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Bank tellers thought it was a bomb but it turned out to be a pasta topping. A woman sat a bag of red liquid on the counter of the Fifth Third bank and demanded money. The teller, not knowing what was in the bag gave her cash and the woman described to be in her 60's left the bank. Once police and the bomb squad arrived at the bank in Clinton Township Michigan they were able to check the contents and confirm it was only spaghetti sauce and not a bomb.

General Electric agreed to buy oilfield services provider Lufkin Industries to expand its profitable oil and gas business. GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines, has expanded in the energy industry with a series of acquisitions of companies that make equipment used in oil and gas production, while divesting assets in finance and media industries. The company has spent about $11 billion in acquisitions since 2007 to boost its presence in the oil and gas business, which is the conglomerate's fastest-growing and which contributes about 10 percent of its total revenue. Lufkin will broaden GE's artificial...

So exactly how did the big banks in Cyprus get into so much trouble? Well, they have been doing exactly what hundreds of other large banks all over the U.S. and Europe have been doing. They have been gambling with our money. In particular, the big banks in Cyprus made huge bets on Greek sovereign debt which ended up failing.But what happened in Cyprus is just the tip of the iceberg. All over the planet major financial institutions are being incredibly reckless with client money. They are leveraged to the hilt and they have transformed the global financial system into...

Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds. New Zealand has a similar directive, discussed in my last article here, indicating...

What will the unhappy Cypriots do? Will they mortgage themselves to a dodgy, authoritarian kleptocracy? Or – drumroll – will they spurn the EU and take Russia's money instead? Actually, there is a far better option: an option offered by another thinly populated island on the fringes of Europe whose financial sector had outgrown its economy. Cyprus could copy Iceland, let its banks collapse, and leave their shareholders and bondholders to sustain the loss. There is often a perception lag when it comes to foreign countries. Most people in the EU still have the idea that Iceland is in economic...

LIBERTY, MO (KCTV) - A bank robbery suspect is in a Kansas City hospital. He was shot while trying to hold up a bank in Trimble, MO. MOREAdditional Links It all started shortly after 1:30 p.m. Friday at the First Security Bank located on U.S. Highway 169 in Trimble. First Security Bank is not a traditional bank where just anybody can walk in, so police said the suspect was most likely buzzed in before he pulled a gun and demanded cash. That's where things took an unusual turn. Trimble Police Chief Larry Fish said a civilian inside the bank pulled...

An armed man attempted to rob the First Security Bank in Trimble, Mo. Friday afternoon, March 1, according to Kansas City’s KCTV 5 News. However, the attempt landed the would-be robber in the hospital with a gunshot wound, as he didn’t anticipate to be met by an armed citizen. The man entered the bank, pulled a gun and demanded money. He was shot, then attempted to flee in his vehicle. Speculation is that he was shot by a bank employee, but this yet to be confirmed; only that he was shot by an armed civilian.

J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -0.21% & Co. stepped up the pace of bank cost cutting, setting plans to eliminate 17,000 jobs by the end of next year and reduce expenses by at least $1 billion annually. The move announced Tuesday by the New York company, the nation's most profitable bank in 2012 and the biggest U.S. lender by assets, will reduce its staff by 6.5% in one of the most aggressive reductions to date amid widespread financial-industry cutbacks.

OAKLAND, CA—Federal agents arrested Matthew Aaron Llaneza, age 28, of San Jose, California, this morning after he allegedly attempted to detonate a vehicle-borne explosive device at a bank branch in Oakland. Llaneza’s arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation during which he was closely monitored by the FBI’s South Bay Joint Terrorism Task Force. Unbeknownst to Llaneza, the explosive device that he allegedly attempted to use had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public. Llaneza was charged this morning by criminal complaint with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against property...

JERUSALEM, Israel - Areas of Biblical Judea and Samaria (West Bank) under the Palestinian Authority rule could end up with a regime change like that in Egypt or a shaking like what is going on in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Speaking at the start of a Bible study at his home, Netanyahu likened the current situation in the Middle East to the beginning of the portion of the Jewish Bible (Torah -- first five books of the Bible) being studied this week. "Now there arose a new king over Egypt," Netanyahu said, quoting the passage from Exodus...

