Europeans should ask why they are to pay for an American-Israeli adventure in Iran during a time of unprecedented austerity, political analyst Chris Bambery told RT. Iran says it will definitely stop oil exports to "certain" European countries, while the decision to cut supplies to further EU states is still in discussion. This comes as Tehran's response to an EU oil embargo that was set to come into force on July 1.
**Notes that Israel has a nuclear programme, which it denies, but we know to exist.

“Russia and China were the only permanent Security Council members opposing the draft, reminding others that it was not their place to intervene in another country’s domestic affairs.”

Under international law, it’s illegal. Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said

In response, US envoy Susan Rice said she was “disgusted” by vetoes “prop(ping) up desperate dictators.” French ambassador Gerard Araud said “history will judge (Assad supporters) harshly.”

by Philip Giraldi

Americans should be concerned about what is happening in Syria, if only because it threatens to become another undeclared war like Libya but much, much worse. Calls for regime change have come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who several weeks ago predicted a civil war.

That is indeed likely if the largely secular and nationalist regime of Bashar al-Assad falls, pitting Sunni against Shia against Alawite. Indigenous Christians will be caught in the meat grinder. Ironically, many of the Christians in Damascus are Iraqis who experienced the last round of liberation in their own country and had to flee for their lives.

Anyone unmoved by that isn’t human. No one could write it who didn’t experience war’s horrors firsthand, and scream Say NO! Say NO! No More.

Written almost 65 years ago, wars rage daily. Millions more lives expired. Perhaps no one will listen to other Borcherts until no one’s left to hear, if “You do not say NO” now.

FOX news is now reporting an actual timeline for the up coming attack on Iran by Israel. America is backing it.

Panetta concerned Israel months from striking Iran

It is also widely known that Israel sought clearance from Secretary of Defense Gates to bomb Iran in July 2008 and were turned away. Any future attack by Israel will clearly suggest U.S. permission, whether it is given in fact or not. David E. Sanger, “U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site,” The New York Times, January 11, 2009.

Here's why:

Video - Nigel Farage - Feb. 1, 2012

Transcript is inside - Runs 2 minutes.

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George Soros explains why his hedge fund bought $2 billion of MF Global Italian bonds - and why he would buy even more, were he still running the fund. The reason: Deflation.

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The chances of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement becoming law in Europe dwindled suddenly on Friday, after Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said he was suspending ACTA's ratification in his country.

A group of European regulators has written to Google Inc calling on it to halt the introduction of its new privacy policy, saying it needs to investigate whether the proposals sufficiently protect users' personal data.

The UPI published a story ‘Monsanto to Pull GM Operation from Britain’ was removed from the UPI website.

We were able to locate the UPI story on another website (dated February 3, 2012), which says that Monsanto is leaving Britain due to opposition against GMO crops and that it is selling off its crop-breeding centers in France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

The UPI story may have been based on an article published by the Daily Mail in 2003 that states only the GMO wheat growing operations would be closing in the UK, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, citing government research about contamination concerns. As NaturalNews reported, the Daily Mail was actually displaying the published date as February 2, 2012:

That's all there is.....

The IMEU shares the following op-ed from the University of Pennsylvania’s school newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, as well as a link to today’s press briefing with Ali Abunimah and Anna Baltzer who discuss the first-ever national BDS Conference, which will bring together supporters of the movement this weekend at UPenn. The op-ed, written by UPenn graduate Max Blumenthal, is in response to Alan Dershowitz’s scheduled visit to the campus which aims to counter the UPenn BDS Conference. This is the first media result of the IMEU’s newly launched outreach to student groups on campuses across the country.

Michael Brown — Communications Director, IMEU

Extreme winter weather costs 160 lives in Europe

Britain condemned Israeli settlements as “deliberate vandalism”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in London recently.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg today met the Palestinian Authority ‘President’ Mahmoud Abbas on his visit to London.

Cameron said that ‘time was running out’ for the two-state solution which was why the ‘settlement issue’, or ‘facts on the ground’, was so important. Clegg went further and condemned ‘continued settlement building in the strongest possible terms’ because

The eurozone cannot survive in its current form – that is the alarming prediction of top economists and politicians of all political hues, among them the former Chancellors Alistair Darling, Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont.

