Heartland Coin Gallery - Economic & Financial News Headlines

HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...
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Thursday 03.01.2012

Gold Falls 3% in an Hour Following Bernanke Comments, Iran Trading with Bullion as "Universal Currency"
BY BEN TRAYNOR - FinancialSense.com
Wholesale market gold bullion prices dropped 3.2% to $1727 per ounce in less than an hour Wednesday afternoon in London, after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress.
Higher gasoline prices are "likely to push up inflation temporarily while reducing consumers' purchasing power," Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee.
Bernanke's comments "eased speculation the central bank is moving closer to providing more monetary stimulus," news agency Bloomberg reports.

Iran 'to accept payment in gold for oil'
BBC.co.uk
Iran is to accept gold instead of dollars as payment for its oil, the country's state news agency has said.
The move comes as US and European Union sanctions against Iran have made it difficult for buyers to make dollar payments to Iranian banks.
Mahmoud Bahmani, the governor of Iran's central bank, is reported to have said that the country would accept payment in gold "without any reservation"

Gold tumbles as US Fed signals no further stimulation measures
By Ross Norman - CommodityOnline.com
LONDON: Gold shed 5% on Wednesday afternoon following the the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee this afternoon. In his report he gave no clear indication of further economic measures to stimulate the US economy and the outlook for inflation being "subdued'. The effect on gold was palpable.

Gold and Silver Fall Over 5% and 6%
By: Chris Mullen - GoldSeek.com
Today was Fed Chairman Bernanke's chance to testify before the Congress' Financial Services Committee. Here is a quick synopsis of his comments as I see them.

"The economy is getting better based on what we can see of the employment numbers but it is not growing at a fast enough clip to justify any immediate change in our accommodative monetary policy. The uptick in hiring has been helped by this policy and any change to it at the present time is not warranted. Real Estate is still a concern. Us fiscal condition is dire and faces a serious challenge at the end of this year. Inflation is not a concern although temporary rises in energy prices bear monitoring".

There you basically have it.

Gold & Silver Prices Plunge In One Hour
Following Bernanke Comments - 2/29/2012
Don't panic - it's only a pull-back with profit taking

Gold Tumbles More Than $100 As $1700 Stops Triggered
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In what is increasingly peculiar market action, gold dropped over $100 intraday, following triggering of $1700 sell limits, at which point sell signals hit every bid all the way to $1685 then a knee jerk bounce appeared, in some rather chaotic late day trading in paper gold. Whether this is due solely to algo driven liquidations following the earlier described shift in sentiment, or has some assistance from central banks is irrelevant as anyone and everyone who is happy to convert paper fiat into hard currencies is taking advantage of this latest short-term rout, to prepare for the next battery of printing which will come with 100% certainty. Remember: as we have been saying since the summer of 2011, Bernanke needs a tumble in stocks to get a green light for more easing, and he obviously won't get that with the S&P where it is, nor with WTI still sticking to $107.

Is Gold Backwardation Now Permanent?
By Keith Weiner, Casey Research - GoldSeek.com
Worldwide, an incredible tower of debt has been under construction since President Nixon's 1971 default on the gold obligations of the US government. His decree severed the redeemability of the dollar for gold and thus eliminated the extinguisher of debt. Debt has been growing exponentially everywhere since then. Debt is backed with debt, based on debt, dependent on debt and leveraged with yet more debt. For example, today it is possible to buy a bond (i.e., lend money) on margin (i.e., with borrowed money).

Gold Falls as Bernanke Damps Stimulus Bets
By Debarati Roy - Bloomberg.com
Gold futures fell as much as $100 to below $1,700 an ounce on signs that that the Federal Reserve will refrain from offering more monetary stimulus to bolster the U.S. economy.
In testimony before Congress today, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke gave no signal that the central bank will take new steps to boost liquidity. The dollar rose as much as 0.8 percent against a basket of major currencies, eroding the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment. Yesterday, gold reached $1,792.70, a three-month high, even as coin sales by the U.S. mint slumped in February.

