December 13, 2020 - Financial Occultist

Germany set to move from ‘lockdown light’ to a harder lockdown

The German virus situation looks to be taking a turn for the worse in the past week, with a record amount of daily cases reported on Friday alongside the deadliest day of the pandemic as the death count continues to rack up.

In the past week alone i.e. 7 to 13 December, Germany reported 3,015 virus deaths and that accounts for nearly 14% of the total virus deaths since the pandemic began.

German news outlet, n-tv, is reporting that the federal and state governments have largely agreed on tougher restrictions and a harder lockdown, which should go into effect starting from Wednesday, 16 December next week.

The measures should initially apply until 10 January, with an extension to be discussed on 5 January. The final decision will be made later this morning.

Some of the details from the report reveal that Germany will close retail shops barring essentials, schools are also to be closed or at least attendance be made non-mandatory, and there will be a ban on consumption of alcohol in public.

Again, this will have a negative impact on economic prospects and the overall outlook going into Q1 2021. However, the ECB has already responded accordingly with its “recalibration” measures all the way through to June 2022 at least.

The central bank measures may yet be enough to get the market to “ignore” the ongoing pessimism and keep with vaccine optimism. But just be mindful that the more negative news that we get in the meantime, it will slowly and surely add up.

Brexit: Everything still on the table as we approach supposed “point of finality”

13-Dec-20 09:11 pm

Analysis

Anirudh Sethi

What’s the latest buzz on the Brexit front

So, Sunday is now here. However, we’re not getting anything new on the Brexit front so far; from an official capacity at least.

Talks are still said to be “very difficult” and more discussions are set to take place today, though so far UK sources are saying that the offer by the EU remains “unacceptable”.

There is also a likelihood that we will see Johnson and von der Leyen speak again later tonight before anything is finalised and/or communicated publicly.

At the moment, the latest is that UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, is out saying that talks are not looking good and while technical discussions are still ongoing, he insists that movement is needed by the EU on a political level to strike a compromise.

I would bet the EU is saying the same thing, so there you have it.

The same key outstanding issues are still leading to a stalemate with Raab saying that the proposals put forward by the EU have been “pretty outlandish”.

In other words, both sides are still not blinking in this game of chicken.

As things stand, we could either see a deal, no-deal, or perhaps even talks be extended further beyond this supposed “point of finality”.

According to Raab, if the deal was 99% there, it would make sense to keep talking.

Again, Brexit and missed deadlines. Name a more iconic duo. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In any case, even if we do see both sides decide to walk away, just be reminded that the key “deadline” is 31 December. While there might not be a deal or some technical compromise now, it doesn’t mean we still won’t see one before the year ends.