Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

New Saudi King Salman Names Heirs And Promises Stability
AP & HP | Abdullah Al-Shihri | 01/23/15

King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud's actions came as the Sunni-ruled kingdom mourned King Abdullah, who died early Friday at the age of 90 after nearly two decades in power.

A royal decree affirmed Crown Prince Muqrin as his immediate successor. After Muqrin, Salman named Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as deputy crown prince, making him second-in-line to the throne. Mohammed is the first grandson of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, to be named as a future heir. ... Read more

[Hillary] Clinton plans to astound, intimidate with fundraising 'like nothing you've seen'
TheHill | Amie Parnes | 01/21/15

Major donors are ready to announce huge financial commitments to Hillary Clinton as soon as she announces a second run for the White House, according to Clinton allies and Democratic fundraisers.

The Clinton team wants to build excitement about her campaign launch, which is expected in March or April. The money blitz would be a show of Clinton's strength meant to scare away potential primary rivals.

"The floodgates are going to open immediately, and there's going to be a rush to get on the team," said Don Peebles, the real estate mogul who served on President Obama's national finance committee. "There's nobody in the Democratic Party who can match her. Not even close." ... Read more

Read All of FP's Davos 2015 Coverage
foreignpolicy.com | author | 01/23/15

Davos Wants You to Know It Really, Really Cares About Inequality

Davos: Home of the $43 hotdog (01/23/15) [1:47]

30 Hours After Unleashing ECB QE, Coeure Suggests QE2
ZeroHedge | author | 01/23/15

With US equities down 0.5% this morning and European inflation expectations having given back all their ECB QE gains, it was only a matter of time before some half-witted central-planner felt the need to speak... ... Read more

Jeb Bush's Reverse Midas Touch
thinkprogress.org/ | Josh Israel | older

Eight years ago, Bush -- best known by the acronym "Jeb" -- departed from Florida's governor's mansion determined to boost his $1,288,000 net worth in the private sector. Since, he has made millions in corporate board fees, speaking gigs, and consulting payments -- but, much like his tenure before getting into public life, has done so with a series of companies that have found their way into legal or financial quagmires.

Jeb Bush has often been portrayed as a "successful businessman," but ThinkProgress reviewed Bush's current and past business record and found a great deal of controversy and struggle. ... Read more

Saudi Arabia foreign policy: 'Enacted not by Abdullah, but by oligarch consensus'
RT | Eric Draitser | 01/23/15

Wahhabi extremism is a direct outcome of the foreign policy that the oligarch consensus in Saudi Arabia has pursued for decades, thus there won't be any substantive policy changes, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser, told RT.

There are a number of things we should consider. I think the most obvious is the five hundred pound gorilla in the room, the exporting of Wahhabi extremism, the continued export from Saudi Arabia of precisely the kind of extremism that has been fought in Syria that has been fought in Iraq and all throughout the region. This specter, this global threat of Wahhabi extremism emanating from Saudi Arabia a direct outgrowth of the foreign policy that Saudi Arabia has pursued going on for decades. And it's certainly not all at the feet of one individual, but rather I think it could be described more specifically as an oligarchy, a familiar oligarchy, but an oligarchy nonetheless. And I think that is probably the principle reason why the report there is correct in saying that there won't be substantive policy changes because those policies were not simply enacted by Abdullah; those are enacted by an oligarch consensus in Saudi Arabia. ... Read more