Europe

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.” – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

If you thought 2016 was full of market maelstroms and geopolitical gotchas, 2017's 'known unknowns' suggest a year of more mayhem awaits...

Here's a selection of key events in the year ahead (and links to Bloomberg's quick-takes on each).

January

El Monte, California is a city of roughly 100,000 residents in East Los Angeles, many of whom struggle to make ends meet with a median household income of ~$39,000 and nearly 25% of people living below the poverty line.  But while most of the people of El Monte struggle to meet monthly expenses, the city's public employees are living the high life courtesy of one of the most egregious taxpayer funded pension plans in the country.  Just ask the retired City Manager, James Mussenden, who told the LA Times that he gets paid $216,000 per year in retirement to tour the w

Submitted by Burak Begdil via The Gatestone Institute,

Last weekend, when commenting on China's public demonstration of its one and only aircraft carrier, which China then proceeded to sail in close proximity to Taiwan to make a clear diplomatic "statement", we noted something tangentially troubling: " a quick look at the latest positioning of US aircraft carriers, amphibious ready groups, and other navies around the globe shows a gaping hole in the region of the East or South China Sea, and even in proximity to Japan, a place where the US navy traditionally has maintained at least one carrier group.  In fact, according to Stratfor, the only ac