The stock market keeps hitting record high after record high, the US dollar is now the strongest that it has been in 14 years, and CEOs are personally promising Trump that they will bring jobs back to the United States.  These are things worth getting excited about, and so it makes perfect sense that Gallup’s US Economic Confidence Index has now risen to the highest level that Gallup has ever seen…

Personally, I hope that things go as well as possible during the Trump administration.  If we truly are entering a new golden era of peace and prosperity, that would be more than okay with me. But we should not forget that our economic fundamentals have continued to deteriorate all throughout the Obama years, and our nation has been steadily accumulating the largest mountain of debt the world has ever seen.

Unless there is some sort of unprecedented miracle, there is no way that this giant bubble that we are in at the moment is going to end well.  So it is definitely good to be optimistic, but we also need to be realistic about where we are right now and about the great challenges that we will soon be facing.

"I think if you look at Deutsche Bank, what John Cryan (Chief Executive, Deutsche Bank) is doing is trying to lead a very long march back to a sustainable model. They have got through a lot of harder stuff but there are still many mountains ahead." The bleak warning comes after Deutsche Bank, the country’s largest lender, is facing a huge fine of $14 billion (£11 billion) from the US Department of Justice for the mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Watt added: ”If the bank can remain solvent and the bail-in is not too severe then it is a bit like someone having a heart attack and the defibrillator is put on them and they recover. They are not well but the proportion between the moment when things are applied to them and their recovery is a big change for the individual." A settlement between the German bank and the US department is yet to be reached which is having a long-term effect on the bank, whose shares have plummeted 21 per cent since the start of the year.

But a deal could be struck as soon as Wednesday, according to reports. An insider said: “There is a good chance the case will be off the table before Christmas.” Deutsche Bank had been said to agree a settlement in the region of $4 to 5 billion, according to the specialist German financial publication Der Platow Brief, which also said that bank was looking to scrap bonuses and raise new capital.

The country’s far-right leaders have blasted the chancellor’s “open-door” immigration policy for sparking the attack in Berlin – and even her own party is putting the boot in. “These are Merkel’s dead,” Marcus Pretzell, chairman of the Alternative for Germany party in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, posted on Twitter.

And Klaus Bouillon of Mrs Merkel’s CDU party told Saarland radio: “We must state that we are in a state of war, although some people who want to see only the good can not see.” Merkel – who attended an award ceremony to celebrate the International Day of Migrants the day of the attack – said she was “shocked and shaken” by the tragedy.

Unconfirmed reports from Germany claim the suspected driver of the truck is from Afghanistan or Pakistan and entered the country as a refugee in February. Speaking on Sky News’ paper review, businesswoman and reality TV contestant Michelle Dewberry attacked the German Chancellor for endangering the lives of her own citizens. She said: “Was it generosity or was it a bit of stupidity?”

“To let people in without checking… to me it just seems so reckless to not have safety concerns not to protect your own people. I think it was so negligent in terms of prioritising the safety and security of the people who already live there.”

Nigel Nelson, the Sunday Mirror’s political editor added that he too felt Mrs Merkel’s decision was "wrong" but said you could not argue that she had not been generous towards migrants and refugees. “The real problem is if you take in a million refugees from another culture what you set up is problems down the road,” he added.

He said there was a risk failed integration could cause greater problems in the future. In recent months Angela Merkel has attempted to roll back from her decision to take in a million refugees and other immigrants as she bids for a fourth term as Chancellor. In August her deputy admitted Mrs Merkel had “underestimated” the challenges of integrating refugees.

Around the same time, in the shadow of a great church in Berlin that still bears the scars of bombs from World War II, a man plows a truck through a Christmas market, killing a dozen people.

The two terrorist attacks — one in Europe, the other on the periphery of Europe — came within hours of each other Monday night, bookends to a terrible year that saw the wars of the Middle East metastasize across Europe and beyond, spawning terrorism, upending the lives of ordinary citizens and energizing right-wing political movements.

