And of course all of this comes in the context of a much larger long-term decline for Middle Eastern stocks. At this point, Saudi Arabian stocks are down more than 50 percent from their 2014 highs. Needless to say, a lot of very wealthy people in Saudi Arabia are getting very nervous. Could you imagine waking up someday and realizing that more than half of your fortune had been wiped out?

Things aren’t that bad in the US quite yet, but it looks like another rough week could be ahead. The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all down at least 12 percent from their 52-week highs, and the Russell 2000 is already in bear market territory. Hopefully this week will not be as bad as last week, but events are starting to move very rapidly now.

Much of the chaos around the globe is being driven by the price of oil. At the end of last week the price of oil dipped below 30 dollars a barrel, and now Iran has announced plans “to add 1 million barrels to its daily crude production”… It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what this is going to do to the price of oil.

The price of oil has already fallen more than 20 percent so far in 2016, and overall it has declined by more than 70 percent since late 2014.

When the price of oil first started to fall, a lot of people out there were proclaiming that it would be really good for the US economy. But I said just the opposite. And of course since that time we have seen an endless parade of debt downgrades, bankruptcies and job losses. 130,000 good paying energy jobs were lost in the United States in 2015 alone because of this collapse, and things just continue to get even worse. At this point, some are even calling for the federal government to intervene.

Is it just me, or is all of this really starting to sound a lot like 2008?

And of course it isn’t just the US that is facing troubles. The global financial crisis that began during the second half of 2015 is rapidly accelerating, and chaos is erupting all over the planet. Right now we are about halfway through January, and this is the worst start to a year for stocks ever. The Dow is down a total of 1,437 points since the beginning of 2016, and more than 15 trillion dollars of stock market wealth has been wiped out globally since last June.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people out there that are in denial. There are a lot of people that still believe that this is just a temporary bump in the road and that things will return to “normal” very soon. They don’t understand that this is just the beginning. What we have seen so far is just the warm up act, and much, much worse is yet to come.

That is not the fantasy of diehard Eurosceptics but a real fear articulated at the highest levels in Berlin and Brussels. Chancellor Angela Merkel, her ratings hit by crimes blamed on asylum seekers at New Year parties in Cologne, and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker both said as much last week.

Juncker echoed Merkel in warning that the central economic achievements of the common market and the euro are at risk from incoherent, nationalistic reactions to migration and other crises. He renewed warnings that Europe is on its "last chance", even if he still hoped it was not "at the beginning of the end".

Merkel, facing trouble among her conservative supporters as much as from opponents, called Europe "vulnerable" and the fate of the euro "directly linked" to resolving the migration crisis - highlighting the risk of at the very least serious economic turbulence if not a formal dismantling of EU institutions.

With Merkel's conservative allies in the southern frontier state of Bavaria demanding she halt the mainly Muslim asylum seekers ahead of tricky regional elections in March, her veteran finance minister delivered one of his trademark veiled threats to EU counterparts of what that could mean for them.

"Many think this is a German problem," Wolfgang Schaeuble said in meetings with fellow EU finance ministers in Brussels. "But if Germany does what everyone expects, then we'll see that it's not a German problem - but a European one."

The Center for Policy Studies (CPS) said that after 40 years of “increasingly frequent, increasingly severe” banking crises, it was time to consider the abolition of deposit insurance, which guarantees the first £75,000 of each person’s combined savings at banks and building societies.

The CPS claimed in a new report that scrapping deposit protection would bring about “an end, in perpetuity, to the need for the state bail-outs of UK banks” and reduce the “moral hazard” it has produced. Without the availability of a Government guarantee for their savings, consumers would “be required to become more risk-aware in their choice of bank”.

Deposit guarantees were first introduced in the UK nearly 40 years ago, when a directive of the European Economic Community was implemented in the Banking Act 1979. Since then the amount covered by the Government has gradually increased, to a peak of £85,000 in 2010. The limit was cut by £10,000 at the beginning of 2015.

This was disclosed with the recent release of phone conversations from early 2011 between Muammar Gaddafi and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The West was then gearing up to use unrest in Libya as a pretext for military intervention and regime change. Gaddafi desperately tried to convey through Blair the folly of such a war, pleading that he was trying to defend Libya from Al Qaeda, which had set up base in the country.

He said: “They have managed to get arms and terrify people. people can’t leave their homes… It’s a jihad situation. They have arms and are terrorising people in the street.” Gaddafi’s warning went unheeded, and NATO, led by the US and France, launched an air war that toppled Libya’s government. Later that year, Gaddafi (himself a brutal oppressor, like all heads of state) was forced out of a drainage pipe, and then beaten, sodomized, and shot in the street by a mob. His corpse was then draped over the hood of a car.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had done more than any single person to advance the Libya War, was informed of Gaddafi’s death while on camera. Fancying herself a modern Caesar, she chortled, “We came, we saw, he died!”

Confirming plans revealed by the Telegraph, the company said it would focus the redundancies at its giant “strip products” plant at Port Talbot in Wales, the country’s largest steel facility with about 4,000 workers. About 750 steel jobs are expected to be axed at Port Talbot along with a further 200 in support roles at the plant, which is thought to be losing about £1 million a week.

A further 100 jobs will go at Tata’s steel mills in Trostre, also in Wales, and Corby and Hartlepool. The company said the cuts are a cost saving move intended to improve the competitiveness of the business, which is suffering from “a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China”.

Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel’s European operations, said: “I know this news will be unsettling for all those affected, but these tough actions are critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.”

He also called for action from the EU to fight the stream of steel imports. “We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions,” Mr Koehler said. “Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry.”

In another real-life example of the world's interconnected economy, the Saudis increasingly look to produce animal feed overseas in order to save water in their own territory, most of which is desert.

