I am writing this just before a US inflation report which, to quote Bloomberg, “May provide clues on the monetary-policy outlook; S&P futures were little changed, as were European stocks [awaiting] the next policy statement from the European Central Bank…”
This seemed to catch exactly the calm-before-the-storm characterised by the right-wing picture magazine
France Illustree in the early months of 1939. Its pages were filled with pacific speeches by Hitler, tub-thumping thoughts by French ministers, and artists’ impressions of the latest troop carriers and tanks to roll off the prototype production lines. The run of volumes I have stops abruptly with the issue dated