Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, March 02, 2015
The Absurdity of "Reform" in Washington DC / Politics / US Politics
By: MISES
James Bovard writes: In the 1930s, peasants who were starving because of the Soviet regime’s brutal farm collectivization policy lamented, “If only Stalin knew!” Nowadays, American social scientists look at floundering federal programs and lament: “If only Congress knew!” And the solution is the “evidence-based” reform movement which will magically beget a new era of good governance.
Monday, March 02, 2015
Ron Paul - Department of Homeland Security: What is it Good For? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Late Friday night, Congress passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security for one week. This vote followed weeks of debate over efforts to attach a prohibition on funding President Obama's executive order granting amnesty to certain illegal immigrants to the Homeland Security funding bill.
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Sunday, March 01, 2015
Varoufakis vs. the Troika - Showdown in Athens / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Whitney
“Will the United States, Germany, the rest of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund – collectively constituting the International Mafia – allow the new Greek leaders of the Syriza party to dictate the conditions of Greece’s rescue and salvation? The answer at the moment is a decided “No”. — William Blum, The Greek Tragedy, CounterPunch
“The Greek economy is finished…. There is no power, no force within the Greek economy, within Greek society that can avert – it’s like – imagine if we were in Ohio in 1931 and we were to ask: What can Ohio politicians do to get Ohio out of the Great Depression? The answer is nothing.”— Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Finance Minister
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Sunday, March 01, 2015
Senate Republicans Bungle Their Interrogation of Janet Yellen / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MISES
Brendan Brown writes: In terms of theatrical impact, the first performance of the Republican majority in the Senate responding to semi-annual testimony from Fed Chair Yellen was a dud. That is bad news for US monetary reform.
The root cause of the theatrical failure is that a winning strategy for monetary revolution has failed to emerge from the Republican ranks. Instead we hear the old tired messages about “auditing the Fed,” “changing the structure of the FOMC,” and adopting a neo-Keynesian rate-fixing “rule.”
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Saturday, February 28, 2015
NATO Frankenstein - When Centralization Scales Beyond Our Control / Politics / New Cold War
By: Raul_I_Meijer
In an article about NATO exercises in Estonia, just 300 yards from the Russian border, Daniel McAdams at the Ron Paul Institute makes a point that I want to use to make a much broader point. Not the provide answers, though, just to provide questions. McAdams quotes the Guardian review of a book by George Sakwa:
Friday, February 27, 2015
10 Reasons Washington Has War Fever / Politics / US Politics
By: Ron_Holland
"War is merely the continuation of policy by other means." – Carl von Clausewitz
The political elites, Federal Reserve and special interests that really run the show hiding behind Congress and the president of either party in America's closed two-party monopoly seem to be running scared in many regards. They rightly have many fears for their political future as well as the profits and survival of the major international corporations and banking interests that support the current political leadership and regime.
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Friday, February 27, 2015
Deepak Chopra - New Age Genius or Bullshit Expert? - Video / Politics / Religion
By: Videos
New Age guru Deepak Chopra presents his ideas on 'non local consciousness', 'a super position of possibilities' heavily immersed in the scientific jargon of quantum physics that to a lay person, especially one that really wants to believe seems highly convincing, hence why Deepak Chopra has such a large following.
Friday, February 27, 2015
The Fed’s History of Assassination / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: The Federal Reserve System has a very dark history.
I’m talking about a history of murder.
Maybe you didn’t know, but there’s a theory that the Fed ordered John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
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Thursday, February 26, 2015
"Audit the Fed"? We've Already Done That (Well, Kind of) / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: EWI
Our conclusion: The Fed is not in control of the economy -- here's why
If there's one thing the Federal Reserve Board of the United States is not known for, it's assertive language. After all the obfuscation and verbal sidestepping, Fed speak is usually as easy to comprehend as Marlon Brando's Godfather character Don "Mumbles" Corleone.
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Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Net Neutrality Scam / Politics / Internet
By: MISES
Ryan W. McMaken writes: Yet again, the government wants to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. According to the Obama administration and the FCC, it is necessary to regulate internet service providers so that they don’t interfere with people’s access to the web. The claim immediately prompts one to ask: Who is being denied access to the web?
