Former Arizona county sheriff Richard Mack, a fierce opponent of Obamacare and a leader in the "constitutional sheriff" movement, is struggling to pay his medical bills after he and his wife each faced serious illnesses. The former sheriff and his wife do not have health insurance and started a GoFundMe campaign to solicit donations from family and friends to cover the costs of their medical care.

"Because they are self-employed, they have no medical insurance and are in desperate need of our assistance," reads a note on Mack's personal website.

Ever since the troubled launch of the state’s unemployment website in October 2013, Gov. Rick Scott and his team have staunchly defended the lifeline for hundreds of thousands of jobless Floridians.

But on Friday, the state’s auditor general issued a scathing 45-page audit that joins mounting evidence that CONNECT is a system in disarray.

Activists in France have staged a protest rally against the British bank, HSBC, for its illegal banking practices, Press TV reports.

Conservatives say reducing federal spending should be the Republican-led Congress’s top priority this session, beating out confrontations with President Obama over his immigration executive actions, Obamacare, and the Keystone XL pipeline, according to The Washington Times/CPAC flash poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Thirty-eight percent of the 141 respondents picked reducing federal spending at the top priority, followed by rolling back Mr. Obama’s amnesty plan at 26 percent.

The contracts with Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft damaged by the West’s anti-Russian sanctions have cost ExxonMobil $1 billion, the company said in its annual report.

Greece won’t be seeking a third international bailout after the four-month extension of its current program expires, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.

In a televised speech to his government, Tsipras also said the country has requested a reduction of its debt, despite European creditors demanding that Greece pay it in full.

In a blow to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of the major bond-rating services today downgraded Chicago's credit to just two levels above junk, saying the city has not been able to adequately control the soaring cost of worker pensions.

Google translate: The head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Igor Artemyev proposed to revisit the idea of selling part of the exported oil and petroleum products for rubles, reports on Friday, February 27, "Interfax".

Google translate: As informs "Interfax", said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov.

"We leave for all options, including used and, if necessary, will be applied fairly painful countermeasures," - said a senior diplomat.

On the eve of the US State Department spokesman Jen Psak said that the United States continues to consider the possibility of imposing sanctions on Russia in the case of deterioration of the situation in Ukraine.

A local shopping center wants to evict the federal government, accusing it of failing to pay rent.

Court documents show the Maplewood Mall's parent company claims its owed more than $50,000.

The government is leasing space for the Armed Forces Career Center and the mall claims it is missing out on six months of rent.

The Treasury has admitted it made a blunder by telling Lloyds Banking Group that it had permission to buy back investor bonds that propped the bank up in the wake of the financial crash – depriving holders of the notes billions of pounds in interest payments.

The so-called "fat finger" error reported by Business Insider, saw the Treasury incorrectly state the Prudential Regulatory Authority had approved Lloyds' application to redeem a series of Enhanced Capital Notes (ECNs), disclosed by the bank on 16th December 2014.

A statement by Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary, HM Treasury, said: "HM Treasury understands that the PRA has not yet made a decision regarding whether to approve Lloyds Banking Group's application. We apologise for this error, and sincerely regret any problems caused."

The central banking facade and toxic debt system cannot survive without an increasing energy supply. When it declines the whole fiat monetary system that is based on leverage and debt starts to implode. A fiat monetary system needs a growing energy supply to sustain. It’s not a coincidence that we went off the gold standard soon after our energy productivity peaked.

In the 1960’s, for every dollar that gold exploration companies spent, they returned $105 in gold. In the 1970’s it fell to $83, in the 80’s it fell to $57, in 90’s it fell to $23, and in 2000 it was a whopping $11. Here we have a double edged sword effect: falling EROI and falling gold availability, yield, and ore grade.

Stocks, bonds, and paper assets are based upon net present value, NPV- it’s one thing they teach you in finance school. Energy must be spent to deliver the asset. When you hold gold or silver in your hand, no energy must be spent to deliver.

Google Translate: It is noted that the National Bank of China agreed to provide "Naftogaz" credit under government guarantees.

About 60% of the loan is for the purchase of Chinese equipment, 40% will be spent on increasing the efficiency of the mechanical engineering sector.

