Patrick L Young: Greece is in a hideous situation. The only sane approach - presuming you do not endorse beggaring the population (which curiously it seems the current Marxist Prime Minister does...) - is Grexit. The whole affair is a disaster for Europe and Greece. The latter is impoverished, the former looks entirely incompetent and incapable. A third bailout merely renews the fuse of Grexit and the longer the fuse burns, the more likely the whole Eurozone will collapse. The political classes are incapable of evaluating the risks objectively (or are in denial about it). As an entrepreneur and investor, I cannot afford to avoid economic reality in the way the dysfunctional blob of Europe goes about conducting its (to put it mildly) rather disorganised affairs.  Reporter: What investments do you consider to be most interesting at the moment? What estimations do you have for the next period? What events should investors pay attention to, this year?  Patrick L Young: I happen to still like exchanges. We are working on several projects in this area, as the digital world perfectly fits with the benefits of exchanges. These network opportunities are enormous - everywhere.  At the same time, I have a considerable involvement in startups per se and am closely involved in Poland (through a startup group I cofounded "Mission ToRun) and across the world.  Technology is fundamentally interesting and there are huge opportunities for everybody at every age in the current environment. I am however worried about the overall macroeconomic picture and hence have been selling/pruning my portfolio of conventional assets in real estate, equities and so forth. I have no bond holdings right now - in fact I am more likely to be short of bonds/equities currently...awaiting much juicier yields in the near future (I like P2P / marketplace lending for this reason incidentally).  The biggest issue to pay attention to is the state of the world economy. China is in difficulty, the US remains sluggish thanks to the leftward lurch of the Obama administration, yet the US expansion is surely closer to an end for this cycle. Europe is a basket case overall. Sorry I cannot be more optimistic on the short to medium term but look at it this way - we live in a world of opportunity and technology on the horizon is simply incredible....albeit we have to work hard to get government to move out of the analogue era and accept our exciting digital future, even at the cost of the upheaval it can create. Then again that could work hugely to Romania's advantage if we can break the remaining influence of corruption and empower a better, broader meritocratic society for the nation which thrives with a nimbler bureaucracy such as, say Estonia's wondrous digital government...

The European Commission is proposing the emergency relocation of 120,000 migrants across Europe from Greece, Italy and Hungary, the EU executive's president Jean-Claude Juncker announced in a speech in Strasbourg on Wednesday (9 September), adding it "has to be done in a compulsory way." In his first State of the Union address to the European Parliament, Juncker said: "Addressing the refugee crisis is a matter of humanity and human dignity, for Europe [it is] also a matter of historical fairness."  "Action is what is needed," he noted, citing historical examples from Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, and Spanish fleeing for their lives in previous crises. He called on EU ministers of justice and home affairs to adopt the proposal on September 14 for the relocation of a total of 160,000 migrants. Juncker said he hoped that everyone would be on board this time. A relocation plan, presented by the Commission for 40,000 migrants in May, was only agreed upon on a voluntary basis. The plan subsequently fell far short of the target. "Italy, Greece, and Hungary cannot be left alone to cope with the enormous challenge," Juncker added.  He recalled that 500,000 people have made their way into Europe so far this year, and pointed out that this number represents only 0.11 percent of the total EU population. "Winter is approaching. Do we really want families sleeping in railway stations?", Juncker asked.  Besides the emergency relocation measure, Juncker announced that the European Commission is proposing a permanent relocation mechanism, which "will allow Europe to deal with crisis more swiftly in the future".  The Luxembourgish politician also announced that the Commission wants to turn Frontex, its border control agency in Warsaw, into a proper external border control and coast guard force.  He said the passport-free travel zone, Schengen, must be protected.  "Schengen will not be abolished under the mandate of this commission," Juncker said. He said the Commission plans to set up a Trust Fund of €1.8 billion to help Africa tackle the root causes of migration, and called on all EU members to pitch in.  Other measures include the review of the so-called Dublin system, which stipulates that people must claim asylum in the state in which they first enter the EU, and lays out a common list of safe countries of origin to process economic migrants more swiftly.   Juncker said Europe needs to open legal channels of migration. "We are an ageing continent, migration must change from a problem, to a well managed resource,” he said, adding that asylum-seekers should be allowed to work while awaiting the completion of their asylum process.   Juncker announced that the Commission will present a common refugee and asylum policy in early 2016, and reiterated that member states need to adhere to existing common asylum mechanisms.  "It is a matter of credibility," he said, adding that, before the summer, the Commission launched 32 proceedings to force EU members to uphold European standards and that more investigations are under way.

