The center-left Social Democrats, for one, are in the middle of an existential crisis, and large factions within the party will continue to worry that another coalition will keep them from some much-needed soul-searching. The second, and more important, driver of insecurity is the chancellor herself. If power is defined by the ability to make others do what they’d rather not, it is becoming clearer by the day that her power is fading.

Some Christian Democrats have become silently rebellious, while others publicly take a significantly tougher stance than the chancellor on issues like migration. A senior cabinet member, who wished not to be named, has told journalists that the race for Ms Merkel’s successor within the ranks has already begun.

Now, as it falters, the consequences of the government’s reliance on companies like it are plain for all to see. All 20,000 of Carillion’s British employees stand to lose their jobs, and the economic effects could prove potentially devastating. With up to 90 percent of Carillion’s work subcontracted out, as many as 30,000 businesses are potentially at risk. 

As the fallout from last week’s collapse continues to reverberate, in hindsight it’s obvious that the company’s business model, which mistook the temporary construction boom at the start of the millennium for something more enduring, died in the teeth of the Great Recession. The future of the companies, responsible for Britain’s roads, railtracks, hospitals, schools and prisons, looks more precarious than ever.

None of the clinical trials have been formally published, adding to the secrecy of the genetic alteration programme, but the testing is said to have “improved” patients’ ability. Chinese doctors are able to selectively edit the DNA of cells in patients’ bodies and replace them with stronger genetics.

The developments have caused concern in the US with the country fearing the scientific experiment could give the Chinese the upper hand in any future war between the two world powers. Maria Zuber, Chair of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), warned it was vital the US increase their research and development programmes in light of Beijing’s success.

She said: “That trend raises concerns about impacts on our economy and workforce, and has implications for our national security. From gene editing to artificial intelligence, scientific advancements come with inherent risks. And it's critical that we stay at the forefront of science to mitigate those risks.” The communist state has massively increased its financing of genetic research and development since the year 2000.

“All the market indicators right now look very similar to what we saw before the Lehman crisis, but the lesson has somehow been forgotten,” said William White, the Swiss-based head of the OECD’s review board and ex-chief economist for the Bank for International Settlements. This time central banks are holding a particularly ferocious tiger by the tail. Global debt ratios have surged by a further 51 percentage points of GDP since the Lehman crisis, reaching a record 327 percent (IIF data). Every part of the world economy is exhibiting some deformed pathology

This is a new phenomenon in economic history and can be tracked to QE liquidity leakage from the West, which flooded East Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets, with a huge extra push from China pursuing its own torrid venture. “Central banks have been pouring more fuel on the fire,” he told the Daily Telegraph, speaking before the World Economic Forum in Davos.  “Should regulators really be congratulating themselves that the system is now safer? Nobody knows what is going to happen when they unwind QE. The markets had better be very careful because there are a lot of fracture points out there,” he said.

It has the makings of a perfect storm. At best, the implication is that yields on 10-year US Treasuries - the world’s benchmark price of money - will spike enough to send tremors through credit markets. We are not close to the danger point but the yield crept up to a three-year high of 2.66 percent last week. It has broken out of its 36-year downtrend, prompting loud warnings of a secular bond rout.

Central banks are now caught in a ‘debt trap’. They cannot keep holding rates near zero as global inflation pressures build because that will lead to an even more perilous financial bubble, but they cannot easily raise rates either because it risks blowing up the system. “It is franky scary,” he said. “We are running out of ammunition. I am afraid that at some point this is going to be resolved with a lot of debt defaults”.

“It makes you want to cry,” said Anatael in a telephone interview. “I think we are headed for chaos.” Evidence for his prediction can be found in towns and cities across Venezuela that have been hit by an outbreak of looting and mob violence. Angry about empty supermarket shelves and soaring prices, some people are breaking into warehouses, ransacking food trucks and invading outlying farms.

During the first 11 days of January the Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict, a Caracas rights group, recorded 107 episodes of looting and several deaths in 19 of Venezuela’s 23 states. But the figures don’t fully capture the level of desperation. Recent headlines from Venezuela read like notes from the apocalypse:

On Margarita Island dozens of people waded into the ocean and forced their way aboard a fishing boat, making off with its catch of sardines.

In the city of Maracay, just west of Caracas, thieves broke into a veterinary school, stole two pregnant thoroughbred horses and slaughtered them for meat.

A recent video from the western state of Mérida shows a group of people cornering a cow before stoning it to death as bystanders yell: “The people are hungry!”

There have been previous incidents of looting but analysts fear that the current wave could linger amid the Venezuela’s economic freefall.

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Stack, 66, who manages $1.3 billion for people with a high net worth, predicted the housing crash in 2005, just before prices reached their peak. Now, from his perch in Whitefish, Montana, he says his “Housing Bubble Bellwether Barometer” of homebuilder and mortgage company stocks, which jumped 80 percent in the past year, once again is flashing red.

“It is 2005 all over again in terms of the valuation extreme, the psychological excess and the denial,” said Stack, whose fireproof files of newspaper articles on bear markets date back to 1929. “People don’t believe housing is in a bubble and don’t want to hear talk about prices being a little bit bubblish.”

Overall, the S&P 500’s index of homebuilders increased 75 percent last year, about four times as much as the stock market as a whole. “Over the past year, we’ve really seen a pickup in the first-time buyer, and that’s what’s driving a lot of the stocks,” said Samantha McLemore, who co-manages Bill Miller’s Miller Opportunity Trust, which has stakes in PulteGroup Inc and Lennar Corp. “In the long term, we continue to see strong earnings growth for years to come.”