viernes, 20 de enero de 2017

2017/01/19 - Political Anticipation - A LEAP Press review

Money, Finance, Europe, Democracy, Geopolitical Configuration: the GEAB bulletin’s 35 trends
Every year, LEAP/E2020 is offering you a short overview of the up and down[1] trends of the year which is starting. In addition to the intellectual interest of this contribution of LEAP/E2020, which of course reflects many of our researchers’ analyses over the past few months, it aims at providing a better perception of priorities within the news, at the same time conveying tracks of recommendations. This list can thus help very concretely the GEAB reader to get prepared for the year to come. With an eleven-year success rate ranging from 69% to 85%, this annual anticipation is a very concrete decision-making tool for the next twelve months... (GEAB 111 / read the public announcement)

EU Parliament speaker vote could strengthen eurosceptics
The European Parliament elects a new speaker on Tuesday in an unusually hotly contested vote that could strengthen eurosceptic forces at a time when the EU faces British moves to leave and questions about its future role. A divisive campaign and the end of the ‘grand coalition’ of the main parties is also likely to hamper the assembly, delaying lawmaking... (Reuters)

Welcome To The Third World, Part 21: This Pension Thing Is About To Get Real
Though it may not be instantly clear, in the above quote Michael Lewis is talking about public sector pensions and how over the course of several decades, mayors and governors across the US have colluded with police, firefighter and teachers unions to promise outrageously-generous benefits and then failed to put aside enough money to pay for them... (Dollar Collapse)

Merkel Anticipates Frosty Relations with U.S.
The hour-long video didn’t exactly put the German chancellor in a cheerful mood. The footage was from Donald Trump’s recent appearance in Pennsylvania during his so-called Thank You Tour and Angela Merkel, as she told the national executive committee of her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), watched the rally in its entirety... (Spiegel)

China 2017 - Towards a Total Course Change
Since Deng Xiaoping, in the '70s, gave top priority to economic development, China has made tremendous sacrifices. Having worked hard and cheap and polluting its country, it soon became the workshop of the world. But all those sacrifices were not in vain. Barely 15 years later for instance, in 1993, Shanghai was able to launch its first ultra-modern subway line. This example is not taken at random: the construction of metro lines is always a good indicator of both economic and administrative health of cities or countries... (GEAB 111 / subscribe to read)

Trump Takes Aim at King Dollar and It Threatens U.S. Equities
The S&P 500 has a friend and a foe in King Dollar. The greenback is the only major currency whose current strength has coincided with rallies in its domestic equity market, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., underscoring the risk for stocks if the dollar's poor start to the year gathers more steam... (Bloomberg)

Bitcoin, crypto-currencies and state power strategies
Crypto-currencies, of which Bitcoin is the most popular, are "virtual" currencies devoid of any physical reality, possessing an electronic form and functioning by using cryptographic methods. They are used specially as a means of payment in an innovative decentralised peer-to-peer system. With the Bitcoin and the other crypto-currencies, one can buy everything from food products, company shares, to false driving licenses and even Kalashnikovs... (GEAB 111 / subscribe to read)

Merkel on Trump: The EU can take care of itself
Speaking at a press conference with the prime minister of New Zealand, the German chancellor dismissed Trump’s criticism of her refugee policy. Germany’s top diplomat accused Trump of contradicting his own cabinet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed US president-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of the European Union... (Deutsche Welle)

Investments, trends and recommendations : Currencies, watch out, turbulence ahead
The currency market is particularly dangerous this year: with a dollar which has strengthened whilst Trump needs a weak currency and will do everything possible to achieve the goal; a yuan which risks at any moment to be devalued, authoritatively as we have seen, while its medium-term movement is on the rise according to the will of the Chinese leaders; a euro depending on the goodwill of the ECB and its quantitative easing; trade wars and monetary conflicts most probably in the near future... (GEAB 111 / subscribe to read)

Obama’s legacy in Asia
The outgoing president wasted no time to highlight his signature achievements, from preventing a global economic depression and the collapse of American car industry, to overseeing decent economic recovery and marriage equality to the establishment of the foundations of a truly universal healthcare system. On foreign policy, he highlighted his administration’s broadly successful efforts to ... (Aljazeera)

World Bank downgrades India’s growth forecast after demonetisation
The World Bank has downgraded the Indian economy’s growth forecast as sharp falls in the country’s automobile and real estate sales flagged the short-term impact of recalling India’s two most-used bank notes. The Washington-based financial institution predicted India’s economy would grow by a “still robust” 7% in the fiscal year... (The Guardian)

Syrian government ‘ready to negotiate on everything’, Assad says
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he is prepared to negotiate on “everything” in proposed peace talks with rebels later this month, despite the shakiness of the current ceasefire. Talks brokered by Syrian ally Russia and rebel supporting Turkey are supposed to take place in Kazakhstan before the end of January, but last week opposition groups said they had frozen the process in light of continued government strikes across the country... (The Independent)

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