SORRY FULL ARTICLE - http://x22report.com/The Insiders Are Now Preparing For The Economic Collapse Episode 244
http://x22report.com/the-insiders-ar...e-episode-244/Episode 244 - The Insiders Are Now Preparing For The Economic Collapse [ 34:52 ] Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download
youtube_insiders_scrambling_collapse2S&P just cut the credit rating of the EU. Times are so tough that shoppers are spending 40% less this year. The US government is coming for everyones money and more countries have turned over depositor accounts to the US government. China has setup a clearing house and they dont want the dollar anymore and they have emptied UKs vault. Obamacare is being delayed because it is a complete disaster. The NDAA is being fast tracked to be passed by the end of the year.
Please check the Sentinel Alerts for the latest news on the economic collapse. The Sentinel Alerts are updated throughout the day. If you havent already, go to The People and join the community of people who are helping each through the economic collapse.
Current News 12.20.2013
Economy
S&P cuts EUs top rating because most of Europe is the verge of a depression
Standard & Poors has decreased the EU long-term credit rating one step from the highest, citing the worse financial profile and lack of accord among the EUs 28 member states. The short-term rating remained strong.
In our view, EU budgetary negotiations have become more contentious, signaling what we consider to be rising risks to the support of the EU from some member states We are therefore lowering our long-term issuer credit rating on the EU to AA+. We are affirming the short-term rating at A-1+, said an S&P report.
The shift followed a ratings decrease for France, Italy, Spain, Malta, Slovenia, and Cyprus from AA+ to AA, as S&P revised the outlook on the long-term EU rating to negative in 2012.
On November 29, 2013, the ratings agency lowered the rating of the Netherlands, leaving the EU with just six AAA rated members.
Since the beginning of the European debt crisis in 2008 ratings have been under pressure. While the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is doing his utmost to preserve the unity of the euro block, deficits and debts across the member states remain unsustainably high for membership in the euro.
While some European nations, including Ireland and Spain, said they have ended a technical recession, growth across the 17-nation euro currency bloc has so far remained shaky. It fell 0.1 percent in 3Q, as the economy is still slowly stabilizing after nearly 2 years of recession, according to Eurostat data.
Debt, unemployment, and weak exports still plague the continent, especially as periphery zones continue to contract. Unemployment across the euro currency zone is above 12 percent, and more than double that in Spain and Greece.
The European Central Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25 percent in November after inflation suddenly dropped to 0.7 in October, far below the targeted 2 percent, which stirred fears of deflation.
Source: rt.comWhy 40% of consumers will spend less this Christmas despite better job security
So much for a white Christmas. New research from Bankrate.com shows holiday shopping this year might end up being a tight Christmas.
Only 1 in 7 say they intend to spend more than they did last year, and 38% say they actually intend to spend less this year, says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com in the attached video. Thats really a reflection of the fact that for so many people, household budgets are still tight. They havent seen their income go up.
Whats interesting is that this finding of frugality comes at a time when Bankrates Financial Security Index has rebounded to a 5-month high after dipping before, and during the government shutdown ordeal in October.
McBride explains the disparity, between consumers feeling more secure yet intending to spend less, as the result of better jobs security, comfort with debt levels and rising net worth slamming into the reality that is weak or non-existent wage growth.
Discretionary spending is driven by what you get in the paycheck, McBride says. If their paycheck hasnt changed, the ability to spend this holiday season and any other time of the year is really hemmed in.
What also stands out, McBride says, is that this tight-fisted trend is not only affecting low-wage earners.
The tendency to spend less rather than more, wasnt just confined to one or two pockets of the population. It was evident in every age and every income group that we looked at.
But even while spending habits remain on-guard, it would seem at some point they should loosen up, as financial security improves and spreads.
2013 was really the turning point where we saw middle income households really turn the corner and start to feel better about their finances. Up until this year it was just the highest income households and nobody else. Now weve seen the middle of the population turn the page and feel more financially secure.
That may be too late for Christmas, but Easter and Mothers Day are just around the corner.
