2016/12/20 Political Anticipation - A LEAP Press review (GEAB special)

GEAB registration invite + Christmas Gift Pack
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Demon-etisation: India opens with a fanfare the ball of the fiscal QEs
Since November 8, 2016, India has created a monetary revolution of a magnitude never seen, both by the size of the population concerned and the depth of the transformation induced. By demonetising the biggest notes of 500 and 1000 Rs (rupees), the Indian government is trying to reintegrate into the official economy the state's gigantic parallel (or black or more simply the archaic) economy. In a nation where 90% of the transactions are made in cash, a huge part of the financial activity escapes the knowledge of the central government, and therefore statistics, taxes... (GEAB 110 / Dec. 2016 - Read the Public Announcement )

Chinese debt, global debts, interest rates: the insolvent countries no longer have friends
As we have already discussed and explained before, the crisis is now taking a more geopolitical form. Does this mean that the economic-financial crisis is over? No one will accuse us of having pretended that. If need be, we can confirm that the crisis is always there, always vivid, and it is in perfect shape after more than eight years of existence, thank you very much. One of the best signs of this is the employment rate in Western countries; but also the difficulties experienced ... (GEAB 110 / Dec. 2016 - Perspectives)

African Union: One road, One continent, One currency. The end of the CFA franc
Africa! The second largest continent in the world after Asia, both in size and population, and also one of the poorest is shaken by internal conflicts and wars. But above all, it’s a continent with one of the youngest age pyramids in the world; so many opportunities open for the future and for hope in this region which will experience great challenges of development, modernity and opening-up in the coming decades... (GEAB 110 / Dec. 2016 - Telescope)

An evaluation of our anticipations for 2016 (drawn from GEAB n° 101 of January 2016): 75% success
Each year in December, we evaluate our trend anticipations made in January. This month, we come across a final score of 25.5 out of 34, meaning a 75% success rate; two points more than last year. The year 2014 and the great turmoil caused by the Euro-Russian shock that drove us below the 70% success at that time, seems to be reconciled with... (GEAB 110 / Dec. 2016 - Focus)

Investments, trends and recommendations
Alert on Gold: state loot! We continue to advise the utmost caution with regard to gold. This raw material is currently and literally being hoovered up by states, especially emerging ones. And their project is to settle down their own currencies, integrate these "nest eggs" into large investment dynamics and put a halt to speculation. In particular, on the horizon of 2017, we see gigantic operations for the recovery of Indian private gold. In a country where housewives hold 11% of the world's gold reserves... (GEAB 110 / Dec. 2016 - Investments)

Electoral college formally elects Donald Trump as president
The denouement of the 2016 election came on Monday, as electors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia formally elected Donald Trump as president of the United States. An effort by anti-Trump activists, who had urged electors to back efforts led by celebrities and academics to cast their ballots at variance with election results to keep Trump from reaching the necessary 270 electoral votes, came to practically nothing... (The Guardian)

Turkey shooting: Russian ambassador assassinated in Ankara art gallery
The violence of Syria’s bloody civil war has had a shocking repercussion beyond its borders with the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in Ankara in what appeared to be revenge for his country’s part in the assault on Aleppo. Andrey Karlov was killed at an art gallery in Ankara by a gunman who shot him eight times at close range... (The Independent)

Brexit poll: Six months on, Brits stand by EU referendum decision
British voters would repeat their decision to leave the European Union if the "Brexit" referendum were held today, according to a new CNN/ComRes poll released Monday. Six months after the UK delivered a result that shocked much of the world, 47% of British adults say they would vote Leave, with 45% saying they would choose to Remain, even though nearly half of them expect the decision to hurt them financially... (CNN)

Diplomat murder is provocation, say Russia and Turkey
Russia and Turkey both sought to limit the diplomatic fallout after Russia's envoy to Ankara was shot dead on Monday (19 December).
 Russian president Vladimir Putin said the killing of ambassador Andrei Karlov at an exhibition opening was "clearly a provocation". He said in a statement that the act was "aimed at undermining the improvement and normalisation of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in settling the conflict in Syria"... (EUObserver)

