Shortly before US President Barack Obama's visit to Berlin, Germans are troubled by questions regarding the extent to which the United States monitors Internet traffic worldwide. Is it true, as the media claim, that the United States can access and track virtually every form of communication on the Internet at the source? The Guardian and the Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) could gain direct access to and read user data with the so-called "Prism" program. An unnamed intelligence officer was quoted by the Washington Post as saying that the NSA could "quite literally … watch your ideas form as you type."

Internet giants like Facebook and Google were quick to issue denials, saying that they do not release any information without a court order. But doubts remain. These reports are deeply disconcerting. When viewed in its entirety, this massive effort to acquire information, if it is true, would be dangerous.

On the weekend, President Obama reacted by saying that it is impossible to have 100 percent security and 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. I don't share this view. The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is. In a democratic constitutional state, security is not an end in itself, but serves to secure freedom.

Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, and reduced his overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel. With 70% of the US economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett’s apparent lack of faith in these companies’ future prospects is worrisome. Unfortunately Buffett isn’t alone.

Fellow billionaire John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of US stocks too. During the second quarter of the year, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co, dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase. The fund also dumped its entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker Sara Lee. Finally, billionaire George Soros recently sold nearly all of his bank stocks, including shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Between the three banks, Soros sold more than a million shares.

So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of US companies? It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.

In the interview for his latest blockbuster Aftershock, Wiedemer says the 90% drop in the stock market is “a worst-case scenario,” and the host quickly challenged this claim. Wiedemer calmly laid out a clear explanation of why a large drop of some sort is a virtual certainty. It starts with the reckless strategy of the Federal Reserve to print a massive amount of money out of thin air in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

“These funds haven’t made it into the markets and the economy yet. But it is a mathematical certainty that once the dam breaks, and this money passes through the reserves and hits the markets, inflation will surge,” said Wiedemer. “Once you hit 10% inflation, 10-year Treasury bonds lose about half their value. And by 20%, any value is all but gone. Interest rates will increase dramatically at this point, and that will cause real estate values to collapse. And the stock market will collapse as a consequence of these other problems.”

But since it was first spotted in Houston in 2002, it has spread to some 21 counties in Texas, 20 counties in Florida and a few locations in Mississippi and Louisiana. University of Texas researcher and co-author of a study on the creatures Ed LeBrun said the omnivorous ants attack and kill other species as well as monopolizing food sources to the detriment of the entire ecosystem.

The insects, bizarrely, are attracted to electrical wiring and components and in one year alone caused $146.5 million in damages in Texas, ABC reported. The devastation occurs when one ant discovers the transformer then gets electrocuted when it touches it, and 'waves its abdomen in the air' omitting a certain scent.

The scent lures ants to the scene and they too are electrocuted, again sending the scent into the air to attract their friends. Eventually, there are so many dead ants that the electric switches get stuck or the insulation fries and the system shuts down.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Germany's Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe will rule on the euro crisis aid measure that Draghi announced last fall. As Draghi and his monetary experts on the executive floor of the bank were told by their constitutional experts long ago, this court decision could have an enormous impact on the bank's policies - and potentially spell the end of the euro.

Over the past few months, Draghi and the heads of government in the European capitals have felt confident about the outcome of the impending ruling. After all, the judges in Karlsruhe have always ultimately endorsed Germany's contributions to euro-zone bailout programs. Nevertheless, the list of questions compiled by the judges for this week's deliberations indicates that everything may be at stake this time around.

When Draghi recently visited French President François Hollande in Paris, the main topic of discussion was not the state of the French economy or Southern Europe, but rather the question of what will happen in Karlsruhe. Only one hour by train away from Frankfurt, a conflict is brewing that already appeared to have been resolved last autumn.

According to Roberts’ number crunching, here’s how the bulk of those jobs break down: retail, 27,700; wholesale trade, 7,900; ambulatory health care services, 15,300; servers and bartenders, 38,100; local government, 13,000; amusement, gambling and recreation, 12,500; temporary help, 25,600; business support services, 4,300; services to buildings and residences, 6,400; accounting and bookkeeping, 3,100; architecture and engineering, 4,900; computer systems and related, 6,000; management and technical consulting, 3,200.

“For a decade this has been the jobs profile of ‘the world’s most powerful economy’,” Roberts points out. “It is the profile of third world India 40 years ago. The jobs that made the US the dominant economy have been moved offshore by corporations threatened by Wall Street with takeovers if they did not increase their profits.”

The United States now has more hotel maids, bartenders and servers than manufacturing workers, Roberts notes. “The US has twice as many people employed in government than in manufacturing,” and virtually no new jobs for the “vast number” of recent college graduates.

US troops equipped with Patriot missiles and fighter jets began military exercises in Jordan that have drawn condemnation from Russia, which accuses the West of fanning the conflict in neighboring Syria. Washington confirmed last week it was sending the F-16 jets and missiles - which can be used against planes and other missiles - to its ally Jordan, and said it may consider keeping them there after the drills. Both Washington and Amman said on Sunday the Eager Lion exercises were not related to the war in Syria, where President Bashar Assad's air power has given him an edge over lighter-armed rebels.

But the Damascus government, and its most powerful ally Moscow, have been sensitive about any transfer of Western arms closer to the conflict, particularly any gear that could be used to enforce a no-fly zone. More than 4,500 American troops, around 3,000 Jordanians, and 500 soldiers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and other countries were taking part in the exercises, less than 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Syrian border, said military officials.