Danny Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College and former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, added: "The fundamental problem that has not been addressed is that there is no growth plan for Greece. Even if you give them a new loan, they have no means of paying it back."

This is awesome. If you're rushed for time, just watch the final 90 seconds. Irish Journalist Vincent Browne shows the ECB how they roll in Eirinn. The ECB's Klaus Masuch gets a well-deserved earful.

Memo to Erin Burnett - This is how one demonstrates journalistic integrity.

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In Ukraine on Wednesday the emergency ministry said that death toll had now reached 43 after 13 people died overnight. Most of the victims so far have been homeless people who froze to death on the streets, but at least seven have died in their homes. Another 720 people suffering from hypothermia or frostbite have required hospital treatment.

Poland's interior ministry said Wednesday morning that a further five people had been found dead in the previous 24 hours, bringing the death toll attributed to the freezing winter weather to 27.

Plummeting winter temperatures have claimed dozens of lives across Central and Eastern Europe as the region battles a big freeze that is expected to worsen over the next few days. At least 50 people have died, mainly in Ukraine and Poland, as an icy continental weather front from Siberia has dragged temperatures to as low as -27 degrees Celsius, and forecasters in Poland have said that thermometers could hit -30 later in the week. The cold weather has even travelled as far south as Bulgaria where temperatures in the capital Sofia fell to -20, the lowest in 50 years.

Temperatures in the town of Sevlievo, northern Bulgaria, plunged Wednesday morning to minus 31.4 C, a record low, which made the region one of the hardest hit by the severe cold spell in Eastern Europe.

Yet another cold record for this winter was set in Kiutaköngäs near Kuusamo, where the temperature plunged to -38.7 degrees Celsius on Wednesday morning.

The record temperature was registered around 8am. One hour later, the cold had eased to a mere -35 degrees.

Other parts of northern Finland are also experiencing record cold. In Naruska, Salla, the mercury dropped to -36.8 degrees Celsius in the early hours of Wednesday. It was not much warmer in Taivalkoski, chilled to a cool -36.6 degrees.

From Facebook to Google, websites are tracking your every move to deliver 'personalised advertising'. But now regulators have hit back.
Parker said the UK was now responsible for more complaints over advertising than the rest of Europe put together. "They say that British people don't complain. They don't complain face-to-face... but they don't mind complaining remotely. Now far more than half of all the complaints made to advertising regulatory bodies in all 27 EU member states are made by the UK public to us, it's 60-65 per cent."

An economic nightmare is descending on Europe. With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse. At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression. In fact, some parts of Europe are already there.

On January 16th, middle class Sicilians began a popular uprising appropriately called the ‘Pitchfork Movement’…’Movimento Dei Forconi’.

There are shades of the Occupy movement within it, but the core is not dissatisfied unemployed youth with no property or businesses to lose.

They are middle aged and older. They know that what they have left has been targeted by their own elites to bear the economic pain.

The other difference is size. Sicily’s five million people, their grass roots people, have occupied themselves.

So of course the story caught my eye and I then checked the mainstream media sites to look at what I was sure to be some great video. Wrong! So far, there is almost nothing.

Unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone ended 2011 at 10.4 per cent, a new record high for the single currency since its launch at the start of 1999, official figures showed today.

The highest unemployment rate remains in Spain, where 22.9 % of the working population were without work, though Greece is nearing with 19.2 % rate. The lowest rate in the eurozone is Austria's 4.1 %.

With its enormously disproportionate power (financed by American taxpayers), Israel has consistently violated international law, UN resolutions, and human rights conventions.

Israel initiated almost all of its wars and is virtually always the instigator of renewed bouts of violence. For example, while many Americans have been led to believe that the 2008-09 Israeli assault on Gaza was defensive, in reality, Israel was the party that first violated the ceasefire.

