The fifth anniversary of Zero Hedge is just around the corner, and so, for the fifth year in a row we continue our tradition of summarizing what you, our readers, found to be the most relevant, exciting, and actionable news of the year, determined objectively by the number of page views. Those eager for a brief stroll down memory lane of prior years can do so at their leisure, by going back in time to our top articles of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. For everyone else, without further ado, these are the articles that readers found to be the most popular posts of the past 365 days.

Read more: 2013 Greatest Hits: Presenting The Most Popular Posts Of The Past Year | Zero Hedge.

The Metadata Program in Eleven Documents
THE NEW YORKER | DECEMBER 31, 2013
http://pulse.me/s/JfQrh

By the end of 2013, a great number of documents revealed the once-secret history of the National Security Agency’s telephone-metadata program, which, Read more

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http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/31/40000-new-laws-take-effect-in-2014/

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/and-country-posing-greatest-threat-peace-2013-ends

Just Two Words From Apple On The NSA’s iPhone Hacking Show How The Tech Community Now Hates The NSA (AAPL)
BUSINESS INSIDER TECH | DECEMBER 31, 2013
http://pulse.me/s/K13a0

If Walmart or McDonald’s began describing the Obama Administration as an unconstitutional threat to the privacy of its customers, it would be front pa… Read more

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http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/12/pbs-drops-a-bombshell-on-the-federal-reserve%E2%80%99s-100th-birthday-party/

via ▶ Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up – YouTube.

Wal-Mart

Wage Rage: How Good Intentions Lead to Unemployment – YouTube.

Rowan Bosworth-Davies:

As a nation we are sliding inexorably down a slippery moral slope to a place where integrity, honesty, human decency and just plain, simple ethical conduct will have no meaning and no identity!

Last week, it was announced that U.S. regulators have fined Royal Bank of Scotland $100 million for breaches of U.S. sanctions against Iran, Sudan, and elsewhere.

Continued: Rowans-blog: How far down the scale of integrity do we have to slide before someone stands up and says ‘enough is enough’?.

Published on Dec 18, 2013COURTESY: RTs RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE – FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tvThe NSAs ultimate goal is to destroy individual privacy worldwide, working with its UK sidekick GCHQ, journalist Glenn Greenwald warned an EU inquiry, adding that they were far ahead of their rivals in their \”ability to destroy privacy.\” READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/dgt0n5

via ▶ NSAs goal is elimination of privacy worldwide – Greenwald to EU FULL SPEECH – YouTube.