With the Fillon campaign in shambles following a raid of his home by corruption investigators and the subsequent resignation of both his spokesman and campaign manager, and with the republican party now reportedly preparing to replace Fillon with former PM Alain Juppe, the big winner from the ongoing chaos, at least according to one poll, is the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.
World stocks pulled back from all time highs, and European bourses initially followed U.S. futures and Asian shares lower, however both European risk sentiment as well as E-Minis rebounded after an Odoxa poll showed Macron overtaking Le Pen in the 1st round for the first time, and that the addition of Juppe instead of Fillon may see a 2nd round run-off between Macron vs Juppe, leading to a slump in Bund futures to session lows, and a bounce in European stocks.
Via Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) of SHTFPlan.com,
For months now, Europe Union member states have been devastated by numerous terrorist attacks and acts of violent crime, many of which were perpetrated at the hands of people who sought asylum from persecution in their home countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Here is just a small sample of our headlines from the past couple of months:
12 Dead, 48 Injured After Pakistan-Born Refugee Rammed Truck Into Berlin Christmas Market
Machete-Wielding Man Shot At Paris Louvre After Attacking Soldier, Shouting "Allahu Akbar"
Via Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com,
Social division is an undeniable reality of human existence; it is also not necessarily a negative aspect of human existence. The moment a society is forced or manipulated into blindly agreeing on everything is the moment that society begins to die and the future of mankind in general becomes rather bleak. Ideas need to be tested, they need to be scrutinized and they need to be verified, perpetually. That said, there are right ways and wrong ways of doing this.