Epstein Secrets

n politics. Will Europe follow the route to populism (revolt from the voters) or will we find relief for the markets by the end of 2017 from a Fillon/Merkel duo being in charge of the Euro area’s two largest economies. We think investors will demand a higher risk premium until the French Elections in May

est political risk event for European (and possibly global) equity markets in 2017. By 22 October 2017: German Federal elections Current Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she intends to stand for re- election. Current polls have Merkel’s CDU ahead followed by SDP with the euro- sceptic Alternative fu

ents in 2016, show Fillon securing 65-70% of the vote vs Le Pen in a runoff (see chart below). We note that when her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, faced Jacques Chirac in the 2002 Presidential elections the FN candidate only received 18% of the vote. Nevertheless, we see a potential Le Pen win as the biggest politic

pinpricks," we appear hardly credible or formidable. Obama himself seems unable to fathom the fallout from the NSA's tapping of German chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone or from allowing Vladimir Putin to adjudicate the Syrian mess. It is unclear whether Obama has even appreciated the traditional U.S. r

om the NSA's tapping of German chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone or from allowing Vladimir Putin to

vastating conflict. The French view is persuasive. Then along came the Iran nuclear dossier, a subject on which successive French presidents — from Jacques Chirac through Nicolas Sarkozy to Hollande — have had a consistent view: The Islamic Republic wants a bomb; only a tough approach will stop it. Once again

The most sensational of them was a purported document attrib- uted to Snowden concerning the NSA hacking of the cell phone of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. The story was published on October 23 on the Der Spiegel website. Appelbaum was the co- author of the story. Even though Snowden had by now been in

istent with @ Kucherena’s assertion that he had access to the archive. @ Adding to the intrigue, Poitras was apparently caught by surprise when the Merkel story broke in Der Spiegel. She urgently texted Snowden on what she called “background” (which ordinarily means that a journalist will not attribute

had supposedly wiped his computer clean in Hong Kong. It revealed that the NSA had targeted the telephones of three consecutive presidents of France—Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande. According to a former NSA official, this document, like the 2013 Merkel material, was not among the data on