The Israeli military, which possesses at least 100 nuclear weapons, is rated the 3rd-5th most powerful in the world. It is far more powerful than any other military in the region. Palestinians have little beyond small, minimally armed militias.

by Alison Weir / CNI

Turkey has defied Western calls to ban Iranian crude imports, saying Ankara will not go along with the EU and US sanctions on Iranian oil.

A Turkish Energy Ministry spokesman said on Monday, “We are not bound by EU or US decisions.”

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ruled out the possibility of Ankara complying with the unilateral sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, saying Turkey is currently trying to facilitate talks between Tehran and Western nations on Iran's nuclear program.

Today’s war propagandists have figured out a way to make the issue of American interests, as opposed to Israeli interests, go away, and that is by policing the language of the debate.

Our current leaders have made Israeli Judaism just a post-traumatic syndrome, while they lead us to self-destruction.
One very well informed and courageous Israeli who thinks the answer is “Yes” is Merav Michaeli, a radio and television presenter who also writes for Ha’aretz. She is completely without fear when it comes to telling it like it is.

John Gunther Dean American Ambassador reportedly a target of an Israeli assassination plot. Published in The Nation.

In the wake of the accusation by Chas Freeman that his nomination to lead the National Intelligence Council was derailed by an “Israeli lobby,” a forthcoming memoir by another distinguished ambassador adds stunning new charges to the debate. The ambassador, John Gunther Dean, writes that over the years he not only came under pressure from pro-Israeli groups and officials in Washington but also was the target of an Israeli-inspired assassination attempt in 1980 in Lebanon, where he had opened links to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

This is interesting. Kader Arif, the "rapporteur" for ACTA, has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA. A rapporteur is a person "appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue." However, it appears his investigation of ACTA didn't make him very pleased:

I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly...

Think filing for bankruptcy is the only way to get debt discharge? Think again, at least in Greece. While previously we have reported that Greek courts had written off "untenable" debts of unemployed Greeks owed to local banks, Kathimerini describes a landmark case which may have profound implications for the indebted country, in which a fully employed woman has had the bulk of her debt written off.

From Kathimerini: "In what could turn out to be a significant ruling for Greeks suffering from the economic crisis, a court in Hania, Crete, has become the first in the country to order that the majority of the debt owed to banks by someone still in full employment be wiped out...

Stephen Lendman, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Partnering with America has consequences. Europe's paying by shooting itself in the foot...

An economic nightmare is descending on Europe. With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse. At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression. In fact, some parts of Europe are already there. In Spain the overall unemployment rate is over 22 percent, and in Greece one out of every five retail establishments has already been closed down. All over Europe, economic activity is rapidly slowing down, unemployment is skyrocketing and bad debts are unraveling. It isn’t even going to take a default by a nation such as Greece or a collapse of the euro to push Europe into an economic depression.

No real change can occur in the undeniable reality of the ruthless oppression practiced on all Palestinians by Zionist Israel without US support. So, how do we change the subservient attitudes of 70% compromised American Congress?

Here is what Ali Abunimah, wrote this weekend in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Despite all the decades that have passed and make up more than half a century, the Cuban fruit has not fallen into Yankee hands.

Current news from Spain, France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, England, the Malvinas and several other parts of the planet are serious and all foretell political and economic disaster due to the foolhardiness of the United States and its allies.

Actors and politicians call on Supreme Court to stop "persecution"
From performing artists and politicians to labor leaders and writers, a massive crowd held a rally outside the Supreme Court on Sunday in support of High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón, who has gone on trial on two occasions during the past two weeks.

Holding placards with Garzón's image under the slogan "Against the crimes of shame," the estimated several thousand people demanded that the top court stop its "persecution" of Garzón.

"The Garzón case is quickly becoming the Dreyfus case of the 21st century," said UGT secretary general Cándido Méndez, referring to the 19th-century French case of Alfred Dreyfus, immortalized by Émile Zola in his open letter, J'accuse.

The European Union needs a 'whole system change' to recover from the debt crisis it is facing as its economic troubles are an outcome of 'corrupt capitalism,' an economic expert tells Press TV.