Ron Paul Tells Bernanke He Killed The Dollar,
Silver Coin In Hand
By Agustino Fontevecchia - Forbes.com
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had an interesting morning over on Capitol Hill, facing the ire of Ron Paul and receiving Democratic praise from Barney Frank. Bernanke was testifying before the Committee on Financial Services, where he said the economic recovery continues but remains frail, but was put on the spot by Ron Paul who pulled out a silver eagle and accused him of debasing the currency and destroying America’s wealth.

Ron Paul Assaults Ben Bernanke On Parallel Currencies
Financial Services Hearing Highlights Feb 29 2012

Dollar Alternative Anyone?
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Countries around the world have been actively seeking ways to not do business in dollars for the past few years. The U.S. dollar is the so-called world reserve currency, but the big question is for how long? China and Japan are beginning to shun the dollar in trade between the two countries. Mind you, this is the 2nd biggest economy in the world doing business without dollars with the 3rd biggest economy in the world. Russia and China, also, have an agreement to notuse the dollar, and even India recently announced it would trade gold for oil with Iran. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been calling for an alternative to the buck. The big push is not because the U.S. dollar is held in the highest regard but because it is losing its luster on the world stage. After all, the debt debacle facing America is worse than what the Greeks are facing according to a new report from U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions. (Click here to see for yourself.) Senator Sessions says every man, woman and child in the country is saddled with $44,000 in debt.

Yes, Google Once Considered Issuing Its Own Currency
By Megan Garber - TheAtlantic.com
The digital world has BitCoin; it's come close, it turns out, to having SchmidtCoin.
Google, Eric Schmidt revealed in a speech today, once considered getting into the digital currency game. The company has seen "various proposals," its chairman told a crowd at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, to develop a currency that would serve as tender for peer-to-peer economic exchanges taking place across Google's platforms.

Any second thoughts about 2014, Mr. Bernanke?
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Wall Street will be listening closely to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke over the next two days for any signs of distancing himself from the central bank’s pledge to keep rates at ultra-low levels for up to three years.
Bernanke is testifying Wednesday in front of the House Financial Services Committee and Thursday in front of the Senate Banking Committee as part of his semi-annual report to Congress on monetary policy.

Warren Buffett May Know Value,
But He Doesn't Know What Money Is
By Daniel Oliver Jr. - Forbes.com
Warren Buffett may be able to spot value, but the poor man has no idea what money is. In his latest screed against gold, Buffett compares the metal of kings to tulips: an asset to be bought either for decorative value or in the hope it can be sold again to a greater fool at a higher price. Gold has little industrial use and does not procreate: “if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end.”
Buffett is correct that an once of gold will never increase nor diminish in size, but he ignores the fact that its value has been steadily increasing for at least 200 years.

ECB's Mario Draghi raises the stakes with trillion euro gamble
The European Central Bank is doubling up on a very risky bet.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mario Draghi’s latest half-trillion blast of credit averts a funding crunch for crippled banks and crippled EMU states, but raises the ultimate cost to catastrophic levels if the underlying crisis in southern Europe drags on into the middle of the decade.
Some 800 banks took up €529.5bn of loans at Mr Draghi’s second long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) on Wednesday, borrowing at 1pc for three years with almost any form of collateral. Citigroup said this amounts to €316bn of fresh liquidity, stripping out renewal of old loans. This compares with €200bn in extra stimulus at the first LTRO in December.

Does Anyone See This Emergency As An Emergency,
Or Is A Half Trillion Euro Pay Day Loan Bullish?
Submitted by Reggie Middleton - ZeroHedge.com
Today's big headline from Bloomberg: Euro-Area Banks Tap ECB for Record Amount of Three-Year Cash

Euro-area banks tapped the European Central Bank for a record amount of three-year cash in an operation that may boost bond and equity markets.
The Frankfurt-based ECB said today it will lend 800 financial institutions 529.5 billion euros ($712.2 billion) for 1,092 days. Economists predicted an allotment of 470 billion euros, according to the median of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. In the ECB’s first three-year operation in December, 523 banks borrowed 489 billion euros.

