Europe

Earlier we reported that according to Goldman, virtually all of its investing clients are "anxious" and/or unsettled" due to rising confusion over Trump policies. As Goldman explained, "'Unsettled' is our best description of fund managers’ mindset as the new administration takes office. During an extensive series of client meetings in the US, Europe and Asia, it became apparent that investors are confused about how to best position portfolios under a Trump presidency... Policy uncertainty was a topic of concern raised in every client meeting.

Submitted by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,

Markets "bought" the election. Now the question is whether they will sell the inauguration. That is the take from the latest weekly letter by Goldman's chief strategist David Kostin, who says that "investor angst is high." Kostin then explains the one-word reason behind such confusion and angst - take a wild guess what it is.

Via The Daily Bell

 

We need an alternative to Trump's nationalism. It isn't the status quo. The answer to neoliberalism’s Waterloo cannot be the retreat to a barricaded nation-state and the pitting of ‘our’ people against ‘others’ fenced off by tall walls. - UK Guardian

The Guardian has suggested that progressive internationalism should be the antidote to populism around the world. It says that one cannot fight Trump’s supposed populism without suggesting and promoting an alternative.

Less than 4 years ago, and shortly after his infamous "whatever it takes" threat to speculators, Mario Draghi responded to a question from Zero Hedge readers, saying "there is no Plan B" when it comes to contingency plans for a Eurozone nation leaving the monetary union. The reasoning was simple: the mere contemplation of such a scenario assigned a probability to its occurrence, which is why the ECB was desperate to give the impression that no matter what, Europe's cohesion is unbreakable.