Notations On Our World (Special Edition): The Carnage In Markets

It has been quite a challenging morning on the markets as our team just checked the latest in US Markets.    The latest out of London notes that the FTSE has lost $ 50 Billion Dollars today and $ 140 Billion since the beginning of the year.    It appears that Bear Markets have arrived.  This is as Oil has dropped to $ 27 Dollar/Share.

The new normal has arrived--and all of us have to get used to it.    This snapshot was from BigCharts.com as of 7:30 AM PST: 

Notations On Our World: On the Latest On #Iran Elections

We have been monitoring continued reports out of Iran as we reported on the disqualification of one of the sitting Members of Parliament, Ali Motahari.      The latest reports we've seen is that only 30 of the 3,000 reformist candidates have been approved.   Even one of Khomeini's Grandsons has been disqualified.

We saw this headline on a leading Iranian Paper:

The pictures shows the head of the Guardian Council, Janati (whose son is a Minister in Rouhani's Cabinet) with President Rouhani.   The headline reads that Rouhani and Larijani (The Speaker) are to hold consultations with the Guardian Council in regards to the disqualifications.  

This cartoon we also saw on one of papers said it all:

The red depicts the so-called hardliners vs. the Purples--The Reformists.

It is bound to be interesting.

Notations On Our World: On A Very Disturbing Development in #Iran

Iranian MP Ali Motahari 

As we have been assessing the aftermath of Implementation Day, one very disturbing development from Iran as news has come out on the Candidates as the Feburary Elections draws near.  One of the leading opposition Parliament Members, Ali Motahari, has been disqualified from standing again as a Member of Parliament.    Mr. Motahari was a thorn in the side of the previous President, Ahmadinejad for the longest time and was one of the few members of Parliament who had the courage to speak out against the continued imprisonment of the Green Movement Leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.    This is as Iran continues profound challenges with a new budget on the advent of the new Iranian New Year.

Our team is due to release updated commentary on Iran over the next few days....