So, basically, nearly twice as many banks are in trouble now as compared to just three months ago. This is bullish, right???!!!

The UK tax system has reached breaking point
There have been almost as many memorable sayings about taxation over the years as about marriage, divorce and religion. Everyone knows the one about there being only two certainties in life – death and taxes. Here are a few others.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
Never mind relativity, the hardest thing in the world to understand, according to Albert Einstein, is income tax. Mark Twain opined that the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector was that the taxidermist took only your skin, while Plato observed that wherever income tax exists, the just man will pay more and the unjust less.

Art Cashin And Europe's Clashin' Culture
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As the ECB supposedly takes it foot off the gas, and EU Summits and 'events' loom large for the careening wagon of shared sacrifice, unity, and sovereign risk, perhaps it is the nodding donkeys of Greek and Italian technocrats juxtaposed with Ireland's feistier "R" word gambit (and of course Zee German Overlords) that makes Art Cashin reflect somewhat philosophically on recent headlines. Their stereotypical interpretation has him concerned as the potential for ever-increasing culture clashes increases across the pond as sour memories and generational hatreds abound.

World Bank warns: China is a ticking time bomb
Will Super Rich in China or U.S. be first to trigger meltdown?
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — "It’s as if 2008 never happened," warned a BusinessWeek editorial last year. A new crash is certain to complete what the 2008 meltdown started but failed to complete — reform Wall Street.
Everybody knows Wall Street’s still playing the same speculative games that triggered the 2008 crash: Bankers and politicians never learned history's lessons from the 2008 crash, that our "mutant capitalism" is eating at America’s soul, handicapping future generations — we will repeat them.

Bernanke sees ‘different signals’ from economy
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recent improvement in the unemployment rate has put the Federal Reserve on alert and watching incoming data closely, said Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday.
"It will be especially important to evaluate incoming information to assess the underlying pace of economic recovery," in light of the "somewhat different signals" received recently from the labor market than from indicators of final demand, Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the House Financial Services Committee. Follow live blog of Bernanke testimony.

The truth about rising gas prices,
the stock market, & Warren Buffett's taxes

$5 Gas: Play it Again Sam!
BY JAMES J PUPLAVA CFP - FinancialSense.com
It’s happening again. Gasoline prices are on the rise. Since bottoming nationwide last September 29th at $2.69 a gallon, they have risen to $3.698; up $0.30 in the last month. The blow-dry’s on cable television are going bonkers with hysteria trying to explain it. News anchors like Bill O’Reilly are ranting vociferously: "It’s all due to greedy oil companies." Politicians are blaming speculators. Meanwhile, at the pump the average American is stuck with higher fuel bills to help pay for the weekly cost for commuting to work. We’re less than $0.30 away from taking out the highs reached last summer and only $0.42 a way from surpassing the record set in July of 2008...and it's still only February!

The China Factor will Drive American Gas Prices
Well Past $6 a Gallon this Decade
BY DAN COLLINS - FinancialSense.com
Some people understand and some never will. Many politicians and media personalities such as Bill O’Reilly are screaming at the world wondering why U.S. gas prices are so high. From their prism, U.S. oil production is up and the U.S. market is flooded with crude oil. They ask, why is the price so high? What they don’t understand is that there happens to be an additional 7 billion or so people on the planet that we need to compete with for scarce resources such as crude oil.

Bernanke Says Dodd-Frank’s Volcker Rule
Won’t Be Ready by July 21 Deadline
By Craig Torres and Cheyenne Hopkins - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank and other regulators won’t meet a July deadline to complete work on the so-called Volcker rule limiting proprietary trading at banks.
The ban is set to take effect by July 21 even if the rule- making is still in progress. It would include a two-year transition period; the Fed could issue one-year implementation extensions on a case-by-case basis after that.