Two Points: ** China is now acknowledged as a primary leader of global economic trends. ** China will better managed the apparent down-swing much better than everybody else, as its %growth is still in the middle single digits and it has the  means to mollify any domestic disruptions. The message to the rest of us is "Sauve qui peut !" Blaming China has no effect and will not change anything. Can global capitalism 'revive itself' without Chinese - made profits ? The ball is on our court. The bankster's 30 year globalization scam coming home to roost.  There was no economic miracle - all that happened was the banksters shifted tens millions of jobs from west to east so they could pay eastern wages while charging western prices and this made them very rich.  But how could western demand be maintained to pay for all those (now imported) goods if tens of millions of well paid jobs were off-shored?   They got their puppet western politicians to keep the scam going with debt.  And now western credit has run out the off-shored economy has no one to sell to and so it's all going down.  The sickening thing is the banksters responsible for the coming disaster will run off to their private islands when the crash comes and watch the starvation they caused on TV - if there still is TV.  Perhaps instead of blaming one or a few countries for impending monetary problems all governments have to look at their spending. None that I have heard manage to reign in spending and have a balanced budget. Europe wants to keep maximum time off, minimum man hours while maintaining social programs. See Greece as end result. The US has gone down the sewer with profligate spending. Bush's spending was terrible, Obama has more than doubled the trouble Bush left the country. Soon, regardless of wealth, there will not be enough fully employed workers to fund what the government has decided is entitled to leeches. Unless the food chain is broken, economically we would seem doomed. It is not entirely China's fault.

The European Monetary Union (the Euro) was never going to work without full political union first. For the EU to be able rob Peter to Pay Paul and have the public support, without democracy getting in the way, they needed political union. They decided they could not wait for it, and went ahead with the Euro anyway. They now think they can use the Sub Saharans with welfare tickets & babies in hand as a weapon to bring this about by demoralising and destroying the homogeneity of the nations.

The EU's lack of patience to get the political union in place before the economic union, could cost them everything. I do not think importing 2,500,000-5,000,000 Muslim/Sub Saharans every year is going to save it either. This could trigger the end sooner than it would have occurred otherwise. I hope they have the EU army ready, cause they are going to need it.euro union...It's for the greater good.''- of the unelected, undemocratic, nepotists, submarxist/corporatist, sovereignty scamming, 19th cent social engineering 'Elite' who control the EU...Surely the strangest thing is that anyone in their right mind in the 21st cent would want to be part of a 19th cent POLITICAL social engineering retread like the European Union masquerading as a 'Trading Block' which doesn't believe in democracy, the sovereignty of the individual or the democratically expressed will of the people...but rather that all should be controlled by an unelected, nepotistic, self -serving EU 'elite' ? David Cameron is one of those brainwashed shallow submarxist/corporatist minded weirdos who bought into this '80's cultural marxism claptrap...

.''The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.”― Mikhail Gorbachev

- and he should know eh?

