When Islamic State (IS) declared itself a caliphate in June this year, and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed the title of caliph, it seemed confirmation of the group's reputation for megalomania and atavistic fantasy. Al-Baghdadi insisted that pledging allegiance to this caliphate was a religious obligation on all Muslims - an appeal which was immediately greeted by a chorus of condemnation across the Middle East.

But is it dangerous to underestimate the appeal of IS? Al-Baghdadi's brutal regime does not, of course, remotely conform to the classical Muslim understanding of what a caliphate should be, but it does evoke an aspiration with a powerful and increasingly urgent resonance in the wider Muslim world.

The last caliphate - that of the Ottomans - was officially abolished 90 years ago this spring. Yet in a 2006 Gallup survey of Muslims living in Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan, two-thirds of respondents said they supported the goal of "unifying all Islamic countries" into a new caliphate.

The success of IS does, in a grim way, reflect what a powerful and urgent aspiration the Caliphate has become. The IS project is certainly megalomaniac and atavistic, but it is building on an idea that is much more than a fantasy.

Yet he will have enormous power over all our lives for the next few years. Welcome to the undemocratic EU, made up of unelected Commissioners and an unaccountable bureaucracy costing £8 billion a year just to administrate! However, whilst the name and the face at the top has changed, the policies and the attitudes have remained the same.

This week Barosso on his farewell tour told us that our attempts to renegotiate a more flexible relationship with the EU “will never be accepted”, and issued dire warnings that we would not “even retain marginal relevance” if we left the Union. Then Juncker made clear on his first day in office that he would not consider “any changes” to the complete freedom of movement within the EU as asked for by our government.

Barroso and Juncker are typical of the people running the EU. They think that only they understand economics. In fact the UK could manage very well outside the EU. Currently we are being held back by the obsession with keeping the artificial Eurozone in place.

The EU isn’t working - as 12 percent of the continent’s population know only too well (including that lost generation under 30 born near the Mediterranean). Meanwhile, former Communist-turned-totalitarian-Europhile Jose Manuel Barroso has been enjoying a typically bombastic pre-retirement tour demonstrating a majestic lack of understanding for the stagnancy which has resulted from his decade-long failure as EU president.

Thus we reach an abyss for Europe. Germany (as predicted) is a post-peak economic powerhouse. Ukraine has led the EU to self-defeating sanctions which have further trimmed the economy just as growth has proven a mirage.

The fine art of attending endless lavish intergovernmental dinners became a curious ritual in recent years. Some nations, such as Ireland, were sacrificed to save banks in Germany and France. As a financial professional (but not a banker), it has been singularly disgusting post-Lehmann collapse to watch an ongoing act of communist folly - socializing debt to protect banker hubris. For this reason alone, the EU abandoned fiscal credibility.

Every day government avoids acting to genuinely reboot the economy is not merely another day squandered for the lost generation, it marks one more sleep until we hit code red. The 28-member supranational state of ‘Kickcanistan’ cannot survive what is, at best, a status quo of stasis. Europe may be about to hit the panic button - the only result will be: panic.

Profit warnings are issued by companies quoted on a stock market to alert investors that profits will be lower than in the previous year. EY capital transformation leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, Keith McGregor, said: "Profit warnings have continued apace from the third into the fourth quarter."

"This implies that at best companies and markets are misreading the post-crisis economy and are struggling to adapt to rapid structural changes, and at worst have once again over-estimated the pace and nature of this recovery."

Mr Juncker followed this up by pledging to embark upon another great spending splurge. He plans to unveil a 300-billion-euro investment package before Christmas to boost jobs and growth, amid global fears of a return of the eurozone debt crisis. Meanwhile, MEPs rejected the budget cuts imposed by the Council of Ministers, at Mr Cameron’s behest, earlier this year. National leaders had accepted the argument that if they were having to bite the austerity bullet, then the EU should too – but MEPs have not only voted to reverse their suggested cuts of £1.7 billion but to add an extra £3.7 billion on top.

There will now need to be further talks between the two bodies, before a final budget is set next month. The chances are that it will end up higher than expected – and that British taxpayers will have to find up to £680 million extra at a time when their own living standards are being squeezed. Even the wider seven-year budget deal negotiated by Mr Cameron is now in jeopardy.

The process is a scandal, and one that would not be allowed in our own country. Auditors have declined to sign off EU spending for years, so why is there no accountability for this?

