Politics

“When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there is the possibility the dancing bear will win..”

After Sunday night's shocking failure by Merkel to from a government (triggered by the Free Democrats walking out due to irreconcilable differences on refugee policy, energy policy and tax policy) the FT was quick to conclude that "Merkel faces worst political crisis of her career." And while Merkel is certainly in hot water, a more appropriate question is what's next for Germany.

More than two months have passed since North Korea held one of its missile tests - the longest period of tranquility this year, although it may be ending soon: South Korea’s National Intelligence Service warned on Monday that it has detected suspicious activity at the North’s missile research facility – the latest sign that another test may occur by the end of the year. South Korean intelligence has on more than one occasion captured spy satellite images of the North Korean military transporting equipment from the North’s missile facility near Pyongyang.

Having tumbled 80 pips to a one week low in kneejerk response to the late Sunday news that Angela Merkel had failed to form a government following the collapse of the "Jamaica Coalition" talks - when the Free Democratic Party walked out, saying the differences with the Green party were too great to bridge - both the Euro and European stocks have staged an impressive rebound, and the entire gap lower in the FX pair has now been, well, pared.

Russia-gate blame-scaping is accelerating across Europe... and now it is being embraced by none other than European Council President Donald Tusk.

In what is an unprecedented attack by an EU leader on a member state’s sitting government, Bloomberg reports that Tusk explicitly suggests the ruling Law & Justice party is merely a 'puppet of Putin' and just forwarding Russian interests...

Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,