Daily Brief – French Consumers

French Consumers

In a word, they are pessimistic with leading concerns being that in the very near future their standard of living will fall, they will be able to afford to spend less and lastly that their job security will be reduced. Sunday’s French election sees the New popular Front Alliance made up of the Greens, Socialists and the Communists campaigning on a reduction in the retirement age, tax rises levied on business and a rise in public spending. The right wing RN or National Reform Party on the other hand has a rather different proposition: tax cuts, restrictions on immigration and last but not least a re-negotiation of France’s position in the EU. What this adds up to is a departure from the shades of grey that has been a feature of Europe and also French politics for so long albeit with some outliers but very much in a minority, and a return to more extreme views and therefore more polarised politics. If RN does win and if RN do implement their manifesto, France and Europe will become very lively-in fact even livelier than the UK under Trussenomics.

EUR/USD 1.0719

European Renewable Energy

According to Eurostat renewable energy has become the single largest source of energy in the EU at 44%. There has been a drop in fossil fuel consumption, natural gas consumption has shown a decrease especially in Czechia, Portugal and Austria and interestingly despite the vast number of wind turbines across the EU, the biggest growth has been seen in solar energy. Nothing to do with all those cheap solar panels being shipped from China I am sure. Elsewhere in the world in contrast to this virtuous picture of renewable energy adoption, in Canada the mainly deliberately started forest fires sweeping across Western Canada earlier this year generated the same amount of pollution as 647 million cars do annually.

GBP/USD 1.2660

Trump v Biden

By the time that you read this tonight’s pivotal Presidential debate ahead of the US Election on November 5 should be if not clearcut it will certainly be over( it started at 0200 BST or 0300 CET this morning). The world will judge how Presidents Biden and Trump have performed but uppermost in most of the audiences’ minds will be the demand from Trump that Biden should submit to a drugs test ahead of the debate. The reason, so Trump reasoned was that if Biden has done well, it will only be because Biden had self-medicated with performance enhancing drugs. At first sight this would look to be a bizarre demand but upon consideration it looks to be yet another example of the mastery displayed by Trump in his grasp of media manipulation. Trump’s logic is that if Biden does well, Trump has already undermined him with the drug slur, but if he, Trump is judged to have performed better than Biden, it will be because “Sleepy Joe” is so bad that even performance drugs do not improve him!

EUR/JPY 172.01

Glastonbury

Yes here we are again with Glasto kicked off, 576 drones deployed, a host of top headline acts limbering up ranging from Dua Lipa to LCD Soundsystem and most unusually for those used to wellington boots, incessant rain and a sea of mud, so far it is a case of the need to daub faces with sunscreen instead of woad or face paint. Can it last? We can only hope so for those laying out GBP400 to get in before all those mind expanding refreshment costs that will doubtless be incurred

GBP/EUR 1.1815

Julien’s Auctions

This day in 2010 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, a number of rock and roll memorabilia came under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions including the Swarovski crystal studded glove worn by Michael Jackson on his 1984 Victory Tour. Such is/was the adoration towards MJ that a Los Angeles woman ponyed up USD 190,000 for a single 26 year old faux jewelled glove that was worn by the deceased prince of pop who had left for the dance studio in the sky almost exactly a year previously on 25^th June 2009. And that folks is true star power. 

Here is Killer:

It’s close to midnight
And something evil’s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between the eyes
You’re paralyzed

‘Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it’s thriller, thriller night
You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight, yeah

Ooh, ooh
You hear the door slam
And realize there’s nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you’ll ever see the sun
You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination
Girl, but all the while
You hear a creature creepin’ up behind
You’re out of time

Have a Great Weekend!

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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