United Kingdom

One of the recurring concerns involving Europe's seemingly perpetual economic, financial and social crises, is that these have been largely  predetermined, "scripted" and deliberate acts.

This is something the former head of the Bank of England admitted one month ago when Mervyn King said that Europe's economic depression "is the result of "deliberate" policy choices made by EU elites.  It is also what AIG Banque strategist Bernard Connolly said back in 2008 when laying out "What Europe Wants"

For Japan, the post "Shanghai Summit" world is turning ugly, fast, because as a result of the sliding dollar, a key demand of China which has been delighted by the recent dovish words and actions of Janet Yellen, both Japan's and Europe's stock markets have been sacrificed at the whims of their suddenly soaring currencies. Which is why when Japanese stocks tumbled the most in 7 weeks, sinking 3.5%, to a one month low of 16,164 (after the Yen continued strengthening and the Tankan confidence index plunged to a 3 year low) it was anything but an April fool's joke to both local traders.

Reader Devinicus comments:

As so many commenters on this thread are enjoying the analogy game, I offer the analogy of 18th century Britain and Ireland under the penal laws. By the mid-1700s, Catholics in these countries were largely safe from physical threats and could worship more or less freely. However, they were banned from the professions, from matriculating to Oxford or Cambridge, from serving in the military, and from holding political office.

A former UK Government medical officer has accused authorities of orchestrating one of the greatest scandals in medical history in deliberately covering up the fact that the MMR vaccine causes autism.  Dr Peter Fletcher, former Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health, says the UK government have behaved with “utterly inexplicable complacency” in ignoring thousands of documents that prove the dangers of the MMR vaccine on children. “The refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history,” Fletcher says.

The UK will ship 700 kilograms of nuclear waste in the United States under a new deal signed by Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday.  An anonymous government source confirmed that the Prime Minister agreed the deal at a nuclear security summit in Washington and will mark the largest ever shipment of highly enriched uranium in history. In return the U.S. will send Europe another type of nuclear waste that can be used to produce medical isotopes for cancer treatments.