UN votes to deploy observers in Aleppo
With Russia’s backing, the Security Council on Monday voted to quickly deploy UN observers to Aleppo to monitor evacuations and report on the fate of civilians who remain in the besieged Syrian city. The council unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution that marks the first show of unity in months among world powers on the issue. (The Hindu)

NATO, EU talks overshadowed by Russian tragedy
After talks in Brussels, both NATO and the EU have offered condolences to Moscow on the news of the murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara. Teri Schultz reports from Brussels. Just hours after NATO and Russia wrapped up a "frank" meeting at NATO headquarters and the European Union formally extended sanctions on the Kremlin, both organizations rushed to offer condolences to Moscow on the shocking news that the Russian ambassador to Turkey had been murdered at an art exhibit in Ankara... (Deutsche Welle)

Speaking the truth in the post-truth era
Post-truth is the new reality we need all to deal with if we want to save the soul of democracy and its noble mission. The electoral landscape in many democratic countries around the world witnesses the rise of a new political culture based on emotions and fear, instead of facts and policy. The situation is not too new, but continuous economic and social setbacks, especially the rise of unemployment and poverty, since 2008... (Al Jazeera)

Another lesson for Trump in handling Sino-US ties
"China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters－rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act," Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday. The post went viral thanks mostly to the obvious misspelling. But what is truly amazing about this tweet, was the soon-to-be US president completely misrepresented what had actually happened－that is more dangerous than funny... (China Daily)

Let refugees help the EU

To solve the Syrian refugee crisis the EU will have to take a leadership role and work effectively with refugee and diaspora communities who can serve as agents of change. Over the past six years, five million Syrians have been forced to become refugees. The number of first-time asylum applicants in Europe increased from 563,000 in 2014 to almost 1.26 million in 2015. With the continuing brutal onslaught on Aleppo, the Assad regime has made clear it is willing to target civilians to achieve its goals... (EUObserver)

2016/11/29 Political Anticipation - A LEAP Press review

Ingredients for a Prepared Mind, to be delivered
(A Foodforthought Gift Pack)
We are opening the GEAB's Winter Loyalty Campaign, with premium subscriptions to our bulletin, accompanied by special gifts, for a limited number of members... and you are the first in line!
Here is your sneak peek :
- A bouquet of e-books, graciously offered by Anticipolis.
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- The GEAB's US Special Report (a compilation of GEAB notes on the extremely controversial event).
- GEAB, the Intelligent Gift (surprise a friend with a one-year free subscription, an ingenuous Christmas gift he/she will remember every month when receiving the bulletin).
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Keep your mind prepared for the future with our anticipation tools.
(GEAB Subscription + Gift Pack)

Franck Biancheri enters the Museum of History of Stuttgart
The House of History (Haus der Geschichte), the museum of history of Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart, recently opened a new permanent exhibition called „Haus Europa“ (House Europe). This permanent exhibition deals with the following themes: Slaughterhouse Europe, Euro-Visions, the Europe of Monarchs, Politicians and technocrats, Europe as Common Market and Europe of the Citizens... (AAFB)

Saudis Said to Quit Russia Talks as OPEC Deal No Closer
Saudi Arabia pulled out of planned talks with non-OPEC nations including Russia as disagreements about how to share the burden of supply cuts stood in the way of a deal to boost prices just days before a make-or-break meeting in Vienna. OPEC officials were scheduled to meet with non-members including Russia on Monday before a ministerial meeting in Vienna two days later... (Bloomberg)

Canada at risk of sinking in Trump’s political tsunami
When economic waves come out of Washington, they rock Canada. Now, with the Donald Trump tsunami heading towards the White House, Canadians feartheir already floundering economy could be sunk. Pundits and politicians are already predicting the death of trade agreements between the two neighbours which, until recently, when China edged out Canada, ranked as each other’s top trading partners... (Aljazeera)

Greek Debt Relief Plan Said to Entail $35 Billion Bank Bond Swap
Greece’s battered banks are being asked to swap about 33 billion ($35 billion) euros in floating-rate bonds for 30-year, fixed-rate securities under a euro-area plan to shield Athens from future interest rate increases, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The swap is part of a package of debt-relief proposals for Greece to be presented at a Dec. 5 meeting of euro-area finance ministers... (Bloomberg)

