Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Bankrupt US and Venezuelan Regimes Barring Travel to Citizenry Attempting to Flee / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Over the past few years we have watched the situation in Venezuela continually deteriorate as the country’s socialist regime led by Nicolas Maduro has helped to hyperinflate the nation into oblivion.
For Venezuelans, this runaway inflation has come with a number of awful consequences.
The situation is especially dire in Caracas where people often have to kill and eat stray animals to survive since the bread lines which stretch blocks, oftentimes run out of food.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
All the Fake News That’s Fit to Print / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: BATR
Understanding the complex relationships that make up human endeavors permeates every aspect of society and politics. The ability to be informed about events is a basic motivation to search out news about what is exactly happening in the world we all live in. Journalism purports to report the first draft of history. In practice the press and media coverage is systemically bereft of relevant facts and completely void of objectivity. The currency of the realm is trust for all journalists. Their collective credibility is bankrupt for a very simple reason; their newscasts are based upon lies, newspeak and intentional deception.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Trump A New Jacksonian Era? The Fourth Turning (2) / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I documented the populist administration of Andrew Jackson and similarities to Donald Trump's populist victory in the recent election. I'll now try to assess the chances of a Trump presidency accomplishing its populist agenda.
The Trumpian Era
Read full article... Read full article..."But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes." - Andrew Jackson
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Proposed Tax Reforms Face Enormous Headwinds / Politics / Taxes
By: John_Mauldin
Dr. Lacy Hunt and Van Hoisington of Hoisington Investment Management produce a must-read quarterly letter I’ve featured multiple times in my weekly newsletter, Outside the Box (subscribe here for free).
This piece on tax reform is one of the most important pieces they’ve written in a long time.
Lacy and Van establish that proposed tax reforms will face enormous headwinds that were not there during previous tax-reform eras. This means that the benefits that Republicans think will accrue are likely to take longer to appear… and be less than expected. And that means it will take more than what is proposed right now to jump-start the economy.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Americans Will Pay For Trump’s “America First” Plan / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
Jared Dillian says the American consumer will pay for Trump’s “America First” plan.
In a recent video interview with Mauldin Economics, Jared Dillian notes that Trump’s new “America First” trade policy is anti-free trade. Plus, given the Republican Party has been the champion of free trade for decades, Trump’s new trade policy does not sit well with many in the party.
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Monday, February 13, 2017
Trump a New Jacksonian Era? / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!" - Andrew Jackson
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Trump Not Pro-Russia, Says Its Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman / Politics / Russia
By: Stephen_Lendman
Profiles in courage are absent in Washington, especially on geopolitical issues, notably on relations with Russia.
In January, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Trump is not pro-Russia. She distinguished between Russophobe Hillary Clinton and Trump’s more responsible comments, calling getting along with Russia a good thing.
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Sunday, February 12, 2017
Channel 4 War on 'Fake News' Ends - The New News Age / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Channel 4 is ending its week long war on 'fake news'. Whilst I watched the 'fake news' sections on Channel 4 News. However I found their mocumentaries mind numbingly stupid! All that time and effort, all that programming and they missed the OBVIOUS! in that its mostly ALL FAKE NEWS, it always has been since even before the first printing presses started running, and the proper name for alt 'fake news' is CONSPIRACY THEORY! There have ALWAYS BEEN conspiracy theories of this that or the other as labeled by the establishment media of the time that tends to persist for decades until when a conspiracy theory may be proven to true! Though I prefer 'most probable' over the word 'truth', because it is all propaganda spun by the elite of the day where the stories periodically go through revisions as required.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Sheffield Trees Felling Crisis, Police Dawn Raids and Arrest, Amey £2bn PFI / Politics / Sheffield
By: Anika_Walayat
Sheffield continues to make the national headlines for all the wrong reasons, one of people across Britain asking why is Sheffield renowned for being the greenest city in Britain is in the process of cutting down thousands of its most ancient trees? This selection of recent videos answers why as one of private profit, a huge £2bn PFI contract with Amey, coupled with lack of city council competency in managing Amey as being at the heart of Sheffield's trees felling crisis. Which is increasingly prompting the people of Sheffield to rise up and protest against the apparent madness that has gripped the city that includes dawn police raids to chop down trees and a growing list of arrests of protesting residents.
Friday, February 10, 2017
NATO Is Obsolete for the US / Politics / US Military
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Donald Trump deeply upset the Europeans when he raised the possibility that NATO is obsolete and that the European Union is failing.
But this isn’t the first time these issues have been discussed. I wrote about it last year, and the conversation has only continued.
What Trump has done is simply bring into the open the question of Europe’s relationship with the US.
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Friday, February 10, 2017
The Most Exciting Period of Human History Is yet to Come / Politics / Technology
By: John_Mauldin
While complexity mathematics and information theory may be relatively new, the general concepts contained in them were well known to previous generations of economists dating back to Adam Smith.