Why Is the Financial World So Messed Up?
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
Why is the financial world so messed up? Because it’s run by Central Bankers. And those folks view money very differently than the businesspeople who create businesses, jobs, and wealth.
For your average Central Banker, the professional relationship between money and risk is a distant one. This has much to do with the fact that your average Central Banker is an academic, someone whose income has been fixed based on his or her status at a particular academic institution (tenure vs. non-tenured).

Fed finds better real estate, banking conditions
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Residential real estate markets and banking conditions are improving across most of the nation, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book reading of economic conditions released Wednesday.
Overall, the report found a modest, moderate expansion underway, with only New York the only one of the dozen Fed districts to report slower activity through mid-February.
The Beige Book survey, a collection of anecdotes from business contacts at the Fed, was collected this time by the St. Louis Fed District Bank and based on information received before Feb. 17.

Keiser Report: Weed Out Wall St. Crooks! (E255)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss 'no wrongdoing' settlements, defrauding school children and a morbidly obese, bedridden Volcker Rule. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Karl Denninger of the Market-Ticker.org about rigging Libor, ruining Volcker and shorting Facebook.

Geithner and the 'Privilege' of Being American
The Founders argued that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were rights that preceded government—not things to be granted by it.
By LAWRENCE B. LINDSEY - WSJ.com
Last week Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the "most fortunate Americans" should pay more in taxes for the "privilege of being an American." One can debate different ways of balancing the budget. But Mr. Geithner's argument highlights an unfortunate and very destructive instinct that seems to permeate the Obama administration about the respective roles of citizens and their government. His position has three problems: one philosophical, one empirical, and one logical.
Philosophically, the concept that being an American is a "privilege" upends the whole basis on which America was founded. Privileges are things granted to one individual by another, higher-ranking, individual. For example, in my house my children's use of the family car is a privilege. One presumes Mr. Geithner believes that the "privilege" of being an American is granted by the presumably higher-ranking, governing powers that be.

An Unexpected New Growth Industry for Retired Americans
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
02/29/12 Laguna Beach, California – What does marijuana have to do with Ben Bernanke’s monetary policy? A lot, as it turns out. But it’s not what you think.
The connection has nothing to do with the idea that Bernanke’s wacky policies are the work of "somebody who must be smoking something." No, not that. In fact, we’re pretty sure Ben isn’t a pot smoker. We doubt he has ever inhaled anything more mind-bending than his Harvard education. And frankly, why would you bother with weed, when you’ve got access to Harvard’s pharmaceutical-grade economic theories?
Sadly, the after-effects of sustained econ-theory abuse are usually irreversible. But that’s a story for another day. Our story for today relates to the far-reaching and unintended consequences of a reckless monetary policy.

Why Doctors Die Differently
Careers in medicine have taught them the limits of treatment and the need to plan for the end
By KEN MURRAY - WSJ.com
Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. It was diagnosed as pancreatic cancer by one of the best surgeons in the country, who had developed a procedure that could triple a patient's five-year-survival odds—from 5% to 15%—albeit with a poor quality of life.
Charlie, 68 years old, was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with his family. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation or surgical treatment. Medicare didn't spend much on him.

What Cutting Health Care Costs Looks Like
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
If you've been wondering about the rather light posting schedule, here's most of the explanation: two Saturdays ago, my mother's appendix burst. It was a lengthy, draining saga that fouled up a rather full writing schedule. We just brought her home from the hospital today; she'll be staying with us while she finishes a course of IV antibiotics. Luckily, we're both writers with a great deal of flexibility about where we can work, and we have a spare bedroom, and the means to purchase a bed for her to stay on.

* * * * *

The TSA Is Coming To a Highway Near You
By Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) - Forbes.com
One of the great honors of my service to Tennessee is having the opportunity to represent Ft. Campbell which is home to the storied 101st Airborne, the 5th Special Forces Group and the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment which piloted Navy SEAL Team Six during the raid on Osama Bin Laden.
Each soldier who calls Ft. Campbell home has gone through some of the most intensive training on the planet which pushed their minds and bodies to their physical limits. In the end, those who make the cut have earned the right to be part of our United States military, are honored to wear its uniform, and are serving on the frontlines in the fight against global terrorism.

