because it is definitely the financial winner in the united states started the year at about thirteen dollars and peaked at twelve hundred additionally congress held hearings on virtual currencies last month where federal regulatory officials recognized the benefits of a big coin closing the year on a very positive note anyone invested in the virtual currency did very well and twenty thirteen the biggest loser this year is the middle class this year alone at their quantitative easing the federal reserve spent about a trillion dollars in bond purchases which is devaluing the u.s. dollar and of course it's also henares the country's reputation on the world stage and helped lead to the talks of a possible debt default during the partial government shutdown anyone on a fixed income has been negatively affected by the feds and place an area policy area in washington for us we're not going to cross the pond and check in with mr peta all of your correspondents to tell us how those twenty. you're looking at

the dates of the business at the end of twenty thirteen in the eurozone and things can look quite russi it. all does appear to be across all of the nations in the monetary union however when you look at it on the nation by nation basis you see that's not the case there's clear when is unclear loses when it comes to witness the rights here in germany both large and small scale manufacturers have seen increases in the old and the old as they're receiving particular when it comes to the old to most of industry for asian markets but they've been targeting particularly hard when you look at the loses though just across the border into france the eurozone second biggest economy well they've seen steady contraction of the business to something to chew to be a worry heading into twenty fourteen into the still serious economic problems in countries like greece spain and portugal and the end of year report really really good with germany but the. we need to do better oh new year warning there from mr

page to all of our reporting from bali and just let's now go next door on the map and join alexy our chefs he's been covering the events in kiev the trade will situation ever since i saw alexei twenty thirteen has seen ukraine pushed into the global spotlight but for all the wrong ways as could you summarize the country's situation they see it for us. well in a van burned early december it seemed that ukraine would be a big time loser this year canonically the country's economy was in a pretty fold state trade relations with russia folded which seriously affected the economic situation in the country all add that to a huge external debt of more than one hundred thirty six billion dollars it was cited as the main reason why give did not sign the euro so sation deal fearing that the country's economy might bludgeon to further abyss all that caused massive unrest the blockade of governmental buildings and that's why the budget for twenty

fourteen could not have been passed for a some time but two weeks before new year the president a call which went to moscow and signed several agreements moscow promised to invest fifteen billion dollars into ukrainian bonds and eventually the budget has been passed and we can say that at the end of the ukraine might eventually turn out to be winners economically especially comparing to the situation in september and in the summer alexei yes yes the report saying in kiev for us rocking out twenty thirteen for ukraine look at m.l. rive back in moscow we legal case going off is to tell us what russia has achieved and what the country didn't manage to achieve in twenty thirteen eagle far away. well it's been a year of broken illusions for russia sort of with optimism though with the government talking about an annual growth rate of five percent but then it was taken down to just one point four percent this year so what words are all simply russia is no longer immune to the global slow which means there is

a weaker demand for russian export or domestic demand has been weak as well and investment recovery hasn't happened while promises for an infrastructure all remain just that promises but it's not all that bad at all the positive side russia's campaign against corruption has made progress in an effort to tackle offshore accounts bureaucrats were banned from possessing bank accounts of broad also the government is talking about introducing stricter penalties for firms of voiding domestic taxes thirty russian banks were shut down since they couldn't meet their new quality standards so in overall growth has been the loser but the winner has been russia's ongoing campaign against corruption you go there reporting from most as you can see just outside the kremlin and saying with russia that the biggest winner personified for twenty thirty you must mikhail khodorkovsky once russia's richest man he was pardoned by president vladimir putin now the oil tycoon the

former u.k. is oil company chief has spent ten years in prison for economic crimes including oil embezzlement but was freed on humanitarian reasons as his mother and this is putin's final much in twenty thirteen to improve the investment climate in russia the theme of anti corruption greed of law ongoing now moving on the saxo bank house released its annual outrageous predictions for the year ahead and these are the ones i think the most outrageous because there were ten in texas i've picked five out so easy wealth tax harold to return a soviet style a con of a us the first one so with growth still pretty flat well taxes have paid. savings over one hundred thousand euros will be in force in a move towards equality for all that. alliance will become the largest group in parliament yes so well you don't need me to tell you that this would mean that

political and economic turmoil and perhaps the end of the union and that stuff is the text fact five wake up to a nasty hangover in twenty four t. so with the huge wealth of amazon netflix twitter pandora media yelp could this be set to. brant crude drops to a c dollars a barrel that produces a fail to respond this would be a disaster for russia now all things to the non-conventional methods and increased saudi arabian as well then the fifth one i chose i'm probably in my opinion is the most outrageous i was most shocked by this one in particular so you're a powerhouse germany in recession what yet shocking stuff by let's get straight to saxo bank chief economist right now steyn jacobson to shed some light on these scenarios and i want to start and ask you about the e.u.

