Europe is scrambling to save the Schengen zone from collapse with a plan to seal off Greece and introduce internal border checks for up to two years. Jean-Claude Juncker backed a plan to reinforce Greece’s northern border with Macedonia with a taskforce of police drawn from across Europe.  Athens reacted with fury as leaders called for permanent refugee camps with a capacity for 300,000 refugees to be set up.  At a summit in Amsterdam, interior ministers instructed the European Commission to draw up plans to impose internal border controls within the Schengen zone for up to two years. Theo Francken, the Belgian immigration minister, said “closed facilities” run by the EU and holding up to 300,000 people should be set up in the country.  He said “the Greeks now need to bear the consequences” of being unable to stop the migrant flows. He added the Greek “state structure is just too weak to do it themselves – apparently.”  Greece responded with furious and accused the EU of peddling “lies” that it does not want to control its border. Ioannis Mouzalas, Greece’s minister for migration, said the plans would turn his country into a “cemetery of souls.” He said his government had not been consulted fully on the Slovenian plan. "We are tired to listen that we cannot secure our borders," he said. "We are told that we don't want coastguards, it's a lie - we want more coastguards."  "It is very difficult to stop small boats coming except sinking or shooting them, which is against our European values and Greek values and we will not do that," he said. Theresa May, the Home Secretary who attended the summit said Europe needed “urgent action” to deal with an “unprecedented migration crisis.”  “Unfortunately what we've had is more talk than action,” she said.

EU Member States have accepted, on Tuesday, the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to invest 217 million euros in 15 trans-European energy infrastructure projects, according to the EC. Of this amount, Transgaz will receive 179.3 million euros for development in Romania of a gas pipeline that will link Romania to Bulgaria and Hungary, part of of the broader BRUA pipeline, intended to reach Austria.  Of the 15 projects selected by the Commission, 9 are in natural gas (which will receive financial assistance of 207 million euros) and 6 in the electricity sector (which will benefit from a total aid of 10 million euros). Divided on other considerations, of the 15 projects, only two are construction works, with a total funding of 188 million euros. The other 29 million euros will provide the necessary funding for studies and analysis for 13 projects. “With this funding we will help secure supplies and we fully integrate the European energy market by connecting networks across Europe. We must continue to modernize our energy networks to bring any isolated country in the European energy market”, said the European Commissioner for Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete. In total, for 2014-2020 were allocated 5.35 billion euros for energy infrastructure of trans-European energy infrastructure under Projects of Common Interests label.

Liam Fox has launched the national grass-roots campaign to persuade voters to leave the European Union.  In a barnstorming speech to a rally of more than 2,000 people, the former Defence Secretary said he wanted to live in a country that was “an independent sovereign nation” again. Britain used to be “proud” and “free” and in this role saved Europe from its own “folly” in two world wars, the Tory MP said. Dr Fox dismissed his party leader’s attempts to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership. He said he was “sad” and “angry” to see “a British Prime Minister take the begging bowl around the capitals of Europe just to change the benefit laws in our country”.  “Insecurity for our country comes from open borders and uncontrolled migration,” he said. “I do not want the mistakes made by Angela Merkel in opening the doors to migrants in Germany to be reflected in Britain’s security. “Germany has discovered in Cologne and other places exactly what it may mean when you do not know who you have allowed into your country.” When these migrants have gained citizenship in another EU country, “they will have the right to enter the United Kingdom if we remain a member of the European Union. That for me is the real security issue at risk in this referendum.” In his speech, which was greeted with cheers and applause, Dr Fox said Britain would never be isolated in the world if it left the EU. He said the UK would remain a member of the UN security council, continue to have a “special relationship” with the United States. “This country has never been isolated. But what we have been is proud, independent and free.” Because of that “we were able to save the European Continent twice” in the 20th century “from their own folly” in two world wars.