Source: finance.yahoo.comSee AlsoPhoenix Rising Scores Twice in 0-0 Draw - Phoenix Rising FCUS Patent Application for METHOD FOR THE OBTAINING OF COST EFFECTIVE GEOMETRICALLY COMPLEX PIECES Patent Application (Application #20240253117 issued August 1, 2024)US Patent Application for Modulation of MDL-1 activity for treatment of inflammatory disease Patent Application (Application #20070179094 issued August 2, 2007)Journal articles: 'Central America – Politics and government – 1951-1979' – GrafiatiObama White House Surprised by Recent Drops in Unemployment Rate
The nations civilian unemployment rate has dropped from 7.6 percent in June to 7.0 percent in November a development that surprised the Obama White House.
The unemployment rate over the last six months has surprised us by coming down more quickly than we had expected or than other forecasters had expected, Jason Furman, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters on Thursday.
[I]ts come down by an average of one-tenth every month for six straight months, and that was you know, people expected something like that to happen over more like a year than a six-month period. So I think what you see a number of forecasters doing is saying, given what weve seen, you know, maybe we have to revise it going forward and assume itll be lower.
Furman said the bipartisan budget deal will boost job creation by easing the sequester spending caps. This replaces a substantial amount of the discretionary portion of the sequester, so the converse to that statement would also be true, that this budget agreement will help the economy add more jobs than it otherwise would have in 2014.
Conservative Republicans strongly oppose boosts in discretionary spending, saying the government already spends and wastes too much taxpayer money.
Although the unemployment rate is going in the right direction, Furman said its still unacceptably high because of the number of long-term unemployed. He urged Congress to extend long-term unemployment benefits.
At Thursdays news conference, Furman said Obamacare, far from weighing on the economy, will help it in 2014.
I think the Affordable Care Act has been helping the economy and will continue to help the economy. I think it has contributed to the slowdown in the overall growth of health costs, which is good for the competitiveness of American businesses.
I think in 2014, when you have the exchange up and running, that that will further help labor markets by, for example, increasing the ability of workers to move from job to job, so they dont get locked into one job, just because of the health insurance, which improves mobility and increases productivity and entrepreneurship, Furman said.
And finally, the Affordable Care Act is a key part of deficit reduction, especially over the medium and long term, where its a much more significant source of deficit reduction over that horizon than the sequester is.
Source: cnsnews.comMain Reasons For Upward Revised Q3 Personal Spending: Healthcare And Gasoline
Earlier today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis surprised everyone by announcing a final Q3 GDP growth of 4.1% compared to 3.6% in the first revision (and 2.8% originally), driven almost entirely by the bounce in Personal Consumption which rose 2.0% compared to estimates of 1.4%. As a result many are wondering just where this revised consumption came from. The answer is below: of the $15 billion revised increase in annualized spending, 60% was for healthcare, and another 27% was due to purchases of gasoline. The third largest upward revision: recreation services. On the flip side, the biggest revision detractors: transportation services and housing and utilities.
In other words, the BEA thought long and hard what it could revise and decided on the following: in Q3 the US economy was revised to the strongest since 2011 because Americans, it would appear, were gassing up more to visit (and pay) their doctor, and then going to the movies.
Source: zerohedge.comTheres Is Nowhere to Hide Your Money: Six More Jurisdictions Sign Tax Compliance Agreements with US
The U.S. e Treasury announced that, in the past week, the United States has signed bilateral agreements with six additional jurisdictions to implement the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Enacted by Congress in 2010, these provisions target non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. With these most recent agreements, the United States has signed 18 FATCA intergovernmental agreements and is engaged in related discussions with many other jurisdictions.
Over the past week, Malta, the Netherlands, The Islands of Bermuda, and three UK Crown Dependencies Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man signed various agreements with the United States to implement FATCA.
FATCA continues to gather momentum as we work with partners worldwide to combat offshore tax evasion, said Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs Robert B. Stack. This large number of signings in one week alone sends a strong signal to tax evaders everywhere: international support for FATCA is growing.
FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) who do not agree to identify and report information on U.S. account holders. Governments have the option of permitting their FFIs to enter into agreements directly with the IRS to comply with FATCA under U.S. Treasury Regulations or to implement FATCA by entering into one of two alternative Model IGAs with the United States. Today, Bermuda signed a Model 2 agreement, meaning that Bermuda will direct and legally enable FFIs in Bermuda to register with the IRS and report the information required by FATCA about consenting U.S. accounts directly to the IRS. This requirement is supplemented by government-to-government exchange of information regarding certain pre-existing non-consenting accounts on request.
