theDrahos

Do you have what it takes to scheme your way to the top with the brutal force of Frank Underwood in House of Cards? Now a 15-minute test could help you find out by measuring your dark, Machiavellian qualities against other personality traits. The test provides 100 simple statements such as ‘I would be quite bored by a visit to an art gallery’ and ‘I feel reasonably satisfied with myself overall.’ Take the test below or click here You then have to rate how much you agree with each statement from a scale of ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Along … Continue reading →

One week ago we reported that, according to Greek sources, Greece had suffered a “massive” deposit outflow to the tune of €700 million just last Friday, culminating a week of €3.4 billion in total outflows following the acrimonious failure by the Greek government to reach a deal with the Troika. This was confirmed by Wednesday’s news that Greek banks had received another weekly boost in their ELA allottment, the biggest since February, amounting to €2.3 billion and bringing the total to a record €83 billion. … even as deposits continued to slide inexorably toward parity with the ECB’s funding of … Continue reading →

The time is 360 BC, the dawn of Western civilization. Athens, the cradle of democracy, is the epicenter of the ancient world. In his dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, Plato introduces a tale of an advanced prehistoric civilization, which since has captivated the imagination of every generation that followed. This was the story of Atlantis, an idyllic island paradise of skillful navigators who often crossed the Atlantic to explore. Atlantis, according to Plato, was ultimately lost to the sea. Its memory, though, was not soon forgotten. For two millennia, people unsuccessfully kept on searching for the legendary island, making Atlantis … Continue reading →

Riyadh’s increasingly destructive war in Yemen has sparked overripe discussion in Western capitals about Iran’s use of “proxies” to subvert otherwise “legitimate” Middle Eastern governments. Driving such discussion is a self-serving narrative, promoted by Israel as well as by Saudi Arabia, about Tehran’s purported quest to “destabilize” and, ultimately, “take over” the region. Assessments of this sort have, of course, been invoked to justify — and elicit Western support for — Saudi intervention in Yemen. More broadly, the Israeli-Saudi narrative about Iranian ambitions is framed to prevent the United States from concluding a nuclear deal with Tehran — or, failing that, to … Continue reading →

In an interview with ET Now, Jim Rogers, commodity expert, shares his views on the currency market. Edited excerpts: ET Now: What is your sense on the US dollar versus most currencies? Where do you see the currency market headed towards? Jim Rogers: I own the US dollar. It is my largest single currency. I do not have any confidence in the US dollar as a sound currency. It is one of the most flawed currencies in the world. US is the largest debtor nation in world history and it is getting even worse. I own it because there is … Continue reading →

Veteran investigative journalist Jefferson Morley observes concerning the American Deep State: “America is ruled by a parallel system of power that operates above and in some ways below our system of democratic governance,” says David Talbot in this engaging conversation with University of California-Berkeley professor/poet/diplomat Peter Dale Scott. Scott’s provocative conception of a “deep politics” and a “deep state” within the American democratic system, first articulated in the 1990s, has gained credibility over the years. After the revelations of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden, everyone who wants to can see that U.S. national security agencies have the latitude to pursue their chosen … Continue reading →