Earlier it was reported that the Russian Ministry of Energy expects "Naftogaz Ukrainy" timely advance payment for gas in the Brussels agreement.

Google Translate: Dvorkovich said that the Russian government may consider the application of Beijing for a 50% stake in the project, if any, will come from Chinese partners, and political obstacles that work under such conditions he sees.

A Call for Renaissance of the Bank of Canada

An insurance cooperative created to provide health care in Iowa and Nebraska will be formally liquidated this weekend.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart said Thursday that a Polk County judge has agreed to approve the liquidation plan, which will be finalized on Saturday night.

CoOportunity is a federally funded nonprofit established to provide health care in Iowa and Nebraska. Gerhart took the cooperative over after he determined the nonprofit’s claims would exceed its available cash.

Massachusetts' governor has fired Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber from a board that oversees the state's health insurance exchange, a source confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

Gruber ignited a controversy last December when a series of videos surfaced where the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor discussed the “stupidity of the American voter” was vital to passing the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Deere & Company is expected to set a record this year — but not the kind it wants.

Leaders at the Moline, Ill.-based company expect sales to drop around $6 billion. That includes large machinery sales, which could drop as much as 50 percent.

Deere and Company has already laid off hundreds of workers, including at its locations in Waterloo. More cuts are on the way next month.

Read more at http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/business/agriculture/deere-company-ex...

The National Bank of Ukraine at 1500 on Thursday set the hryvnia exchange rate at UAH 30.0102 to the dollar, or UAH 1.66 lower than the last historic low rate of UAH 28.3481 set by the NBU on Monday, according to the official Web site of the National Bank of Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the year the hryvnia’s official rate has fallen against the dollar by almost two times, or by UAH 14.24.

We’re suffering through Obamacare, but, sadly, there is another one of President Obama’s plans that demands our attention: Obamatrade.

“‘Obamatrade’ is the name we’ve given to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which is one of the so-called free trade agreements the Obama folks have been negotiating on their own, in secret, without consulting Congress for the past six years,” explained Curtis Ellis, who spoke with BenSwann.com’s Joshua Cook.

Since the Federal Court of Appeal fully upheld the decision of Justice Russell dated April 24, 2014, Justice Russell’s decision stands. I refer everyone to my summary of that decision on COMER’s website.

What that means is that we are entitled to proceed with our action, subject to me drafting and filing an amended Statement of Claim with the Federal Court, which will be done shortly.

In short, and in summary, the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal is a victory for COMER to proceed. (While the government can seek leave of the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, to date no such indication has been conveyed.

The following is a ranking of all banks in the United States in terms of "Derivatives". This comparison is based on data reported on 2014-12-31.

In an attempt to demonstrate at least some humility for a scandal that has ravaged the bank’s international image, chief executive Stuart Gulliver and chairman Douglas Flint repeated apologies for the bank’s conduct – but with rather less qualification than on previous occasions – as they appeared before the Treasury Select Committee.

With the authorities in Belgium, France and the US preparing prosecutions, however, many may feel those apologies do not go far enough.’

First-time weekly jobless claims in the U.S. rose by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000 during the week to Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The data was above economists' expectations, which according to consensus forecasts were for claims to rise to 288,000. Last week's claims were revised down by 1,000 to 282,000.

As an American who has lived in Germany for the last 30 years, the Germans have some traits that tend to make them successful economically. 1. They spend a lot of time and energy early-on in an enterprise to get well organized so that later they can reap the benefits of efficiency. You could call this concentrating on long-term goals rather than just on the short term. Many German companies are still able to compete globally even though Germany is a high-wage place, simply because they are so efficient.

Gold wars is the story of the decline of the US dollar, the petrodollar standard, and a system of alternative investing by Kelly Mitchell.

Do you shop at thrift stores to save money? Or maybe because you think recycling clothes is good for the environment? Or maybe because you are the “most extreme manifestation of ironic living” and find sincerity unbearable? Either way, you might be getting more than you bargained for with your latest purchase. (Get it? Bargain. Like, discount shopping? OK.)