Malta, the Netherlands, and each of the Crown Dependencies that signed this week entered into Model 1A agreements. Under these agreements, FFIs will report the information required under FATCA about U.S. accounts to their home governments, which in turn will report the information to the IRS. These agreements are reciprocal, meaning that the United States will also provide similar tax information to these governments regarding individuals and entities from their jurisdictions with accounts in the United States.
In addition to these FATCA agreements, protocols to the existing tax information exchange agreements with Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man were also signed.
Source: economicpolicyjournal.comJPMs Quiet Scramble To Refill Its Gold Vault
Gold is smacked down again and JPM and other financial institutions are stacking gold.
As we repoted consistently, at times on a daily basis, one of the more memorable stories of the summer of 2013, was the rampant and furious depletion of gold (both eligible and mostly registered) stored deep in the gold vault of JPMorgan located under 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, since sold to a Chinese conglomerate (understandable considering Chinas insatiable appetite for the yellow metal in physical, not paper form). This culminated with some truly impressive multi-way vault rearrangements in which the other 4 Comex members would provide gold to JPM on an almost daily basis (see here and here). But while Chinese demand may explain the outflow of physical, what is head-scratching is the just as furious scramble by JPM to obtain gold in the past few weeks.
As persistent trackers of the CMEs daily depository statistics update are well aware, over the past week, JPM has been accumulating an impressive amount of gold, and what is more curious, it has been precisely in increments of 64,300 ounces of eligible gold on a daily basis. Putting this scramble in context, two months ago JPM had only 181K ounces of eliglble gold. And yet, just today, the Comex announced that JPMs eliglble vault gold rose by almost that amount, increasing by 125K to a reputable 1.2 million eligible ounces.
JPMs total eligible holdings, and especially the recent surge, are shown below:
It bears pointing out that while eligible gold has been surging higher, JPMs registered gold has once again contracted, and as of today, it closed at its lowest ever: just 87K ounces of gold!
So with gold plunging to multi-year lows, is JPM just taking advantage of the blood on the streets and becoming the helpful bidder of last (or first) resort and replenishing its record low depleted inventory by taking advantage of below production cost fire sales, or is something else going on here?
Source: zerohedge.comThe Chinese Dont Want Dollars Anymore, They Want Gold Londons Gold Vaults Are Empty: This Is Why
Today gold slid under $1200 per ounce, dropping to a level not seen in three years. Judging by the price action one would think that gold is not only overflowing from precious metal vaults everywhere, but can be found thrown away on the street, where nobody even bothers to pick it up. One would be wrong. In fact, as Bloombergs Ken Goldman reports, you could walk into a vault in London and they were packed to the rafter with gold, and the gold would trade from me to you to somebody else. You could walk into these vaults today and they are virtually empty. All that gold has been transferred out of London, 26 million ounces . To find out where it has gone and why it is never coming back, watch the clip below (spoiler alert: listen for the line:the Chinese dont want US dollars anymore, they want gold).
Source: zerohedge.comShanghai to host China International Payments System
The China International Payments System (CIPS) will be established in Shanghai in 2014 and will help settle yuan payments worldwide, reports Shanghais China Business News.
Wu Jun, deputy director of the citys finance office, said that 2014 is a critical year as the structure for the CIPS would be finalized during that time.
Wu said that current cross-border renminbi settlements were being made through banks but that all transactions still had to be processed via a clearing system.
Citing the US dollar as an example, Wu explained that New York uses a clearing system called the Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) to settle global transactions denominated in the US dollar. It handles 95% of international dollar payments, which has allowed New York to become an international financial center.
Regarding the internationalization of the Chinese currency, Dec. 3 figures from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) showed that global renminbi lending accounted for 8.66% of the market share as of October this year, outpacing the Euro for the first time to become the second largest clearing currency worldwide.
In addition, a Bank for International Settlements report on global trading volumes of foreign exchange showed that the renminbi had become the ninth most-traded currency globally in 2013, up from the 17th, and had spotlighted Shanghais role as an international financial hub.
