Europe

As President Trump drops tape (and tweet) bombs left, right, and center; often saying exactly what he is thinking, it appears the world's leaders (and establishmentarians) are "shocked" at his inconvenient truthiness. As Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said, reflecting on Brexit concerns,

"...our reliance on the United States, in normal times, wouldn’t worry too many people... But Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be a normal president."

Which seemed to sum things up nicely.

So what do you do if you're a European banking regulator faced with the task of maintaining a safe, sustainable financial system amid a concerning growth in bank leverage.  Well, if you said sell down risk assets then you're just being silly or completely ignoring your implicit obligation to engineer higher banking profitability at all costs.

As President-Elect Trump visited Washington in December, and received calls from world leaders, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine makes it clear just what the European establishment thinks of The Donald's future...

And now, with President Trump having taken office, the German media (having exclaimed his inauguration address as "a declaration of war"), have dropped their latest cover-bomb, dubbed "America First"...

... clearly, Europe - or at least Spiegel - is confident it is next.

By EconMatters

The Title says I am long stupidity, which I am, but I am also long Corruption, Excessive Government Debt, Excessive Risk Taking in Financial Markets, Excessive Complacency, Terrible Trade Wars, Protectionism. I am So Long Government and Central Bank Incompetence, Long Inflation, Long The Massive Credit Bubble Blowing Up, and Long the entire financial system collapsing.

Submitted by Shoshana Bryen via The Gatestone Institute,