As Americans have warmed to solar power and its ability to reduce electricity bills, utilities are suffering revenue losses and have been seeking ways to recoup that money. Over the past several years, state utility commissions and legislatures have pursued policies that reduce the benefits of adopting distributed solar power systems for homeonwers and businesses.

Alayne Fleischmann, a former lawyer at JPMorgan Chase, whose testimony helped secure a $13 billion fine for the bank, says that most big-time fraudsters have got away scot-free, and claims that only continued public interest can ensure they are punished.

In 2006, Fleischmann worked in a team that repackaged individual home loans as securities. She witnessed a host of violations, including never-to-be-repaid subprime loans being mis-sold as reliable investments, helping to heat the market that sparked the worldwide financial crisis in 2008.

People who received incorrect tax information from ObamaCare will be allowed to keep the extra money in their refunds and will not have to refile their taxes, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.

The Obama administration announced last week that 800,000 people signed up for ObamaCare had received incorrect tax information. Most of those people will be receiving a corrected form in the mail early next month, and are being asked to delay filing their taxes until then.

Janet Yellen is very alarmed that some members of Congress want to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time since it was created. If the Fed is doing everything correctly, why should Yellen be alarmed? What does she have to hide? During testimony before Congress on Tuesday, she made “central bank independence” sound like it was the holy grail. Even though every other government function is debated politically in this country, Yellen insists that what the Federal Reserve does is “too important” to be influenced by the American people. Does any other government agency ever dare to make that claim? But of course the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. It is a private banking cartel that has far more power over our money and our economy than anyone else does. And later on in this article I am going to share with you dozens of reasons why Congress should shut it down.

Debt and budgets in the trillions of dollars and euros are difficult to comprehend. The US budget is nearly $4 Trillion per year while the US official national debt exceeds $18 Trillion. A single large bank may hold contracts for more than $50 Trillion in derivative contracts. Global debt is approximately $200 Trillion.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned that populism and demagoguery would be no option out of the country’s economic situation.

In his last annual state of the nation debate on Tuesday, Rajoy warned against what he called demagoguery in politics, which according to him, would risk Spain’s plans for economic recovery and reaching welfare.

“It is not with demagoguery that we can maintain the welfare state,” Rajoy said.

The Spanish leader was clearly alluding to some emerging political parties’ continued use of populist slogans in the run-up to a series of elections in the country which could end in a huge loss for the ruling government.

Since 2010 the troika, consisting of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union’s commission, has forced different governments in Athens to implement six consecutive austerity programs which have severely lowered the living standards of working people, devastated Greece’s social systems and plunged millions into poverty. This is why on 25 January, the majority of the Greek population decided to vote for a party that raised their hopes for a better future by promising an end to austerity.

Four weeks later this dream has been shattered. In last week’s negotiations the troika left no doubt that it will not deviate from its path of insisting on the unrestricted continuation of austerity politics. In other words: The working people of Greece will have to keep filling the gaps in the state budget generated by the bank bailout in the beginning stages of the Euro crisis.

EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis have neither proved effective, nor met the expectations of those who imposed them, but brought huge losses, said Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiadis ahead of a visit to Moscow.

The sanctions have not only complicated the economic situation in many European countries, but brought no prospects of peace for the Ukrainian people, said Anastasiadis in an interview to TASS.

The first round of interventions (2007-early 2009) was performed in the name of saving the system. The second round (2010-2012) was done because it was generally believed that the first round hadn’t completed the task of getting the world back to recovery.

However, from 2012 onward, everything changed. At that point the Central Banks went “all in” on the Keynesian lunacy that they’d been employing since 2008. We no longer had QE plans with definitive deadlines. Instead phrases like “open-ended” and doing “whatever it takes” began to emanate from Central Bankers’ mouths.

However, the insanity was in fact greater than this. It is one thing to bluff your way through the weakest recovery in 80+ years with empty promises; but it’s another thing entirely to roll the dice on your entire country’s solvency just to see what happens.

The OPEC member states are discussing the possibility of an emergency meeting should oil prices continue to fall, said Nigerian Oil Minister, and OPEC President Diezani Alison-Madueke. Prices have dropped by than half since their peak last summer.