The cross-border renminbi business in Shanghai has expanded significantly since a pilot program for settlements was launched in 2009. Figures showed that banks in Shanghai settled 491.9 billion yuan (US$81 billion) last year, up by 48.5% year-on-year.
The Shanghai pilot free trade zone, which was launched more than two months ago, is also expected to become the best platform for conducting cross-border renminbi transactions. Zhang Yong, deputy director at the Financial Service Bureau in Shanghais Pudong New Area, told the paper that the free trade zone in Shanghai was an important stronghold for the export of renminbi, as well as a hub for the return of overseas renminbi capital.
Source: wantchinatimes.comRights
Obama Caves, Delays Obamacare As Momentum Fizzles; Customer Pool Smaller And Sicker
Late last night, with just 4 days left until the December 23 deadline to choose plans that will begin Jan. 1, Washington Post reported that the Obama administration finally caved and significantly relaxed the rules of the federal health-care law for millions of consumers whose individual insurance policies have been canceled, saying they can buy bare-bones plans or entirely avoid a requirement that most Americans have health coverage.
The ability to get an exemption means that the administration is freeing these people from one of the central features of the law: a requirement that most Americans have health insurance as of Jan. 1 or risk a fine. The exemption gives them the choice of having no insurance or of buying skimpy catastrophic coverage.
As was to be expected, the announcement which made the healthcare ponzi scheme far less powerful triggered an immediate backlash from the health insurance industry and raised fairness questions about a law intended to promote affordable and comprehensive coverage on a widespread basis.
This latest rule change could cause significant instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers, said Karen Ignagni, president of Americas Health Insurance Plans, the industrys main trade group.
Another health insurance official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he lacked authorization to discuss the matter publicly, pointed out that the hardship exemption also gives one group the ability to buy coverage whenever they want, rather than during annual open-enrollment periods. As a result, he said, more people might not buy insurance unless they get sick.
Well, Karen: welcome to central-planning, where whatever can go wrong, ultimately does, and as for your profit margins which you had modelled as surging in the coming years: feel free to model them lower.
How did the latest humiliation for the administration come about? WaPo explains:
At a news conference in mid-November, an apologetic Obama relented to the criticism, announcing that the federal government would let insurance companies continue for another year to offer individuals and small businesses health plans that do not meet the new requirements. The decision, however , is up to each states insurance regulator, and not all have gone along.
This second change, prompted by a group of Democratic senators most of whom face tough reelection campaigns next year goes substantially further in accommodating people upset about losing their policies. The latest rule will allow consumers with a canceled health plan to claim a hardship exemption if they think the plans sold through new federal and state marketplaces are too expensive.
To be sure, the 2014 elections played a key role: As The Hill reported, the policy shift was laid out in a letter to Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who asked the administration on Wednesday to clarify whether those who had their plans cancelled could qualify for the exemption. The Washington Post pointed out the lawmakersfaced tough reelection campaigns next year, or were from states that President Obama lost in last years election. Could it be that Obamacare is actually unpopular with the broader population? Say it isnt so!
WaPo also notes that it is unclear how many people facing canceled policies will choose no insurance, bare-bones coverage or a plan through the insurance exchanges that meet new federal standards.
Actually, it is clear: according to the WSJ the answer is very few, especially when one adds the healthcare laws rolloug problems. The WSJ adds that insurers pressing for last-minute enrollees under the health-care law say they are running into a worrisome trend: Customers who were put off by the insurance marketplaces early troubles are proving hard sells. Many people thwarted by the technical problems of HealthCare.gov are reluctant to try again, citing frustration with the federal site, web-security concerns and the pressure of the holidays, several insurers say.
Geisinger Health Plan, a central Pennsylvania insurer, has tracked down more than 4,000 people who expressed interest earlier this fall, urging them to attend sign-up events this week.
So far, few have responded: About a dozen have shown up at each event, said Lisa D. Hartman, the insurers director of commercial marketing.
It might be getting too late for people to make a move, Ms. Hartman said. Weve had some people telling us its too close to the holidays.
Call-center workers at Arches Health Plan, a new Utah plan, have been working through a list of about 4,000 people who unsuccessfully sought coverage in October and November. Insurers have identified about 2,000 people who are still interested and have managed to enroll about 90% of them.
