Viktor Orban has clearly won the parliamentary elections in Hungary winning 74.6% of the votes on Sunday in Budapest. His party could take 134 seats in the 199-seat parliament giving it a constitutional two-thirds majority. This is an amazing landslide victory for Orban that no American president has ever reached such a majority. The record is 61.05% of the […]
The Italian election results are in and once again it demonstrates that correlating economics with voting, you end up with a far more accurate forecast. Trying to predict based upon samples of calling people appears to be not merely questionable, but also prone to human bias. We have been warning that this trend toward nationalism […]
The new so-called “General Data Protection Regulation” (GDPR) of the EU goes into full force on May 25, 2018. GDPR is a serious measure which is really designed to stem any criticism of the EU Commission. The claimed purpose is to stop propaganda pretending this will boost consumer confidence, revive the economy and generate billions […]
The SPD members voted by a two-thirds majority for their party’s entry into a renewed grand coalition. The acting Social Democrats (SPD) party leader Olaf Scholz came out and said: “We now have clarity: The SPD will enter the next federal government.” The SPD had no choice. The polls showed if they returned and put it to […]
Draghi has realized that he has singlehandedly destroyed the European bond market. Besides the fact that it is illegal to short government bonds, he has come face to face with the stark reality that IF the ECB stops buying government bonds, there will be NO BID at these price levels. Interest rates will skyrocket dramatically. On […]
QUESTION: Wrote said that under the EU organization, the French insisted there would be a prohibition against issuing any coin that commemorated Waterloo. Can you elaborate on that? I never heard of that clause before. ANSWER: Yes, and Belgium defied the rule by issuing a commemorative 2.5 euro coin that was NOT for general circulation. It was […]
The most devastating plagues in history have been created by migration. There were warnings in the form of rumors that told of a great plague in China and India which killed most of the populations there. The plague made its way to Europe when the Kipchak forces were besieging the Genoese trading post in the Crimea. […]
Talk amongst many traders is that they are so unsure how the new rules and regulations surrounding the implementation of MIFiD II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) are to be imposed, that some even said they were keen to extend their holidays until this mess is sorted out. In other words, until they hear that […]
The bad loan (“non-performing loan” (NPL)) crisis in Europe is well known and many have been calling for this issue to be addressed. In Italy, the bad loan crisis has reached 21% of GDP. While NPLs dropped to 4.8% of all loans in the EU as a whole during the first quarter of 2017, they […]
My recent meetings in Brussels reveals some concern what happens when Merkel loses power? Schultz is calling for the complete federalization of Europe – the United States of Europe as he puts it. The power is starting to slip between their fingers and as Italy approaches its confrontation with the EU in the next elections, there too we see […]