If the price “slips any further it is highly likely that I will have to call an extraordinary meeting of OPEC in the next six weeks or so,” said Alison-Madueke, as quoted by the Financial Times, adding that discussions are already underway.

The UK will be importing more than half of its food supplies within a decade due to a growing population and stagnating farm productivity, farming leaders have warned.

Vice President Joe Biden used a Black History Month event at his official residence Monday night to decry the rich, both white and black, for stunting economic growth and suggested that “emancipation” is in order.

“A lot of wealthy white and black people aren't bad but they control 1 percent of the economy and this cannot stand,” Biden told about 100 guests, including past civil rights activists and NBC weatherman Al Roker.

The article below is translated from German language. Later this week Sean, from SGTReport and I will be speaking with Peter Boehringer about this situation, along with other current affairs. Peter sent this news to me around midnight Tuesday February 24, 2015. This is significant due to the fact the Bank of England has now admitted Austria’s gold is gone!! What other gold is missing?

As we noted earlier today, there was some confusion over the plight of the Greek reform proposal document, which initially was said to have been delayed until today, only for the Troika, pardon, Institutions, to flip around and say they had actually received it before midnight on Monday. How could the two be possible? Courtesy of Yannis Koutsomitis, who had the simple but profound idea of looking at the properties tab in the leaked Varoufakis draft of the agreed to proposals, we now know.

As it turns out, the reason why not only the Troika received an agreed to version of the Greek reform proposals "before midnight on Monday", but rushed these through with a favorable agreement today, is that, drumroll, the European Commission drafted the entire letter!

The Euro Group has agreed to the proposals of Greece to reform - but the author of the proposals is unlikely to Greece, but the European Commission have been! That explains why the European Commission already praised the paper before ever it was clear that it was received by the institutions - later Dijsselbloem then claimed that the paper was shortly before midnight and thus received on time. Very strange ..

Stephanie and Daniel Dufek did everything they were supposed to do in building a middle-class life for themselves and their daughter. They lived modestly. They had health insurance. They saved.

"We had a normal life," Stephanie Dufek said.

Then her husband got sick.

In roughly a year, the family incurred more than $20,000 in medical bills, shattering their finances and leaving them with a tenuous hold on the life they had built.

On Thursday, the White House released its “2015 Economic Report of the President,” presenting it as an argument for “middle-class economics.”

The document seeks to justify Obama’s scheme, spelled out in his most recent budget proposal, to slash corporate taxes by up to ten percentage points. The report attempts to obscure the fact that such a windfall for the corporate-financial elite will dramatically increase social inequality, claiming instead that it will “increase productivity, output and living standards.”

The document falsifies both present economic reality and the development of the US economy in the post-World War II period in order to argue for further pro-corporate “reforms.”

Google Translate: Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak has warned that Moscow's reaction to the actions of the international rating agencies may not only verbal.

We add that the cancellation of the agreement to maintain a rating in which the issuer pays for the work the agency does not mean automatic termination of rating.

Earlier, the international rating agency Moody's downgraded the sovereign credit rating of Russia to «Ba1» with «Baa3» with a negative outlook. Thus, the country's rating dropped to "junk" level. As explained in the release of Moody's, in 2015, Russia's economy is waiting for a deep recession in 2016, the reduction will continue. The main reasons for lowering the agency points out the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis, falling oil prices, and the exchange rate.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that loading and unloading operations at all 29 West Coast ports would temporarily be suspended this weekend in response to union slowdowns that brought freight movements at the ports to a near standstill.

Following last month's narrative-crushing drop in retail sales, despite all that low interest rate low gas price stimulus, January was more of the same as hopeful expectations for a modest rebound were denied. Falling 0.8% (against a 0.9% drop in Dec), missing expectations of -0.4%, this is the worst back-to-back drop in retail sales since Oct 2009. Retail sales declined in 6 of the 13 categories.

Clearly it has been a very cold winter, with both December and now January big disappointments.

Restructuring of a 2.5-billion-euro loan Russia extended to Cyprus in 2011 is not on the agenda of upcoming talks in Moscow of Cyprian President Nikos Anastasiadis, Cyprian government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides told TASS on Tuesday.