“It [The EU and Greece in particular] needs a whole change of the system,” said British economic commentator Shabbir Razvi in a recent interview, adding that, it requires 'bold steps.'

The outlook for the European economy turned a shade darker yesterday after new figures showed that Spain's jobless total had surged beyond the five million mark for the first time since modern records began, with the unemployment rate rising to 22.9 per cent.

The increase to 5,273,600 in the final quarter of 2011 means 1.5 million households now have no wageearners. The dismal figures also reinforced Spain's position as the country with Europe's worst unemployment rate.

But after five years of relentlessly rising dole queues, perhaps the most shocking figure of all is that 48.6 per cent of its under 24-year-olds are now out of work. Since 2008, the youth unemployment total has almost tripled, to nearly 900,000.

The United States appears to be using a strategy in Syria that it has perfected over the years, having succeeded most recently in Libya: arming small paramilitary groups loyal to U.S. interests that claim to speak for the local population; these militants then attack the targeted government the U.S. would like to see overthrown — including terrorist bombings — and when the attacked government defends itself, the U.S. cries “genocide” or “mass murder,” while calling for foreign military intervention.

DAVOS, Switzerland — About 100 Occupy protesters gathered in front of the town hall in this Eastern Switzerland resort where the World Economic Forum is being held.

Some held placards with slogans such as "If voting would change anything, it would be illegal" and "Don't let them decide for you, Occupy WEF."

A small group of protesters are camped in igloos in Davos to call for more help for the needy.

The depiction of Iran as a nuclear nightmare and as a global threat is only a saga manufactured by Washington in order to smother a voice so overpoweringly critical of the myriad morbid policies of a government whose American dream is dead and gone.

There’s a real sense in which, more than any other part of the former colonial world, the Middle East has never been fully decolonised. Sitting on top of the bulk of the globe’s oil reserves, the Arab world has been the target of continual interference and intervention ever since it became formally independent.

In what is likely a long overdue move, Iran has finally decided to give Europe a harsh lesson in game theory. Instead of letting Euro-area politicians score brownie points at its expense by threatening to halt imports and cut off the Iranian economy, the Iranian government will instead propose a bill calling for an immediate halt to oil deliveries to Europe.

(Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator)

L: So Doug, a lot of readers are concerned about what's going on in Europe. Is this the beginning of the proverbial "it?" Or can the Eurozone be saved?

Doug: In brief, the answers are "yes," then "no" – and a "good riddance" to both the Eurozone and the euro. But most people think the old order should be maintained at almost any cost. That would include George Soros, who recently penned an article called Does the Euro Have a Future?

Ireland is soon to have a law similar to Sopa passed that would give music and movie companies the power to force Irish ISPs to block access to sites suspected of having copyright infringing material on them.

Irish citizens won't have a chance to lobby their democratic representatives because there won't be a vote on the law -- snappily named "S.I. No. of 2011 European Communities (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2011" -- in the Irish Parliament. Instead the law is being enacted by ministerial order because it is being prepared in the form of a Statutory Instrument.

The law could mean that judges can order Irish ISPs -- such as Eircom and UPC -- as well as mobile networks to block access to social networking sites where an individual user has shared infringing material.

Whoops!…Oh dear!…It looks like Ben fell off the wagon again!
Such a shame. He had been doing so well ever since he put that bottle of “Old Q.E.” back on the shelf last June… and got sober. But a few weeks back, he tripped up on his 12-step program and started nipping at the bottle again. Slowly at first… then to excess.
Yes, it’s true, dear reader, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, is printing money again. That’s bad enough. But this time, after he prints it, he sends it over to Europe. Crazy, but true. The chart below tells the tale. It shows the quantity of currency swaps on the Fed’s balance sheet.

A senior Iranian official has dismissed as futile the latest EU sanctions on the country's oil exports, adding that Tehran will not allow a condition to arise wherein others are allowed to sell oil and Iran is not, Press TV reports.

Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland's streets over the signing of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship. On January 26 Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo.

The treaty, known as Acta, aims to establish international standards to enforce intellectual property rights. Dozens of government websites have been hacked in protest.

