Europe

Via GEFIRA,

The First and the Second World War were the culmination of rivalries that go as far back as over a thousand years, when Charlemagne subjugated the Saxon tribes inhabiting modern Germany, and creating the Carolingian Empire. The political successors of Franks, France, and Saxons, the latter morphing into the Holy Roman Empire, then Prussia, then Germany, would continue to fight border wars until the bloodiest of them all, World War 2, inflicted enough destruction to both to force them to give up military means for the reciprocal arrangements.

One month ago, after the shocking collapse of the Gulf nation status quo with the announcement of the diplomatic, naval and financial blockade of Qatar by the Saudi alliance, we said that while it is unclear how this latest political fiasco plays out, one thing was certain: with Saudi Arabia and Qatar suddenly adversaries, any likelihood of a Qatari natural gas pipeline crossing Syria - the fundamental cause behind the Syria  proxy war in the first place - was gone.

Authored by Mohamed El-Erian via Bloomberg.com,

From Bill Blain of Mint Partners.

Morning Porridge - July 3rd 2017

“If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that’s concentration…”

* * *

Welcome to the second half of 2017. This week is likely to be thin - the first week of the great summer slowdown and Wimbledon, US holidays and payrolls on Friday.

But... what comes next?

FX Week Ahead, courtesy of Rajan Dhall from fxdaily.co.uk

Despite the NY market holiday over Independence day in the US, we have a number of notable data releases leading up to the main event next week in the May employment report (Friday).