Free Republic

Norwegian bank Storebrand is offering new ‘halal loans’ based on Islamic principles. The bank recently created a website promoting ‘ethical loans’ for home financing without interest. The bank writes that it is testing the idea of interest-free loans in part to appeal to Muslim home buyers who may not want to accept a traditional loan because of their faith. Islam prohibits charging interest or fees on financial loans. “We wanted to find out if there could be another way to enter a housing market with rising prices. The product could appeal to young people, new graduates or people who can...

Big banks shouldn't act like hedge funds by making dangerous bets that can ruin the economy. That's the principle behind the Volcker Rule, a controversial part of the post-crisis Wall Street reform. The rule prohibits banks like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan from making risky wagers with their own money and bans them owning big stakes in hedge funds or private-equity firms. The banks hate it. Wall Street has bitterly complained about the Volcker Rule for years... ...named after legendary Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who came up with the idea and fought hard to include it in Dodd-Frank. But recently,...

The Ukrainian government announced on Sunday that it will nationalize PrivatBank, the country's biggest lender, in one of the biggest shake-ups of the banking system since the country plunged into political and economic turmoil two years ago. In a statement late on Sunday, the government made no mention of the size of the potential burden to the state budget, but said it would ensure a stable transition and the smooth functioning of the bank. The Finance Ministry will take over PrivatBank, which is part-owned by one of Ukraine's richest men, the powerful oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said...

Regulations: Donald Trump will have a busy first day if he plans to undo much of the damage inflicted on the economy by President Obama. Nevertheless, here's one more item to add to his list: Overturn $1.7 billion in Dodd-Frank rules. The Dodd-Frank financial "reform," passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in 2010, is arguably the most misguided and economically harmful piece of legislation ever imposed on the country (the second, arguably, is ObamaCare). As we've noted in this space before, one of the main reasons the economy has been stuck in neutral for the past...

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed. Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more. Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world. That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia....

Amid scenes of panic across India, following PM Modi's shock decision to withdraw high-value bills in the middle of the sowing and wedding season, Reuters reports the move, aimed at cracking down on the shadow economy, has brought India's cash economy to a virtual standstill. With over 90% of all transactions done in cash, money flows in and out of the black-and-white system... until now, as Devangshu Datta exclaims, "The system works because everybody believes that those pieces of paper will be accepted by everybody else... This move has shaken that trust." Farmers have been left stranded as traders have...

"He finally broke and he walked them through what he had done. "They totted up his losses and by Sunday night they worked out that the losses were about £1.2 billion. The bank's bosses decided it had to cancel the bets immediately when the markets opened on Monday. "They started unwinding them on Monday morning - but because the market was failing the £1.2 billion loss became a £3.7 billion loss." Some senior City figures said the "positions" were so huge that dumping them on one day could have been enough to trigger Monday's stock market meltdown, the worst since...

The soon-to-be White House chief strategist laid out a global vision in a rare 2014 talk, one where he said racism in the far right gets “washed out” and called Vladimir Putin a kleptocrat. BuzzFeed News publishes the complete transcript for the first time.

The British spy whose body was found padlocked inside a bag in his flat had illegally hacked into secret data on former U.S. president Bill Clinton, it has been revealed. Gareth Williams, 31, was discovered in a holdall in the bath at his London home five years ago this month, but the mystery surrounding his death has never been solved. Today, it has been revealed the spy had dug out a guest list for an event Clinton was due to attend as a favour for a friend. The hack breached Mr Williams' security clearance and this sparked anger among MI6...

Snips from excerpt only website: His body was found in an extra-large North Face bag, a type which is favoured by explorers because of its 140 litres of storage capacity, durable material, double stitching, twin haul handles and locking zips.  Erotic asphyxiation is defined as the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. There were also rumours that Mr Williams was the victim of a professional ‘hit’. Other theories included the suggestion that he had been murdered by Russian agents.  Tests on his body were ordered to establish whether he was poisoned, as happened when Polonium 210...

Sources have told this newspaper that Britain's intelligence services – MI6, MI5 and GCHQ – are liaising closely to establish whether Gareth Williams was targeted by a foreign power. The 31-year-old was seconded from GCHQ to work on top-secret systems to defend British banks and transport infrastructure from cyber attack and to eavesdrop on terrorist communications.