We definitely have lost a lot of momentum, where people said, You know what, Im going to come back in January, said Shaun Greene, Arches chief operating officer.
And the punchline: With only days before the Monday deadline to sign up for coverage that starts Jan. 1, insurers are facing a much smaller, and sicker, pool of customers than hoped for.
Like we said: anything that can go wrong oh look, over there, the Stalingrad & Propaganda 500 just hit a new all time high!
Source: zerohedge.comSenate Passes NDAA 2014 via Fast Tracking, President To Sign
The Government has always passed the NDAA quickly and in the dark of the night. We need to remember that this law can pickup anyone suspected of being a terrorist (foreign or domestic) without proof and throw them in prison for 1 year.
Late Thursday night, the Senate passed the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2014, in a sweeping bill now being sent to the president which reports suggest he will sign.
The bill, is infamous for its language on indefinite detention, and disappearing of American citizens. Once again, the bill was past via Fast-Tracking while most of the country was sidelined on the Phil Robertson issue with Duck Dynasty.
The bill, now being sent to President Obama, also leaves out an amendment by Sen. Gillibrand on sexual assault prosecution, which in and of itself is curious. The bill passed the Senate in an 85-14 count, with the roll-call unavailable at this time.
Its a failure of leadership on the part of the majority leader, Arizona Sen. John McCain told reporters, echoing Republican colleagues who said the accelerated process was designed to prevent tough votes on Iran sanctions and other controversial issues.
Also, the bill would authorize a release of $527 billion in base defense spending for the current fiscal year, plus funds for the war in Afghanistan and nuclear weapons programs overseen by the Energy Department, among numerous other controversial measures.
With the recent push by PANDA (People Against NDAA), having success on local levels blocking the Indefinite Detention provisions, it is no surprise the defense bill passed quickly, and while so many were distracted.
Source: activistpost.comPolice State
New assault rifles at Boston PD another step toward militarization of US police
Boston PD is distributing AR-15 assault rifles to patrol cars for reinforcement of the police and giving it more power against the street criminals, or so it says. This new development has undoubtedly caused a lot of concern which fact is being dwelled upon in the article titled Boston PDs new assault rifles raise concerns over militarization of police by Al Jazeera Americas Daniel Lovering.
Though there has already been a lot of talk as to how the United States have recently got all gunned up with their drone-flying classes and bomb-disarming robots in small towns. This military recycling program has already left many wondering: isnt it a little too much put to serve and protect?
Boston police department has surprised the citizens purchasing about 30 military-style semiautomatic rifles and training nearly 100 patrol officers to use them. This looks all the more surprising as, according to a local cited by Mr Lovering, Tariq Nazyat, 39, Gun violence in the neighborhood has declined sharply since his teenage years.
As always, such situation immediately sparked a debate in Boston. While some mostly residents of the minority-dominated districts argued that the gradual militarization of the police force is more of a problem than a solution, others, who supported police, had their reasoning just as justified saying the police needed tools to combat heavily armed criminals and prevent terrorism, that is, to not let the Marathon tragedy become a history repeated.
Mr Lovering quotes Boston Police superintendent Kenneth Fong as saying police routinely seize semiautomatic assault rifles from the streets.
The city and the world we live in now is different than in years past, Mr Lovering quotes Kenneth Fong as saying. And we need to have equipment to meet the threat that were facing now.
The Boston Marathon tragedy and its aftermath has only speeded up the process of buying the rifles, as it had already been in process by that time. The actual idea was introduced in 2007 by Edward Davis, a former citys police commissioner.
Two years later, as part of the federal surplus program, Boston police ordered about 200 semiautomatic M16s, but Mayor Thomas Menino put the plan on hold. Meninos spokesman John Guilfoil said in an email to Al Jazeera, The mayor made clear that he doesnt expect these types of weapons to be used regularly but rather stored securely in police vehicles and used only during necessary emergency situations. However, 82 police departments with little-to-no crime still purchased over a 1,000 weapons.
The plan provides that two officers per district (and theres 11) is to be equipped with the long-range AR-15 rifles, Fong said. This is to reinforce the existing groups of four to eight officers patrolling the city in so-called tactical vehicles, each equipped with an M4 rifle and a shotgun.
