have a different opinion, but we have always been able also to pursue a Europe at different speeds, to find opt-out solutions for example." She said it was "not about losing sleep over this, but about doing our work and creating the necessary preconditions for Britain to remain in the EU."

Her reassurance came after former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer warned Mr Cameron not to overestimate the support he will receive from Germany - where the top priority is resolving the Greek debt crisis. "Don't lose yourself in wishful thinking," he told the BBC. "Angela Merkel will do nothing which will endanger the basic principles of the common market, of the EU. And she has a much bigger problem to address - how to find a compromise in the currency union with Greece. That's her priority number one now."

Here’s an excerpt from the Bloomberg View piece:

“Money isn’t a liability in the ordinary sense. Nothing is owed and nothing ever has to be paid back.”

As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s not exactly surprising in a debt-addicted world run by Keynesian central planners and indeed, it echoes recent calls by US lawmakers for the absolution of some $1.3 trillion in student debt. Now, it appears the insanity has spread to the highest possible levels with none other than the IMF's deputy director of research suggesting that when governments are faced with too much debt, they should consider simply not worrying about it.

But the real punch line comes when the team of economists moves to consider how heavily-indebted countries should respond to an exogenous debt shock: With these preliminaries, we can turn to our question of interest: what happens if there is an exogenous increase in public debt?

It turns out that the optimal policy involves living with the debt forever. The analytical framework implies that it is better to live with high debt than to pay it down.