The EU bubble is doomed to burst in 2019, financial analyst warns

6 Jan, 2019 12:11

The European Union is about to implode this year, investor Mitch Feierstein has predicted in a New Year episode of the Keiser Report. He also reveals which country will become the next Greece – and the answer may surprise you.

This year will be harsh for Europe not only due to Brexit, because other member states besides the UK could also bring the bloc down, according to Feierstein. Nationwide protests in France are only the first sign of looming wider unrest, the analyst told RT’s Max Keiser.

“You are gonna see global unrest. I think you’ll it as a feature in Italy when the EU tries to bully them,” the British-American investor noted, citing infective “draconian austerity measures.”

However, not only Italy but also France could follow the fate of debt-ridden Greece, Feierstein warned, noting the low approval rating of President Emmanuel Macron, skyrocketing unemployment, and huge wealth inequality in the country.

“Italy has got four trillion in loans they said there are not going repay… France has got a similar situation but they’ve got civil unrest with the population burning down Paris. So one of them will leave,” he predicted.

Both countries have been breaking EU budget rules. After just one year of compliance in 2018, Paris announced that its budget deficit for 2019 is set to be 0.2 percent higher than the three percent threshold that the bloc’s rules allow. Brussels agreed to tolerate the breach as it had been doing so for almost a decade before Macron’s presidency.

Also on rt.com Oops, France did it again! EU allows Paris near-traditional budget breach for 2019

Italy has also been at loggerheads with the 28-nation union. Last year, the EU Commission wanted to put Italy in an economic disciplinary program over a serious breach of EU regulations on debt. The standoff between Rome and Brussels was settled only in mid-December, when Italy agreed to a budget deal despite domestic criticism from opposition.

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