Russian Finance Ministry said that Ukraine has missed the December 31 deadline to pay off its $3 billion debt to Russia and is currently in default. Ukraine has missed the December 31 deadline to pay off its $3 billion debt to Russia and is currently in default, Russian Finance Ministry said on Thursday. [...]

When Iceland jailed its bankers something changed. The unthinkable had happened: the real criminals had been held to account. Now Switzerland is also threatening to go off the fiat-bankster reservation. But will it happen? Josiah Stamp once said: “If you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credi [...]

Kiev's attempts to avoid paying back its $3 billion debt to Moscow could end in the country defaulting on its foreign debt. Why didn't Kiev's Western benefactors side with Kiev in the IMF decision on the debt? Sputnik takes a look. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund board recognized Kiev's outstanding $3 billion debt to Moscow as sovereign, a status Kiev had fiercely contested. [...]

Ukraine has imposed a moratorium on the $3 billion Russian debt repayment, said the country’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk at a cabinet meeting on Friday. The announcement comes ahead of the December 20 deadline for the debt redemption. "Considering that Russia has refused, despite our efforts, to sign an agreement on restructuring and to accept our proposals, the cabinet is imposing a mor [...]

'The Big Short' exposes and attempts to deconstruct the subprime mortgage collapse and disaster of 2008. Wait until Hollywood hears about derivatives! 'The Big Short' opens nationwide on December 23 and as Variety notes, it details the “sprawling account of the byzantine financial instruments that brought global commerce to its knees.” [...]

On Tuesday, the IMF joined the New Cold War. It has been lending money to Ukraine despite the Fund’s rules blocking it from lending to countries with no visible chance of paying (the “No More Argentinas” rule from 2001). With IMF head Christine Lagarde made the last IMF loan to Ukraine in the spring, she expressed the hope that there would be peace. [...]

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to change its policy on lending to countries that are in arrears to other governments. With Ukraine being among the states that asks for financial aid while owing Russia, the move has angered Moscow. "The IMF's Executive Board met today and agreed to change the current policy on non-toleration of arrears to official creditors," according to the IMF's C [...]

As a way to improve living standards and boosts its economy, the nation of Finland is moving closer towards offering all of its adult citizens a basic permanent income of approximately 800 euros per month. The monthly allotment would replace other existing social benefits, but is an idea long advocated for by progressive-minded social scientists and economists as a solution—counter-intuitive [...]

The Turkish lira is facing its biggest annual fall since 2008 and is nearing new record-lows, as foreign investment continues to leave the country. Investors from abroad have withdrawn $7.6 billion in assets this year, according to Bloomberg. This includes $1.4 billion in November, the month President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (JDP) managed to win back the majority. [...]

Major defense contractors Raytheon, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin assured investors at a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach this week that they stand to gain from the escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner told the conference his company will see “indirect benefits” from the war in Syria, citing the Turkish military’s rece [...]

Russia is determined to file a lawsuit against Ukraine if Kiev does not repay its state debt to Moscow by December 20, the Russian Ministry of Finance has said, adding that the US has officially refused to give financial guarantees for Ukraine’s debt. “This week, we have received an official rejection from the US government to provide guarantees for Ukraine’s obligations. [...]

A gold-backed ruble and gold-backed yuan could start a 'snowball exit' from dollar F. William Engdahl notes, adding that it will diminish America's ability to use the reserve dollar role to finance Washington's perpetual overseas wars. The irony of the situation is that the central banks of China, Russia, Brazil and other countries "diametrically opposed" to US foreign policy course are forced [...]

12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt. April 27, 2012 at the Public Banking in America Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Support a public bank for YOUR state. Donate and make it happen! Every single charity in the world has got it wrong. They’re focusing on the wrong problem and therefore can’t see the right solution. That solution, whic [...]

Remember those old ads showing a senior couple lounging on a warm beach, captioned “Let your money work for you”? Or the scene in Mary Poppins where young Michael is being advised to put his tuppence in the bank, so that it can compound into “all manner of private enterprise,” including “bonds, chattels, dividends, shares, shipyards, amalgamations . . . .”? [...]

The US investment bank predicts the ruble will be on the list of good performing currencies next year along with the US dollar and the Mexican peso, Bloomberg reports. Goldman Sachs recommends buying Russian and Mexican currencies over South Africa’s rand and Chile’s peso. [...]

The crypto currency is not attached to any single country. It exists at low exchange rates for the entire world and is not manipulated and controlled by central banks, says Jeffrey Tucker from the Foundation for Economic Education. The bitcoin exchange rate surged to above $490 on November 4 - its high point of the last year. [...]

The International Monetary Fund will go ahead with the promised $17.5 billion loan to Ukraine even if Kiev defaults on its $3 billion debt to Russia due in December, reports The Wall Street Journal. Current IMF policy forbids it loaning to countries that default on other governments.   [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the government for turning a blind eye on US dollar payments in the domestic oil trade. "I would like to mention one crucial issue in the development of the energy industry, and the economy as a whole. It is a question of finally stopping the use of foreign currency in internal trade,” said Putin at the fuel and energy presidential commission on Tuesda [...]

The Middle East’s biggest economy, Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets within the next five years if the government maintains its current policies, warns the International Monetary Fund. The conflicts have given rise to large numbers of displaced people and refugees, on a scale not seen since the early 1990s, according to the report. [...]