Europe

German chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to make Germany Europe’s number 1 nuclear superpower over fears that the US will leave NATO.  According to Merkel, Germany will begin the process of acquiring nuclear weapons so that it has a nuclear arsenal that can compete with Russia. Express.co.uk reports: Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior MP from Angela Merkel’s CDU party and foreign policy spokesman, has also called for Germany to take a leading role in the EU becoming a nuclear superpower.

With two months left until the French election, analysts and political experts find themselves in a quandary: on one hand, political polls show that while National Front's Marine Le Pen will likely win the first round, she is virtually assured a loss in the runoff round against either Fillon, or more recently Macron, having between 20 and 30% of the vote; on the other, all those same analysts and political experts were dead wrong with their forecasts about both Brexit and Trump, and are desperate to avoid a trifecta as being wrong 3 out of 3 just may be result in losing one's job.

Martin Armstrong Frames the Issue

Famous market forecaster Martin Armstrong wrote a recent article describing the current situation in Europe. Similar to our article, “Trouble Brewing in the EU”, the Armstrong's piece discusses growing discontent and fractures in the E.U. Martin Armstrong observes that,

Submitted by Shaun Bradley via TheAntiMedia.org,

In the shadow of Donald Trump’s spree of controversial actions, the European commission has quietly launched the next offensive in the war on cash. These unelected bureaucrats have boldly asserted their intention to crack down on paper transactions across the E.U. and solidify a trend that has been gaining momentum for years.

A curious dichotomy has emerged in global fund flows.

According to the latest flow report from BofA's Michael Hartnett, "it's risk-on in Bonds, it's inflation-on in Stocks, and EM is now playing role of cyclical catch-up trade." In short, in the last week the Trump Trade has emerged from the dormancy in which it had faded for the past month.

But when one looks at where the money is flowing, it is going everywhere except where one would expect, as US stocks continue to be shunned, based on EPFR data.

Here are the details.