For obvious reasons I write about the place this week, and wear my poppy with pride, even if Fifa deems it inappropriate. My grandfather was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) as a teenager attached to the Grenadier Guards in WWI and my great-grandfather, Surgeon Major with the Bengal Lancers, died at the North West Frontier (Afghan-Pakistan border) in 1901. Both would be wearing them if they could.
Today in Paris the Avenue de Flandre - which runs from Sebastopol metro to the Périphérique in the 19th arrondissement - is better known as 'home' to hundreds of migrants.
The focus of this piece are the bourses of this area, generally described as the eurozone's powerhouse (plus Finland) as opposed to weak Mediterranean economies. Paris's CAC 40 index contains big semi-state enterprises (Alcatel), semi-family companies (L’Oréal), three big banks and insurer AXA. Trading at 4400, which it first hit in 1998, it's well below the record high (6945) of 2000, the 2007 peak at 6168, and a third lower high than the 2015 high of 5280. Bad luck.
Over in Belgium, which at last has a government even if those in Wallonia won't come to heel, the BEL 20 index contains few familiar names and, maybe mercifully, no banks of global reach (just ING and KBC). Therefore this cannot possibly be seen as a bellwether. Like Paris it is trading at a level first reached in 1998 (3500) and well below the record 4750 of 2007.
Amsterdam may pretend to be its bigger brother and yes, giants Shell, Philips and Unilever are listed there. Banks overlap with Brussels, bailed out ING, the notorious ABN Amro, though unlisted co-operative Rabobank Group's key focus is maintaining its triple A rating, which means it has a virtual monopoly with Dutch pension fund business. Insurer Aegon, which at peak traded at €53, has been hovering around €3 for eight years. Like Paris, the AEX peaked in 2000 at 700 and again in 2007 at 565, faltering at 510 last year. Still looking top-heavy following this series of lower highs.
Finally to Germany's DAX 30, which is the only one of this little quartet to have posted a new record high in 2015. It has retreated since then and now lies half way between here and this year's low. Its problem, however, lies in its financial sector. We know Italian, Portuguese and possibly Spanish banks are in trouble; we suspect that German ones also have issues. Deutsche Bank is trading at about one-tenth of 2007's peak share price of €103. Commerzbank currently valued at just €6 per share from a peak in 2000 at €280! Asset manager Allianz and insurer Munich RE currently trade at about half of 2000's record highs. Not cheap, just beaten up.
