US President Donald Trump hogs the daily headlines but financial markets had a rare week off as attention turned to the latest episode in France's long fiscal crisis.

As François Bayrou prepares to become the fourth prime minister to fall in 20 months, investors are asking whether anyone can pass a budget with such a split national assembly, whether a new legislative election will follow and lead to a victory for Marine Le Pen's right-wing RN, and even whether President Emmanuel Macron may resign early.

At their weekly meeting, Medley Advisors' analysts discussed these questions, the vulnerability of the Federal Reserve to political takeover, and the singling-out of Brazil and India for special trade-war punishment.

"My money at the moment would be on Macron quickly appointing another prime minister in the hope that this prime minister will be able to bang enough heads together to get another budget passed," says European policy analyst Tim Jones. "I'm sceptical that this is going to work because the parties that would potentially be open to these kinds of compromises in the last budget round, [their] incentives have withered between last year and now". 

In this edited and abridged recording of the meeting, the speakers are, in order: Tim Jones, Pepijn Bergsen, Michael Redmond, Mario Lima and Debalina Hazra.