Reversing the Presumption of Military Custody
Chipping Away at the NDAA
by JOANNE MARINER - CounterPunch.org
Two positive steps have just been taken toward limiting the scope of the detention provisions of theNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the recently-passed federal statute on the military detention and trial of terrorist suspects.
The first is that, yesterday evening, the Obama Administration issued a policy directive that effectively negates much of the NDAA’s section 1022, the section that purports to require that non-citizens suspected of strong links to terrorism be held in military, rather than civilian, custody. Using a national security rationale, the directive reverses the presumption of military detention that section 1022 had established.

An Anti-Worker Union
By Ken Blackwell - PatriotPost.us
While refinery workers of the United Steelworkers held demonstrations in Washington Feb. 15 to protest the closure of two Philadelphia area refineries and the likely closure of a third in June, their leader continued his support of policies that might lead more refineries to cut back operations or shut down -- costing even more of his own members their jobs.
The Keystone XL pipeline, the bane of radical environmentalists throughout the country, would bring oil from Canada to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast creating jobs and stimulating local economies and industries along the way. Unfortunately, President Obama figures he needs radical environmentalists more than instead of middle class workers for his re-election orts so he's denying permits for the pipeline's construction.

Bombardier’s Shrinking Jet Backlog Adds Urgency to Orders
By Frederic Tomesco - Bloomberg.com
Bombardier Inc. (BBD/B), which sold more small commercial planes in this year’s first two months than all of 2011, must step up the pace of orders even more to keep from cutting production a second straight year, analysts said.
The planemaker garnered only four orders from February through December for regional jets, planes of 50 to 100 seats that were a mainstay of its aerospace unit a decade ago. Sales of seven turboprop planes in the same period marked the worst year since 2003.

Apple's New iPad May Be Mind Blowing;
Co-Founder Woz wants more Siri
By Connie Guglielmo, Forbes Staff
Less than a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook told shareholders the company was working on "some products that will blow your mind," Apple sent out an invite to a March 7 event that suggests it is readying the third-generation of the iPad tablet.
"We have something you really need to see. And touch," Apple said in its media invitation earlier today.

The Cloud That Rains Money
By Ray Blanco - DailyReckoning.com
02/28/12 We live in a time when you can pick up a tiny computer, ask it a question out loud and have a satisfactory answer provided in a matter of seconds. It’s amazing if you stop to think about it.
Voice-recognizing digital personal assistants have become commonplace. One such assistant is among the most important new features unveiled in Apple’s latest smartphone. Called Siri, it recognizes natural language questions and accesses a plethora of web services to provide an answer. Android-based phone users (like yours truly), on the other hand, have enjoyed voice recognition to navigate, search or compose messages since summer of last year.

Facebook faces nationwide class action tracking cookie lawsuit
By Emil Protalinski | ZDNet.com
Summary: Facebook is once again being sued for tracking its users even after they logged out of the service. This new nationwide class action lawsuit alleges the company violated federal wiretap laws.
Facebook users are suing the social networking giant over allegations that itviolates federal wiretap laws. In addition to several lawsuits filed in multiple states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the company is now facing a nationwide class action lawsuit. Law firms Murphy PA and Girard Gibbs have made their case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Facebook of continuing to ignore concerns over its tracking cookies. They argue the company violates its own privacy policy, which states post-log-out activity is not tracked by the social networking giant.

Why It's Great to be a Psychotic A-Hole
By Ben Shapiro - PatriotPost.us
President Obama apologized this week for the U.S. military's accidental burning of Qurans in Afghanistan. "I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident," said Obama. "I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies. ... We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."
The Quran burnings prompted massive riots in Afghanistan, as per the Islamist handbook, page 248, which, incidentally, may be the only book other than the Quran published in most Arabic-speaking countries. U.S. servicemen were murdered. The Qurans were only burned in the first place because terrorists were writing messages in them to their friends. None of that stopped Obama from making his apology.