Despite the evidence that migrants from the Middle East and Africa are continuing to flee war and poverty in their home countries and will strike out to Europe again in huge numbers this year, European leaders have taken no major new steps to curb the flow. Nor have they agreed on a comprehensive border policy or prepared for another influx that could rival last year’s, when more than a million asylum seekers reached the Continent, many of them headed to Germany.  Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France issued a stark warning in an interview broadcast on Friday about the future of a unified Europe, saying the very idea was under threat unless the Continent could protect its borders.  Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Valls said the Continent could not accommodate the enormous numbers of migrants and warned that they could destabilize European societies. “If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, it’s the very idea of Europe that will be questioned,” he said. “Europe has forgotten that borders are required.”  The Schengen zone, which permits largely unchecked movement across most of the Continent and was described by Mr. Valls as “one of the great European projects,” has been under severe strain as countries have introduced border controls aimed at stemming the flow of migrants.

Germany’s industrial production has slipped to ZERO per cent and customer confidence has plummeted in just part of a catalogue of disasters for Chancellor Angela Merkel.  A fall in Germany's prosperity could drag the eurozone down with it - a scenario becoming more likely amid growing signs of the country's slowdown.  The country has the biggest economy in Europe and is where a large portion of the bloc's wealth is created.   Germany's money has helped the eurozone struggle ahead, despite the ailing finances of Italy, Spain and Greece.  If the German economy crumbles it could start a domino effect that would pull down other countries' economies with it.  That would also be a huge hit to Britain as Europe is one of the UK's biggest trading partners.  The biggest shock facing Germany is the slowing global economy, which spells disaster for its export-driven growth. China is one of Germany's biggest markets, and its falling demand is expected to hit home hard. France is one of Germany's closest trading partners and its economy is struggling, further dampening demand for German exports. Expert Peter Lundgreen, head of investment firm Lundgreen's capital said: "German exporters are feeling the pain from the slowdown in business investments in many emerging market countries, as commodity prices have tumbled."  Germany's industrial output has helped underpin the country's economic growth - but these numbers have been undershooting expert expectations for months.  Domestic consumption has also powered the country's growth over the past year but consumer confidence has been falling since June last year, which indicates that consumption is set to fall too, Mr Lundgreen added.

Concerns that the global recovery could be derailed began last summer when a devaluation of the Chinese currency sparked a meltdown on the Shanghai stock exchange. A series of economic downgrades to the Chinese and US economies since then, coupled with a rise in US interest rates, have fuelled investors’ misgivings about optimistic forecasts for a recovery in economic fortunes.

Adding to the concerns of a sharp downgrade in global growth this year, a survey for the consultants PwC before the Davos meeting revealed that two-thirds of chief executives saw more threats facing their businesses than three years ago. And the head of the Swiss banking giant UBS, Axel Weber, turned the screw by warning that the world was stuck in an era of low growth.  Last week, an investment analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland advised clients to “sell everything” except the safest high grade bonds after warning of a “cataclysmic” year and the strong likelihood of a stock market crash. His comments came after the chancellor, George Osborne, warned in a new year speech of a “cocktail of threats” to the UK’s prospects from an increasingly uncertain world economy.

 

 

The economic system worldwide is a total shambles thanks to central bankers and governments who think they can print away their problems and 2008 never happened. Now the under the counter QE will be joined by QE4 and then its off to hyperinflation as all the bankrupt banks and companies who pay their workers peanuts have to be saved because they cannot survive in the world they created. A total and utter shambles...I'm never sure why there is so much concern about liquidity or lack of it in fixed income or equity markets. If investors want to sell something that they own, they can only sell it at the price that another investor is prepared to pay for it. If that price is lower than the price someone else was prepared to pay a month ago, or a week ago, or if the price is less than the seller was hoping to achieve, so be it. It's not the end of the world. They can decide not to sell at the lower price and hold on to their asset, or they can bite the bullet and sell.  Bonds and shares are designed to be long term investments. There is no fundamental right for an investor to redeem that investment whenever it suits him. If he wants out of the investment, he has to sell it and he can only sell it to someone else who wants to buy it - at a price that person wants to buy it at.  Why are so many people getting worked up about this?...The EU has legislated a mechanism to prevent a bank crash, it is based on the Cyprus model and amounts to using your money as the bank's assets.  "You see, when you open an account with a bank, you are investing in that bank". As someone who has owned bank shares and bank bonds, that is news to me, but, the rules are there to be changed at will by the people with the power to do so, and they have. The statement above indicates that your money is just as likely to be misappropriated sitting in a bank as it is if it were under your mattress.  It might be prudent to move your money into a Mutual or if a small amount, take it out and stick it under the garden shed or something.