European Union

While the track record of the Sunday Times over the past 24 hours is somewhat spotty, following a report that as his foreign trip abroad once officially president, Trump is planning a summit with Putin in Reykjavik, which in turn was promptly denied by Trump staffers who called the story "fantasy", overnight the paper also reported that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will announce that Britain is "seeking a clean and hard Brexit" in a speech this week that will promise to create a “strong new partnership” with the European Union.

Angela Merkel is again calling for the European Union to create its own army warning that the bloc will not be able to rely on others to guarantee its security any more. She believes that the US and UK are both too weak now that Donald Trump is about to enter the White House and Britain is about to leave the EU The Express reports: The Berlin chief said Brussels will have to take on “more responsibility in the world” as she predicted a cooling in trans-Atlantic ties under the eurosceptic President-elect.

This article by David Haggith was first published on The Great Recession Blog:

I have struggled to understand George Soros because he is a character riddled with contradiction. His push to break down borders by increasing immigration all over the world is undermining his desire to establish a unified Europe and a unified world. By pushing too hard, too fast, he’s creating obvious pushback. So, I decided to work on an article that would help me get a little better sense of what drives him.

Submitted by Constantin Gurdgiev via True Economics blog,

EU's Fiscal Discipline in one table: here is a summary of the EU member states' performance when it comes to 3% deficit ceiling set out as a core fiscal criteria:

Czech inflation spiked in the last two months, hitting the central bank’s target for the first time since 2012, heaping, as The FT reports, additional pressure on the country’s soon to be expired currency regime with the euro.

Along with on-target inflation, the Czech Republic also boasts the lowest rates of unemployment anywhere in the EU at 3.7 per cent.