Airbus calls for end of legal battles with Boeing
Airbus has called for a global agreement on subsidies for the aircraft industry, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled that Boeing benefited from illegal US tax breaks. In the case brought by the EU against the US, a WTO panel ruled that Boeing had benefited from illegal tax breaks facilitating the development of its new B777X jets... (EUobserver)

China’s experience to help Germany host G20 summit
China and Germany have vowed to work closely to ensure next year’s G20 leaders summit in Hamburg is as successful as the fruitful meeting hosted by China in Hangzhou in September. Such commitments were expressed during a meeting between Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday... (China Daily)

More choices makes us happier !
Ladies and gentlemen, we have started our descent. From now until closing time on Christmas Eve, we are destined to fall towards an existential abyss. Some of us are fated to experience an unpleasant altercation with another shopper on Black Friday over the last discounted PS4 in a warehouse on the North Circular... (The Guardian)

Young, gifted and held back
In the world of “The Hunger Games” youngsters are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of their white-haired rulers. Today’s teen fiction is relentlessly dystopian, but the gap between fantasy and reality is often narrower than you might think. The older generation may not resort to outright murder but, as our special report this week on millennials describes (see article), in important ways they hold their juniors down... (The Economist)

A global business thriving on people’s love for art
Top auctioneer says Chinese collectors playing a pivotal role in future market. Jussi Pylkkanen thinks himself more of an aficionado and part of the cultural landscape – that connects museums, foundations and art dealers from the four corners of the earth – than the president of Christie’s, one of the two biggest international auction houses... (China Daily)

A brief history of war and drugs: From Vikings to Nazis
Adolf Hitler was a junkie and the Nazis’ narcotics intake gives new meaning to the term ‘war on drugs’. But they weren’t the only ones. Recent publications have revealed that narcotics are as much a part of conflict as bullets; often defining wars rather than sitting anecdotally on the sidelines of them. In his book Blitzed, German author Norman Ohler describes how the Third Reich was permeated with drugs, including cocaine, heroin and most notably crystal meth... (AlJazeera)

Brexit, Trump, populism: The “post-truth”, its accomplices and its antidote
It could be said that we’re all accomplices of the so-called “post-truth”, although not to the same extent. But, what is the post-truth? The post-truth refers to circumstances in which emotions and personal beliefs are more determining when shaping public opinion than objective facts... (AAFB - José María Compagni Morales)

Euro chief Dijsselbloem sees London losing EU finance dominance
The European Union cannot let London remain the main financial center for the euro zone after Brexit if Britain does not want to be bound by EU financial rules, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday. The Dutch finance minister told a European Parliament committee he did not expect Britain to accept being bound by EU rules after leaving the bloc... (Reuters)

Singapore tops global education rankings
Singapore has the highest-achieving primary and secondary pupils in international education tests in maths and science. But primary school pupils in Northern Ireland were ranked sixth at maths, the highest of any in Europe. England's performance has not advanced since tests four years ago... (BBC)

South Korea's Park asks parliament to decide how she can quit, opposition cries foul
South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday asked parliament to decide how and when she can give up power over an influence-peddling scandal, taking the country's political crisis deeper into uncharted terrain. The main opposition Democratic Party rejected Park's offer, calling it a ploy to escape being impeached... (Reuters)

2016/11/21 - Political Anticipation - A LEAP Press review (GEAB special)

The GEAB 109 is available !
US Elections / Europe / World – Trump’s victory and the domino effect: Will the Euro survive beyond 2017?
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election creates the conditions for change, but it is not change yet, contrary to what the media and populists believe. Far from being a “revolution”, the Trump’s advent at the head of the Western system corresponds to a radicalisation of the ex-ante situation. In reality, Trump is the symptom of a Western system which has failed to adapt[1] and is now trying to rule through pure violent rhetoric, by targeting citizens and nations who propose politico-economic counter-models. The method will therefore change, but the objectives and the main principles will not. Among all the uncertainties that remain, we must now understand the subsequent challenges that threaten the rest of the world; especially the Euro zone... (Read the public announcement of the GEAB 109)

