Europe

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In the late 1400s, the city-states of Italy were among most dominant powers in the world.

Most of the city-states had abandoned the feudal system that persisted across Europe.

So Italy was one of the only places on the continent where anyone, including foreigners, could work hard, take risks, and become wealthy.

People could start businesses and own private property– revolutionary concepts in the 1400s.

By EconMatters

There are a lot of concerns out there that has the market terrified, investors are just hoping like hell they don`t lose money before the year is out because they can`t sell due to tax costs. Forget the Market Pullback, we may have a market crash in 2017 if Trump starts a Trade War with China!

Italy has now joined the “bail-in” crowd.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena is to be rescued by the Italian state using a new €20bn bailout package, as a last-gasp private sector rescue plan for the world’s oldest bank looked set to fail, forcing losses on bondholders.

The government rescue, which had long been resisted in Rome, is designed to draw a line under the slow-burn crisis in Italian banking that has alarmed investors and become the main source of concern for European financial regulators.

            Source: Financial Times

European, Asian stocks and S&P futures all declined amid collapsing volumes, after the Wednesday drop in the S&P500, and after oil prices held losses amid an unexpected increase in supplies, as traders close out trades ahead of the holidays. Top overnight news include the imminent nationalization of Monte Paschi, the ongoing manhunt for the German Christmas market terrorist, Uber halting its self-driving car test in San Francisco, and the anti-China, anti-regulation moves in the Trump administration. 

Authored by Geert Wilders, originally posted at The Gatestone Institute,

• The German authorities are dangerously underestimating the threat of Islam... They have betrayed their own citizens.

• Let no-one tell you that only the perpetrators of these crimes are to blame. The politicians, who welcomed Islam into their country, are guilty as well. And it is not just Frau Merkel in Germany, it is the entire political elite in Western Europe.