The attacks could not have been more different in style, but each showed, in simultaneous fashion, the modern era of terrorism brought on by the expanding blowback of the wars in the Middle East, which have defied international efforts to end them.

Anti-Trump protesters descended on state capitols throughout the US in a last-ditch effort to persuade so-called "faithless electors" in states Trump won to change their vote. Many of the Republicans casting ballots said they were inundated with calls and emails urging them to dump Trump.

And some electors did break with how their state voted, albeit in unexpected ways. In Washington, a state Clinton won by 16 points, the former secretary of state received just eight of the state's 12 electoral votes. Colin Powell received three votes and Native American tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle received one as part of an effort to promote a candidate other than Trump.

An Associated Press survey of the electoral college's 538 members found there was little interest from members in breaking from voting how their states did. Thirty-seven electors would have needed to defect from Trump to endanger him from winning. The Electoral College met in all fifty states and Washington, DC on Monday. Congress will certify the results on January 6 and the president will be inaugurated January 20.

After stressing that he always preferred to pass legislation through Congress rather than use executive orders, Obama gave his explanation as advice to Trump. “Keep in mind, though, that my strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done,” the president told NPR. “In my first two years, I wasn’t relying on executive powers, because I had big majorities in the Congress and we were able to get bills done, get bills passed.”

“And even after we lost the majorities in Congress, I bent over backwards consistently to try to find compromise and a legislative solution to some of the big problems that we’ve got – a classic example being immigration reform, where I held off for years in taking some of the executive actions that I ultimately took in pursuit of a bipartisan solution.”

“So my suggestion to the president-elect is, you know, going through the legislative process is always better, in part because it’s harder to undo,” Obama said. He added that it would be perfectly legal for Trump to use executive orders, however. “I think that he is entirely within his lawful power to do so,” Obama said.

Nestled among them is a cartoonish depiction of President-elect Trump, obliviously walking smack into a street light. The mural perfectly captures how many Germans feel about the President-elect — who drew disapproval from 82% of them, according to a recent poll. “He’s the fighter. He plays with his muscles,” Ulrike Bretz, 41, said in front of the loudly colored mural. “For me, he incorporates everything that I hate ... he’s got a lot of money and he shows it.”

Speaking in a city where reminders of the past are everywhere, Bretz, a PR professional, reflects on how far her country has come. “We were the bad ones,” she says. “We were the ones who had to learn all about how to be liberal and democratic again. We learned our lesson and everyone else did and now it’s changing and we’re maybe the last ones.” Trump’s impending presidency has helped create a sense of unease in Germany. He has suggested the US won’t support NATO countries that come under attack and taken a cozy attitude toward Russia.

Back on Rosenthaler Strasse, Trump’s November 8 win seemed to be on everyone’s mind. Those who paused in front of the Trump mural enjoyed the chance to jeer at the American President-elect for a moment, even as they were anxious about what he means for the world. “He kind of reminds me of Hitler, because Hitler got elected, too,” said Francesca Willbrand, a 21-year-old student.

The far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland has enjoyed rising popularity as anti-immigration sentiment among Germans intensifies. If Germany’s political landscape shifts in a rightward direction, together with growing misgivings about the United States’ retrenchment from the world and its commitment to Europe’s security, it is not inconceivable that Germany’s neighbors will begin to fear Berlin’s power and intentions in a way they haven’t for decades.

There are already signs of a debate within Germany about the desirability of a nuclear deterrent in some form. While this does not mean that a European conflict driven by fear of Germany is inevitable as perhaps it was a century ago, American policymakers should not assume that the present post-World War II stability in Europe will last forever.

Those who diminish the enduring relevance of America’s security presence in Europe should remember that NATO sought to do more than keep Russia at bay. It has also been instrumental in keeping the continent’s largest states at peace with each other. That in turn has paid America significant dividends, which could be lost if the American people sanction Trump’s turn away from the transatlantic order.