By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

The top story for the last Wrap-Up of the year is the turmoil in the Middle East.  The Iranian lawmakers are considering a bill that will allow the enrichment of uranium to 60%.  If this passes and is approved, it will be, no doubt, a deal breaker for the recent accords agreed upon with the West in Geneva.  Iran says its nuclear program is for the peaceful production of energy.  The West is afraid of a nuclear armed Iran.   

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   (Early Release)

Financial analyst Rob Kirby says, “There is colossal fraud and price control going on.  There are no free markets.”  Kirby goes on to say, “What we’ve seen over the last six months is a ramp-up in interest rate swaps to the tune of $12 trillion . . . . What the build in these interest rate swaps is achieving, it’s stemming the rise in interest rates.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com    (Early Sunday Release)

Money manager Eric Sprott says the economy is going to tank in 2014.  Sprott, who has $8 billion under management, contends, “We have created a situation, yet again, where we pulled demand forward and added debt to everyone’s balance sheet.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

The Federal Reserve finally pulled the trigger on the so-called “taper”– or did it?  I am talking about cutting back the Fed’s bond buying program by $10 billion a month.  It is now $75 billion each and every month.  Who is going to buy an extra $10 billion a month in debt?  Are the banks going to take up the slack?  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Precious metals expert David Morgan says, “I think 2014 is going to be better for both the metals.”  Morgan is not “exceedingly bullish” on gold and silver, but he says, “If a black swan were to take place, all bets are off.  This is where you could get limit-up days in gold and silver and never look back.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Trader/analyst Greg Mannarino says, “The Federal Reserve has re-inflated the bubble that burst in 2008.  That bubble was inflated on purpose, and this bubble is being inflated on purpose as well.”  Mannarino goes on to say that the Fed will “. . . burst these bubbles and allow big Wall Street banks to short it all.”  Mannarino charges the Fed made a “wealth creation machine from hell. . . . (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The latest budget deal that House and Senate leaders have come up with can be summed up by saying it really is more of the same.  There are little spending cuts and little in tax increases.  There is something in it for everyone to hate.  The Tea Party did not get any meaningful spending cuts, and the liberal Democrats didn’t get much in the way of tax increases.  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told Democrats, “Embrace the suck.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Money manager Axel Merk says, “I think no matter what kind of data we are going to have going forward, brace yourself for volatility, and you may want to look for protection.”  What kind of protection is he talking about?  Merk says, “I do hold a substantial part of my net worth in gold because I don’t like anything else out there. . . . It is terrifying to be in stocks in my view, and I sleep much better at night with my gold holdings.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Nomi Prins, former Wall Street banker and author, says, “There’s this myth . . . that somehow the Fed’s quantitative easing (money printing) is helping to create jobs.”  What’s really going on?  Prins says, “The big six bank stocks are outperforming the rise in the stock market generally by ten times, and that is really not talked about very much, and that’s a big multiple.”  Prins goes on to say, “They are the ones who have received the most benefit, and they are the ones who are still in trouble.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

The big story is, once again, the tensions in the East China Sea and the newly made Air Defense Zone created by China over the Senkaku Islands.  This is primarily a dispute between China and Japan.  Both countries say the islands belong to them.  They are believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.  Vice President Biden was sent to both countries to calm tensions.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Boston University Economics Professor, Laurence Kotlikoff, says, “The country is in worse fiscal shape by many miles than Detroit.  So, the country is essentially bankrupt.”  Dr. Kotlikoff estimates the long term debt and liabilities of America are more than $200 trillion!  He is spearheading a bill in Congress called The Inform Act.  It is an attempt to wake up the nation to our dire financial situation so something can be done to fix this enormous problem.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Author/journalist Ellen Brown is constantly warning the public about the harm banks and corporations are causing.  Her latest warning involves GMO foods (Genetically Modified Organisms) laced with a weed killer.  Brown says, “We’re not allowed to know our food is GMO . . . Glyphosate inhibits your enzymes to digest food  . . . it’s been linked to 40 different diseases.”  Brown says GMO food and many other things are part of the latest trade agreement called the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.  Brown says, “It is supposedly a free trade agreement, but it is not really free trade.  It is more like a restrictive trade agreement.  In other words, it is imposing corporate monopolies on other countries and on us.”  

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Top story this week is the so-called “historic deal” reached with world powers and Iran over curbing Iran’s nuclear program.  Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, called it an “historic mistake.”  It is not just the Israelis who are upset.  Most of the Sunni Arab world is also not happy with the deal that doesn’t stop Iran’s nuclear program.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

Financial editor Jeff Berwick predicts what is coming to the world is “the end of the monetary system as we know it.”  Berwick contends, “We’re in the very end stages of this system because of the amount of U.S. government debt.  The debt is going up over $1 trillion a year.  If actually accounted for properly, it is really going up more than $5 trillion a year.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   (Early Sunday Release)

Former White House Budget Director David Stockman says, “Much of the mainstream media is caught up inside the bubble . . . They have an extreme case of ‘recency bias.’  They can’t remember the events of a few years ago.”  Stockman, whose latest book is called “The Great Deformation,” goes on to say, “Look at this bubble inflating all around us. . . . The Russell 2000 is trading at 75 times reported earnings.  People seem to forget that’s exactly where we were in 2007 and 2008.”  Stockman has a grim assessment of the current economy.  Stockman contends, “You are in a crony capitalism bankrupting mess.  That is very disconcerting news to people inside the bubble.”  (more…)