Fresh data from the Bundesbank show that Anglo-German trade in goods and services soared to €153 billion in the first nine months of 2012, with both exports and imports booming at double-digit rates. David Marsh from the financial group OMFIF said the trade swing underlines a “sobering truth” that Germany’s fundamental interests are shifting away from the eurozone core as Berlin embraces the wider world.

Although rarely acclaimed, British suppliers and manufacturers are deeply integrated into the German industrial machine and enjoy the follow-through benefits of German exports to the rest of the world.

Mrs Merkel has quietly supported fellow conservative David Cameron, stepping in to prevent British isolation at EU summits. The two leaders have broadly similar views on open global trade, EU competition policy, and budget restraint. “It is clear that Merkel is going out on a limb to try to keep Britain in the EU,” said Holger Schmieding from Berenberg Bank.

The Cheesecake Factory's Bistro Shrimp Pasta, made with a butter and cream sauce and topped with battered, fried shrimp, has 3,120 calories and 89 grams of saturated fat and 1,090 milligrams of sodium, said CSPI, which said it confirmed nutritional data with companies on the list.

More than one-third of Americans are obese, and about 10 percent of the nation's healthcare bill is tied to obesity-related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Barely into 2013, Mali and Algeria are new sites of hot war and chilling fear. Where the tumult that began in the Arab Spring will end is still as unclear as when it erupted — far from Davos — two years ago.

The challenge posed by the free flow of information in China went to the New Year streets in Guangzhou. Washington’s feuding politicians walked up to the brink before resolving not to jump off the so-called fiscal cliff. Europe seems to have averted a collapse of the euro, but even in Germany, growth is anaemic.

Crisis, in short, is the new normal.

The hope is that by reducing the incidence of obesity, the many health problems associated with it, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, will also become less common, thereby reducing healthcare costs — a major concern in an era in which governments either heavily subsidize or fully operate their nations’ healthcare systems.

“Obesity is the new global warming,” Wesley J Smith declared in a 2011 issue of the Weekly Standard. With the alleged threat of global warming increasingly being viewed with skepticism by the general public, he wrote, it seems clear that modern liberalism has devised a new strategy for imposing policies that it can’t attain through ordinary politicking.

• First, identify a crisis ostensibly caused by modern lifestyles and/or capitalism.

• Next, launch a multifaceted international response to prevent allegedly looming catastrophe.

• Third, act as if the desired policies are objective, scientific solutions.

• Fund it all by imposing onerous taxes on an expanding list of villainous enterprises, et voilà: Liberalism rides to the rescue.

And if the strategy fails on one front, as it appears to have with global warming, find another crisis and start again.

In order to emphasise his point he quoted from the Economist’s annual publication “The World in 2012” which was saying that: “If you were sitting down with a blank sheet of paper, you would advise the euro zone to complement its one-size-fits-all monetary policy by pooling sovereignty and creating new institutions. You would set up a European mini-IMF with enough funds to assist troubled countries that adjust their economies.

A pan-European banking regulator and a bail-out fund could ensure that large European banks were not at the mercy of their vulnerable sovereign borrowers. And, to stop governments from exploiting these mechanisms, euro-zone countries would agree to submit their fiscal policies to the say-so of everyone else. It amounts to a blueprint for the United States of Europe. And it is utterly beyond reach.”

Draghi stressed that during 2012, all of the issues mentioned in the article were addressed. For that reason, ECB’s Italian President said that the ambition [for the United States of Europe] is not utterly beyond reach and for that reason he used the words of Walter Hallstein, the first President of the European Commission, who once said: that “anyone who does not believe in miracles in European matters is not a realist.”

As usual, and in keeping with the high-minded tone of his speech, there were few policy specifics (the Washington Post's Brad Plumer has a good rundown of what might be feasible in the president's second term). What was interesting was how he framed the issue: not just as one of responsibility to future generations, but as one of responsibility to God. Here's what he said:

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.

The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries — we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure — our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared”.

If Obama were just paying lip service to climate change to please his backers on the left — as he has sometimes been accused of doing — the reference to "science" would have been quite sufficient. By bringing in God, he's attempting to reframe the issue as one that transcends not only partisanship but the divide between those who believe in science and those who doubt science but believe in God. Left or right, atheist or creationist — either way, Obama is saying, we've got to do something.

The derivatives, according to Bloomberg, were done off-market and allowed the booking of large upfront gains which covered losses optically that the bank faced as European liquidity dried up completely - the offsetting 'losses' are now coming due. Today, amid growing outcry over the 'deal', the former head of BMPS has resigned.

Bloomberg reports that Giuseppe Mussari, now Italy's top banking lobbyist, was the Chairman of BMPS during the derivative deal period. BMPS shares were halted after plunging dramatically as investors are still unclear of the extent of losses it faces on derivatives. If that was not enough chicanery, there is a twist in that none other than Mario Draghi [President of the European Central Bank], as Director of the Bank of Italy, would have had to vet Mussari (and his banks' regulated books) during this period - as BMPS accumulated what is obviously undocumented derivatives positions to intentionally obscure losses.

Once again, years later, it seems the truth comes out - and of course we would expect no-one to go to jail - and the lying in Europe (then and now) continues unabated - as the reality of financial system health remains hidden from view.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, said the threat from infections that are resistant to frontline antibiotics was so serious that the issue should be added to the government's national risk register of civil emergencies.

She described what she called an "apocalyptic scenario" where people going for simple operations in 20 years' time die of routine infections "because we have run out of antibiotics". The issue of drug resistance is as old as antibiotics themselves, and arises when drugs knock out susceptible infections, leaving hardier, resilient strains behind. The survivors then multiply, and over time can become unstoppable with frontline medicines. Some of the best known are so-called hospital superbugs such as MRSA that are at the root of outbreaks among patients.

"In the past, most people haven't worried because we've always had new antibiotics to turn to," said Alan Johnson, consultant clinical scientist at the Health Protection Agency. "What has changed is that the development pipeline is running dry. We don't have new antibiotics that we can rely on in the immediate future or in the longer term."

The Trojan horse that is enabling Technocracy is “Green Energy.” You already know that green is on the lips of just about every politician in the world. Obama kick-started the conversion of America’s energy grid into a “Smart Grid” that will control energy consumption down to the appliance level in your home and business. Public money is recklessly thrown down a rabbit hole into green companies like Solyndra. Europe is obsessed with green and sustainable development.

The doctrine of Technocracy was first formalized in the 1930's by M King Hubbard at Columbia University, who later proposed the “Peak Oil Theory”, or Hubbard’s Peak. It sought to balance consumption with production based on an energy formula instead of supply-and-demand economics. Money would be discarded for energy credits. Society would be run by enlightened and unelected scientists and engineers (governance), replacing representative governments. There would be no private property or ability to accumulate wealth. People would be herded, managed and directed like cattle in a feed lot.

Hubbard, et al, believed that technology had caused an organic change in society, which could only then be run by the technological experts. They viewed politicians as ignorant and even dangerous, unable to understand the technology they were supposed to manage.