USA: Bankers No Longer Too Big to Jail? - by Frank Vogl

Some of the world’s biggest banks have overplayed their hand. They have strived at every turn to exert extraordinary political influence in order to get away with criminal violations of the law.

To date, not a single top banking executive has faced a single day in criminal court.

The staggering wrongdoing committed by leading banks includes massive fraud in mortgage lending in the United States, manipulating international interest rates and currency markets, as well as laundering billions of dollars for drug cartels and corrupt politicians.
Rare case of bipartisan agreement

Now, despite the general atmosphere of extreme partisanship, both of America’s major political parties are declaring that the good times are over for the crooked bankers.

The Democratic Party’s “platform,” approved at its convention in Philadelphia, includes the phrase: “Democrats believe that no bank can be too big to fail and no executive too powerful to jail.”

Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s leadership of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services published a report titled: “Too Big To Jail: Inside the Obama Justice Department’s decision not to hold Wall Street accountable.”

In recent years, the major banks have agreed to settle a wide array of charges brought against them by U.S. banking authorities, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For example, Bank of America has paid over $75 billion in fines, while J.P. Morgan Chase has settled a host of cases for around $40 billion.

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China: Keep Your Eye on Beijing

You better watch out Uncle Sam

While the world focuses on the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine and the deepening Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tensions in another of the world's hot spots -- the periphery of China -- continue to simmer. There is widespread concern among many of China's neighbors -- including Japan, Vietnam, and India -- that Beijing's territorial ambitions could lead to military conflict. And that concern appears to be growing. Even the Chinese are now worried about whether such frictions could lead to war.

The United States and Europe may be distracted by pressing events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, but Asians don't have that luxury. Tensions closer to home preoccupy them, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of nearly 15,000 people in 11 Asian nations.

When asked, majorities in six of 10 Asian nations, not including China itself, express a favorable opinion of China. But Asian views of Beijing vary widely. There are few fans of Beijing in either Japan (7 percent favorable view of China) or in Vietnam (16 percent), both of which share long-standing territorial disputes with China that have rekindled old animosities. (The animus goes both ways. Just 8 percent of Chinese voice support for Japan, a distaste that also has its roots in history.) Moreover, the Japanese, Filipinos, and Vietnamese consider China the greatest threat to their country when asked about their top allies and threats.

At the same time, more than seven in 10 Pakistanis (78 percent), Bangladeshis (77 percent), Malaysians (74 percent), and Thais (72 percent) express a positive view of China. This may, in part, be due to the fact that 75 percent of Thais, 70 percent of Bangladeshis and 69 percent of Malaysians see China's growing economy as good for them. Moreover, both the Malaysians and the Pakistanis see Beijing as their principal ally.

Beijing is Asia's largest economic and military power, and with that status comes growing frictions with its neighbors. Given that fact, there is widespread concern among publics in East, Southeast, and South Asia that Beijing's territorial ambitions and attendant disputes could boil over into military conflicts. That apprehension is also shared by many Americans looking on from afar. 

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Russia still wielding its power over eastern Europe - by Suzanne Lynch

As political leaders gathered for dinner in the chilly Lithuanian capital of Vilnius yesterday evening, the joke circulating among officials was whether Russia would cut off gas supply to this corner of the Baltics, a region almost entirely dependent on Russia for energy. 

Following Ukraine’s withdrawal from negotiations with the European Union, the relationship between Europe and Russia has emerged as the real story of the Eastern Partnership Summit. 

Ukraine’s prime minister Mykola Azarov told its parliament this week that the decision was a question of “economic sovereignty”, complaining the EU had failed to offer adequate compensation for the loss of trade that would arise from the closure of Russian markets if it signed the deal.

 Read more: Russia still wielding its power over eastern Europe - European News | Latest News from Across Europe | The Irish Times - Fri, Nov 29, 2013

British PM hosted meals at family home for financial donors who gave a minimum of euro 299,000 to Conservative party

Britain's prime minister, facing new questions about party fundraising, disclosed Monday the names of major donors to his Conservative Party invited to intimate meals at his family's Downing Street apartment and his official countryside mansion.

David Cameron, whose aides had initially refused to divulge the details, published the lists of guests after the resignation of a fundraising aide caught boasting that he could organize access to Cameron in return for large donations.

Peter Cruddas, co-treasurer of the Conservative Party, quit after he was filmed telling undercover reporters from The Sunday Times newspaper that donors who pledged more than euro 299,000  (US$397,000) a year could join Cameron for meals, and press him over specific policies.

In three private dinners inside his apartment at Downing Street, Cameron hosted, among others, millionaire property tycoon David Rowland, Arbuthnot Banking Group chairman Henry Angest, hedge fund founder Michael Farmer, and Michael Spencer, chief executive of ICAP PLC, the world's largest broker of trades between banks.

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