Change For the Worse
Pakistan: a Dangerous Uncertainty
by JUNAID S. AHMED - CounterPunch.org
Lahore.
Relations between the Pakistani government and the military have been tense recently, even resulting in rumours of an impending military coup. A coup is not very likely at this stage, but the situation has created the environment for at least one new political actor to emerge and gain popular support.
With relations between Pakistan’s civilian government and military incredibly tense, speculation is rife in the Pakistani and international media of a looming military takeover. The military is allegedly buoyed by support of the Supreme Court and the country’s business and political elite. However, the nature of events is changing at such a fast pace that it is difficult to predict the future.

Netanyahu: No Lebanon will be on the map
Pravda.ru
Israel what was that about MAPS?
For years, the paranoid Israelis have been screaming bloody murder that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that "Israel should be wiped from the map." Of course, the man said no such thing, it was a deliberate mis-translation meant to serve their purposes: to demonize Ahmadinejad and Iran and to justify an unprovoked attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in Farsi:
"Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."

The full quote translated directly to English:
"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."

Assad could be classified as a war criminal – Clinton
RT.com News
With the US labeling the Syrian President as a “war criminal” and France calling for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the West appears to be ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Syrian government.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a Senate subcommittee on the State Department's budget. Pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) into answering whether she thinks Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, Clinton said: "Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category."

Criminal: Clinton ratchets up anti-Assad rhetoric
With the US labeling the Syrian President as a "war criminal" and France calling for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the West appears to be ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Syrian government.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a Senate subcommittee on the State Department's budget. Pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) into answering whether she thinks Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, Clinton said: "Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category."

Middle East: Stupid is the Order of the Day
by PETER LEE - CounterPunch.org
The stupid Attack Iran obsession seems to have infected virtually all discussion of the Middle East.
Marc Lynch of G.W. University said something stupid…then Amnesty International said something stupid…and how about those stupid Islamic terrorist plots?
I have already written about Marc Lynch’s rather terminal and embarrassing misunderstanding of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the matter of Syria, a major problem since he presents threatening Assad and his cohorts with prosecution by the ICC as the cornerstone for his vision of coercive diplomacy.

'Pentagon knows China will be US enemy No.1 starting in 2017'
The World Bank has a sobering forecast for the future of China's economy. It's produced a report saying without reform, the globe's second biggest economy will suffer a major slowdown over the next 20 years. With major consequences for the whole world. Let's get more on this from author and international consultant Adrian Salbucci, who joins RT from Buenos Aires in Argentina.

France, US arming Syrian rebels
with anti-aircraft missiles – report
RT.com News
A general in the opposition militia known as the Free Syria Army has told journalists that the rebels have received French and American military assistance, amid reports of worsening violence in the stricken nation.
In Homs on Tuesday, a general claiming to be from the rebel group appeared on camera and told a journalist from Reuters news agency that “French and American assistance has reached us and is with us.” When asked to elaborate on the nature of the assistance he added, "We now have weapons and anti-aircraft missiles and, God willing, with all of that we will defeat Bashar [President Assad]."

North Korea pledges to halt nuclear programme
in exchange for US aid
Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will 'guide nation to peace'
By Chris McGreal in Washington
and Tania Branigan in Beijing - Guardian.co.uk
North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests and uranium enrichment, and submit to international monitoring, in return for US food aid.
Washington described the deal, which breaks with the US's previous assertion that large-scale deliveries of food are not tied to North Korea curbing its nuclear programme, as "important, if limited".

Steve Quayle Feb 22, 2012 w/Tom Horn Pt. 1

Steve Quayle Feb 22, 2012 w/Tom Horn 2 of 3

Steve Quayle Feb 22, 2012 w/Tom Horn 3 of 3 (conclusion)

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