Currency Wars

Currency Wars (simplified Chinese: 货币战争; traditional Chinese: 貨幣戰爭; pinyin: Huòbì zhànzhēng) by Song Hongbing, also known as The Currency War, is a bestseller in China, reportedly selling over 200,000 copies in addition to an estimated 400,000 pirated copies in circulation and is reportedly being read by many senior level government and business leaders in China. Originally published in 2007 the book gained a resurgence in 2009 and is seen as a prominent exponent of a recently emerged genre labeled "economic nationalist" literature. Another bestselling book within this genre is Unhappy China, however, unlike this and other books within this genre, Currency Wars has been received more positively by the Chinese leadership as its recommendations are seen as less aggressive towards the US. The premise of this book is that Western countries are ultimately controlled by a group of private banks, which, according to the book, runs their central banks. This book uses the claim that the Federal Reserve is a private body to support its role. More than one million copies of this book have been sold.

War

War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The set of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties.

While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history is the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population, according to Steven Pinker. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

Finance

Finance is a field that deals with the study of investments. It includes the dynamics of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of different degrees of uncertainty and risk. Finance can also be defined as the science of money management. A key point in finance is the time value of money, which states that purchasing power of one unit of currency can vary over time. Finance aims to price assets based on their risk level and their expected rate of return. Finance can be broken into three different sub-categories: public finance, corporate finance and personal finance.

Areas of finance

Wall Street, the center of American finance.

Wall Street, the center of American finance.

London Stock Exchange, global center of finance.

London Stock Exchange, global center of finance.

Personal finance

Questions in personal finance revolve around:

Morgan Report

The Morgan Report was an 1894 report concluding an official U.S. Congressional investigation into the events surrounding the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, including the alleged role of U.S. military troops (both bluejackets and marines) in the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. Along with the Blount Report submitted in 1893, it is one of the main source documents compiling the testimony of witnesses and participants in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in January 1893. The Morgan Report was the final result of an official U.S. Congressional investigation into the overthrow, conducted by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, whose chairman was Senator John Tyler Morgan, Democrat of Alabama.

The Report is formally named the Senate Report 227 of the 53rd Congress, second session, and dated February 26, 1894. It was printed as part of a large volume containing other government documents: "Reports of Committee on Foreign Relations 1789-1901 Volume 6."

Background

Keiser Report

The Keiser Report is a financial news and analysis show on RT UK and the RT network, hosted by Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert. It has been running since September 2009, with three new show every week. Herbert (announced on a December 2012 episode as his wife) is the co-host; she banters with Keiser on headlines and commentary.

Each episode is divided into two parts. In the first half, Keiser and Herbert alternately discuss a current financial topic, comment on financial media reports, and provide commentary on the actions of bankers. The second half features a guest interview, either face-to-face in the studio or through video conferencing, conducted by Keiser.

The Independent describes the show as "mischievously seditious" and Keiser as "America's most outrageous political pundit".

An episode broadcast in September 2011 featured an interview with the comedian Rosanne Barr, who stated that her solution to the financial crisis was to "bring back the guillotine".

According to Forbes magazine, the economist Sandeep Jaitly of the Gold Standard Institute was forced to resign following comments made on Keiser's show.