Senate rejects Rand Paul's 'Audit the Fed' legislation … The Senate on Tuesday blocked legislation calling for tougher audits of the Federal Reserve, rebuffing an attempt by Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul to give lawmakers greater oversight of the central bank's moves on interest rates. The 53-44 vote fell short of the threshold to overcome a Democratic filibuste...Read More

The United States have managed to solve the question of the succession of King Abdallah, but today, they are attempting to lead Saudi Arabia into error. Their objective is now to divide the country into five states. Wahhabism is the state religion, but the power of the Saud family, both interior and exterior, depends exclusively on Sunni tribes, while it subjects all other populations to apartheid...Read More

State child welfare system failing to protect youth … Until I had to deal with the Florida Department of Children and Families, I thought some of the criticism of it was unwarranted. Now I remember someone said, "It takes a village to bring up a child." I say that because when I called I was told three times only the person receiving funds from the agency could make a complaint. Do...Read More

FBI Has Enough Evidence to Prosecute Hillary Clinton for Public Corruption … An investigation into possible mishandling of classified information on Hillary Clinton's private email server has expanded to consider whether Clinton's work as Secretary overlapped with her work for the Clinton Foundation run by her family. Fox News' Catherine Herridge published the report, citing unna...Read More

An acceleration in US wage growth is reinforcing the Federal Reserve's view that inflation is poised to rebound and could lead the central bank to raise rates more this year than many investors expect. Investors had been doubting the Fed's resolve to raise interest rates, betting on fewer increases this year. But signs of strength in the US economy is changing that view. – Irish Inde...Read More

Obama's Legacy … Has the President met the expectations set in 2004? As President Barack Obama begins his final year in office, he is left with two objectives: solidify and promote his past successes as cornerstones of his legacy and at the same time make progress on a few remaining initiatives, even though the Republican-controlled Congress has little interest in working with him on any...Read More

Former money-market trader Paul Thompson was at his well kept brick-and-tile Dalkeith home, a couple of blocks from Perth's Swan River, last Thursday when Australian Federal Police officers came to arrest him. The October 22 arrest was not a complete surprise, nor was it entirely unexpected. Thompson didn't know an arrest warrant had been issued and he wasn't told police were on their...Read More

Investors should focus on China's economy, not stocks … there are some important reasons not to panic: China's stock market reveals very little about the health of the country's economy – it's dominated by small savers who put more faith in speculative investing newsletters than economic fundamentals. – CNNDominant Social Theme: Don't look at the problem. Thin...Read More

Saudi Arabia is our natural ally against Isil. Just like David Cameron, Riyadh is committed both to destroying Islamic State and to toppling Assad. It would be foolish to alienate them now … – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: The House of Saud and the House of Bush, perfect together?Free-Market Analysis: This article by a man who is the Telegraph's chief military correspondent, a...Read More

Obama wipes away tears as he calls for new gun measures … The president gets emotional as he remembers Sandy Hook victims and fiercely calls for more rights for those vulnerable to gun violence. – PoliticoDominant Social Theme: Once we get guns out of the hands of the people we can worry about knives … and fists.Free-Market Analysis: The story is all over the news. More gun contr...Read More

After 1 million migrants, Europe's borders are back … Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didn't even notice were there. On Monday new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking...Read More

Will the U.S. fall for Saudi Arabia's deliberate provocation in killing of Shi'ite cleric?… Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent political leader of the monarchy's Shiite minority has worsened Mideast tensions and is forcing the Obama administration to decide if there are any limits to the outrages that the longtime U.S. "ally" may commit, as Trita Parsi explains...Read More

The Most Important Person in 2016 … Forget the presidential candidates – Fed Chair Janet Yellen is who you need to watch … – US NewsDominant Social Theme: The most important person in the world …Free-Market Analysis: The great debate has started and will continue to keep us focused on the Fed until the next move. We will be reminded over and over again of the phony im...Read More

The Teddy Awards 2015 … The arena was noisy in 2015, scarily so. … Political courage, which these annual Teddy Awards celebrate, seems a particularly necessary commodity in the face of such noise, the courage to stand against a tide of barbarity and incivility. – TIMEDominant Social Theme: The world belongs to the moderates.Free-Market Analysis: TIME magazine informs us that a ce...Read More

Why the bull market in stocks isn't dead yet … Don't write off the bull market in stocks … Market professionals surveyed by CNNMoney believe that the U.S. stock market will claw its way past these obstacles and reach new heights next year. – CNN MoneyDominant Social Theme: Things will go on. They always do.Free-Market Analysis: In this analysis we'll cover a predictab...Read More

Pakistan-Afghanistan hotline set up to reduce tension … Pakistan and Afghanistan have established a hotline between their respective military commanders to reduce frequent cross-border tensions … Security co-operation between the two countries is seen as crucial in countering the growing Taliban threat. – BBCDominant Social Theme: Everything is going to plan. Step by step we crea...Read More

A heartless Conservative Government was elected, Labour was defeated in Scotland and the rise of ISIS has been remorseless … Yet there are still some hopeful signs for the year ahead. Axeman George Osborne has been forced to drop some of the harshest measures he wanted to introduce, including slashing benefits for the low-paid and poor, and decimating the police, while a global deal has been...Read More

Obama's 'Boots on the Ground': U.S. Special Forces Are Sent to Tackle Global Threats … They are taking on a larger combat role in Afghanistan, where the war was supposed to be over. They are headed to Syria to help fight the Islamic State in its stronghold. And President Obama recently ordered nearly 300 of them to Cameroon to assist African troops in their battle against a milit...Read More

The Misinformation Mess … As Americans approach Election Year 2016, the crisis of misinformation is growing more and more dangerous. On issues from foreign policy to the economy, almost none of the candidates in the race appears to be addressing the real world, writes Robert Parry. – ConsortiumNewsDominant Social Theme: False flags? Nothing to see here. Let's move along.Free-Market...Read More

Anonymous war on Isis: Online activists claim to have foiled terror attack on Italy as part of 'Operation Isis' … Supporters of Anonymous have been working to shut down Twitter accounts and websites, but claims to have now disrupted attacks in the real world too. – UK IndependentDominant Social Theme: Anonymous is full of modern day heroes.Free-Market Analysis: Do we believe it...Read More