Europe

Via VladTepesBlog.com,

An original translation by Nash Montana of a PI News report...

One of the recurring concerns voiced by Bank of America's Michael Hartnett is that with May now in the rearview mirror, we are entering "the event risk month" of June (incidentally, over the weekend, the credit strategist presented several ideas how to trade said event risk, either bullish or bearish). Now it is UBS' turn to reiterate the warning that June may see a spike in volatility due to "an unusual number of known unknowns."

A world-renowned expert on the Italian mafia, journalist Roberto Saviano, says the UK is “the most corrupt country in the world”. Saviano has spent more than a decade exposing the criminal dealings of the Italian Mafia.

In the latest tragic news from the world of finance, earlier today Zurich Insurance, the largest Swiss insurer which employs 55,000 people and provides general insurance and life insurance products in more than 170 countries, reported that Martin Senn, the company's former chief executive officer who stepped down in a December reshuffle, has committed suicide. He was 59.

Senn had been a long-time employee of the insurer, serving as its chief executive for six years before stepping down in December. 

The groundwork is being laid for everybody in Europe to be given new tax ID numbers, in preparation for moving to electronic money. Under plans by Brussels every working person in the EU is to be given a personal European Taxpayer Identification Number. The move, which has been dubbed “yet another signpost to Superstate”, follows the decision by the EU Parliament’s economic affairs committee to rubber stamp a plan by Commissioners to create a “common corporate consolidated tax base”.