Mr Lovering quotes Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., as saying that police need the guns because they were facing similarly armed suspects on the streets. In other words, the general level of violence in the society has been escalating.
Obviously, there are fears that, although initially intended to fight evil, all these weapons might one day become a routinely used tool.
The most disturbing repercussion that we see happening is when officers are dressing up in military garb, camouflage uniforms, military boots and helmets, and now you put M16s in their hands, theres just a subtle change in their whole mentality when it comes to policing, he said. They begin to view the people in the community as adversaries, as the enemy, instead of people who have constitutional rights, said Tim Lynch, criminal-justice project director at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
Lynch labeled this decision a recipe for unnecessary violence and unnecessary injuries and sometimes the loss of life.
Though recently, shootings have increased in Boston, the rate is still by far below the early 1990s numbers. Also, the state can boast one of the lowest rates of gun-related deaths in the country and some of the nations toughest gun laws, and thats according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, was quoted by Mr Lovering as saying the move reflects a trend nationwide that includes the paramilitarization of the police and the federalization of local and state police departments. However, the question she posed still has no answer regardless of its acuteness.
Do we want police officers who are sent out into our streets to be trained as if and equipped as if the people they encounter on their patrols are enemy hostile targets, as if in a war? she said. Or do we want them to see people in our communities as allies and people they are meant to protect and serve?
Source: voiceofrussia.comWar
Italian President Warns of Violent Unrest in 2014
This is becoming an anti-EU movement
President Giorgio Napolitano has warned that Italy faces violent civil unrest in 2014 as anti-EU demonstrations intensify in response to the countrys worsening economy and a total loss of faith in the state.
The crisis affecting the euro zone has put a strain on social cohesion. The most detailed forecasts for 2014 indicate a risk of widespread social tension and unrest: a risk that must been kept in mind and confronted in Italy, Napolitano said during an address at his presidential palace in Rome, adding that citizens could get involved in haphazard and even violent protests, in an extreme and unfruitful surge of total opposition to politics and institutions.
As we reported last week, anti-EU sentiment is now so prevalent amongst Italians that riot police sent to harass protesters in some cities are removing their helmets and joining with the demonstrators.
The country has been rocked with a prolonged pitchfork (Forconi) revolt over fuel prices, globalization, soaring unemployment, and the European Unions draconian austerity measures, with a diverse group of Italians, from farmers to students, coming together under one umbrella.
The Telegraphs Ambrose Evans-Pritchard notes how, This is becoming an anti-EU movement. One of the Forconi leaders has just been arrested for climbing up the EU offices in Rome and ripping down Europes blue and gold flag.
Italian youth unemployment is over 40 per cent as the country remains embroiled in a deep recession, while the overall jobless figure hit a record high of 12.5 per cent at the end of October. A staggering 134 retail outlets in Italy are closed every day and business failures are up 10 per cent since last year alone.
Evans-Pritchard also points out that while Napolitano is concerned about the potential for domestic disorder, he offers no solution whatsoever for Italys predicament because he remains a vehement supporter of the very same EU-friendly economic policies that got the country into this mess in the first place.
While the threat of violent domestic disorder across the European Union has been voiced by analysts for years, its rare for presidents to join the chorus.
The potential for mass civil unrest spilling over borders as a result of a collapse of the euro single currency prompted the Swiss Army last year to mobilize extra troops as a safeguard against the turmoil spreading.
Source: thedailysheeple.comNorth Korea threatens to strike South
Warning comes after South Koreans held rallies to denounce the Norths human-rights record.
North Korea has threatened to strike South Korea without notice in response to anti-Pyongyang rallies earlier this week, officials said.
The warning was communicated in a message sent on Thursday by the secretariat of the National Defence Commission, the Norths highest military body, through a military hotline, the Souths defence ministry said.
The message comes after South Korean conservative groups staged protests against North Koreas human-rights record, marking the two-year anniversary of former leader Kim Jong-ils death by burning his photograph.
North Korea regularly issues idle threats of violence against South Korea and the United States.
In the latest threat, North Koreas military warned of a possible strike and condemned the South Korean rallies as an insult to North Koreas highest dignity a reference to leader Kim Jong-un, the Souths Yonhap news agency reported.