a wealth tax was all about also likelihood of this happening. thing is very likely it's already been tabled by the i.m.f. . as an indication of what is needed in europe europe needs of course as we also saw with the bangin deal this week is to secure a certain amount of funds that can be used to recapitalize the banking system and also paul do we get nations so i mean the european economy has moved pretty much to almost to a soviet style me with planned economy and i think this will be the final straw confiscating wealth from europeans so if you've got money high debt and moving on and c.e.o. alliance will become the largest group in parliament now this is why i am not kids and the union completely. yes was what you probably noticed is that in the in england in the u.k. the u.k.i.p. party u.k.

independent party is now bigger than the tories exactly this european parliamentary election similar in france maybe le pen is having strong we need to her cells and the far right in holland which also represent the end in see he's also doing his two year old son in polls so by end of may we could have a situation potentially where the biggest or the second biggest fraction of the european parliament would lead the n.t.e.u. vote which runs contrary to what the e.u. commission and most of the politicians once of course because they want more europe not less but it seems like the voters one is exactly the opposite to certainly one less europe not more people who got the text five wake up to not stay hangover in twenty forty because i've had a great year. yeah they had a phenomenal year and it's what is interesting is that we're not actually saying the technology is expensive where we are saying is that these names which is

household names the names that people recognize the people use that ones are the bigger risk of the bigger risk comes from the fact that when they buy technology they tend to buy what they do know and that's for sure trying to point out so take amazon the c.e.o. basis may be the most brilliant businessmen in the world but they do not justify that you prefer a hundred dollars for every one dollar of a profit the the company generates is simply got to expenses or in the language of language you just used to fat. listen this was particularly worrying the next one the eighty out dollars a barrel for the crude oil because obviously i'm talking to you from moscow here and he dependent stocks people could be sweating all over the place what's going to happen that's quite worrying. it is but if you think about it it's actually quite lucky girl because already right now in the w t i the u.s.

space production easy extremely cheap and trading at a discount of fifteen to twenty dollars from the brenda oil but if you look at the brendel itself of course the bigger risk or the positive risk if you think it geopolitical glooms is that the rain comes on line in terms of production again on top of that you have libya you have a summit number of the other countries that or the past couple of years has seen a much smaller production relatively if they do come on line and that the same time as i do expect that slightly we get global growth if you have almost a perfect storm in terms of price and as you correctly say there will be a challenge to not only russia but certainly to most of the middle east absolutely what's in that month or so now this one from a was my personal most outrageous one. in recess and what's out because they've done very well this is the powerhouse of year out that's scaring a. it is but it is again i don't think is that farfetched do not forget that the

reason why you're a bad certainly germany did so well fearing through this crisis is simple fact that the merchant decided to ramp up their investments all the way up to a significant part of the g.d.p. so they overly invested a lot of that investment they do do of course is german costs german production and then at the same time at home you now have minimum wage you have the most expensive electricity in the world you have seven million working poor so germany looks better on the surface than it does on the nice and i think that is what is coming to to the to the it should come into full light in terms of twenty fourteen germany is already slowing down on the need but right now reporting top line very well staying jacobs and that joining us from sachs a bank hoping to ask about the outrageous predictions for twenty fourteen which apparently also just all feels lovely guy thank you for joining me is indeed the last twenty that was see you next day.

these are big jumps out here braving the elements in order to stand on the u.s. oil giants chevron. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some have dubbed the gulag of our times. it's an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines .

unexplored antarctica what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. along with you know now i only go to the doctor. and enter into. a new generation of polar explorers is coming. we have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other and i don't know. do. i used to be a bureaucrat. seriously. what adventures await in this mysterious land where do they live what do they eat and what are they actually doing in antarctica .

the league's u.s. regime change manual exposes interference in ukraine and beyond coming up. chilling pentagon plans reveal systematic combining the word throw of democracy. why is john kerry's assistant handing out candy to fanatical riders bulldozing people and injuring hundreds in unprovoked attacks. and i warning washington's quote. star sat on a world war. when western colonizers of the twentieth century and coaxing shanghaied to build and chinese they didn't submit to folks back home they were racists enslaving whole

nations and will bring their resources they reassure the public through mainstream media that they will quote civilising the natives to trick the soviet twenty first century public school and you know the quote pretext has become even more caring but in practice the west continuing to overturn governments throughout the world and install puppet regimes america's current destabilization of ukraine's government writes washington based on this new push your mileage is following the white house regime change manual to the letter tip of the icebergs u.s. senators like mccain flying to kiev and joining the protesters while assistant secretary of state victoria nuland hands them out and these the reality is top u.s. officials already calling for sanctions against the country which would hit exactly the ordinary people they claim to be intervening for is accompanied by his their recall corporate media.