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Greece, Europe Briefing For A Descent Into Hell / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Oh well, some are more equal than others. One day after Eurogroup head Dijsselbloem says France won’t get any more lenience …
France Must Respect EU Budget Rules
Read full article... Read full article...France must meet EU budget targets or risk damaging the bloc’s entire framework for policing countries’ spending plans, the head of the Eurogroup said on Tuesday. “I don’t think small or larger countries should be treated differently … It is crucial for the credibility of the whole fiscal framework that also France commits to it, both in fiscal terms and in reform terms,” Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chair meetings of eurozone finance ministers, told the European Parliament. “I think that the Commission has allowed itself and France more time to scrutinise the figures but also to take more measures and prepare more proposals. The Commission will assess them first and then report to us at the beginning of March.”
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
What To Do While Waiting to End the Fed / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MISES
John P. Cochran writes: There is a sliver of good news on the central banking front. Given the Fed’s poor performance before and after the 2007–08 financial crisis and Great Recession, and its now recognized 100 year history of failure, at least some members of Congress, even without Ron Paul, are now willing to consider major reform. Many libertarians who recognize that the correct long-run reform is to “End the Fed” — or essentially eliminate central banking (see here or here) — have focused most on the Audit the Fed Bill. On the other hand, non-Austrian economists have been more focused on the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act and its aimed reform: a rules based policy rather than current Fed discretionary policy which is counter-productive, if not destructive of prosperity.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
How to Borrow Cheaply from a Government-Owned Bank / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: The free market for banking services in the United States isn't a free market at all.
The truth is the biggest commercial banks in America operate with virtual impunity as a government-subsidized, government-protected oligopoly.
So, why don't we drop the pretense that government-owned banks don't belong in a free market economy and create a network of honest state-owned banks to compete with so-called private banks?
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Europe - The Intersection of Three Crises / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Reva Bhalla writes: Within the past two weeks, a temporary deal to keep Greece in the eurozone was reached in Brussels, a cease-fire roadmap was agreed to in Minsk and Iranian negotiators advanced a potential nuclear deal in Geneva. Squadrons of diplomats have forestalled one geopolitical crisis after another. Yet it would be premature, even reckless, to assume that the fault lines defining these issues are effectively stable. Understanding how these crises are inextricably linked is the first step toward assessing when and where the next flare-up is likely to occur.
Monday, February 23, 2015
U.S. Interventionism Kills Post-Coup Ukraine / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
It was one year ago last weekend that a violent coup overthrew the legally elected government of Ukraine. That coup was not only supported by US and EU governments -- much of it was actually planned by them. Looking back at the events that led to the overthrow it is clear that without foreign intervention Ukraine would not be in its current, seemingly hopeless situation.
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Monday, February 23, 2015
Swimming With Sharks: Goldman Sachs, Schools and Capital Appreciation Bonds / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
Remember when Goldman Sachs—dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid—sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt.
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Monday, February 23, 2015
Greece Crisis - Throw Your Grandma Under The Bus / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Before we get news in a few hours on the new proposals Greece is required to hand to its slavemasters today, Monday Feb 23, it seems relevant to point out one more time that what is happening to Greece is the result of political, not economic, decisions and points of view. One could argue that Greece is being thrown under the bus because it’s not – yet – deeply enough entangled and enmeshed in the global financial matrix. Just think back to a point Gordon Kerr of Cobden Partners made a few days ago on Bloomberg:
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Greece Surrenders to Troika / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Stephen_Lendman
Instead of renouncing its odious debt and walking away, Athens agreed to pay bankers first, maintain austerity, and let long-suffering Greeks continue taking the hindmost.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
50 Shades of Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
When it comes to the ongoing Greek question, I see a lot of people eagerly jump to conclusions, after the ‘debt deal’, that I don’t think are justified; certainly not yet. The overall conviction in the press seems to be that Syriza has given in on just about all fronts, and Germany and Dijsselbloem are the big winners.
But since that may well be the exact position Syriza wants ‘the other side’ to be in, where they think they have prevailed, one will have to try and think a few steps ahead before judging the situation. There’s far more grey area here than many pundits seem to assume, easily 50 shades of it.
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Sunday, February 22, 2015
Is Putin's Russia Ready For Total Economic War With the West? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Ron_Holland
On February 18, 1943, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a rousing speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, asking the German people, "Sind Sie bereit für totalen Krieg?" or "Are you ready for total War?" Germany had planned for Blitzkrieg and a short war and was unprepared for a world war as the combined military forces of the United States, England and the Soviet Union crushed the Reich relentlessly and systematically. Although the people and economy rallied in defense of Germany, total war only prolonged the horrors of war and delayed their inevitable defeat.