Turns Out, Everything Is Negotiable
All presidents break campaign promises, some more than others. President George H.W. Bush broke his "read my lips, no new taxes" vow, which contributed to his reelection loss in 1992. President Barack Obama kept most of his campaign pledges, with the exception of not closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, despite repeatedly saying he would... (Bloomberg)

4 reasons why a strong dollar may sink the stock-market rally in 2017
The greenback has surged in recent days, with the benchmark U.S Dollar Index back above 100 to its highest levels since 2003. It’s not secret as to why the dollar DXY, -0.35% is rallying. It’s nearly certain that the Fed will raise interest rates again at its December meeting while the rest of the world is still aggressively easing monetary policy, and President-elect Donald Trump has been very vocal about protectionist policies that include tariffs and other measures meant to rebalance U.S. trade relationships... (MarketWatch)

British PM May to unveil industrial strategy to spur 'ambitious' ideas
Prime Minister Theresa May will unveil her new industrial strategy on Monday, pledging to spend billions of pounds on science, technology and research to spur a new "ambitious" way of doing business in Britain. May, who faces some of Britain's toughest negotiations since World War Two to secure an advantageous divorce from the European Union, is keen to persuade business to back her push to create "the conditions where winners can emerge and grow"... (Reuters)

EU parliament to claw back eurosceptics' funds
The European Parliament (EP) is preparing to seek repayment of allegedly misspent funds from a eurosceptic political group that includes Ukip, in a move that could cause the group's bankruptcy. The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported on Thursday (17 November) that EP chiefs are to ask the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE) to pay back €173,000 and to block a further €501,000 in EU grants on grounds that it wrongly used EU money in national campaigns in the UK... (EUObserver)

What a Fourth Merkel Term Would Mean for Markets and More
With political turbulence all around, Angela Merkel’s announcement on Sunday that she’ll seek another term in next year’s federal elections provides investors with the prospect of four more years of a German chancellor whose style of leadership they’ve come to understand. During nearly 11 years in office, Merkel has held the euro area together, refrained from criticizing European Central Bank policies, stood up for economic sanctions against Russia and a strong NATO military alliance while being vocal in her support for free trade... (Bloomberg)

Populist dominos in Europe
What Trump's victory changes is that the populists now have on America's side a model of an attractive strong white and Christian man. The conditions of the convergence between the two camps are therefore gathered: populism, transatlantism, identitarism, Europeanism ... are no longer incompatible. The technocrats who energise the system will, at the very least, "let things happen"...
(Subscribe to the GEAB and read our entire US Report)

Europe's anti-austerity swerve faces uphill climb
Europe's anti-austerity swerve faces an uphill climb. The European Commission wants euro zone countries to boost spending by 0.5 percent of GDP next year. It's a belated attempt to head off Trump-style anti-establishment revolts on the continent. To make a difference, however, wealthy countries would have to help struggling ones. The commission's proposal is an acknowledgment that euro zone fiscal restraints don't work for the region as a whole. Rules that require individual countries to limit deficits mean overall policy is too tight... (Reuters)

France centre-right primary: Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy knocked out
French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been knocked out of a primary to choose the presidential candidate of the centre-right Republican party. Admitting defeat, Mr Sarkozy endorsed Francois Fillon, a moderate who finished first in Sunday's first round, according to near-complete results. Alain Juppe, who like Mr Fillon is an ex-prime minister, finished second. They will face each other in a run-off next Sunday. The winner will compete in next year's presidential election... (BBC News)

Who made the Arab Spring into an Arab crisis?
The violence sweeping across the Arab world isn't a consequence of the Arab Spring, but of decades of dictatorship. A recent news item on the BBC's English website neatly captured the sharp contrast in how, five years later, various Arab rulers, citizens and non-Arab observers view the popular uprisings that swept leaders from power in several Arab states and challenged others... (Al Jazeera)

Greece can be gateway to Europe for Chinese enterprises
Greece can act as the gateway for Chinese enterprises to enter European markets as Belt and Road Initiative opens great opportunities for bilateral cooperation, Fotios Provatas, chairman of Greek-Chinese Economic Council, said. "Bonds between Greece and China have become stronger with the launch of the initiative," he said... (China Daily)

