Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
U.S. Debt Russian Roulette? / Politics / US Debt
By: Andy_Sutton
One of the biggest shames in the world is when someone else has to take care of your business when you are perfectly capable of doing so yourself. It used to be the ultimate form of embarrassment. However, we in the United States have turned shame into an art form over the past hundred years or so, squandering everything from our riches and blessing to the sacred honor Thomas Jefferson wrote about all those years ago in a document that is barely covered in most school curriculums today.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Darwinism Is Nonsensical as well as very Politically Correct / Politics / Evolution
By: LewRockwell
Fred Reed writes: The intent of this essay is not to debate with the ardent of evolutionism, which is the Political Correctness of science. To do so would be pointless. The greatest intellectual divide is not between those who believe one thing and those who believe another, but between those who have an emotional need to believe something fervently and those who can say, “I don´t know.” The former group comprises those tedious Darwinists and Creationists who robotically hurl imprecations at each other like fans of rival football teams. Each blockheadedly refuses to concede the slightest possibility that its doctrine might be other than infallible. To my mind they constitute the best evidence that we did not descend from monkeys, but have not yet ascended to them. Stupidity beyond a certain point is intractable.
Monday, November 18, 2013
America’s Chemical Weapons Hypocrisy, Conspiracy and a Forgotten History / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: “The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” (J.Edgar Hoover,1895-1972.)
Since the fairy tale about weapons of mass destruction that can be launched against Western targets “within forty five minutes” is well past it’s sell by date, the trans-Atlantic hasbara industry has dreamed up a new Grim Reaper for Syria, their latest quarry: chemical weapons.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Ron Paul - Federal Reserve Bank Steals From The Poor and Gives to The Rich / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last Thursday the Senate Banking Committee held hearings on Janet Yellen's nomination as Federal Reserve Board Chairman. As expected, Ms. Yellen indicated that she would continue the Fed's "quantitative easing" (QE) polices, despite QE's failure to improve the economy. Coincidentally, two days before the Yellen hearings, Andrew Huszar, an ex-Fed official, publicly apologized to the American people for his role in QE. Mr. Huszar called QE "the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time."
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Monday, November 18, 2013
Banks Syphoning Off the Financial Blood of their Customers / Politics / Banksters
By: James_Quinn
Reports like the recent one from SNL Financial – Branch Networks Continue to Shrink really get my goat. As I travel the increasingly vacant highways of Montgomery County, PA I’m keenly aware of my surroundings. If I were a foreigner visiting for the first time, I’d think Space Available was the hot new retailer in the country. I’ve detailed the slow disintegration of our suburban sprawl paradise in previous articles:
Saturday, November 16, 2013
The Yellen Dilemma - Rebel Now Bagholder / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Janet Yellen appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on the approval process, more a production than a process. The veteran economist and banker was given respectful treatment. The good Senators do not wish to be subjected to smear campaigns (see Menendez of New Jersey) or to have their banker donations cut off, better described as relentless bribery toward policy control. After all, Wall Street firms wrote the Financial Regulatory Bill. She will be confirmed for the US Federal Reserve Chair post with some minor heckling by the Senators. Expect Corker (Tennessee), Vitter (Louisiana), and Rand Paul (Kentucky) to pitch in some salty commentary. Yellen fits the job description as an insider, with ample experience inside the Federal Reserve Board and the Council of Economic Advisors, with the correct tribal pedigree. She has carefully scripted her own commentary, with some tacit comprehension of the impossible task of fostering a strong enough economy to sustain itself toward spinning off adequate job growth. Yellen will continue the Zero Interest Rate Policy Forever and a day, since raising rates would kill the economic structure and financial lattice work.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Why Banking, Corporate America And The Government Need Each Other / Politics / Banksters
By: GoldSilverWorlds
It should not come as a surprise that banking, industry and government are closely connected. The recent draconian decisions of the US Fed or the US foreign policy towards the Middle East are obvious examples. In order to understand who is behind most of those decisions and who the beneficiaries are, one should go back in history to the end of the 19th century.
Murray N. Rothbard revealed in his book “Wall Street, Banks and American Foreign Policy” in great detail that the financial and political stakeholders are one and the same. Rothbard, being an author and great thinker, highlights the role of political capitalism and crony capitalism in the US by tracing the historical references and connections in US financial and political decision making. This was also the context in which the US Fed was created.
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Economics of ObamaCare / Politics / US Politics
By: Robert_Murphy
Near the end of Human ActionLudwig von Mises declared that it was the “primary civic duty” to learn the teachings of economics. The public’s growing furor over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — popularly known as “ObamaCare” — beautifully illustrates Mises’s point. No one has any business being shocked — shocked! — thatmillions of Americans will losetheir current health insurance (including the present, irritated, writer), because such an outcome was obvious all along. Furthermore, the hilarious snags with healthcare.gov are merely a sideshow; the true problems with ObamaCare run much deeper than a malfunctioning website.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Egypt Marches to a Saudi Drummer / Politics / Egypt
By: OilPrice_Com
Felix Imonti writes: General El-Sisi may have found the solution to Egypt's economic woes. It is called war.
