In the current time of unprecedented central-planner-focused monetary-policy experimentation and a growing bias towards collectivist and socialist attitudes, the similarities to what Wilhelm Ropke - the European economist who stood up to Hitler - had some seemingly ominous and prescient persepctives in 1933 before everything collapsed:
With markets happy to put February in the history books because it marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in global stocks, we move on to March 1st, which doubles down as 'Super Tuesday' in the US when Trump's presidential candidacy will almost certainly be sealed and a day in which stocks decided to join the super fun by super surging overnight on nothing but bad global macro and economic which however was promptly ignored and instead the focus was on ongoing central bank intervention and even more jawboning.
In a shocking new set of cables released by Julian Assange's Wikileaks organization, highly classified documents show that the NSA bugged meetings between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (over climate change); between Israel prime minister Netanyahu and Italian prime minister Berlusconi (begging for help to deal with Obama); between key EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret trade red-lines at WTO negotiations; as well as details of a private meeting
Having shown that the world is turning Japanese with tales of economic malaise, extreme monetary policy, and negative rates, Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins shows that Germany, with its 5-yr government bond currently trading at a -0.33% yield, is no exception to this story. However, negative yields are not the only concern that the country has in common with Japan.
Over the past two months, Europeans have become completely fed up with the wave of refugees streaming into the bloc from the Mid-East.