Every time Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky mentions "Republicans" and "scandal" and "accountability," she'll be sticking her husband's foot in her mouth. The foot I'm talking about belongs to her spousal unit, Robert Creamer, the noted champion of the poor and the downtrodden and Democratic political organizer. Creamer's judge was U.S. District Court Judge James Moran, the former Democratic state legislator from Evanston. Moran's son-in-law is Democratic political consultant Peter Giangreco, who has worked politics with Creamer and Schakowsky and had a seat on the board of one of Creamer's many organizations. Judge Moran says he thought about recusing himself...

RT UK’s bank accounts have been blocked, RT’s editor-in-chief reported. The National Westminster Bank has informed RT UK that it will no longer have the broadcaster among its clients. The bank provided no explanation for the decision. “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities,” NatWest said in a letter to RT’s London office. The bank said that the entire Royal Bank of Scotland Group, of which NatWest is part of, would refuse to service RT. More in linkhttps://www.rt.com/news/363013-rt-uk-accounts-blocked/ Bank accounts of Russian state...

The Shackles are Off! WikiLeaks Highlight Reel LIVE Saturday (10/15) 8 AM EST!!! The line of the week goes to Donald J. Trump, who declared “the shackles are off!” He was talking about the shackles imposed on him by the politically correct GOP and the Hillary campaigning media. Yes, despite WikiLeaks releasing thousands of emails proving that Hillary Clinton is indeed a crook, indeed a liar, indeed two-faced, and indeed guilty regarding Benghazi, somehow the media tells us that Trump is one who’s in trouble. And the sad thing is, the brainwashed, intellectually deficient among us believe it. We’ll also...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States moved Wednesday to recover more than $1 billion that federal officials say was stolen from a Malaysian economic development fund and that was used for high-end real estate, fancy artwork and production of the Hollywood film, "The Wolf of Wall Street." The diverted funds paid for luxury properties in New York and California, a $35 million private jet and expensive paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, according to federal government complaints that demand the recovery and forfeiture of the ill-gotten assets. The complaints, filed in Los Angeles, allege a complex money laundering...

Nearly six years ago, President George W. Bush declared Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri an enemy combatant and had him swept out of federal court and into a U.S. Navy brig so he could be interrogated without the legal protections afforded by the criminal justice system. Bush said the Qatari national, arrested as a material witness in Illinois in December 2001, possessed critical intelligence that "would aid U.S. efforts to prevent attacks by al-Qaeda on the United States." In an agreement Marri entered Thursday in Peoria, Ill., he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda and admitted to...

Posted: Nov 13, 2009 3:14 PM Updated: Nov 13, 2009 3:15 PM MARION, IL (KFVS) - SNIPPET: "Ali Al-Marri, 43, is serving an eight year sentence for being a so called "sleeper agent." He has admitted to training in Al-Qaeda camps and having contact with the alleged planner of the September 11th attacks."

Problematic, in a very big way even if the offer was made.Qatar’s ties to Al Qaeda and ISIS aren’t news. They’ve effectively served as intermediaries in everything from ransom exchanges for hostages to Taliban negotiations. But actually trying to secure terrorist swaps for prisoners on their own behalf would have been a new frontier. Before he was released from a U.S. maximum-security prison last week, a confessed al Qaeda sleeper agent was offered up in a potential prisoner swap that would have freed two Americans held abroad.According to two individuals with direct knowledge of the case, the proposition was...

Leaked Transcripts of Hillary Clinton's Closed Door Paid Speeches Reveal What Clinton's Title Should Actually Be, (D-Wall Street) "Hillary Clinton's secret Wall Street speeches prove what we have known all along - that Clinton is a self-serving Washington insider who has continued to deceive the American people for 30 years. Now we finally get confirmation of Clinton’s catastrophic plans for completely open borders and diminishing America’s influence in the world. There is a reason Clinton gave these high-paid speeches in secret behind closed doors - her real intentions will destroy American sovereignty as we know it, further illustrating why Hillary...

Wells Fargo Employees Say They Were Fired for Being Whistleblowers Wells Fargo fired 5,300 employees for creating fake accounts and pin numbers, but several former employees say they were fired for a far different reason: whistleblowing. "They ruined my life," Bill Bado, a former employee in Pennsylvania, told CNNMoney this week, explaining that he was fired after calling an ethics hotline and sending an email to Wells Fargo's human resources department in 2013 to report he'd been ordered to open fake accounts. Eight days after he sent his email, Bado was fired from his job, under the grounds of tardiness....