"We are very grateful and satisfied with terms for the repayment of Russian loan," he said. Russia has recently revised the initial terms of the loan, reducing the lending interest rate from 4.5% to 2.5%, while the deadline on the main debt has been moved from 2016 to 2018-2021.

Cessation of natural gas deliveries to Ukraine will jeopardize supplies to Europe

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen testified before Congress on Tuesday after presenting her semiannual monetary policy report.

The Federal Reserve will not hike rates for the next few Federal Open Market Committee meetings, according to Yellen's prepared remarks.

During the question-and-answer session, Yellen addressed a range of questions from the committee about the Fed's structure, its inflation measurement and the movement to "audit the Fed."

Michael Hudson says Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is proposing austerity on the banking class, rather than the working class, to balance the budget.

Azeribaijan's central bank devalued the manat on Saturday (21 February) by 33.5% to the dollar and by 30% to the euro, as slumping oil prices and an economic crisis in major trading partner Russia put pressure on the currency.

Now that is has been proven that a political party standing in opposition to the Anglo-American Oligarchy is capable of coming to power, it is time to bring the same values to power on home-turf. You won’t find those values in the Republican or Democratic parties, but you certainly will in the breakout and politically savvy Tax Wall Street Party.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is preparing to charge large institutional customers for some deposits, citing new rules that make holding money for the clients too costly, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the plan.

The largest U.S. bank by assets is aiming to reduce the affected deposits by up to $100 billion by the end of 2015, according to a bank presentation Tuesday morning.

No matter how many times the big banks are caught red-handed manipulating precious metals, some failed former Deutsche Bank prop-trader (you know who you are) will take a vociferous stand based on ad hominem attacks and zero facts that no, what you see in front of you is not precious metal rigging at all but a one-off event that has nothing to do with a criminal banking syndicate hell bent on taking advantage of anyone who is naive and dumb enough to still believe in fair and efficient markets.

I know many people have a great deal of difficulty comprehending just how many wars are started for no other purpose than to force private central banks onto nations, so let me share a few examples, so that you understand why the US Government is mired in so many wars against so many foreign nations.

“Central Bankers will eventually do the right thing and return to a gold standard after they have exhausted all other alternatives.”

While central bankers are exhausting all other alternatives, I worry about the collateral damage to 90% of the population who are not first in line on the fiat money gravy train that benefits the financial and political elite.

I don’t actually think the five-point italic hand-tying target codicils matter a damn to be honest, because they’re all unachievable anyway.

Far more relevant is what EC behaviour has been found acceptable to the Greek Government.

Did you know, for instance, that both the Gang of Four revisions, the Friday ambush, and the ELA threats/leaks to Greek banks were driven by Draghi?

Did you know that – in a direct sideswipe at rehiring Ministerial cleaners – there is a blanket ban under the agreement on any more public sector hiring?

Did you know that, just to rub in really hard that how they think the Greeks shit on their shoes, eurogroup told Varoufakis Friday that they were “handing over the judgement process to the organisation formally known as the Troika” – Draghi’s exact words. This was a direct hit on Syriza’s refusal to deal with the Troika. “Eurogroup will leave the details to this institution, who will present their view to eurogroup” he added.

The Bank of Israel has joined the easing party.

In an announcement on Monday, the Bank of Israel cut its main interest rate to 0.1% from 0.25%.

The first to hit back was Rodrigo Rato, the bank’s former chairman and one-time IMF president. In a 75-page notice of appeal that was leaked to the Spanish press, Rato cautioned that Judge Andreu’s “premature” decision to force the six defendants to compensate the thousands of shareholders they are accused of defrauding could end up provoking a “much greater evil” than that it is supposed to address.

In the worst case scenario, the document warns, it could send a “message of uncertainty to the markets,” which could in turn exert downward pressure (otherwise known as gravity) on the already semi-defunct bank’s share price. This is not the first time that a panicked banker has used this argument; indeed, it is the preferred alibi of all 21st-century banking racketeers.

The argument is simple:

Don’t touch me, or the bank gets it. And if the bank gets it, so will everyone else.