Russians Can No Longer Connect on LinkedIn
Russia‘s communications regulator ordered public access to LinkedIn’s website to be blocked on Thursday to comply with a court ruling that found the social networking firm guilty of violating a data storage law. LinkedIn, which has its headquarters in the United States, is the first major social network to be blocked by Russian authorities, setting a precedent for the way foreign Internet firms operate. It has over 6 million registered users in Russia... (Time)

Volkswagen axes 30,000 jobs as it bids to recover from emissions cheating scandal
Car maker is grappling with huge car industry changes and a $15bn fine over Dieselgate. Volkswagen will cut up to 30,000 jobs globally as it attempts to recover from the biggest scandal in its history. After months of intense talks, unions and VW’s management team agreed a package that aims to save €3.7bn (£3.2bn) per year. The job cuts come after the company accepted a $15bn fine for cheating emissions tests in June... (The Independent)

Chinese President Xi's APEC speech puts China, Asia-Pacific in global "vanguard"
Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit on Saturday in Lima, Peru, placed China and the region at the forefront of a joint effort to reactivate the global economy, APEC participants and scholars have said. Mario Mongilardi, president of the Lima Chamber of Commerce, believed Xi sent an encouraging message to the business communities of the 21 APEC members... (Xinhuanet)

Viernes 11 de noviembre. Políticas europeas para el Empleo y el Desarrollo Local. València. S&D.

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2016/11/08 - Political Anticipation - LEAP Press review

US presidential campaign: an indicator of the state of the country
The financial world is beginning to worry openly... Over 10,000 billion dollars of sovereign bonds currently have negative rates (nearly the Euro zone’s GDP, to give an idea of the scale). Yet, the motivation of an investor who buys a negative rate bond is not to lose money: he hopes that rates will drop again, and he will make a profit by selling it (since it would become more interesting in a low rate environment). This spiral, or rather the fear of a jam when rates rise, creates great anxiety for Bill Gross, for example, who is warning of the explosion danger of nothing less than a "supernova" . George Soros, on the other hand, is betting on the imminent ... (Read the report / GEAB 106) 

Total signs first post-sanctions Western energy deal with Iran
France's Total has signed a deal with Iran to further develop its part of the world's largest gas field, becoming the first western energy company to sign a major deal with Tehran since the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year. Total confirmed on Tuesday it had signed a heads of agreement with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for the Phase 11 development of South Pars in the Gulf, which extends into Qatari waters where it is known as the North field... (Reuters)

UN: Russia’s Role in Syria Raises Questions About Bid for Human Rights Council
The United Nations General Assembly will select new members for the Human Rights Council in elections to be held in New York on October 28. Russia is running against Hungary and Croatia for a chance to represent the Eastern European group at the world’s foremost human rights body. The undersigned organizations urge all member states, when deciding which Eastern European candidate to support, to question seriously whether Russia’s role in Syria – which includes supporting and undertaking military actions which have routinely targeted civilians and civilian objects... (Human Rights Watch)

Brexit Trumps Trump
Donald Trump has promised voters his very own kind of Brexit upset. For investors, the real thing is still more troubling. Key gauges of investor uncertainty and market volatility are lower now than they were in the run up to Britain's vote to leave the European Union in June. Take Europe's economy. The Baker, Bloom and Davis composite index of economic policy uncertainty, which draws on everything from newspaper coverage to economic forecasts shows Europe is still in greater turmoil than the U.S... (Bloomberg)

Lift-off for China’s €10 billion fund for Eastern Europe
China has set up a €10 billion (HK$86 billion) investment fund to finance projects in Central and Eastern Europe, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said in a statement issued on Sunday. The China-Central Eastern Europe fund will be run by Sino-CEE Financial Holdings a company established by the bank earlier this year. The company was formally launched by Premier Li Keqiang during a visit to Riga... (SCMP)

EU agrees zero tax rate is not enough to define tax haven: Padoan
European Union finance ministers agreed that countries applying a zero tax rate cannot automatically be considered tax havens, Italy's finance minister said on Tuesday, a move that may reduce the scope of a EU blacklist of offending jurisdictions. "We have find an agreement on the fact that if a jurisdiction applies zero tax rates, this can be considered as an indicator of possible unfair practices, but it would not be enough to define a jurisdiction as non-cooperative," Pier Carlo Padoan told a news conference... (Reuters)

