In this globalised world, if we launch weapons of great destructive power into communities abroad, incinerating and shredding women and children, we cannot avoid the fact that those who identify with those communities - ethnically, culturally and religiously - will take revenge on people here. If we are lucky it will be revenge on combatants. If we are unlucky it will be on our innocents. But either way, the truth is this. We caused it.

We caused it by our invasions, occupations and bombings of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, none of which had ever attacked the UK. We caused it by all the dead women and children that British bombs, missiles or bullets killed accidentally. We caused it by the terrible deaths of the people we killed deliberately, who were only defending their country from foreign invaders, just as most of us would do. We caused it by the detainees killed or tortured. As a country, the United Kingdom caused it.

This is not the 19th century. Imperialist aggression now brings a danger of retaliation from empathetic communities embedded in western societies. This is so obvious as not to need stating. The danger of terrorism from Islamic sources would be much reduced if we just minded our own business on the international scene.

In May 2006 the economist R. Peter W. Millar of Value-Trac Research in Scotland published a study, "The Relevance and Importance of Gold in the World Monetary System," arguing that central banks would need to revalue gold upward by from seven to 20 times "to raise the monetary value of the world monetary base and hence reduce the burden of debt" and avert a deflationary depression. GATA published that study here:

http://www.gata.org/node/4843

In May 2012 the U.S. economists and fund managers Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance postulated that central banks were suppressing the gold price while surreptitiously redistributing the world's gold among themselves in preparation for a resetting of the world financial system and a substantial upward revaluation of the monetary metal.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to our annual meeting on Russia's diplomatic performance.

The situation last year was more complicated than previously, as new dangerous seats of tensions complemented several smouldering chronic conflicts. Especially alarming was the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, where extremist and terrorist threats were growing and spreading to other regions and to which Russia consistently tried to attract the attention of its partners. The risk that religious and societal divides will grow has not diminished. The global economic situation is far from clear.

We believe that the developments of the past few years show convincingly that global security issues can only be resolved through concerted efforts. But cooperative actions by the international community are hindered by a number of negative trends. The most important of them are fundamental differences between the objective process of the decentralisation of power in the world and the development of a more democratic polycentric world order on the one hand, and persistent attempts by the "historical" West to preserve global leadership at all costs and to enforce its approaches and values, including through the use of force on the other participants of international relations, on the other hand. The situation in Ukraine is a perfect reflection of this policy.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes there cannot be a military solution to the ongoing conflict in the country's east, he told reporters in a recent interview with Western media.

Speaking to a small group of Western journalists, the Ukrainian president assured the press it was his strong belief that a "simple military solution of this conflict" does not exist.


Poroshenko maintained that Russian troops were involved in the fighting that has claimed more than 4,800 lives and wounded over 10,000 people. However, no evidence of this has been presented so far.

The president added it was necessary to continue dialogue with Russia and said he holds telephone talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about once every two weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the idea of free allocation to each inhabitant of the Far East of one hectare of land.

"The idea is correct and in the history of Russia was implemented in Siberia," said the head of state to the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and presidential representative in the Far Eastern Federal district Yuri Trutnev.

Meanwhile, Putin warned that "modern agriculture, modern economics are a bit different, so you need to carefully evaluate it, need to consider all the details".

Trutnev reported to the President about the positive results of the development of the district in 2014, noting that it is "the beginning of a trend". As an example, he cited the increase in natural population increase by 1.1 thousand and a decrease of migration from the region" from 27 thousand to 20 thousand people.

After Paris, condemnation of religious fanaticism is at its height. I'd guess that even many progressives fantasize about wringing the necks of jihadists, bashing into their heads some thoughts about the intellect, about satire, humor, freedom of speech. We're talking here, after all, about young men raised in France, not Saudi Arabia.

Where has all this Islamic fundamentalism come from in this modern age? Most of it comes - trained, armed, financed, indoctrinated - from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. During various periods from the 1970s to the present, these four countries had been the most secular, modern, educated, welfare states in the Middle East region. And what had happened to these secular, modern, educated, welfare states?

In the 1980s, the United States overthrew the Afghan government that was progressive, with full rights for women, believe it or not (1), leading to the creation of the Taliban and their taking power.

In the 2000s, the United States overthrew the Iraqi government, destroying not only the secular state, but the civilized state as well, leaving a failed state.

In 2011, the United States and its NATO military machine overthrew the secular Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi, leaving behind a lawless state and unleashing many hundreds of jihadists and tons of weaponry across the Middle East.

And for the past few years the United States has been engaged in overthrowing the secular Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. This, along with the US occupation of Iraq having triggered widespread Sunni-Shia warfare, led to the creation of The Islamic State with all its beheadings and other charming practices.

However, despite it all, the world was made safe for capitalism, imperialism, anti-communism, oil, Israel, and jihadists. God is Great!

The edifice of world post-1991 order is collapsing right now before our eyes. President Putin's decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at the Charlie festival, gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long as it stayed the course. Not anymore. Russia broke the rules.

Until now, Russia, like a country bumpkin in Eton, tried to belong. It attended the gathering of the grandees where it was shunned, paid its dues to European bodies that condemned it, patiently suffered ceaseless hectoring of the great powers and irritating baiting of East European small-timers alike. But something broke down. The lad does not want to belong anymore; he picked up his stuff and went home - just when they needed him to knee in Auschwitz.

