Why could that happen? Well, energy companies make up anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of all US junk debt, according to various sources. In fact, they've been the most prolific issuers of high-yield debt over the years, as their share of that market was just 5 percent in 2005. The oil bull market we once knew filled their coffers and made executives feel confident they could borrow more and more money.

Much of that high-yield debt is now on the books of banks, asset managers and pension funds. What's more, banks are even more dependent on a happy junk market as they make a market in the bonds. Any collapse in prices could cause bidders to run and liquidity to dry up.

Yet stocks in the bank sector are up more than 8 percent since June. And the Dow Jones industrial average is more than 6 percent higher. "This is the one thing I've seen over and over again," said Larry McDonald, head of US strategy at Newedge USA's macro group. "When high yield underperforms equity, a major credit event occurs. It's the canary in the coal mine."

Energy companies now account for approximately 20 percent of the junk bond market. And a junk bond implosion is usually a signal that a major stock market crash is on the way. So if you are looking for a “canary in the coal mine”, keep your eye on the performance of energy junk bonds. If they begin to collapse, that is a sign that all hell is about to break loose on Wall Street.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the shale oil boom to the US economy. Thanks to this boom, the United States has become the largest oil producer on the entire planet. Yes, the US now actually produces more oil than either Saudi Arabia or Russia. This “revolution” has resulted in the creation of millions of jobs since the last recession, and it has been one of the key factors that has kept the percentage of Americans that are employed fairly stable.

Unfortunately, the shale oil boom is coming to an abrupt end. As a recent Vox article discussed, OPEC has essentially declared a price war on US shale oil producers… If the price of oil stays at this level or continues falling, we will see a significant number of US shale oil companies go out of business and large numbers of jobs will be lost. The Saudis know how to play hardball, and they are absolutely ruthless.

If you have been waiting for the next major financial collapse, what you have just read in this article indicates that it is now closer than it has ever been. Over the coming weeks, keep your eye on the price of oil, keep your eye on the junk bond market and keep your eye on the big banks. Trouble is brewing, and nobody is quite sure exactly what comes next.

The bloodletting in the oil markets on Thursday led to some wobbly stability on Friday, and for a while it seemed oil had found a bottom, but then the US stock market closed early while crude continued trading, and suddenly all heck re-broke loose, and the US benchmark WTI plunged again and broke the $66-a-barrel mark before coming to a rest at $66.06. After a near 10% dive in two days, WTI is now down 37% since June!

While the US fracking boom is the official target, Canada’s tar-sands producers are getting hit the hardest. The process is expensive. Their production is largely land-locked and often has to be transported to distant refiners in Canada and the US by costly oil trains. Yet these high-cost producers are getting the least for their oil: The heavy-oil benchmark Western Canada Select (WCS) traded for $48.40 per barrel on Friday, down over 40% from June, the cheapest oil in the world.

A lot of people believe that the plunge in the price of oil will be brief, and that it has gone pretty much as far as it can go, given production costs in the US and Canada. But the bloodletting in the US fracking revolution will go on until the money finally dries up.

In effect, the pope’s case rested not on the wars of culture, but on the social gospel. The official reason for the pontiff’s November 28-30 trip to Turkey was to meet the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, who’s considered the “first among equals” of Orthodox leaders.

On Sunday, the pontiff took part in an Orthodox liturgy at the Church of St George in the Phanar, the headquarters of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which provided him with a platform to lay out his ecumenical vision. Francis voiced clear support for “full communion,” meaning that Orthodox and Catholics would recognize a common set of teachings and sacraments and a common governance structure. In essence, they would see one another as members of a single Church.

The MPs on the Science and Technology select committee called for the Government to draw up new guidelines for websites and apps explaining clearly how they use personal data, warning that laws will be needed if companies fail to comply. The committee highlighted terms for Facebook Messenger's mobile app, used by more than 200,000 million people a month, that means it can gain direct access to a mobile or tablet, including to take pictures or make videos, at any time without explicit confirmation from the owner.

After several tense hours, the terrorists killed the Israeli athletes. Nonetheless, the Games continued for several hours afterward.

Over the past several years, it has been revealed on multiple occasions that Abbas was closely linked to Munich mastermind Abu Daoud. Abbas praised Abu Daoud in 2010, saying "he was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people's just causes."

Later, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, has exposed that Abbas in fact provided the financing for the Munich attack. But the State of Israel must formally recognize Abbas's role in financing the attack, Chairman of the Students for Israel movement Eliyahu Nissim stated Tuesday.