During the weeks up to the coup, General El-Sisi had much to consider. With his access to the presidential palace and the trust of the Muslim Brotherhood, the general would have known the well-kept secret that Egypt was facing in a few short months a currency collapse and a famine that would very likely throw the country into a bloody revolution that his soldiers would be forced to quell.
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
NSA $52 Billion Black Budget, A Sense of Magnitudes / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Steve_H_Hanke
On October 28th, I wrote a blog post, “The NSA’s Rent is Too Damn High,” in which I looked at the $52.6 billion price tag for America’s spook infrastructure – the so-called “black budget.” When allocated across every American taxpayer, this staggering sum comes out to $574 per taxpayer, per year.
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
China Demographics - The Next Phase of Reform / Politics / China
By: STRATFOR
The commitment and ability of China's leaders to follow through on new policies and to meet rising expectations will be tested as they strive to balance competing social, economic, political and security challenges. Three decades ago, China embarked on a new path, creating a framework that encouraged the country's rapid economic rise. The successes of those policies have transformed China, and the country's leadership now faces another set of strategic choices to address China's new economic and international position.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
How to Avoid Second Passport Scams and Traps / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor, International Man
It's a predictable reaction that a government in need of cash will turn to destructive measures, such as currency creation and increasing taxes and regulations.
Unfortunately, those measures are just the hors d'oeuvres before a 10 course meal.
As they become progressively more desperate, governments throughout history and all around the world have always turned to more destructive policies, such as capital controls, price controls, people controls, official currency devaluations, wealth confiscations, retirement account nationalizations, and more.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Public Banking in Costa Rica: A Remarkable Little-Known Model / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Ellen_Brown
In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Bernanke's Broken Record / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
By now we have all heard it many times before...the Fed's mantra about ending QE is starting to sound just like a broken record. Our central bank is aware it has to stop manipulating credit and interest rates some day, and on a basic level it really wants to end that game, but the right time never seems to come. Sort of like someone who wants to quit smoking is often heard exclaiming that this will be his last pack of cigarettes. But a hundred cartons later he's still puffing away. He knows it's wrong, so he vows to stop. However, soon everyone realizes he's just full of smoky-hot air.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Janet Yellen Insolvent Thinking / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Fred_Sheehan
It is possible neither Janet Yellen nor another pretender will fill Bernanke's shoes in January. The odds of such a surprise may be once-in-a-history-of-the-universe, but those keep coming at a faster rate the longer we splurge. Simple Ben has been walking both his bank and the world's financial institutions closer to the cliff. Here, we will look at the precarious position of the Federal Reserve and the far-out financial securities entering the pipeline at an increasing rate.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
U.S.- Iran Talks Ideology and Necessity / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
The talks between Iran and the Western powers have ended but have not failed. They will reconvene next week. That in itself is a dramatic change from the past, when such talks invariably began in failure. In my book The Next Decade, I argued that the United States and Iran would move toward strategic alignment, and I think that is what we are seeing take shape. Of course, there is no guarantee that the talks will yield a settlement or that they will evolve into anything more meaningful. But the mere possibility requires us to consider three questions: Why is this happening now, what would a settlement look like, and how will it affect the region if it happens?
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
How to Prepare for the 17% "Supertax" / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste... It's an opportunity to do things you could not do before." -Rahm Emanuel
The once unthinkable is quickly becoming probable.
At some point in the next few years, your assets could well become the target of a "Supertax" as high as 17%.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2013
French Menace To World Peace / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
By: Andrew_McKillop
FABIUS BLOCKS IRAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS
Unsurprisingly, France's government friendly media, and of course its government-owned media of 5 TV channels and several radio stations including local radios, gave a well-programmed and coordinated whoop of joy for the exploits of Foreign Minister Fabius in Geneva.
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Monday, November 11, 2013
Israeli Bombers Over Syria Acting as Al-Qaeda’s Air Force / Politics / Israel
By: Global_Research
James Petras writes: Israel has committed repeated acts of war against countries that opposed its Zionist policies of colonization and annexation of Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem and the West Bank . Israeli leaders have secured arms and diplomatic support for their attacks through their Zionist proxies in the United States Congress and the Executive Branch.
The current series of Israeli bombing raids and missile strikes against Syria are designed to strengthen the armed Syrian opposition and Islamist mercenaries seeking to destroy the government in Damascus. Israel intends to sabotage the upcoming round of peace negotiations. The Zionist state does not want a peaceful resolution to the current regional conflict. Its foreign policy depends on perpetual regional wars and political instability. Toward this end, Tel Aviv has the unconditional support of the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organization and all other Zionist organizations in the US .
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Monday, November 11, 2013
The Subprime Nation Final Solution / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
The MSM did their usual spin job on the consumer credit data released earlier this week. They reported a 5.4% increase in consumer debt outstanding to an ALL-TIME high of $3.051 trillion. In the Orwellian doublethink world we currently inhabit, the consumer taking on more debt is seen as a constructive sign. Consumer debt has grown by 5.8% over the first nine months of 2013, after growing by 6.1% in 2012 and 4.1% in 2011. The storyline being sold by the corporate MSM propaganda machine, serving the establishment, is that consumers' taking on debt is a sure sign of economic recovery. They must be confident about the future and rolling in dough from their new part-time jobs as Pizza Hut delivery men. Plus, they are now eligible for free healthcare, compliments of Obama, once they can log-on.