The United States federal debt has surpassed $19 trillion for the first time in history according to the Treasury Department. However, the real figure could exceed $65 trillion, according to a former US Comptroller General. The official debt of $19 trillion represents almost $60,000 for every man, woman and child living in America today. [...]

A case can be made that for Moscow it would be a tremendous waste of hard-earned foreign exchange to try to counter a rig against their currency they simply cannot beat, as the entire fiat financial power of the US is against them. Russia’s Central Bank by now should be all-out selling rubles for gold, and building Russia’s gold reserves. Well, it is happening, somewhat. [...]

Tim Leissner, chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia’s operations, has taken a “personal leave” amidst corruption scandals associated with Malaysia’s state-owned 1MDB fund, with which Goldman worked closely. [...]

Eighty Swiss banks have agreed to pay the US fines totaling $1.36 billion in order to avoid court prosecution, according to the US Justice Department. After the investigation has been completed all the banks are required to cooperate in related criminal or civil proceedings, said the department. [...]

The Wall Street Journal recently reported: “Both of the leading Democratic presidential candidates made the case [during the last debate] that the financial services industry wants to keep them out of the White House, fearing the tough regulatory measures they would impose if elected.” Vox reports: “According to [Bernie] Sanders, a bank that is too big to fail is too big to exist … [...]

The World Economic Forum in Davos is submerged by a tsunami of denials, and even non-denial denials, stating there won’t be a follow-up to the Crash of 2008. Yet there will be. And the stage is already set for it. Selected Persian Gulf traders, and that includes Westerners working in the Gulf confirm that Saudi Arabia is unloading at least $1 trillion in securities and crashing [...]

The 2008 Wall Street crash resulted from a combination of unrestrained greed and political contempt for government regulators who might have prevented the devastation. In The Big Short, the tale is told from the perspective of a few players who saw the inevitable and made money on the crash, writes James DiEugenio. If you read Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short or see the movie by the same na [...]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday released a report urging the European countries accepting a majority of refugees to "temporarily" pay them less than minimum wage. In its report, the IMF recommended implementing a short-term differentiation between asylum seekers and EU [...]

The financial situation in the world has become so unstable that a new wave of defaults and bankruptcies will soon emerge, says William White, the chairman of the OECD's review committee and former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). [...]

The Titanic we all know as the Global economy appears to be moving along at full speed. But signs of sea ice are dead ahead. Is the economy moving? The Baltic Dry Index has hit a new low. The Baltic Dry Index is the assessment of the price of moving all of the globes major raw materials by sea, including commodities like coal, grain, and iron ore. Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge reports “ Last wee [...]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 391.86 points (2.39 percent) on Friday, making it the largest daily point loss since September of last year. The sell-off was triggered by plummeting oil prices and turmoil in Chinese markets. The Dow hasn’t seen such a momentous loss since September 1, 2015 [...]

The truth about the elites agenda is about to ‘slap us in the face’. No longer do they hide behind closed doors—no—they are wide open about their cause and they are laughing at the masses while secretly planning our economic downfall. The collapse of the dollar will be the single largest event in human history. [...]

Why is the economy barely growing after seven years of zero rates and easy money? Why are wages and incomes sagging when stock and bond prices have gone through the roof? Why are stocks experiencing such extreme volatility when the Fed increased rates by a mere quarter of a percent? It’s the policy, stupid. And here’s the chart that explains exactly what the policy is. [...]

With the collapse of the US dollar or an economic collapse we need to consider the sociopolitical effects as well as the financial effects. Ron Paul gives the details. It will likely be the tipping point at which the US government becomes sufficiently desperate to implement official restrictions on the movement of people and their money, nationalization of retirement savings, and other forms of [...]

By considering Ron Paul's words on the petrodollar, we will know when the dollar collapse is imminent. The chaos that one day will ensue from our 35-year experiment with worldwide fiat money will require a return to money of real value. We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or euros. The sooner the bet [...]

On this Tuesday, January 12 edition of the Alex Jones Show we cover the alarming crash of the Chinese stock market as the Shanghai Composite Index enters free fall. We also cover the failure of Muslim migrants to integrate in Europe and the negligence of European politicians as they refuse to address the rape crisis on the continent while Germans demand the resignation of Chancellor Andrea Merkel. [...]

America presents itself to the world as “the land of the free” but – for the vast majority – it is a place of enslaving indebtedness, a reality for much of “the 99%” that has deep historical roots hidden or “lost” from our history, as Jada Thacker explains. Since its center-stage debut during the Occupy Wall Street movement, “the 99%” – a term emblematic of extreme economi [...]

With corruption rampant and living standards falling, Ukraine may become the next failed state that “benefited” from a neoconservative-driven “regime change,” though the blame will always be placed elsewhere – in this case, on the demonized Russian President Putin, writes Robert Parry. Nearly two years since U.S. officials helped foment a coup in Ukraine – partly justified by corrup [...]

A lot of Ukrainian citizens understand that the worst for their country is yet to come. The current government which is on the brink of collapse will not be able to reform the country's "rotten system", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote. It is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to come out from the current crisis. The government is stuck in internal squabbles, while the country is being run [...]

US stocks tumbled after China's stock market crashed seven percent overnight on Thursday and crude fell to the lowest level in more than 12 years. In the recent four days, the Dow Jones index has plummeted 911 points, or more than five percent so far in 2016, making it the worst four-day percentage loss to start a year on record since 1897. [...]

In an interview with newspaper Die Welt, a German economist argues that the ruble has the potential to become a currency of global significance and strengthen by about 20% by the end of 2016. Experts making forecasts for 2016 should take into account such currencies as the Russian ruble because the currency markets may soon face surprising developments, the newspaper wrote. [...]

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. [...]