European expansionism: turned down flat
The European integration, which has turned into an expansionary process after the fall of the Berlin Wall – Europe being unable to manage its neighbourhood other than by trying to integrate it, presently provides a good example of the internationalist model and the limits that it reached. The Ukraine, Turkey, Russia… had futures only within the EU, futures of ecstatic communion around the European values according to the European institutions, an economic upgrade vector according to the candidates. Ideologies, hidden agendas, lies and manipulations, have all rushed into the crazy European conquest of the 1990s and 2000s... (Excerpt from the GEAB No 105 / May 2016)

Tesla to Buy Germany's Grohmann Engineering Amid Model 3 Ramp-Up
What if it were possible to create a government bond for the euro area that was seen as a safe asset, without that meaning Germany has to stand behind the debts of others? Consider it done, almost. The European Safe Bond is, in theory, a parcel of euro-area government debt of different risk grades that would provide the 19-nation currency bloc with a single “safe asset” that's not linked to the fate of any individual member. Previously, the perception of all European government debt as safe, when it clearly wasn't, was one of the things that caused the sovereign debt crisis... (Bloomberg)

Estonian government could collapse, faces no confidence vote
Estonia’s coalition government could be threatened with collapse this week after two junior coalition partners called on the prime minister to resign yesterday (7 November) and the opposition called for a vote of no confidence. The prime minister of the smallest Baltic state, with a population of just 1.3 million, Taavi Rõivas has little room to manoeuvre to save his fractious coalition government... (Euractiv)

Mikheil Saakashvili quits as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region
Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, has resigned as governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, citing corrupt officials and a lack of political will for reform in the country’s leadership. Saakashvili staged his resignation on Monday by calling an outdoor press conference and pouring vitriol on the man who appointed him, President Petro Poroshenko... (The Guardian)

Juncker's Barrosogate response is too little, too late
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker will ask his team to consider tightening the rules on former members’ conduct during a college meeting next week (16 November). But the move already seems unlikely to calm a four-month long row over the handling of his predecessor, Jose Manuel Barroso, who landed a top job with US investment bank Goldman Sachs last July. Juncker wants the college to double the spell during which commission ex-bosses have to seek permission for post-office employment to three years... (EUobserver)

Park Geun-hye: Scandal is all my fault and mistake
In an extraordinary display of abject apology during a moment of supreme crisis, South Korean President Park Geun-hye took sole blame on Friday for a “heartbreaking” scandal as suspicion grew that she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows. Park also vowed to accept a direct investigation into her actions, but the opposition, sensing weakness, immediately said that if she doesn’t accept a prime minster chosen by the parliament and withdraw from dealing with domestic affairs, it will push for her to go... (AlJazeera)

EU says committed to 'broad, ambitious' FTA with India
The European Union remains committed to a "broad and ambitious" free trade agreement (FTA) with India, but hopes that the "stalemate" on the issue would be resolved soon, a senior EU trade official said today. Addressing the Trade and Investment Partnership Summit (TIPS) 2016 organised by the Europe-India Chamber of Commerce (EICC) in Brussels, Jolana Mungengova - member of the Cabinet of EU Trade Commissioner - expressed hope that the "stalemate" would be overcome soon... (Economic Times)

Regional economic unions (2016-2017): Between Apparent Failure and Underlying Recovery
It seems that everything is going wrong for regional integrations. South America's MERCOSUR trading bloc has completely stopped functioning, due to the marginalisation of Venezuela which currently holds the presidency of the Common Market, but that no one is following anymore. Another alliance currently chaired by Venezuela, the much less known NAM (Non-Aligned Movement), is also not functioning for the same reason: summit cancelled, frozen agenda. Then of course the European Union, considered in complete disintegration following Brexit, has all the media focus. Within the EU, the Eurozone – which, in our view is a champion for the revival of the European construction process - has not seen its heads of states meet in a Euro Summit since June 2015... (Read the report in the GEAB 107)