In response, the South Korean government vowed to sternly react to any provocation, the report noted.
Heightened tensions
The news comes a week after the North announced it had executed Kim Jong-uns politically powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who was branded a traitor and stripped of all his powers.
Despite the political uncertainty now gripping the country, North Koreans gathered earlier this week for a remembrance ceremony to honour Kim Jong-il.
Top US officials, meanwhile, have speculated that Jangs execution could be a prelude to some kind of provocation by Pyongyang.
These kind of internal actions by dictators are often a precursor to provocation to distract attention from what theyre doing inside of that country, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US militarys Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday.
Tensions were heightened earlier this year during US-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang branded a rehearsal for invasion.
Source: aljazeera.comRouhani Takes on Revolutionary Guards in Iran Power Test
Irans Revolutionary Guards, a business empire as well as the countrys most powerful military force, have been a vocal critic of recent nuclear diplomacy. President Hassan Rouhani is fighting back, setting up a contest that may shape his presidency.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps expanded under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, benefiting from multi-billion-dollar contracts to build Irans nuclear facilities and develop the worlds biggest natural-gas field at South Pars in the Persian Gulf. Former officers, who made up more than half of Ahmadinejads cabinet, are down to four out of 18 ministerial jobs under Rouhani.
Guards leaders, in their role as defenders of the Islamic revolution, have denounced the new presidents breakthrough phone call with Barack Obama and sniped at Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as he negotiated a nuclear accord with world powers in Geneva last month.
Rouhani, in turn, is seeking to ease them out of politics and the economy. Hes curbing the Guards role in industries from road-building to petrochemicals and cutting the budget of their paramilitary Basij force, used to suppress protests in 2009. The contest may determine whether the president gets to enact the platform he was elected on, which includes loosening religious and political restrictions, or is thwarted by opponents of change.
DIRTY WORK
One of the two will be defeated, said Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington and author of several studies of the Guards.
The Guards report directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who encouraged their participation in politics to counter the reformist movement that emerged around President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.
Khamenei typically plays different factions against one another to ensure no group gets too powerful, said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. He may use the Guards to put the brakes on Rouhanis plans, Sadjadpour said.
Khamenei doesnt want to be seen blocking Rouhani but hes betting Sepah will do his dirty work for him, he said, referring to the Persian name for the Guard Corps.
Equally, the supreme leader will sometimes back the president because he wouldnt mind seeing Rouhani roll back some of the influence of the Guards, Alfoneh said.
POWERFUL ACTOR
The Guards are Irans most powerful economic actor, Adam Szubin, director of the U.S. Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in testimony to Congress last year. The group dominates energy, construction and banking, he said.
Its business empire began when Iran was seeking to rebuild after the eight-year war with Iraq that ended in 1988. The government decided to use the Guards experience in building roads and bridges to help restore civilian infrastructure. As the projects grew, the Guards set up an engineering arm, Khatam al-Anbia, in 1992.
Khatam, which is blacklisted under U.S. and European sanctions, now has more than 800 subsidiaries and employs almost 200,000 people, according to the state-run Iranian Students News Agency.
Rouhani is clipping its wings. The government removed Khatam from the management of Asalouyeh, a hub of petrochemical plants and refineries on the Persian Gulf, and terminated its contract to build a highway north of Tehran, Solh News, a website close to the Guards, reported Dec. 4. It said the Energy Ministry is also seeking to remove Khatam from dam-building and power projects.
FINANCIAL DISASTER
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has criticized Khatam for failing to produce gas at South Pars. The company was awarded contracts worth as much as $21 billion in 2010 to develop the field, according to the ministry.
The South Pars failure is a national financial disaster, said Mehrdad Emadi, a London-based Iranian economist at BetaMatrix consultants. About 80 percent of energy projects run by these companies were incomplete.
Irans Mehr news agency said more than $40 billion had been spent on the development.
Ebadollah Abdullahi, a Guards commander and head of Khatam, has defended its record. Khatam took over contracts from Western companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA (FP)which pulled out due to sanctions, and the same sanctions have held back Khatams work at South Pars, he said, according to Mehr.
