So why did the meeting happen, and what does it portend?

A compulsory medical examination for prospective couples in order to ensure the absence or causes of hereditary or contagious diseases which portend danger for the child.

Genocide and its basic ingredient of racism do not just happen but are shaped by ways of thinking, value systems and representations of which they are a portent as clouds portend a storm.

The US Congress is well aware of what these numbers portend, but its members have chosen to avert their eyes. Indeed, the president is no longer required to provide the usual five year forecast of the country s fiscal position.

The much larger US fiscal deficits of the new millennium, courtesy of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, portend large and indefinite trade deficits. But American policymakers continue to blame China, claiming that the renminbi has been undervalued for the last decade.

Two weeks later, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) announced the establishment of the New Development Bank. And, in early August, African government and business leaders gathered in Washington, DC, for a summit that could portend transformative private investment in Africa.

To the extent that democratic responses to institutional incapacity will contribute to stronger and more sustainable growth, India s economic clouds have a silver lining. But if India s politicians engage in point scoring rather than institution building, the current slowdown may portend stormy weather ahead.

But the technology induced shifts that are underway could portend big disruptions in global value chains disruptions affecting both developed and developing countries. In fact, we may have entered a period of fundamental change that could weaken growth everywhere, as the old shrinks before the new can occupy sufficient space.

Juncker s changes, however, may portend genuine progress on this front, as well as toward monetary and energy union. Indeed, the new Commission s structure suggests that Juncker hopes to enhance its role in guiding the European Monetary Union and related policies, control over which largely rested with the European Council and EU member governments (especially Germany) during the crisis.