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“The Italian Horrorclown”. That’s what Germany’s mainstream Der Spiegel newspaper called Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini late last week. The picture to go along with the story wasn’t flattering either. Meanwhile, Der Spiegel also found a Greek economist willing…

POITOU, FRANCE – Whoa! What’s this? The Dow popped up nearly 400 points last Thursday. On Friday just 4% off its all-time high of 26,616, reached on January 26 of this year. And you know what that means. Markets are…

Recessions happen. Financial crises happen. Markets crash. Currencies collapse. The odd thing, given how often it happens, is that people still don’t expect it. Are you expecting some sort of crash in coming years? A recession perhaps? This week’s The…

POITOU, FRANCE – Coming into focus is a fuller picture of the worldwide financial crisis. This week, we began looking at Turkey, but only because Donald Trump sent an extraordinary tweet last Friday. In it, the president broke with tradition…

Since the Brexit negotiations began, I couldn’t work out why they were so acrimonious. Free trade is mutually beneficial. Restricting it is mutually harmful. What is there left to argue about? The answer comes from British intelligence. At least that’s…

[Editor’s note: because Bill is usually writing from the US, we don’t publish his copy until the day after he’s written it. So if you’re a bit confused as to why he’s predicting events that have already happened, that’s why.]…

Turkey’s crisis is nothing to worry about. Because if it wasn’t Turkey, it’d be someone else. What should worry you is the timing of the Turkish crisis. The world has barely embarked on quantitative tightening or interest rate increases. And…

POITOU, FRANCE – We led off yesterday with the Turkey story… …and Friday’s tweet from Donald J. Trump: I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira,…

Bond investors are turning to John Denver songs to make money. Yes, you read that right. Country Roads and Leaving on a Jet Plane have become a substitute for bonds. Such is the state of the fixed income market. Who…

POITOU, FRANCE – “Do you follow what is going on in Turkey? That guy is a real moron…” Thus began a conversation at a party we attended Sunday night. Reuters provided some background: The Turkish lira has long been falling…