The US Orwellian State.

As terrorists struck New York on September 11th, the United States vowed to fight back and protect their country, their people and their freedom. But 10 years on, it seems that freedom is just an illusion, and the US is becoming an Orwellian state. (Click here for full rt.com report)

Goodbye Euro, Hello Drachma

A few months ago, when Zero Hedge first broke the news that the Drachmais trading at several major banks on a "when issued" basis at the client's request, it was promptly dismissed. Alas, it may be time to dismiss the dismissal, after Spiegel reports that as one of the scenarios considered for a Greek default, Germany anticipates the reintroduction of the drachma by the pathological liars at the Greek parliament. Yes: the currency that Greece was so happy to jettison 10 years ago when after the assistance of Goldman to hide its bloated debt, to much pomp and circumstance it entered the soon to be defunct Eurozone, is coming baaaaack. (Click here for the full story)

Rioting Bankers Get 8 Years

Vickers report:  banks get until 2019 to ringfence high street operations

• ICB stops short of recommendation for full break-up
• Osborne promises legislation in this parliament
• Up to £2tn of assets could be behind firewall
• Barclays and RBS likely to be most affected

Britain's biggest banks are to be given until 2019 – longer than had been expected – to implement radical reform of their operations to prevent another taxpayer bailout of the system.

The Independent Commission on Banking – issuing its report almost three years to the day after the collapse of Lehman Brothers which led to the major 2008 bank bailouts – said that banks should ringfence their high street banking businesses from their "casino" investment banking arms. By Jill Treanor, the guardian, (click here for the full story)