United States

One of the more impressive short squeezes in recent history took place in the first two weeks of March, when the stock of distressed Peabody Energy, the largest U.S. coal producer which employs 8,300 workers, exploded higher from just $2.50 per share at the start of the month to a whopping $6.50 just last week.

Many scratched their heads at this move as nothing fundamental had changed in the company's deteriorating operations, and its bonds are among the most distressed issues trading currently (with upcoming interest payments as we profiled last night).

Today Janet Yellen and the FOMC will go back to square one and try to reset global expectations unleashed by the ill-fated December rate "policy mistake" hike, when at 2pm the Fed will announce assessment of the economy (even if not rate hike is expected today) followed by Yellen press conference half an hour later.

Authored by Eric Zuesse,

On March 14th, Iran announced that it will never pay the $10.5B that a U.S. court demanded it pay for the 9/11 attacks.

President Barack Obama rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s urges to launch secret missile attacks inside Syria without the United States admitting responsibility. In recent months and without success, Kerry has sought to get Obama’s approval for cruise missile strikes against the Syrian government. Kerry’s strategy in promoting the Syrian peace negotiations in recent months was based on much heavier pressure on the Assad regime to agree that President Bashar al-Assad must step down than was apparent.

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,