The Russia Today reported on Thursday that Iran's move will be a good response to EU sanctions which have been already slammed by Iran's close allies like China.

The report quoted Nasser Soudani, a member of Iran Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee, as saying that in reaction to EU measure, Iranian lawmakers are drafting a new law, which would stop oil supply to European countries as soon as possible.

“A number of representatives of the Majlis and I are seeking to approve a bill according to which all European countries that made Iran the target of their sanctions will not be able to buy even one drop of oil from Iran, and oil taps will be turned off to them so that they will not play with fire again,” the lawmaker added.

Rady Ananda
Activist Post

Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October...

Iran's threatening to switch off its oil supplies to Europe before the EU embargo comes into force in July.

**Rather than supply Europe for 6 months, Iran might suspend oil supply next week.

Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland's streets over the signing of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo on Thursday.

The treaty, known as Acta, aims to establish international standards to enforce intellectual property rights.

But critics say it could curb freedom of expression, and government websites have been hacked in protest.

For anyone who hasn't seen this yet. This is an absolute riot, while exposing the madness of bankrupt nations bailing out other bankrupt nations.

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The European food authorities should lower the limit on how many fluorocarbons people can tolerate for one hundredth of today. It says the professor, who has shown that drugs can destroy the vaccine. He

By Chris Floyd

January 25, 2012 "Empire Burlesque" -- This week, the warlords of the West took yet another step toward their long-desired war against Iran. (Open war, that is; their covert war has been going on for decades -- via subversion, terrorism, and proxies like Saddam Hussein.) On Monday, the European Union obediently followed the dictates of its Washington masters by agreeing to impose an embargo on Iranian oil.

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The destruction of national sovereignty and democracy is a deadly plague upon humanity which is aptly embodied by the European Union.

I wouldn’t consider myself a nationalist, but I do believe that every person should be able to live in a place where they can actually have a say in the laws of the land.

In the case of the EU, much of the legislation is decided by unaccountable individuals and the people who are affected by such legislation have little to no say in the matter...

So you have an Israeli dolphin submarine up real near the coast of Iran... they fire a torpedo, they destroy the Enterprise and sink it with huge sloths of American life and Obama will be up there in Congress within 12 hours saying "A day that will live in infamousity! Those dastardly Japanese! I mean, those dastardly Iranians!." And we'll be off and running again. They've done it before... they'll do it again. The only thing that will stop them is if we MAKE THEM DOUBT that they will be believed this time, and that's what we are trying to do. - Rivero

The ‘consultation’ on a statutory lobby register may be a window of opportunity

The Queen needs a new royal yacht. But the British government says it can’t afford to buy her one. The £80 million for the project must come from private sources.

Why do we get dragged into these illegal and inhuman expeditions to devastate countries that are no threat to us?

Because a team of Israel-firsters in our midst think it’s smart to promote the ambitions of a foreign power at the expense of our own national interest and everyone else’s.

They have taken command and control of our country by infiltrating the highest levels of government. For example they hold the key jobs in the Foreign Office.

(Reuters) - Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country's biggest "bank" and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report on Tuesday.

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He wants to split up France's largest banks.

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Iran has apparently found a way to stay in business despite a new EU oil embargo and asset freeze. India is reportedly agreeing to pay Iran in gold for its oil, instead of US dollars. Reports suggest Iran's biggest customer, China, could follow suit. Christoph R. Horstel, a government consultant and political analyst in Potsdam, Germany says he thinks the EU embargo is doomed to fail.

**Great Straight Talking interview**

This is very serious. The elitist power grab is going right at the heart of capitalism. Of course, they have always been for central control, with them in control, but now they are calling out capitalism, directly, as an inferior product.

On Friday, I attacked Larry Summers for blaming the current crisis on capitalism. I thought he was a lone wolf attempting to see how far the anti-capitalist agenda could be pushed. I was wrong.

It appears Summers simply fired the first shot in a new aggressive move by elitists to discredit capitalism outright. The elitists are gathering in Davos, Switzerland right now for the 2012 World Economic Forum.

