The Daily Feather — Un, Deux, Trois
Un, deux, trois. In 32 days, Paris will become the first city to have hosted three Olympics by design. London is the sole predecessor, but its 1908 premiere as a destination city occurred because Rome was forced to cancel after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906 destroying the city of Naples. After hosting in 1932 and 1984, Los Angeles will follow into the annals of triple-host in 2028. As for Paris, its preceding years were 1900 and 1924. The beauty of 1981’s Chariots of Fire is synonymous with the 1924 games. An observant Christian, British runner Eric Liddell famously refused to compete in the 100-meter dash because it was held on the Sabbath. It was Uruguay, though, that carried the games. Competing for the first time as a country, it won the gold in football, a.k.a. “soccer” for us Yanks, which was recognized as a world championship by FIFA. Germany was also conspicuous in its absence. Provoking the disinvitation were German deficiencies in coal and coke deliveries to France required by World War I reparations. As such, French and Belgian troops occupied the industrial Ruhr River valley region in Germany from 1923-1925.
No doubt, many Parisians are wishing they could whisk away the next month. Nearly a quarter of a trillion has been annihilated in French stock market value since President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary vote on June 9th. Meanwhile, as reported by Bloomberg, a UBS Group index tracking stocks exposed to election risks -- especially banks, highway operators, and utilities – has tumbled 9% since then. According to Anadolu Agency News, “A survey conducted by the Ipsos polling company for the daily Le Parisien and Radio France indicated that in the first round of elections to be held on June 30, (LePen’s) RN will rank first with 31.5% of the vote, while the People's Front, formed by left-wing and environmentalist parties, will become second with 29.5%.
According to the survey, the alliance of President Emmanuel Macron will fall to third place with 19.5% of the vote.” The outcome of the elections won’t be known until July 7th.
Commenting on Friday’s release of flash PMI data via S&P Global, Hamburg Commercial Bank economist Norman Liebke said France likely avoided recession in the second quarter with nowcast models suggesting 0.1% growth.