A growing number of bankers – including representatives of smaller community banks -- are joining the ranks of those opposed to congressional legislation that would allow Congress to weigh-in on monetary policy decisions made by the US Federal Reserve.

Oh, you didn’t notice that World War Three is underway, actually has been for more than year? Well, that’s because most of it has been taking place in the banking sector, which for most people is just an alternative universe of math. The catch, which many people either miss or don’t care about, is that the math doesn’t add up.

For instance, the runaway choo-choo train of linked European sovereign bond obligations with its overloaded caboose of interest rate swaps and other janky derivatives of mass destruction. That train left the station in Athens a few weeks ago bound for Frankfurt. Ever since, the German government and its cohorts in the EU, the ECB, and the IMF have been issuing reassurances that the choo choo train will not blow up when it reaches its destination.

The IMF has put in place for the government of Ukraine a four-year extended fund facility worth about $17.5 billion. The facility was approved within hours of the announcement of a cease-fire in the battle between the Kiev government and separatists.

Looking at some of the projects the EU has funded over the last decade, one would think the organization had limitless funds at its disposal. Millions across the continent are currently living in poverty following the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. One in three Greeks is living below the poverty line, while the nation has an unemployment rate of nearly 30 percent. However, that figure is double amongst the country’s youth. Spain is not fairing much better, with almost a quarter of the working population unable to find a job.

Despite pressing needs to address these problems, the EU has been lavishing billions of euros on extravagant projects, with poor oversight into what will happen to these schemes when completed. RT looks at six ‘white elephants’ the EU has funded, which are leaving taxpayers around the European Union thinking why this was ever built.

"Their political problem is that this a reversal of their election position. There is absolutely nothing on the table that could be considered a concession. They're now compromising and compromising quite significantly," he told national broadcaster RTE, but made clear Athens had little choice. "The biggest threat to Greece was that their banking system would go belly up next Wednesday."

The chief executive of crisis-hit HSBC admitted today he put millions of pounds in a secret Swiss bank account because it was the only way to hide his huge earnings from his spying colleagues.

Syriza is still determined to fulfill its campaign promises to cut austerity regardless of the new agreement between Athens and Eurozone ministers, a Greek economic minister told RT.

In accordance with a deal agreed to on Friday, Greece must submit a list of reforms for review to a group of bailout monitors on Monday. If the reforms are approved, Athens will secure a four month extension to Eurozone funding.

The extension provides Greece with a temporary economic lifeline, without offering permanent solutions to the debt-ridden nation.

For the last few years - and most especially the last few months - all eyes have been focused on Greece. From record poverty rates to record suicide rates and levels of youth unemployment, post-election emboldened hopes for a phoenix-like rebirth of a nation from the flames of Eurogroup repression were seemingly dashed on Friday. However there is another nation, that begins with the letter 'G' and that is at the heart of the EU-Greece talks that is suffering seemingly silently. As Newsweek reports, poverty in Germany is at its highest since the reunification of the country in 1990, with 12.5 million residents now classified as 'poor'...

Greece readies list of reforms to dodge bankruptcy ... Yanis Varoufakis says a bail-out extension will be "dead and buried" if international creditors do not ratify Athens' proposals ... The Greek government will put forward plans to root out tax evasion and overhaul the country's labour laws in a bid to convince creditors it should be granted a vital extension of its bail-out programme on Monday. – UK Telegraph

As the conflict in Ukraine persists and as peace talks between Putin and western European leaders (Merkel and Hollande) continue, it is important to look at the economic actors/interests that benefit from conflict and regime change in the Ukraine and how this compares to situations like Syria, Libya and Iraq. There are under-reported angles and interests to these conflicts that we hear little about in western mainstream media and that many do not look for because they are too caught up in political or human dramas.

With the Federal Reserve printing trillions upon trillions of dollars to keep the economic system afloat, many investors and financial pundits have surmised that the fundamental economic problems facing the United States during the crash of 2008 have been resolved. Stocks are, after all, at historic highs.

But the insiders know different. And if there’s any single person out there who understands U.S. monetary policy and its long-term effects on domestic and global affairs it’s former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. As the head of the world’s most powerful central bank for nearly two decades he’s privy to the insider conversations and government machinations that have brought us to where we are today.