EU nations have formally adopted an unprecedented set of sanctions against Tehran - which include a bloc-wide embargo on Iranian oil. The move targets Iran's nuclear program which, the Islamic Republic insists, is for purely peaceful purposes. To discuss the implications of fresh sanctions against Iran, RT talks to James Corbett - editor of independent news website - 'The Corbett Report' which is based in Japan.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dear President Obama,

RE: "America and Israel, An Unbreakable Bond"

I am so upset and disappointed with you. What happened?

Like so many others I supported you 150%. I campaigned for you, made hundreds of phone calls, forwarded email support and spoke of you as if you were the “change” this country so badly needed.

Adelson’s money enabled Gingrich to win South Carolina, and Adelson could put much more into Gingrich’s campaign. With such financial support, Gingrich might be able to gain the Republican presidential nomination, but it would seem that he has too much baggage to actually defeat Obama, at least this is the conventional wisdom–though stranger things have happened. Nonetheless, having pro-Israel Republican candidates led by Gingrich pushes Obama in a more pro-Israel direction, which entails a harder US line toward Iran. No matter what happens in the US presidential election, therefore, US Middle East policy will be improved from the Likudnik perspective. And this is Sheldon Adelson’s objective.

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The global growth of the West and NATO is so complex and so far reaching that it is almost overwhelming...

You have an awful lot of chutzpah to call for the assassination of the President of the United States by the Mossad.

Sent to aadler@jewishtimes.com

Dear Andrew Adler,

As the editor of a mainstream Jewish publication, you have an awful lot of chutzpah to call for the assassination of the President of the United States by the Mossad. I hope this email reaches you before the Secret Service does! If by some miracle you remain free on your own recognizance, or can afford the bail, I would love to discuss the pros and cons of a Mossad assassination of Obama on my radio show with you. I have openings next Wednesday and Friday, 4 to 5 pm Eastern.

In a stunning departure from recent Israeli threats to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday used an interview with Israel's Army radio to assert that any attack on Iran "is very far off," adding, "We haven't made any decision to do this."

When pressed as to whether "very far off" meant weeks or months, Barak replied: "I wouldn't want to provide any estimates. It's certainly not urgent. I don't want to relate to it as though tomorrow it will happen." The world should be thankful for small favors.

It is my contention that the situation described in most of what we see today describes the nature of the cancer which corrupts and is killing peace in the Middle East. Walls, Wars, Political Parties, Treaties, Road Maps, Plans, petty wars, and pretences of War, Assassinations, bombings and kidnappings, Military actions, and "historical" arguments are all merely manifestations of the symptoms of the cancer, the bursting boils and pustules, if you like! And that, until the source of the illness is recognized, diagnosed, and treated, that all the Band-Aids, punditry, bullshit, conferences, hearings, Summits and Tours of Heads of State and other important trollops,liars and deceivers, Band-Aids, are not going to cure a damned thing.

He would not be the first leader to pin the blame for his downfall on someone else's financial crisis. It would be no surprise if Gordon Brown still really believes America's sub-prime mortgage owners are to blame for his exit from Downing Street.

While Britain's last General Election always looked likely to sling Brown out of power, it's far harder to make breezy predictions about the fight for the US presidency. The polls suggest that the battle between Obama and Mitt Romney – his most likely Republican challenger – will be tight.

Video - Michael Lewis with Tom Keene on Bloomberg

Great clip that exposes the madness of bailing out reckless billionaire bondholders - Runs 1 minute.

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MyCatbirdSeat.com Joins SOPA Protest Day
January 18th, 2012

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." -GEORGE WASHINGTON

Runs 90 seconds - Max is on fire.

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Right now, Hungary is could be the epicenter of the latest next financial storm. The country is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Its authoritarian populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is refusing to play ball with the International Monetary Fund. Bond yields are soaring and credit is drying up. The country may, in the next few weeks, become the first major nation of this ongoing sovereign crisis to default — and that could trigger a wave of massive, perhaps even crippling losses across the European and indeed global banking system.

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Video - Jimmy Rogers on Greece, France, Europe - Jan. 16, 2012

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