Europe

Authored by James Rickards

Last week featured two unusual stories on gold - one strange and the other truly weird. These stories explain why gold is not just money but is the most politicized form of money.

They show that while politicians publicly disparage gold, they quietly pay close attention to it.

The first strange gold story involves Germany…

The Deutsche Bundesbank, the central bank of Germany, announced that it had completed the repatriation of gold to Frankfurt from foreign vaults.

S&P futures are higher in early Wednesday trading, alongside Asian stocks and European bourses, both solidly in the green as the EURUSD drifts below the 1.20 "redline" while the dollar rebounds off a two and a half year low following the US "measured" response to North Korea’s missile test, which soothed jittery investors who now turn their focus to US economic data. Equity indexes in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea also rose while 10Y US Treasuries are steady before the release of ADP employment and GDP data, both of which are expected to show an increase.

Submitted by Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Blain’s Morning Porridge – August 30th 2017

“Did anyone ever comment on what Obama wore, or what shoes Michelle was wearing?””

For the past several months we've discussed many theories about how the new MiFID II rules in Europe might drastically change the investment banking research business model.  For those who haven't followed this narrative, MiFID II is a new set of regulations in Europe that requires investment banks to charge separately for research as opposed to just lumping it into an asset manager's trading fees. 

Here are a couple of our thoughts/predictions:

Authored by Richard Drake via TheAmericanConservative.com,

The suicide in the Friuli region of northern Italy earlier this year of a 30-year-old man, identified in the newspapers only as Michele, has become a symbol of the country’s unemployment tragedy, particularly as it affects young people.