Alexander Hamilton, widely regarded as an important Founding Father of America and a champion of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, has long been suspected of having Jewish ancestry. Hamilton was a Federalist, and a strong proponent of a robust, centralized federal government and national bank. Alternative media personalities have even claimed Hamilton was essentially a Rothschild agent operating in America, seeking to financially enslave the American Republic shortly after gaining independence from Great Britain following the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.

He jokes that he constructs "illegal homes out of illegal garbage." The cost of one house is “$30 to $40,” Kloehn told RT.

The number of US oil refineries facing the threat of a strike is expanding after workers at the country’s largest refinery in Texas walked off their jobs on Saturday.

George Osborne has washed his hands of responsibility for prosecutions against people who evaded tax through HSBC Switzerland, as the government came under pressure to justify immunity deals given to those who confess to serious tax fraud.

About 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected.

That approach, which Mrs. Clinton called “economic statecraft,” emerged in discussions with Robert Hormats, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker who has worked in Democratic and Republican administrations and became an undersecretary of state. “One of the very first items was, how do we strengthen the role of the State Department in economic policy?” he says.

Early in Mrs. Clinton’s tenure, according to Mr. Hormats, Microsoft’s then Chief Research Officer Craig Mundie asked the State Department to send a ranking official to a fourth annual meeting of U.S. software executives and Chinese government officials about piracy and Internet freedom. Mr. Hormats joined the December 2009 meeting in Beijing.

Mr. Hormats says there was no relation between Microsoft’s donations and the State Department’s participation in the China conference.

Back in December, Socgen spread a rumor that Russia has begun selling its gold. Subsequent IMF data showed that not only was this not correct, Russia in fact added to its gold holdings.

But there was one thing it was selling: some $22 billion in US Treasurys, a record 20% of its total holdings, bringing its US paper inventory to just $86 billion in December - the lowest since June 2008.

Remember when Goldman Sachs – dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid – sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt.

Bank Leumi, Israel's second largest bank, admitted late last year to helping its American customers evade income taxes, hide assets, and launder their money back into the United States. The bank agreed to pay $130 million in fines to New York regulators and another $270 million to the federal government, and assist in an ongoing probe of other Israeli banks.

But I know that the FBI and SEC have known about this for decades because I personally flagged it to them in 1989, when Crazy Eddie was busted for fraud and I was trying to avoid prison time. (Which I did.)

British bank HSBC helped hundreds of Canadians hide Swiss accounts from authorities to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes, CBC News has learned.

That’s one of the takeaways gleaned from a massive collection of documents collected by Hervé Falciani, a former employee of the bank, who blew the whistle on his former employer and handed over reams of data to tax authorities.

The unseen adepts who rule America also rule the world. They are masters at understanding human nature.

They have spent hundreds of years creating the public mindset which they manipulate in our generation with the most perfect precision. Words, phrases and thought patterns are a political science that triggers exact and predictable responses to political rhetoric.

They have many names — the elite, Illuminati, Zionists, Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to name a few — but in the end they are one in the same. Their goals are one in the same. Their goals are not your goals, but they are masters at convincing you they are.

Greece and eurozone finance ministers have struck a deal to extend the Greek bailout by another four months with Greece given till Monday to present a list of reform measures for the creditors to review.

Just out from the Eurogroup, the final statement. Bottom line: Greece caves on pretty much everything, however the dreaded "Troika" words has been replaced with "institutions." Sarcasm aside, Greece has just kicked the can for four months. Why four months? Because that's just ahead of the big Greek debt maturity.

Euro zone finance ministers reached an agreement on Friday to extend heavily indebted Greece's financial rescue by four months, officials on both sides said.

"It's done. For four months," one said.

An agreement removes the immediate risk of Greece running out of money next month and possibly being forced out of the single currency area. It provides a breathing space for the new leftist-led Athens government to try to negotiate longer-term debt relief with its official creditors.

Google translate: The company "Soyuzpatent" on behalf of the Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication SCRL (SWIFT) filed a claim Russian processing company ChronoPay abuse solely on the trademark «Swift», the letter says "Soyuzpatent".

