Europe

By George Friedman of Mauldin Economics

A delegation of executives from major German corporations recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Such delegations are not unusual. Sometimes it is routine, sometimes a courtesy. But occasionally, it has significance. In the case of Russia-Germany relations, such meetings are always potentially significant.

Germany’s Unsteady Relations

Two relationships are critical to Germany.

Over the past several months, investment banks all across Europe have scrambled to put a price tag on their equity research after years of giving it way as a 'freebie' in return for trading commissions.

This article by David Haggith was published on The Great Recession Blog:

Last week we explained how junk bond managers were buying increasing amounts of equities to “juice” their portfolios and propel their funds higher in the performance rankings.

While this struck us as a relatively recent development, the tried-and-trusted method of trading more risk for more yield is going gangbusters in the CLO (Collateralized Loan Obligations) market in 2017...

In “Hunt for Yield Fuels Another Boom in Another Complex, Risky Security”, the WSJ notes:

Authored by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

There’s a debate raging over what, exactly, bitcoin and the thousand or so other cryptocurrencies actually are. Some heavy-hitters are weighing in with strong, if not always coherent opinions:

Jamie Dimon calls bitcoin a ‘fraud’JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon did not mince words when asked about the popularity of virtual currency bitcoin.