US Major General Robert G Catalanotti told a joint news conference the Eager Lion events would increase "our ability to operate together in any upcoming contingency". The exercises also involved a number of F-18 jets from bases in the Gulf and drills on handling chemical strikes, which Syria's government and rebels have accused each other of carrying out.

True, this isn’t a bubble in the classic sense of markets holding unrealistic expectations (as they did, for instance, during the dotcom boom). It arises as a result of the correct perception of official policy. But the extent of the distortion this has caused in the bond markets is quite remarkable.

Of course, it is possible that the bond market crisis could occur sooner. The most likely cause of this, in my view, would be a surprisingly strong economic recovery. This is a situation where the first interest rate rise, even though it was only 0.25 percent, would have a disproportionate effect as market operators speculated about how soon the next rise might occur.

Any change in interest rate perceptions would be extremely dangerous. Both individuals and the corporate sector would start to fret about the implications. The effects could be particularly serious in the housing market – just as it was entering a recovery phase.

If and when the euro crisis flares up again – and I am pretty sure that it will – you will see a flurry of funds pouring into gilts “for safety”. Yet, looked at over the medium term, gilts are just about the most unsafe asset around. They may well be OK for a while yet, but when the bond bubble bursts, a lot of people are going to get hurt.

A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.

Recent studies laud homeschoolers’ academic success, noting their significantly higher ACT-Composite scores as high schoolers and higher grade point averages as college students. Yet surprisingly, the average expenditure for the education of a homeschooled child, per year, is $500 to $600, compared to an average expenditure of $10,000 per child, per year, for public school students.

The high achievement level of homeschoolers is readily recognized by recruiters from some of the best colleges in the nation. Home-educated children matriculate in colleges and attain a four-year degree at much higher rates than their counterparts from both public and private schools. Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke Universities all actively recruit homeschoolers.

The German government is toughening its stance on economic refugees from Bulgaria and Romania, who it says have become a burden on social services. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told an audience of his European counterparts in Luxembourg on Friday that Germany will take measures to prevent poor immigrants from the two Eastern European countries from entering the country under false pretences to collect welfare benefits.

Friedrich says that those who are found defrauding social services will be expelled from the country, despite the fact that they are granted the right to work and travel throughout the member states as citizens of the European Union. They will also be banned from returning to Germany for a certain length of time, Friedrich added, saying: "Then, if they are picked up somewhere, they can be kicked out of the country again with little hassle, and this is crucial."

Speaking to Egypt's state news agency MENA two days after the Ethiopian government flatly rejected a request from Cairo to halt the project, Mohamed Kamel Amr said Egyptians view any obstacle to the river's flow as a threat to national survival. "No Nile - no Egypt," he said, highlighting the pressure on the Egyptian government, whose popularity is wilting in the face of economic troubles, to prevent the hydro power plant cutting already stretched water supplies for its 84 million people.

Countries that share the Nile have long argued over the use of its waters, repeatedly raising fears that the disputes could eventually boil over into war. Egypt, struggling with a shortage of cash and bitter internal political divisions following a 2011 revolution, called on Ethiopia to stop work after engineers began diverting the course of the Blue Nile late last month.

In Addis Ababa, a government spokesman called that request a "non-starter" and dismissed threats from Cairo of "sabotage" and "destabilization", saying attempts by Egypt under its previous military rulers to undermine Ethiopian leaders had failed.

In Turkey, there are always at least two truths. On Taksim Square in Istanbul, and on the streets of many other cities in 77 of Turkey's 81 provinces, the prevailing truth is that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is curtailing civil rights, governing in an autocratic manner and is trying to force his conservative religious values on the population.

That is the truth motivating tens of thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets for six days, despite tear-gas and truncheon attacks by police. The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) estimates that three people have died and more than 4,000 have been wounded during the protests. There are no reliable figures regarding the number of arrests.

But there is another truth in Kasimpasa, the former dockyard area of Istanbul where Erdogan grew up, and in other more religious parts of the city and in villages throughout the country. In these areas the prevailing truth is that rioters, who have possibly been incited by opposition leaders and foreigners, are running wild and wrecking the cities, waging a campaign against Islam and vilifying the lone politician deserving of praise.

The police, in this view, are only reacting so brutally because they are forced to. Members of Erdogan's base live in these areas. They make up the 50 percent of Turkish voters who bestowed a victory on his Justice and Development Party (AKP) two years ago.

In fact, most Americans actually saw little to negative growth in their net worth over this period. Even more problematic is the emergence of a permanent working poor in spite of a booming stock market. Over 47 million Americans are still receiving food stamps on a monthly basis. Not only has this number remained high, there is now an economy that is building up around servicing the needs of this large constituency.

Why wouldn’t there be a new booming market here? Nearly one out of every six Americans is on food assistance in the most prosperous country in the world. Doesn’t exactly go hand in hand with the perception of a record breaking stock market. Is the US and the current economy developing a permanent under-class of citizens?

It is abundantly clear that very little of this freed up money flowed into the working and middle class. In reality more and more of the wealth in the country is flowing into the hands of a few. In 1989, 32 percent of all the wealth in the US was held by those in the 0 to 90 percentile of income. Today it is merely 25 percent. And the top one percent is holding a much larger share showing that the inequality when it comes to wealth is only getting larger.

The massive ordnance penetrator, as the weapon is called, has cost $500 million to develop, and can be dropped from B-2 stealth bombers. The 13-ton weapon travels at twice the speed of sound and can puncture up to 200 feet of concrete. The report states that it is accurate to within 16 feet.

Experts believe that the US communicated the test results in order to convince Israel of their resolve to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons, and to dissuade Israel from launching a pre-emptive strike.