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Friday, February 10, 2017
Tension between Italy, Germany, and the EU Is Growing / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY ANTONIA COLIBASANU : As mentioned in our 2017 forecast, Geopolitical Futures said that the evolution of the Italian banking crisis will force a confrontation between Italy, Germany, and the European Union. The groundwork for this confrontation was laid last year, and the face-off has further evolved already this year.
In December 2016, two Italian members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the populist Europe of Nations and Freedom groups asked the European Central Bank (ECB) in a letter to explain the “widening balance divergences between individual countries [in the eurozone] since the 2008 crisis.”
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
The Leading Power In East Asia Will Be Japan—Not China / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : By 2040, Japan will rise as East Asia’s leading power. This is one of our most controversial forecasts at Geopolitical Futures.
Our readers know that GPF is bearish on China. And while some may disagree on that point, they usually see that the reasoning is sound. China will face serious problems in coming years… problems that will strain the Communist Party’s rule. (I write about this topic extensively in This Week in Geopolitics—subscribe here for free.)
Japan, though, seems a bridge too far. Its population is less than a tenth of China’s size (and it’s not just aging… it’s shrinking). Japan also has a debt-to-GDP ratio over 229%.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Germany Blasts Israel’s Illegal Land Grab / Politics / Israel
By: Stephen_Lendman
A previous article discussed Israel’s Resolution Law, retroactively approving around 4,000 illegally built settler outpost homes on privately owned Palestinian land - confiscating it for exclusive Jewish occupation and use, legislation its attorney general opposed and won’t defend.
Anything about Israel is sensitive in Germany, given its Nazi era mass extermination of Jews.
Last December, its Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed great concern about the pending legislation, saying it “violates international law,” along with “undermin(ing)” any chance for a two-state solution.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Trump Plays Cat and Mouse with Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Why is the Trump administration threatening Iran?
On February 1, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announced that the administration was “putting Iran on notice” after it tested a ballistic missile which the US sees as a violation of Iran’s treaty obligations. Flynn’s frigid tone made it clear that the administration is considering the use of military force. But why?
Under current UN resolutions (Resolution 2231), Iran is forbidden “to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Read that over again. Iran is not forbidden from testing ‘all ballistic missiles’ just missiles that are ‘capable of delivering nuclear weapons.’ The resolution could not be clearer. There’s no gray area here, none at all. Flynn is just fudging the resolution’s meaning, so he can rattle a saber. But, why? And why are other members of the administration, including the president himself, making equally belligerent remarks? In a tweet last week, Trump said, “I won’t be as ‘kind’ to Iran as Obama” which was followed by a speech by US Defense Secretary James Mattis who called Iran “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
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Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Trumpin' and Thumpin' Back to the 1930s / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
With the Trump White House, America and a global economy will enter a highly divisive period – as evidenced by the debate about his economic, trade and infrastructure plans.
As long as Republicans sustain some unity in and between the White House, the Senate and the House of the Representatives, Trump will benefit from an unprecedented execution power.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
America’s Aging Demographics / Politics / Demographics
By: Rodney_Johnson
It was a long time ago, way back in 1950.The United States was recovering from World War II while facing down a new enemy, China, on the Korean Peninsula. We were an exporting powerhouse that fortunately escaped the war with all of our production capacity intact. And, our population was experiencing a baby boom.
We were growing our wealth, expanding our military capabilities, and increasing our population. Even after the ravages of war, we had a tremendous group of workers 20 to 49 years old, and an explosion of babies on the way.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
We’re Seeing More of Trump Reaction than Action / Politics / Immigration
By: Harry_Dent
Look. Economy & Markets isn’t a political newsletter, and I typically stay away from talking about it – people are touchy on the subject, and it’s the quickest way to make enemies.Yet I find myself writing about Trump again! It’s like I just can’t escape the man.
Of course, I can choose not to write about him, and instead write about any number of other important things… but I don’t think that would be valuable to you because everything that The Donald has done so far connects directly back to the research and the heart of our operation: demographics and cycles.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Fake and False and Just Plain Nonsense News / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Two and a half weeks after the inauguration, and yes it’s only been that long, the media still don’t seem to have learned a single thing. They help the Trump campaign on an almost hourly basis by parroting whatever things, invariably judged as crazy, he says. One day it’s that negative polls are all fake news, the next it’s some list of underreported terror events. All of it gets an avalanche of attention provided by the very people who claim to be against Trump, but greatly help his cause by doing so.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Left Coast Liberals Dream for Secession / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
As the consequences of losing control of the federal government seeps into their delusional entitlement, the ultimate statists of the Left scamper to find a method to regain power. A concept, whose day is gaining acceptance, is the Nation of Pacifica. With the incompatibility between the Trump Nation deplorables and the intolerant collectivists of Leftist state worshipers, the end game is rapidly approaching a final conflict that easily could erupt in a real civil war. Leave it to the beautiful people; their fantasia screen play scripts a peaceful dissolution of the disjointed union. A sample of their dialectic: