Economic theory teaches that free price and profit movements ensure that capitalism produces the greatest welfare for the greatest number. Losses indicate economic activities where costs exceed the value of production, thus investment in these activities is curtailed.

Profits indicate economic activities where the value of output exceeds its cost, thus investment increases. Prices indicate the relative scarcity and value of inputs and outputs, thus serving to organize production most efficiently.

This theory doesn't work when the US government socializes cost and privatizes profits as it has been doing with the Federal Reserve's support of "banks too big to fail" and when a handful of financial institutions have concentrated much economic activity. Subsidized "private" banks are no different from the former publicly subsidized socialized industries of Great Britain, France, Italy, and the former communist countries. The banks have imposed the costs of their incompetence, greed, and corruption on taxpayers. Indeed, the socialized firms in England and France were more efficiently run and never threatened the national economies, much less the entire world, with ruin as do the private US "banks too big to fail." The English, French, and communists never had to print $1,000 billion dollars annually to save a handful of corrupt and incompetent financial enterprises.

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has fired the country's chief of armed forces for "disparaging comments" about the judiciary.

Santos said on Tuesday that General Leonardo Barrero was dismissed for "disrespectful remarks" against the judiciary and nation in a phone conversation published on the weekend.

The allegations were published by Colombia's Semana magazine. Barrero's remarks were found on secretly recorded phone conversations made during probe into the corruption allegations.

Barrero was heard insulting the investigating prosecutors in a phone call with a colonel imprisoned over possible links to extrajudicial killings.

Barrero told colonel Robinson Gonzalez del Rio, who is facing criminal charges over the killing of two men in 2007, that the prosecutors' investigations into the extrajudicial killings is a "bunch of crap," and suggesting that he and others "organize a mafia" to discredit investigating judges.

After several hours of closed-door Security Council Consultations at the United Nations on Thursday, February 13, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power came out in front of the press to do what she does best.

Power gave a speech bemoaning what she called "the greatest humanitarian crisis of our generation." She gave statistics of "6.8 million Syrians in need of assistance.... There were 4.25 million internally displaced persons..." She spoke of "images of emaciated and tortured Syrians, of dead and dying children, and of so much more."

Samantha Power has been the UN Ambassador for several months now, after a lengthy career as one of the many voices reciting this same narrative. Each performance is delivered with a different cast of characters, in different corner the globe where some government has defied Wall Street and neo-liberalism, and the pentagon is itching to attack. The public, of course, must be psyched up to support arming the terrorists, sending the cruise missiles, and overthrowing the defiant regime.

I had a heck of a time making sense of the U.S. Navy's new motto "A Global Force for Good" until I realized that it meant "We are a global force, and wherever we go we're never leaving."

For three years now people in the little island nation of Bahrain have been nonviolently protesting and demanding democratic reforms.

For three years now the king of Bahrain and his royal thugs have been shooting, kidnapping, torturing, imprisoning, and terrorizing nonviolent opponents. An opponent includes anyone speaking up for human rights or even "insulting" the king or his flag, which carries a sentence of 7 years in prison and a hefty fine.

For three years now, Saudi Arabia has been aiding the King of Bahrain in his crackdown on the people of Bahrain. A U.S. police chief named John Timoney, with a reputation for brutality earned in Miami and Philadelphia, was hired to help the Bahraini government intimidate and brutalize its population.

History repeats itself. The time-worn tactic of the dominant class that controls the spread of information is to provoke violence and then blame it on the enemy, usually those who struggle for change.

Nero did it when he burned down much of Rome and blamed it on the Christians. Similarly, US newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst used the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 to create war fervour that led to war with Spain.

Hitler ordered the burning of the Reichstag and blamed it on the Communists. He also had Germans dressed as Poles attack German troops to justify the invasion that began World War II.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident played out a similar scenario to justify US escalating its war on Vietnam. And George Bush Sr. used the same tactic to justify the invasion of Panama in 1989.

In Venezuela, this tactic has been used umpteen times throughout the past 15 years. The most infamous incident was on April 11, 2002 when shootings by snipers on demonstrators justified the US-backed coup against then-president Hugo Chavez.

Thousands of government supporters gathered yesterday in Caracas to call for "peace" after violent clashes left three dead on Wednesday. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles today called supporters to gather for a national march "against paramilitaries and violence".

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro held the mass rally to reject the violent incidents at some opposition protests in recent weeks. The worst of the violence occurred in Caracas on Wednesday, when clashes left three dead and several dozen wounded. There are conflicting accounts as to exactly what happened.

Maduro used yesterday's gathering to attack what he called a "coup plot" by the far right opposition, and to promote his "national pacification plan" to reduce crime and tackle political violence. He told supporters that to construct peace in Venezuela, political differences should be settled through a battle of ideas, not arms.

"We call on all Venezuela to combat in the streets with ideas, with values, in high quality debate, with respect for people's rights, without violence," Maduro declared.

An official of Venezuela's intelligence service has been arrested in connection with the violent clashes last Wednesday in Caracas which left three dead, a Venezuelan newspaper has reported.

An investigation is underway to determine the exact succession of events which led to the deaths of two men that day: Bassil Dacosta, an opposition supporter, and Juan Montoya, a Chavista. President Nicolas Maduro has said that both were killed by the same gun.

The killings occurred two blocks from the Attorney General's office in central Caracas, which footage shows violent opposition supporters attacking beforehand. The events occurred after a large student-led opposition march had concluded in the area, and most participants had already left.

The information on the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) officer's arrest was given to private newspaper Ultimas Noticias by an unnamed "military source". According to the information, the detained official was part of a group of SEBIN officers who ignored presidential orders to remain in the organisation's headquarters that day. The source said the officer is called Melvin Eduardo Collazos Rangel, and was arrested on Saturday.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) views with great alarm the violence perpetrated against the democratically elected government and civilians in Venezuela that has resulted, as of February 12, 2014, in three confirmed deaths, 61 persons wounded and 69 detained. The carnage and destruction in Caracas on Wednesday comes on the heels of generally peaceful marches held on the 200th anniversary of the battle of La Victoria, a battle in which students played a critical role in a victory against royalist forces during Venezuela's war of independence. While some groups of students marched in celebration of the Day of the Student, anti-government demonstrators used the occasion to protest episodic shortages of some basic goods, persistent crime, and to demand the release of students who had been arrested in earlier demonstrations.

The vicious street attack near the national headquarters of the prosecutor's office in Caracas came after several days of often violent anti-government protests in the streets of Aragua, Lara, Mérida and Táchira. [1] Some of these protests included the use of rocks, guns, and Molotov cocktails, and were largely directed against government buildings, the public (pro-government) television station Venezolana de Televisión, vehicles and other property, the police, and civilians.

Among the injured were three students of the Central University of Venezuela who were reportedly wounded by gunfire as well as 17 Bolivarian National Police personnel, two of whom were attacked with Molotov Cocktails. Among those killed in Caracas were Juan Montoya, a community activist in the pro-Chavista 23rd of January barrio and Bassil Da Costa, a marketing student. A third person was killed in the Chacao neighborhood in the Eastern part of the Venezuelan capital.

In February 2014 David Cameron outright refused to recognise the sacrifices made by some 10,000 British military personnel that were exposed to intense levels of radiation during the 1950s and 1960s.

These men were ordered to do things like watch nuclear detonations at close range, fly aircraft through mushroom clouds, handle radioactive materials and explore blast zones, all with no protective gear.

Many hundreds have died of cancer and other radiation related illnesses but this isn't even the most horrifying legacy. Due to the genetic damage these men sustained, the families of many of these men have been affected by birth defects, meaning that the legacy of suffering is continuing down the generations.

The European Commission announced having "freed up" Syria's frozen assets, in order to fund the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.

This unilateral decision runs counter to the OPCW resolution, adopted 15 November 2013, which highlights Syria's financial inability to pay for their destruction and creates a special international fund as a substitute.

Reacting to this measure, the Syrian government has condemned the theft of assets belonging to the Syrian people. It furthermore recalled that member governments of the European Union have and continue to fund terrorism in Syria, in violation of relevant UN resolutions. In addition, EU Member States are illegally buying Syrian oil siphoned off by the Contras at the expense of the Syrian people.