Privately held Fondomonte California on Sunday announced that it bought 1,790 acres of farmland in Blythe, California — an agricultural town along the Colorado River — for nearly $32 million. Two years ago, Fondomont's parent company, Saudi food giant Almarai, purchased another 10,000 acres of farmland about 50 miles away in Vicksburg, Arizona, for around $48 million.

But not everyone likes the trend. The alfalfa exports are tantamount to "exporting water," because in Saudi Arabia, "they have decided that it's better to bring feed in rather than to empty their water reserves," said Keith Murfield, CEO of United Dairymen of Arizona, a Tempe-based dairy cooperative whose members also buy alfalfa. "This will continue unless there's regulations put on it."

Sitting in his white-walled room on the second floor of an anonymous office block, the German politician talks from the heart. He states emotionally that his country has changed for ever; that the European Union is finished and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s days are numbered.

‘Frau Merkel, she’s not right in the head,’ adds 46-year-old Siegbert Droese, pointing his finger at his temple.

She tells people from all over the Islamic world to come here to paradise. The numbers are mind-boggling and could reach ten million [when the migrants bring members of their families over to join them]. ‘So many young men arriving every day with high testosterone and little respect for women mean the New Year sex attacks in Cologne will be repeated. I am not alone in thinking this. The penny is dropping among ordinary Germans.’

What Herr Droese — president of the populist Eurosceptic party, Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in the eastern city of Leipzig — says about German views on migrants is all too true. According to a recent survey, half of the population is now sceptical that Mrs Merkel will cope with the huge influx. This is despite her recent TV address to the nation — complete with Arabic sub-titles aimed at the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in 2015 and now live at the Government’s expense in 2000 camps, hotels and rented accommodation across the country — when she repeated her insistence that ‘we can do this’. The tide is inexorably turning against her, and polls show her popularity is declining.

‘Germans are realising that we have to look after our own people first before we open the door to all the world.’ He adds: ‘What is happening in Germany is catastrophic. Nothing will be the same again.’

During a visit marked by tight security and historic continuity, Francis also rejected all forms of anti-Semitism and called for "maximum vigilance" and early intervention to prevent another Holocaust. Francis joined a standing ovation when Holocaust survivors, some wearing striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms, were singled out for applause at the start of the ceremony. And he elicited an ovation of his own when he paused in his remarks to acknowledge the survivors in the synagogue's front row.

The visit comes amid a spate of Islamic extremist attacks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere — violence which Francis has repeatedly condemned as anathema to religion, particularly given that Christians and religious minorities have often been the target. "Violence of man against man is in contradiction to every religion that merits the name, in particular the three monotheistic religions," Francis said, referring to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. "Every human being, as a creature of God, is our brother regardless of his origins or religious belief."

His sentiments were shared by members of the Jewish community, who sought to hold up the visit as a sign of interfaith friendship in the face of Muslim extremism. "Today, the sad novelty is that after two centuries of disasters produced by nationalism and ideologies, violence has come back and it is fed and justified by fanatic visions inspired by religion," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the pope. "A meeting of peace between different religious communities, as the one that is taking place today here in Rome, is a very strong sign against the invasion and abuse of religious violence."

In this concept, which is not limited solely to Tinder use, people are urged toward being more 'chill.' By creating too many options to make decisions more intricate than a 'yes' or 'no,' human behaviour ultimately becomes robotic. In an essay for The New Inquiry called Tinderization of Feeling, Alicia Eler and Eve Peyser write that Tinderization is a way for people, largely millennials, to make fast decisions by simplifying situations into a simpler 'yes/no' format.

Regular decisions, like choosing a show to watch, or a restaurant to eat at, have become even more difficult with the inundation of immediately available networks at your fingertips. With Tinder, swiping through potential suitors allows people to make choices quickly — so quickly that it becomes like a game. By swiping right time after time, users can pick so many options that they don't actually have to make a choice, the authors explain.

This applies to all networks, as people continue to push aside human connection, and opt toward binary sorting techniques. 'Tinder is more than a dating app,' Eler and Peyser write, 'it is a metaphor for speeding up and mechanizing decision-making, turning us into binary creatures who can bypass underlying questions and emotions and instead go with whatever feels really good in the moment.'

Unfortunately the domino effect is just beginning as anchor stores like Macy’s, Sears and JC Penney continue to announce closings that will ultimately be the death knell for the American shopping mall.

400 Office Depot / Office Max (by 2016)

223 Barnes & Noble (through 2023)

200 Children’s Place (through 2017)

200 Walgreens (by 2017)

175 Aeropostale (“over the next several years”)

154 Walmart

150 American Eagle Outfitters (through 2017)

150 Finish Line

120 Chico’s (through 2017)

100 Pier One (through 2017)

60 Pier One (fiscal 2016, ending February, 2016)

54 Golf Galaxy (by 2016)

36 Macy’s

35 Gap / Gap Kids (2016)

30 Hartstrings (Out of Business)

27 Kmart

20 Pick ’n Save (by 2017)

14 Kitson’s

10 Barnes & Noble (2016 calendar year)

7 JC Penney

5 Hallmark

3 Martin’s Food and Drugstore

2 Elder-Beerman (Bon-Ton)

1 American Greetings

1 Ann Taylor

1 Bon-Ton

1 Target

1 Wavedancer (Out of Business)

Fireworks lit up the sky at the headquarters of Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as thousands gathered to celebrate the historic win over the ruling China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT). In her first comments to media, Tsai warned that Chinese "suppression" would damage ties with the mainland.

"Our democratic system, national identity and international space must be respected. Any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations," she said. Although Taiwan is self-ruling after it split with China following a civil war in 1949, it has never declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification.