Politics

Following yesterday's German election, which despite Merkel's 4th victory was a rout for the establishment "grand coalition" parties of CDU/CSU and SPD which saw its worst election performance since the 1940s offset by a surge in the ascendant right-wing AfD, there have been numerous analyst reactions to the "sudden reemergence" of populism in Europe, but one we find perhaps the most insightful and useful, comes from Bloomberg macro commentator Mark Cudmore, who writes this morning that for all the concerns, it's not so much Germany as what is about to happen in European peer Spain, where C

Authored by Chris Hedges via TruthDig.com,

The ruling elites, who grasp that the reigning ideology of global corporate capitalism and imperial expansion no longer has moral or intellectual credibility, have mounted a campaign to shut down the platforms given to their critics. The attacks within this campaign include blacklisting, censorship and slandering dissidents as foreign agents for Russia and purveyors of “fake news.”

Earlier today, we said that as more sellside commentary on today's startling German election result came out, the knives would be out for the Euro. Sure enough, that's precisely what happened, and nobody captures the sour mood better than SocGen's FX strategist Kit Juckes who writes that "if the election of President Macron suggested to anyone that populism isn't a threat to EU, then today's vote is a wake-up call."

Selected excerpts from his note "European Trouble"

The Russian Defense Ministry has released aerial images allegedly showing ISIS, the SDF, and US special forces working side-by-side on the battlefield against Syrian and Russian forces in Dier ez-Zor, Syria.

The aerial photos of ISIS' territory north of #Deir_ez_Zor where #USA special operation troops are seen https://t.co/lH6u8H9bvZ pic.twitter.com/gjqlQubi9o

On Sunday evening, President Trump announced he would replace his controversial travel ban with a targeted list of restrictions that will enhance vetting for nationals from eight countries, and restrict or prohibit entry of citizens from North Korea and Venezuela among others, to the United States as part of a sweeping new travel ban that also slaps restrictions on Iran, Chad, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia - countries that hardly have a "thriving" tourism industry with the US.