EXPECT ESCALATION
The Guards are pushing back in the political arena. Their commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Rouhani erred in speaking to Obama by phone during his September visit to the U.S. When Zarif, defending the Geneva accord at Tehran University on Dec. 3, argued that Irans military isnt powerful enough to deter the West, Jafari riposted: He doesnt have experience in the military field to make these statements.
Rouhani also cut funding of the Basij force, leading its head, Brigadier-General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, to criticize the move.
Jafari has warned Rouhani to expect resistance, saying the Guards cannot sit quietly in the face of developments they oppose.
I expect escalation of the conflict, said Alfoneh, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Im not capable of predicting the outcome.
Source: stratrisks.comReport: Saudi anti-tank missile order could bolster Syrian rebels
Saudi Arabia has requested thousands of U.S. anti-tank
guided missiles in a move that could help Sunni rebels in Syria.
A leading U.S. news website asserted that Saudi Arabias request for
15,000 TOW [tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles] ATGMs
could be used to bolster the flagging Sunni revolt against Syrian President
Foreign Policy said the $1 billion Saudi order does not appear to be linked to the kingdoms military requirements.
Its a very large number of missiles, including the most advanced version of the TOWs, Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, said. The problem is: Whats the threat?
In a report on Dec. 12, Foreign Policy said the Syrian rebels were desperate for ATGMs. Riyad has already supplied Croatian anti-tank weapons to and was training Syrian rebels in Jordan. The rebels were said to have been deploying the Chinese-origin HJ-8 ATGM.
Analysts said Saudi Arabia, which bought more than $75 billion worth of U.S. weapons since 2004, was unlikely to send the TOWs to the Syrian rebels. Instead, the new missiles could enable Riyad to exhaust its current ATGM stockpile.
I would speculate that with an order of this size, the Saudis were
flushing their current stocks in the direction of the opposition and
replacing them with new munitions, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia,
Charles Freeman, said.
Source: worldtribune.comCyber Attacks
Cyber Threats to Bank Accounts on the Rise
On the same day that news broke that 40 million customer account records were stolen from retail giant Target, the regulator of the nations largest financial institutions warned that customers financial information is increasingly under assault in their banks as well.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Thursday, in its Semiannual Risk Perspective, warned that Cyber-threats continue to increase in sophistication and frequency. The agency noted, Known impacts include identity theft, fraud, and theft of intellectual property.
Related: Data Breach May Impact 40M Target Customers
The report found that one new tactic employed by hackers is to target a banks home page with a so-called denial of service attack, in which thousands of hacked computers try to log on to the web site simultaneously, thereby disabling it for regular customers use. While security experts are distracted by the DOS attack, the report found, the hackers go after their real target by, for instance, draining customer accounts through fraudulent wire transfers.
Its an increasing problem, agreed Richard F. Cross, a former vice president and director of bank security at Bank of New York, now a private consultant. You have to assume that the crooks are always one step ahead of what the financial community is doing to protect itself.
The OCC cautioned that small banks appear to be more frequent targets of hackers, because criminals perceive them as being less likely to have strong security measures in place.
Cross said that in his experience, that tends to be true. The problem usually is with small community banks, he said. I hate to say it, but sometimes they dont want to spend the money.
Related: The Coming Cyber Attack That Could Ruin Your Life
Protection doesnt come cheap, the OCC found. While the tools necessary to reduce the risk of a cyber attack are readily available, according to the report, the costs and resources needed to manage the risks continue to increase.
Banks that are at increased risk, the agency said, are early adopters of new technologies, and banks that hire third parties to provide certain information technology-related services, both of which create additional risks that are difficult to measure and to manage.
The good news for consumers is that they can do a lot to protect themselves. Most cases of identity theft and bank fraud begin with the customer making the mistake of providing personal information, willingly or unwillingly, to crooks although they often wont know it until later.
Related: Why Cyber Crime Is Now the Top Threat Facing the U.S.
One of the most common methods is through phishing a technique in which an official-looking email is sent to a bank customer either directly soliciting account information or carrying a hidden computer virus that will give hackers access to the customers computer.
Cross cautioned that consumers cant rely solely on banks to protect them and have to be aware of everything they do while online.
If an email comes in and it looks even a wee bit suspicious, you have to ignore it, he said. But people are busy. They see an email and they click on it, then its too late.
