Europe

Submitted by Yonathan Amselem via The Mises Institute,

According to The BBC, the most asylum claims in 2015 occurred in Germany, which saw >500,000...

With the main route (reportedly shut down) being from Turkey to Greece, and up through the Balkans...

With Syrians making up the bulk of migrants trying to enter Europe.

But now, in response to Balkan countries closing down traditional migrant routes to Europe, Switzerland's military is taking steps to prepare for a potential new wave of immigrants in case it becomes part of a new route.

There is little joy for bulls in David Kostin's latest weekly kickstart, in which the chief Goldman strategist says that "the S&P 500 has reached our 2016 year-end target of 2100. We expect that the index will remain at this level given tepid US GDP growth, a mixed earnings outlook, and elevated valuation. Corporate repurchases are the main source of US equity demand. We forecast S&P 500 gross buybacks will rise by 7% to $600 billion in 2016.

Following his anti-Brexit Op-Ed which sparked much controversy and confusion as to just why the US president was interfering with yet another domestic issue, Obama held a press conference with UK PM David Cameron in which he in no uncertain terms threatened the UK with trade retaliation if the country were to exit the EU.

Whether it is due to Trump's increasingly vocal anti-free trade rhetoric or due to the ongoing deterioration in the global economy, there has been a big change in the public's perception toward the transatlatnic deal known as TTIP in the recent months, with support for the agreement which was drafted by big corporations behind closed doors tumbling.