Handpicked Bank Fails Schools' Testby Paul C. Clark Staff Writer December 13, 2012 The administration of Guilford County School Superintendent Mo Green has killed an effort by the Guilford County Board of Education's four black members to divert taxpayer money from the banks Guilford County Schools usually uses to Durham-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank. After pressure from school board members Sandra Alexander, Deena Hayes, Carlvena Foster and Amos Quick, the school board in September voted unanimously to consider overriding the way it invests the taxpayer money it holds to steer money to one bank: the Greensboro branch of the black-owned,...

European Union finance ministers reached an agreement early Thursday to create a single supervisor for their banks - one of the most significant transfers of authority from national governments to regional authorities since the creation of the euro currency. Under the deal, banks with more than $39 billion in assets supervised or those that represent a significant proportion of their national economies will be placed under the oversight of the European Central Bank. The deal gives the ECB broad powers, including the ability to grant and withdraw banking licenses, investigate institutions, and financially sanction banks that don't follow the rules.

JERUSALEM — Israel responded swiftly Friday to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, revealing it will build 3,000 more homes for Jews on Israeli-occupied lands that the world body overwhelmingly said belong to the Palestinians. The plans also include future construction in a strategic area of the West Bank where critics have long warned that Jewish settlements would kill hopes for a viable Palestinian state. Israel's moves served as a harsh reminder to Palestinians – euphoric over the U.N. upgrade – that while they now have a state on paper, most of it remains very much under Israeli control. "This...

Kabul Bank became Afghanistan’s largest financial institution by offering the promise of modern banking to people who had never had a saving or checking account. What it really dealt in was modern theft: “From its very beginning,” according to a confidential forensic audit of Kabul Bank, “the bank was a well-concealed Ponzi scheme.” Afghan and American officials had for years promoted Kabul Bank as a prime example of how Western-style banking was transforming a war-ravaged economy. But the audit, prepared this year for Afghanistan’s central bank by the Kroll investigative firm, gives new details of how the bank instead was...

You always hear stories of people pulling guns on bank tellers, but what about the other way around? When was the last time that you heard of a bank manager holding a bank robber at gun point? Peoples Bank & Trust President David W. Thompson of St. Louis, Missouri, turned the tables on a gun-toting thief with a weapon of his own. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that it started the same way that most robberies start: a masked-man walked into a bank, held up the place, and then walked out with a bag full of loot. He should have...

TROY, Mo. • David W. Thompson, the president of a Troy bank, was in his office Tuesday afternoon talking with a salesman about advertising when his receptionist buzzed him with an emergency. "David, we've got a problem," she told him. Thompson said he looked out his office window into the bank lobby of Peoples Bank & Trust. He saw that his tellers looked fearful. And he saw a man wearing a heavy jacket and a ghoulish Halloween mask calmly walk away from the tellers, carrying one of the bank's money bags. Thompson, 58, followed the man outside, onto the parking...

The latest executive order (EO) emanating from the White House October 9 now claims the power to freeze all bank accounts and stop any related financial transactions that a “sanctioned person” may own or try to perform — all in the name of “Iran Sanctions.” Titled an “Executive Order from the President regarding Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions…” the order says that if an individual is declared by the president, the secretary of state, or the secretary of the treasury to be a “sanctioned person,” he (or she) will be unable to obtain access to his accounts, will be...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Free Beacon: Wasserman hails DNC's $8 million partnership with SEIU bankBy: Devonia Smith September 21, 2012 Friday, The Free Beacon, reported the Democratic National Committee, (DNC) is in hock to the tune of $8 million to "Amalgamated Bank, often described as “America’s Labor Bank," whose majority ownership is Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to the Beacon, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), "hailed" DNC's banking move because of a “fiduciary responsibility to those who invest in our party.” **SNIP** Not only will the Democrats owe the union for their support; they will now owe real money. Some think thinks this kind...

On Thursday, members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis took a tour of the Bakken area. The trips was planned so that Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota and his staff could gather more information on what is currently happening in the region from an economic standpoint. “Obviously, what’s happening here in the Bakken —we took a tour today between Minot and Williston—is quite special,” said Kocherlakota in meeting with the press after the tour. “Just the level of economic vitality is quite different her relative to anywhere else.” With all the struggles in the national economy, western North Dakota is...