Showing posts with label voters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voters. Show all posts

2017-05-05

French Voters Skeptical of Macron & Le Pen: Is France "Done"?

FRANCE 24 Live – International Breaking News & Top stories - 24/7 stream

Watch election coverage above as France votes Sunday, May 7, 2017, for a new President and neither of the two runoff candidates, Macron and Le Pen, are representing a major French party. What's likely to happen? Video courtesy of France24.com.

UPDATE May 7, 2017 (rev. May 8): Macron wins runoff with low voter turnout and historic high numbers of voters voting blank or spoiled ballots--out of France's reported 51 million registered voters, 25.4% of registered voters did not vote, 11.4% of registered voters voted a spoiled or blank ballot, and the remaining voters split between Macron 66% and Le Pen 34%--hence Macron won by getting only 20.75 million (updated) votes. Legislative elections in France are scheduled to take place on 3, 10-11 June 2017 and 17-18 June 2017 to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic. See also: Many French voters yet to be convinced by Macron | Reuters.com 8 May 2017.

Analysis and opinion (as of May 5, 2017):

First, the situation in France may be a lot worse than many would have you believe--
Some media, including Reuters.com, have reported that French voters are skeptical and do not think either Macron or Le Pen have answers on either unemployment or security (terrorism). Reportedly 45 percent of voters believe neither Macron nor Le Pen would put an end to unemployment (unemployment has for years been close to 10 percent in France), and 36 percent of voters say neither candidate is able to protect France from terrorist attacks. France has been under a state of emergency since 2015 and more than 230 people have been killed in terrorist attacks over the past two years. Under this scenario, the runoff vote on Sunday is a "no-win election" for the French people.
Second, here's what's likely to happen: the peculiar Emmanuel Macron will win accompanied by pro-EU elites and establishment media cheering, mistakenly believing "populism is over." Then the rot will continue while Macron somehow tries to govern, though you won't notice much reporting on this if you are only following the establishment media "narratives."

Look at the infographic below (thousands of millionaires flee France). France has a problem. Is it because, like most of Europe, it is trapped in a failed experimental monetary system (the "euro"--monetary union without fiscal union does not work), apparently resigned to high unemployment, and overwhelmed by chaotic out-of-control immigration, and an inability to absorb or culturally integrate its own growing and dissatisfied Muslim minorities? Expect more trouble ahead. This is far from over. Get out if, and while, you can. The Brexiteers have got it right. More will be revealed. See: Euro Outlook for 2017 | Fortune.com"Markets sense that the system is not viable in the long run—speculators attack when they smell blood. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s assertion that he will do “whatever it takes” has worked wonders—for longer than anyone expected. But it is a confidence trick: It works only because market participants believe it will work."

Third, if you're doing a deal in Europe and your counterparts will not agree to U.S. law and jurisdiction governing the transaction, why would you not insist on English law and jurisdiction governing the transaction, and close it in London? Otherwise, you too could end up "trapped."

All of the above has ramifications for global markets and investors, and the shift in global power from West to East. Caveat Emptor.

Follow the money--thousands of millionaires flee France--

Millionaire Migrants? Countries That Rich People Are Flocking To and From:
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

See also on Domain Mondo: The French Election & Global Markets, Italy A Threat to the Euro (videos) (April 21, 2017)

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2016-11-03

Stanford GSB Professor David Brady: A Look at the 2016 Elections (video)

"As for Mainstream Media [MSM] bias: Bernie [Sanders] was fortunate to only be blacked out, Soviet style; Trump has zero MSM newspaper endorsements and has been subjected to MSM bias that is laughably ham-handed, reminiscent of old-style Communist "running dogs of Imperialism" propaganda ... With the rise of the Internet and social media, broadcast propaganda is now competing with narrowcast: blogs, Twitter and Facebook enable self-organizing tacit tribes ... with their own networks of communication, narratives and agendas ... In terms of finance and communications, politics as usual--political candidates and narratives mandated by the parties' Ruling Elites and the MSM--is dead. We will all look back in 2026 and wonder why the recognition of this reality took so long."--Charles Hugh Smith
David Brady: A Look at the 2016 Elections:

Whatever your political leanings or anxieties about this year's Presidential election, you will be enlightened after listening to Professor Brady's talk in the video above. He explains what, in his view, is really happening, what makes this election year different than others, not just in the U.S., but in Europe and elsewhere, with humor and insight. 

One caveat: much has already changed (or been revealed) since the video above was recorded on October 14, 2016, as part of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Stanford GSB) Fall Reunion/Alumni Weekend.

Topics covered include globalization and immigration. The 2016 Presidential Race has had a polarizing effect on many voters, with the 2 major candidates each having high unfavorable ratings. See, e.g., Clinton’s unfavorable rating hits new high in poll | Trump targets Democratic states in final sprint | MarketWatch.com (Oct. 31, 2016).

New polling indicates voters are shifting in view of the late-breaking Wikileaks disclosures, the FBI re-opening its investigation of Hillary Clinton (email scandal) together with revelations about the Clinton Foundation and its tie-ins ("pay-to-play") with Teneo and Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State. Trump 47.8% now leads Clinton 42.4% in the USC Dornsife / LATimes.com tracking poll as of November 2, 2016.

The YouGov.com poll referenced in Professor Brady's talk, as of November 1, 2016, shows Trump has a clear path to victory (270 electoral votes) by winning YouGov's "toss-up" states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, and Pennsylvania (in all of which Trump narrowly leads or is close according to YouGov). Even without Pennsylvania, Trump could still win by picking up another 10 electoral votes somewhere else, such as Wisconsin. One BIG problem with the YouGov methodology is that it estimates patterns of 2016 voter turnout using the 2012 Obama-Romney general election--which YouGov admits is "a key place where we might get things wrong if there is a large change in turnout patterns" in 2016--many experts say 2016 voter turnout patterns will differ from 2012. See also The U.S. Stock Market Isn’t Going Clinton’s Way | Bloomberg.com Nov. 1, 2016: "S&P 500 down 3.2% since Aug. 8, a good sign for challenger Trump. Market correctly signals outcome 86 percent of time since 1928." 

Just as the Brexit vote was the global macroeconomic event of the first half of 2016, the U.S. Presidential election has the potential to be the global macroeconomic event of the second half of 2016. U.S. voting will conclude the evening of Tuesday, November 8.

Speaker in the video: David Brady
Professor of Political Economy, Stanford GSB 
Davies Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution 
Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Domain: gsb.stanford.edu

See also:
Unedited auto-generated YouTube.com transcript (pdf) embedded below:




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