Free Republic

Last week, Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov confirmed that about $300 billion of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserve cushion had been frozen as a result of Western sanctions. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the move "theft." The collective West's decision to freeze Russian reserves abroad constitutes the bankruptcy of their obligations before Russia, and undermines faith in their currencies, President Vladimir Putin has said. "In the past weeks, a number of Western countries have taken illegitimate measures on the so-called 'freezing' of Russian assets. The collective West has factually drawn a line under the reliability of its...

SUEZ, Egypt, March 27 (Reuters) – Efforts to dislodge a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal had allowed its stern and rudder to move on Saturday, but it remained unclear when it could be refloated, the head of the canal authority said.

This is a coup. This is an economic war. An attack on freedom —-Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases—- HEADLINE: “In Dr. Fauci we Trust.” (Daily Beast) The Daily Beast writes about Fauci: “...as he guides the nation through the coronavirus crisis…stands at the White House with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence…introduce[s] actual truth to the coronavirus briefings…Fauci has been in charge from the start.”

Saleh Ra'fat of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, said on Sunday that the committee would convene in the coming days to discuss the latest developments and to follow the implementation of PLO Central Council decisions, which called for severing ties with Israel. Interviewed by Voice of Palestine Radio, he sided with applying to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, demanding that a legal investigation be launched against Israel for its "crimes" against the Palestinian people and the joining of "the State of Palestine" to 22 other international organizations. Saleh also called on Arab countries not to agree to...

Problematic, in a very big way even if the offer was made.Qatar’s ties to Al Qaeda and ISIS aren’t news. They’ve effectively served as intermediaries in everything from ransom exchanges for hostages to Taliban negotiations. But actually trying to secure terrorist swaps for prisoners on their own behalf would have been a new frontier. Before he was released from a U.S. maximum-security prison last week, a confessed al Qaeda sleeper agent was offered up in a potential prisoner swap that would have freed two Americans held abroad.According to two individuals with direct knowledge of the case, the proposition was...

There were 33,000 more “discouraged workers” in April, according to the latest economic release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. … In April, there were 835,000 discouraged workers, up from 803,000 discouraged workers in March. …

France’s experiment with the Tobin Tax has proved a spectacular flop. Its finance ministry admits that the scattershot levy on financial transactions has raised just a third of the money expected since August. Total takings will be a paltry €800 million ($1.04 billion) in 2013, but that overlooks the much greater damage inflicted on French finance, industry and the government’s own tax base. “France is shooting itself in the foot,” said Paul-Henri de La Porte du Theil, head of French finance industry AFG. … The House of Lords EU Committee says the Tobin Tax will have “far-reaching adverse consequences” for...

Summary: According to a new, comprehensive report by Lex Machina, more than half of all patent lawsuits in the US now come from patent trolls.Patent lawsuits are used as weapons in business wars between companies such as Oracle vs. Google and Apple vs. Samsung. Behind the intellectual property (IP) headlines, however, Lex Machina, a Silicon Valley startup, has found that patent troll lawsuits have increased from 24 percent of cases filed in 2007 to 56% in 2012. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a "patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming...

China gets the bomb Commentary: China will attract money and rumors with initiative By MarketWatch Last update: 3:51 p.m. EDT Sept. 26, 2008Comments: 27 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- American investor Warren Buffett called derivatives weapons of mass destruction. Though some don't consider short sales to be true derivatives, they have been proven to cause some destruction in the U.S. financial markets, if American regulators are to be believed. The practice of selling borrowed stock allegedly put pressure on several U.S. financial firms including Fannie Mae (FNM: 1.83, -0.11, -5.7%) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ: 0.30, -0.03, -9.0%) after nasty...

Assuming that you worked at a US (or other Western) based firm, what would you do if a Mainland Chinese "firm"* acquired your employer? What would you do: 1) During the "courtship" period 2) During the "consumation" period 3) During the "integration" period? Please share your ideas! * By way of operational definitions, as I see it, there is no such thing as a firm - in the traditional Western sense - in Mainland China. To one extent or another, every enterprise headquartered there incurs some form of involvement by either local or national government. CCP representatives are placed within...

It’s easy to ignore the climate change meeting that is now underway in Buenos Aires. The vast majority of Americans are not even aware of the meeting. Even fewer know what is happening there. And even fewer care. Americans should care; America is the primary target. This 10th annual Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change - a voluntary treaty which the United States has ratified - celebrates the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol - which the United States has not ratified. The Kyoto Protocol effectively converts the voluntary treaty into legally binding international...

President Reagan used several deft tactical maneuvers to exploit cracks in the Soviet armor. As president of the United States, Ronald Reagan initiated a sweeping and unprecedented program of covert actions and economic-warfare initiatives that acted to greatly weaken the Soviet economy, its support for "wars of liberation," and its hold on its power in Eastern Europe, former top Reagan administration officials said. The elements of these programs were contained in top-secret national-security directives signed by Reagan in 1982 and 1983, these sources told United Press International. "Any kind of covert-action program had to be expressed in a presidential finding,"...