7 of the Nastiest Scams from Wall Street Banksters

This year - we've seen well over 5,000 American patriots hauled away in handcuffs for peaceably protesting against the high crimes on Wall Street. Meanwhile - not one bankster has gone to jail for those very same crimes. So - in the hopes that some of these banksters will be held accountable for their crimes NEXT year - we're going to recap tonight exactly what these guys are guilty of - and how they did such remarkable damage to our nation. To help us with that list - Dave Johnson joins Thom from the Campaign for America's Future. Source

2011 economic review-On the Edge with Mish & Max

Max interviews Mike "Mish" Shedlock from Sitka Pacific Capital. He talks about the biggest stories that define the year 2011 both in terms of markets and the economy as a whole. Source

Should Syria help US figure out OWS?

WWIII Countdown: CFR declares "Time to Attack Iran"

The highly influential Council on Foreign Relations (aka CFR) declared this month in their online publication "Foreign Affairs" that it is now time to attack Iran. Source

EUR Plunges In Thin Market, Below 1.3000

Submitted by Tyler Durden: While it is unclear what just spooked the EURUSD, sending it lower by 70 pips in minutes, perhaps a better question is why the EURUSD is not thousands of pips lower to begin with. As a reminder every single large bank is pushing for a lower EURUSD on hopes that a EUR collapse will kill the market and send the ECB scurrying into printing money. The problem there is that the ECB just announced its balance sheet expanded to EUR 2.73 trillion, an expected increase of over EUR 200 billion in one week (since the LTRO), and a whopping EUR 800 billion in 6 months (that's $1.1 trillion... in six months)! As such, good luck selling to the Germans on the ECB board that EUR 1.6 trillion annualized is insufficient. Lastly, and as a reminder, 

here is the only correlation that matters in 2012. Source

Rossi’s E-Cat Goal For 2012: 1 Million Units, Kill Competition!

Writing after midnight on Christmas Eve, Andrea Rossi made an interesting comment regarding the current and future state of E-Cat technology. 

Since the October 28th demonstration, there has been little public activity from Leonardo Corporation, and understandably people are curious about what he has been up to. Here’s what Rossi says.

“In this period we did not talk too much and we did not give substantial news, but we worked tremendously on the business side and now I can say we have the Partners who will allow us to produce sooner than expected the 10 kW E-Cats at a price that will kill the Copy-Cats of the competitors. The first generation will produce heat, and will be able to be retrofitted to produce also electricity when we will be ready for it.”

Rossi does not name the “copy-cat” competitors — does he mean Defkalion? If so, it would be the first time that he has acknowledged that they may actually possess a working LENR technology. There are other competitors out there as well, and it seems that a priority for Rossi and Leonardo has been to get partnerships in place that will allow them to stay at the front of the cold fusion pack. Yesterday Rossi restated this priority when asked when the E-Cat would go to market. (Presumably the questioner meant the small home-based units). Rossi replied:

I hope within 2012. We must have a production of 1 million pieces immediately, to put the price at a level to reach these strategic targets:
1- allow everybody to buy it
2- kill the competition

I’m sure that Rossi’s competitors will be thinking along similar lines — and the beauty of competition is that it spurs ingenuity and pushes prices lower so the consumer is the ultimate beneficiary. At this point it is hard to imagine 1 million working E-Cat devices in the marketplace within twelve months, especially with patent approval and safety certification required — a huge network of R&D, manufacturing, distribution and support would need to be in place in order for that to happen. Perhaps that is exactly what Rossi has been organising. Source

Angelo: Just what I have always wanted stupendously cheap home power but... at this point, we can still only hope it's not just a hype scam. Is it this year or bust for Rossi's E-Cat?

Greek Riots Retrospective - Greece remains in the eye of the European financial storm

Greece remains in the eye of the European financial storm. RT has been looking back at what has been a year of despair and discontent for austerity-hit Greeks. Our correspondent Sara Firth witnessed their anger reach a boiling point as she covered the protests in the country. Source

Gerald Celente: Money Junkies and The Coming "Bank Holiday"

Presidential Futures are like "Running Man on Steroids" and the "Axis of Weasels" Max Keiser

US congress today approved an extension of the payroll tax cut for two months...putting off a tax increase for millions of workers. So, after much partisan politicking, they did it -- saving face for the moment, but could it hurt their stock price headed into the 2012 elections? You heard me right. We'll talk about the political derivatives market a Chicago exchange is betting on. Would it be a continuation of a climate on wall street that encourages special treatment that our guest, financial journalist and inventor of the virtual specialist technology, Max Keiser, calls "the special olympics for financial fraud." And speaking of derivatives, those bets added fuel to the fire that engulfed the financial markets in 2008...most famously seen in the explosion and bailout of AGI (backdoor bailout of the big banks like goldman sachs, jp morgan, bank of america, etc.). More recently, MF Global customer money used to trade on these exchanges went missing. So where do futures exchanges come from and where have they gone wrong? Source

Anonymous' "Survival Guide For Citizens In A Revolution"

Following the fireworks from this weekend in which Anonymous hacked and exposed thousands of Stratfor clients and millions of confidential emails, it may be time to pay some more attention to the hacker collective, and specifically a document that was released a few weeks ago titled "Survival Guide for Citizens in a Revolution." As Anonymous itself says, "This is a snapshot of what Anonymous thinks will be useful for your survival in case of a violent revolution in your country. As most of Anonymous works, it will be constantly changed, reused, improved etc. So watch for newer releases." Because all it takes for complete chaos to erupt in addition to the unwind in the financial system, is for one or two major hacks at system critical institutions to precipitate all out social panic. And who knows - while the financial system will self destruct on is own, perhaps Anonymous itself will do this or that vis-a-vis the latter. Source

Anonymous Survival Guide for Citizens in a Revolution

Jim Rogers: "100% Chance" of Another Financial Crisis That Will Be Worse Than 2008

America Maxes Out Its Credit Card Again - Treasury To Raise Debt Limit By Another $1.2 Trillion On December 30

Submitted by Tyler Durden: You didn't think US consumer confidence could be bought for free now did you?

• U.S. TREASURY SAYS DEBT LIMIT TO BE RAISED BY $1.2 TRILLION
• U.S. DEBT TO BE $100 BLN WITHIN LIMIT ON DEC. 30, TREASURY SAYS
• STEPS FOR INCREASING DEBT LIMIT UNDER 2011 BUDGET CONTROL ACT

And the piece de resistance that 100% debt to GDP brings:

• OBAMA ON DEC. 30 LIKELY TO ASK CONGRESS TO RAISE DEBT LIMIT

Just as we thought the circus was over if only for a few weeks. Also, this means that in a few days, the US debt ceiling will be raised from $15.194 trillion to $16.394 trillion. As a reminder, US GDP was just revised down to $15.176 trillion. Source