For investors looking to get the most upside out of a strong dollar trade, Credit Suisse suggests that emerging market currencies are likely to see some of the most dramatic shifts against the greenback in the coming months. Rising rates—or even the threat of them—tend to make life difficult for emerging market economies, particularly those with high current account deficits. Those countries depend on capital inflows to fund their operations, and when rates are low in the United States, as they have been for the past six years, investors are usually happy to oblige. But when rates are rising, investors start shifting their money back to the relative safety of the United States. The South African rand, Brazilian real, Mexican peso, and Turkish lira look particularly vulnerable to capital outflows this time around, the strategists say...Falling prices are a touchier subject for Europe, where the economic recovery is still nascent and fears of sustained deflation prompted the European Central Bank to introduce a bond-buying program earlier this year. If a believable specter of deflation reappears, the central bank would almost certainly extend its commitment to quantitative easing, while economies outside the Eurozone, such as Sweden, would also likely opt for easy policy. The ECB might even add to its stimulus, depending how much further the yuan weakens. At a time when the Federal Reserve and Bank of England are ready to tighten, relatively loose policy would make European stocks attractive. So did you follow that? This is how the butterfly effect of the global economy works these days: China devalues, European stocks look more attractive. They’ve even got a few arguments in their favor that have nothing to do with monetary policy. Fifty-eight percent of European companies that have announced second-quarter earnings have beaten expectations, and investors have also poured $1.3 billion into exchange-traded funds that track the EuroStoxx 600 index over the past month. Small-cap European stocks, which are less exposed to China than large-caps, merit particular attention.

I can't help thinking that the whole sell off (in China) was sparked by the authorities' currency devaluation. Although outside share ownership is limited it is still significant enough if they all act in concert and sell up fearing that the values of their holdings is going to drop in (say) USD terms. A bunch of them headed for €, $ or £ climes and started the snowball rolling.  Long-term low interest rates and QE (because interest rates couldn't be lowered further) has left the West's economies so weak that even a slight breeze from the East is enough to shake them. A wind from the East would blow them away.  Let it only be pointed out that the 173,000 new jobs just reported in the US was totally eclipsed by the whopping 293,000 workers who "dropped out" of the labor force. 94 million people are now "out of the workforce" in the US, signalling record low participation rates. Almost 15 million joined that category since peak employment in 2007, while 4 million jobs were created.  That's why unemployment is "so low"... fewer workers, lower unemployment creates... that's the stuff liberals like Krugman celebrate...most key indicators follow these dismal results that are swept under the rug.  US output is only slightly better than it was almost eight years ago and is now faltering as inventories are piling up and Liar's loans in the automotive industry have peaked.  As for China, Roubini seems to ignore the other Chinese bubble in housing. And the fact that the Chinese equities markets are not in free fall because the authorities in Beijing is willing to suppress any selling trends.  There is a way out for China, but in part, it means the political class has to take a long haircut. The Party bosses won't do this, so slow downward drift can be expected, especially as global customer demand tanks as well.

Just wait until the costs of all these migrants hits Europes bottom line with the Germans wondering what went wrong. The cost of these migrant hordes will drive down the Euro with countries like Italy and Greece now realising the huge financial costs of being in the front line of the migrant invasion.
Europe is now facing a break up and a return to nation states securing their own borders. They can print what they like but it will solve nothing there are too many countries in or near trouble to make the Euro a good long term bet. Germany itself will soon have self inflicted problems to deal with but that is yet to become apparent.A horrible and exquisite stalemate is emerging wherein the EU can go  neither forward nor back: the members states do not want and probably  will not accept further 'integration' which denies them sovereign control,  and they cannot retreat to former 'independence.'  The current obstruction come from not really having an independent  foreign policy and submitting to the crazy decisions that come out  of Washington (and their happy spokesmen in London). The EU has  passively conformed to allowing its own Near East to become a social  chaos and battlefield for a Holy War, funded by the Saudis and friends, drawing deluded youth from all over to become agents of a neo-barbarism that has culminated in ISIS.  Wise diplomats-- if we had had any-- would have kept Ghaddafi and Saddam in place and the economies of Libya and Iraq intact. They really constituted no threat. How ghastly now to have to weep over the desperation of a father who lost his children trying to flee to safety !  Unpleasant as it is in some quarters to hear this message: it is not the Damascus government that tortured the Chief Archaeologist of Palmyra, cut off his head and hung his headless body from a column. Rather, it was that Assad government which nurtured his work for decades and protected Syria's and the world's patrimony.