Auschwitz gathering is an annual Canossa of Western leaders where they bewail their historic failure to protect the Jews and swear their perennial obedience to them. This is a more important religious rite of our times, the One Ring to rule them all, established in 2001, when the Judeo-American empire had reached the pinnacle of its power. The Russian leader had duly attended the events. This year, they will have to do without him. Israeli ministers already have expressed their deep dissatisfaction for this was Russia's Red Army that saved the Jews in Auschwitz, after all. Russia's absence will turn the Holocaust memorial day into a parochial, West-only, event. Worse, Russia's place will be taken by Ukraine, ruled by unrepentant heirs to Hitler's Bandera.

This comes after the French 'Charlie' demo, also spurned by Russia. The West hinted that Russia's sins would be forgiven, up to a point, if she joined, first the demo, and later, the planned anti-terrorist coalition, but Russia did not take the bait. This was a visible change, for previously, Russian leaders eagerly participated in joint events and voted for West-sponsored resolutions. In 2001, Putin fully supported George Bush's War on Terrorism in the UN and on the ground. As recently as 2011, Russia agreed with sanctions against North Korea and Iran. As for coming for a demonstration, the Russians could always be relied upon. This time, the Russians did not come, except for the token presence of the foreign minister Mr. Lavrov. This indomitable successor of Mr. Nyet left the event almost immediately and went - to pray in the Russian church, in a counter-demonstration, of sorts, against Charlie. By going to the church, he declared that he is not Charlie.

Over the course of 2014 the prices the world pays for crude oil have tumbled from over $125 per barrel to around $45 per barrel now, and could easily drop further before heading much higher before collapsing again before spiking again. You get the idea. In the end, the wild whipsawing of the oil market, and the even wilder whipsawing of financial markets, currencies and the rolling bankruptcies of energy companies, then the entities that financed them, then national defaults of the countries that backed these entities, will in due course cause industrial economies to collapse. And without a functioning industrial economy crude oil would be reclassified as toxic waste. But that is still two or three decades off in the future.

In the meantime, the much lower prices of oil have priced most of the producers of unconventional oil out of the market. Recall that conventional oil (the cheap-to-produce kind that comes gushing out of vertical wells drilled not too deep down into dry ground) peaked in 2005 and has been declining ever since. The production of unconventional oil, including offshore drilling, tar sands, hydrofracturing to produce shale oil and other expensive techniques, was lavishly financed in order to make up for the shortfall. But at the moment most unconventional oil costs more to produce than it can be sold for. This means that entire countries, including Venezuela's heavy oil (which requires upgrading before it will flow), offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico (Mexico and US), Norway and Nigeria, Canadian tar sands and, of course, shale oil in the US. All of these producers are now burning money as well as much of the oil they produce, and if the low oil prices persist, will be forced to shut down.

An additional problem is the very high depletion rate of "fracked" shale oil wells in the US. Currently, the shale oil producers are pumping flat out and setting new production records, but the drilling rate is collapsing fast. Shale oil wells deplete very fast: flow rates go down by half in just a few months, and are negligible after a couple of years. Production can only be maintained through relentless drilling, and that relentless drilling has now stopped. Thus, we have just a few months of glut left. After that, the whole shale oil revolution, which some bobbleheads thought would refashion the US into a new Saudi Arabia, will be over. It won't help that most of the shale oil producers, who speculated wildly on drilling leases, will be going bankrupt, along with exploration and production companies and oil field service companies. The entire economy that popped up in recent years around the shale oil patch in the US, which was responsible for most of the growth in high-paying jobs, will collapse, causing the unemployment rate to spike.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk is Ukraine's illegitimate US-installed prime minister. Mocking the office he holds. More on him below.

George Soros is a world-class corporate predator. Making money the old-fashioned way.

Unconcerned about enormous harm he causes. Plundering nations for profit.


Once saying "(a)s a market participant, I don't need to be concerned with the consequences of my actions."

Earning billions from rogue investing. Causing havoc worldwide. Anything for a buck, he believes.

Imperial wars benefit him greatly. So do plums like Ukraine. Low-hanging fruit. Ripe for plunder.

On November 20, 2014, New York Review of Books editors published what no responsible ones would touch.

Soros twisted truth and then some. Headlining "Wake Up, Europe." A litany of Big Lies followed.

The central banks of China and Switzerland are planning to establish a yuan trading center in Zurich. The deal is expected to increase the number of European transactions in yuan.

The agreement will be signed during the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xinhua news agency reports.

"A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the central banks of the two countries during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Switzerland. It is an important step in the internationalization of the yuan, especially in Europe," said a government official.

According to the agreement, Switzerland will receive a quota of about $8 billion (50 billion Yuan).

This step comes under the framework of the QFII (Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor) program that allows foreign investment in Chinese securities using foreign currencies. Similar centers already exist in Hong Kong and London.

In July 2014, the central banks of China and Switzerland signed an agreement on a $24 billion (150 billion yuan) currency swap to boost bilateral trade and economic relations.

China, the world's second largest economy, has been pushing the yuan as a rival to the dollar in the global financial system since 2010. In November 2014, the Bank of China started to operate European yuan clearing in Frankfurt.

The Chinese yuan is traded directly against the dollar, euro, the Japanese yen and Russian ruble among other currencies. Settlement worldwide in yuan reached $485 billion (3.01 trillion yuan) in 2013 compared to $330 billion (2.06 trillion yuan) in 2012.