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.
A message on a postcard inside a glass bottle thrown into the sea by a Plymouth biologist in 1906 and recovered in Germany has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest message-in-a-bottle. Metro reports: The historic message was sent by George Parker Bidder between 1904 and 1906 – along with a postcard and the promise of a shilling to the finder. It was eventually picked up in April last year by retired post office worker Marianne Winkler who was holidaying on the island of Amrum, off the north coast of Germany.
Down in Fredrick, MD, visiting with the KBRA FIG team this week. Last week we published a research note, "Will Negative Interest Rates Save Europe’s Banking System?" You can read the full report with footnotes at the link below (registration is free).
https://www.krollbondratings.com/show_report/4042
Excerpted from Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin,
Another unsettled week for global markets. Japan’s Nikkei equities index rallied 6.5%. Italian bank stocks surged 10%, with the Europe STOXX 600 Bank Index up 8.1%. Germany’s DAX equities index rallied 4.5%, with Spanish stocks up 5.0% and Italian 4.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Financials index surged 5.9%. The EM market rally continued. U.S. bank stocks jumped 7.0%. A Friday evening Bloomberg headline: “Rough Week for Shorts as Banks Send S&P 500 to Four-Month High.”