But are those who want Britain to stay willing to put their money where their mouth is? New demands for an extra £1.7 billion in membership fee raise that question. Frankly, it's hard to think of something better calculated to push Britain towards the exit than this.

Let's be clear about something here. David Cameron does not want Britain to leave the European Union. If you read his Bloomberg speech promising a referendum, or review any of the things he has ever said about membership, it is clear that his preference is to remain in the union, albeit on different terms. Yet the Prime Minister is being buffeted, pushed relentlessly backwards towards a position of exit like a man trying to walk forwards into a howling gale.

Following a brief late summer spell in which there was little if any news of bankers taking their lives, as reported previously, the banker suicides returned with a bang when none other than the hedge fund partner of infamous former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan, Thierry Leyne, a French-Israeli entrepreneur, was found dead after jumping off the 23rd floor of one of the Yoo towers, a prestigious residential complex in Tel Aviv.

Just a few brief hours later the WSJ reported that yet another Deutsche Bank veteran has committed suicide, and not just anyone but the bank's associate general counsel, 41 year old Calogero "Charlie" Gambino, who was found on the morning of October 20, having also hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, which according to the New York Police Department was the cause of death.

The WSJ reports that Mr Gambino had been "closely involved in negotiating legal issues for Deutsche Bank, including the prolonged probe into manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and ongoing investigations into manipulation of currencies markets, according to people familiar with his role at the bank."

Several months ago Ya’alon was quoted as describing Kerry as "obsessive and messianic." The US responded with shock, calling the remarks "offensive" and "inappropriate." Ya'alon later apologized for the remarks, stating that he had no intention of "offending" Kerry.

In a more recent incident, Kerry blamed Israel for the rise in global jihadism, insisting that Israel "humiliated" the Palestinian Arabs and that it has led to a "loss of dignity," leading to a recruitment draw toward ISIS. In response, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett fired back at Kerry, saying, "Even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, there will always be those who blame the Jews.”

"We don't justify terror; we fight terror," he added. "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict statement encourages ISIS, and is a boost to terrorism worldwide." Bennett’s remarks, however, were met with criticism within Israel. Among those who criticized Bennett was Ya’alon, who said that Bennett's criticism lacks respect for the financial and diplomatic support the US has provided for Israel's right to self-defense against Hamas terrorism.

"There is a crisis with the Americans and it needs to be addressed as a crisis," Finance Minister Yair Lapid said Saturday after ongoing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem led US officials to block Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon from meeting with senior administration officials during his current US visit.

"We mustn't pretend there isn't a crisis," Lapid told a crowd in Tel Aviv Saturday. "Our relations with the US are vital and everything that can be done must be done to end this crisis." "The US needs to be thanked, we must remember that when we talk about Operation Protective Edge, we used technology and funds from America. We need to act with more respect. Disagreements are part of the deal and the Americans respect that," he said.

“The Islamic Movement Bayt al-Maqdis lauds the heroic prisoner Abd al-Rahman al-Shaludi, on his release from the Occupation prison,” it states. And if there was any doubt about what the Islamic Movement Bayt al-Maqdis really is, then the pictures of the “martyrs” displayed on the right side of the sign should solve the mystery: Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, and Mohi a-Din a-Sharif, the successor of “The Engineer” Yahya Ayash, who was killed in a mysterious explosion in 1998.

Hamas is alive and well. Not only in Gaza, not only in the West Bank, but right here, in the villages and neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, right under the noses of the Jerusalem police. It must be understood that Hamas, along with the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, will do everything it can in order to inflame things on the Temple Mount.

The goal of Hamas and its head, Khaled Mashaal, is to create an intifada in Jerusalem. Since it needs quiet in Gaza in order to rehabilitate it, Hamas is trying to ignite violent incidents in East Jerusalem. For Mashaal, Jerusalem and al-Aqsa are the trigger with which he can blow up the situation. And this week he called for taking up arms to defend al-Aqsa.

A new buzzword is circulating in the world's convention centers and auditoriums. It can be heard at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund. Bankers sprinkle it into the presentations; politicians use it to leave an impression on discussion panels.

The buzzword is "inclusion" and it refers to a trait that Western industrialized nations seem to be on the verge of losing: the ability to allow as many layers of society as possible to benefit from economic advancement and participate in political life.

Former US President Bill Clinton found fault with the "uneven distribution of opportunity," while IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was critical of the numerous financial scandals. The hostess of the meeting, investor and bank heir LYNN FORESTER DE ROTHSCHILD, said she was concerned about social cohesion, noting that citizens had "lost confidence in their governments."