Israelis, who have been lulled into a false sense of security from years of calm, now return to extreme vigilance and caution in their daily lives. As Israel wipes the blood off the ground she is left to ponder how the tension in Jerusalem has suddenly reached a fever pitch. It has nothing to do with Palestinian's quality of life, employment, access to education or freedom of movement, it has everything to do with the access to the Temple Mount.

Although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claims that Israel has been attempting to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, it has been in fact Abbas who has been attempting to change the status quo by inciting the Palestinian people and publicly stating that Jews should not have access to the Jewish holy site.

Abbas, who is seen as a moderate in the eyes of many in the West is not asking for freedom of religious practices and access to all religious sites but is instead demanding total monopoly over the Temple Mount and the prohibition of access to all Jews contrary to the status quo. Abbas is a man who is inciting millions of Muslims to violence by advocating that the mere presence of Jews on the Temple Mount is a desecration of their mosque. It is in fact Abbas who is attempting to change the status quo and to eliminate any presence other than Muslims on the Temple Mount.

He is playing with the religious emotions of Muslim extremists, who have consistently shown in the past that they over react and are prone to extreme violence when they believe there to be a “threat” to the Islamic way. Abbas`s plan, to invoke the idea of a religious war and attempting to ban Jewish worshippers from the Temple Mount is changing the status quo and in such will drive more and more Palestinians towards Islamic fundamental ideology and into the hands of Hamas.

1. Is there any hope of ever concluding a solid, useful deal -- or is Iran just running the clock?

2. Will the lack of a deal cause the US, Israel, or any country to take pre-emptive military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities?

I think the evidence is clear: Iran’s current leaders have absolutely no intention of curtailing much less dismantling their illegal nuclear program. They are gaming the world community as they make significant advances towards The Bomb.

Compounding Israel's fears, the proposal Jerusalem has seen shows that mass dismantlement of Iran's nuclear infrastructure – including the destruction, and not the mere warehousing, of its parts – is no longer on the table in Vienna. "Iran's not being asked to dismantle the nuclear infrastructure," the Israeli official said, having seen the proposal before the weekend. "Right now what they're talking about is something very different. They're talking about Ayatollah Khamenei allowing the P5+1 to save face."

But in the deal under discussion in Vienna, Iran would be able to comply with international standards for a decade and, from Israel's perspective, then walk, not sneak, into the nuclear club. "You've not only created a deal that leaves Iran as a threshold nuclear power today, because they have the capability to break out quickly if they wanted to," the Israeli official contended. "But you've also legitimized Iran as a military nuclear power in the future."

By framing the deal as fundamentally flawed, regardless of its enforcement, Israel is telling the world that it will not wait to see whether inspectors do their jobs as ordered. "Ten, fifteen years in the life of a politician is a long time," the Israeli said, in a vague swipe against the political directors now scrambling in Vienna. "In the life of a nation, it's nothing."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the use of force against Iran several times since 2009, even seeking authorization from his cabinet in 2011. Iran's program has since grown in size and scope.

[This article was written just before the talks failed last week, and were subsequently extended until July next year. The article is included here because it shows the position Israel now finds herself in.]

"There are really only three logical explanations.

The first is that the British royals only like to visit royals, and try to stay away from republics. But Prince Charles has visited Egypt time after time, so there goes that theory.

The second possible explanation is fear – fear that any kind of royal visit to Israel would harm the UK, for example if Arab lands retaliated by cutting trade with Britain. This is silly. Prince Charles visited Jordan last year and could easily have helicoptered over for a day in Israel. Princes Andrew or Harry could have stopped by while in the Middle East as well. Given the current tacit alliance of Israel and the Gulf monarchies against Iran and ISIS, the likelihood that such visits would have harmed the UK is impossibly small.

The third possible explanation for the continuing refusal of the British royals to set foot in Israel is that either they or the Foreign Office harbor deep and undying enmity toward the Jewish state."

“There isn’t a single place in the Quran where the name Jerusalem appears,” he said. “There isn’t. Not once. You know what? Not even in a hint.” Immediately afterwards, in response to a question from a student claiming that an Arab told him there is a reference to the prophet Muhammad’s dream of Jerusalem, he said the student doesn’t understand, but “Arabs don’t understand either. Arabs imagine it. It’s amazing. You know what? Ninety percent of the Arabs don’t know what’s in the Quran. I guarantee it. We know better than them.”

“You’re saying that there is some dream. Correct. There is some commentator who explained something in the Quran through this dream. But it’s not the commentary of Rashi. It’s some legend that was appended.” The current struggle, he implies, is merely the latest example (following in the line, he says, of Antiochus, Vespasian and Hadrian, all conquerors of Jerusalem) of rebels against God trying to “bring defilement” (le-havi tum’ah — Peretz’s words) to the Temple Mount in order to thwart the Jewish mission of sanctifying the world.