Today, Russia’s government ratified its commitment to the new BRICS Development Bank. The bank will fund infrastructure development in the BRICS nations and be first global competitor capable of challenging the financial hegemony of the Western-led World Bank and IMF.

The Obama administration says it sent about 800,000 HealthCare.gov customers the wrong tax information, and officials are asking those consumers to delay filing their 2014 taxes. …

The errors mean that nearly 1 million people may have to wait longer to get their tax refunds this year.

As Germany is set to reject a Greek loan extension request (and no, international press, that is not the same as an extension of the bailout program), Steve Keen uses proprietary numbers issued by the OECD – which is supposed to be on Germany’s side?! – to show how dramatically austerity has failed in Europe- that is, if the recovery of the Greek and Spanish economies was ever the real target. It certainly failed the populations of the countries.

As leaked by Reuters moments ago, here is the text of a document that describes Germany's position on Greece's letter requesting an extension of its bailout facility as nothing short of a Trojan Horse.

UPDATE: *GREEK GOVT WON'T ACCEPT ULTIMATUMS, WON'T GIVE ANY: OFFICIAL

After days of repeated ultimata from The Eurogroup, as Germany (bad cop) and the rest (good cop) make optimistic sounds, this morning's rejection of Greece's latest plan (following Greek comparisons of Germany to Nazi surrender demands) has prompted something new:

*EU HAS 2 CHOICES, APPROVE OR REJECT GREEK REQUEST: OFFICIAL
*EUROGROUP MEETING TO SHOW WHO WANTS A SOLUTION: GREEK OFFICIAL

Cities in the United States have a long history of criminalizing the public presence of people they consider undesirable. In the late 1800s, Southern cities established “sundown towns,” laws that restricted black people from being outside after sunset. Throughout the 19th century, cities ratified “ugly laws,” banning people who were diseased or deformed from being outside. During the Great Depression, California cities passed an “anti-Okie” law, making it illegal to assist poor people entering the state.

Today, society’s target is homeless people. Beginning in the 1980s when the federal government slashed the affordable housing budget, cities have enacted thousands of laws to criminalize basic human needs such as resting, sleeping, standing, and sitting, as well as acts like panhandling and food sharing.

Lloyds bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio is poised to pocket a bonus of more than £7million after overseeing thousands of job losses.

Portuguese banker Mr Horta-Osorio, 51, who has headed Lloyds since 2011, has just begun a second, three-year wave of cost cutting.

It will mean the loss of another 9,000 jobs and 200 branches.

But he is being rewarded for helping turn the firm’s fortunes around. The bank is expected to confirm the shares windfall for its chief executive when it announces its results.

Banks mired in scandal and bailed out by the state are set to infuriate hard-up families by announcing their share in nearly £5billion in bonuses.

The bumper payouts could include £2.2billion for staff at HSBC amid controversy over its Swiss banking arm, accused of helping super-rich customers evade tax.

As many of you know, we have an $18 trillion dollar [official government] debt, a $240 trillion dollar [unofficial government] debt, a $200 trillion dollar consumer credit debt and we have the ultimate elephant in the room, the one quadrillion dollar derivatives debt. In a country that imports 20% of its food supply, it was reported yesterday by KTAR 92.3 FM (Phoenix) that massive amounts of food are rotting on ships waiting to be offloaded and the docks awaiting shipment.

We should be wondering how much more can the economy take? What will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) said it would raise entry-level wages to $9 an hour, a 24 percent increase from the U.S. minimum wage that some employees now earn, succumbing to longstanding pressure to pay its workforce more.

The world's largest retailer said the increases would cost it $1 billion and impact 500,000 employees, or about 40 percent of its workforce, although the hike falls short of what some labor groups have been agitating for.

The move comes amid a growing debate in the U.S. over the widening gulf between the rich and low-income workers. Wal-Mart has been a prime target of critics who say its low-wages and inflexible scheduling are a big part of the problem.

The Greek debt, as such, is mostly not Greek debt. The debt which Germany and other nations are demanding that they pay for, is money that the Greeks never got! So the Greeks don't owe that money. This was a swindle, because the Greeks didn't incur that debt.