Thanksgiving amid the Threats

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‘Nobody in Europe will be abandoned. Nobody in Europe will be excluded. Europe only succeeds if we work together.’ – Angela Merkel, December 15, 2010
‘Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. Believe me, it will be enough.’ – Mario Draghi, July 25, 2012
‘We have to safeguard the spirit behind Schengen,’ Mr Juncker told the European Parliament on Wednesday. ‘Yes, the Schengen system is partly comatose. But .’.’. a single currency does not exist if Schengen fails. It is one of the pillars of the construction of Europe.’ – London Telegraph, November 25, 2015
We all have great cause for gratitude this Thanksgiving weekend, whether or not you celebrated that holiday in your home country. In the last month we have seen how violence can touch people far from the battlefields. If your only connection to the recent terrorist events came through watching the news, count yourself lucky. Others can only wish they had such distance.
Many have made comparisons with 9/11 these past two weeks. History never repeats itself quite so neatly, of course, but I too sense that we are poised at an inflection point. Significant events at different places around the globe seem to be converging. I suppose we will look back someday and be able to see clearly the connections among them. For now, we can only try to understand.
I think the entire situation in the Middle East, the refugee crisis, and the present state of the European Union have to be placed in a greater context if we are to understand what the confluence of these vastly different sociopolitical rivers will mean for the future of our economy and investments. I think we are coming to a period of time when geopolitical concerns, always on my radar, are going to require more attention. This has been apparent to me for some time, and I’ve been working to position Mauldin Economics to help you stay abreast of global developments. We will be making what I think you will find to be immensely helpful announcements in the immediate future.
But for today, in this week’s letter, I’m going to let other people do most of the talking. I gave you my own thoughts on the Paris attacks and Europe’s future last week in ‘The Economic Impact of Evil.’ Today I’ll share some of the most interesting post-Paris analysis that has crossed my path over the last two weeks.

This post was published at Mauldin Economics on NOVEMBER 27, 2015.