Europe

It all started off relatively well: oil and US equity futures were buoyant on hopes Iran and Saudi Arabia would break out in a bloody conflict any minute boosting the net worth of shareholders of the military industrial complex, and then, out of nowhere, like a depressed China in a bull shop, the "mainland" crashed the party following a terrible manufacturing PMI report, which sent Chinese stocks sliding slowly at first, then very fast.

British authorities are on high alert today over fears that the Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, will bomb London during the New Year celebrations.  The ISIS militant, currently on the run, is suspected to be hiding out in Europe with an accomplice after fleeing Morocco after last month’s massacre. Thesun.co.uk reports: Capitals across the continent are braced for an outrage amid concerns Abdeslam, 26, is crossing borders on a false passport. A French judicial source probing the Paris attacks told The Sun: “Abdeslam could easily be back in France.

Swiss army chief André Blattmann warned, in a Swiss newspaper article on Sunday, the risks of social unrest in Europe are soaring. Recalling the experience of 1939/1945, Blattman fears the increasing aggression in public discourse is an explosively hazardous situation, and advises the Swiss people to arm themselves and warns that the basis for Swiss prosperity is "being called into question."

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

On Jan. 1, 2002, the day that euro coins and banknotes entered into circulation, my column, “Say Goodbye to the Mother Continent,” contained this pessimistic prognosis:

“This European superstate will not endure, but break apart on the barrier reef of nationalism. For when the hard times come, patriots will recapture control of their national destinies from Brussels bureaucrats to whom no one will ever give loyalty or love.”

Czech President Milos Zeman has called the migrant crisis in Europe “an organised invasion”, saying that young men arriving into Europe from Syria and Iraq should instead fight ISIS.  “I am profoundly convinced that we are facing an organised invasion and not a spontaneous movement of refugees,” Zeman said in a Christmas message on Saturday. Yahoo News reports: He went on to say that compassion was “possible” for refugees who are old or sick and for children, but not for young men who in his view should be back home fighting against jihadists.