Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Why Governments Can Do No Good / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Government cannot do any desirable thing better than the market. It's physically impossible for them to do so, like chewing on your own jawbone. By its very nature, government is designed to disregard actual wants. It pretends to listen while it simply imposes. It steals money to fund whatever “services” it claims to be providing. That theft makes the situation a monopoly based on the violence inherent in the threat of force (kidnapping, caging and possible murder) behind the collection of taxes.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Barclays, Energy Regulators Versus Market Riggers / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Andrew_McKillop
WORLDWIDE PROBLEM
Hailed as Croatia stepping out of the shadows left by the break up of Yugoslavia and the ethnic cleansing war of the 1990s, and following 8 years of negotiations, on July 1st Croatia became the 28th member of the E.U. One of its first decisions was to join the little-heard-of CEER or Council of European Energy Regulators, as well as engaging in higher profile bargaining about which Croatian politician will become the 28th Commissioner of the E.C.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Oil's Middle East Fallacy, Egypt Crisis It`s Jobs Stupid….. / Politics / Crude Oil
By: EconMatters
A couple of weeks ago Egypt demonstrations led to the Mursi administration being removed from office, who was elected from the last set of demonstrations. What Mursi and many media analysts failed to realize is that the demonstrations weren`t really about democracy, religion, philosophy or ideology but were actually about jobs.
It’s the economy stupid, that is what the Egyptian people really care about, which is ironic because without a major overhaul in their country`s entire business structure, the one strategic advantage the country has is the tourist industry.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Chernobyl at Sea? Russia Building Floating Nuclear Power Plants / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: OilPrice_Com
So much for the lessons of Fukushima. Never mind oil spills, the Russian Federation is preparing an energy initiative that, if it has problems, will inject nuclear material into the maritime environment.
Speaking to reporters at the 6th International Naval Show in St. Petersburg, Baltiskii Zavod shipyard general director Aleksandr Voznesenskii said that the Russian Federation's first floating nuclear power plant "should be operational by 2016."
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Ron Paul - Let Market Forces Solve the Organ Transplant Crisis / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Ten-year old cystic fibrosis patient Sarah Murnaghan captured the nation’s attention when federal bureaucrats imposed a de facto death sentence on her by refusing to modify the rules governing organ transplants. The rules in question forbid children under 12 from receiving transplants of adult organs. Even though Sarah’s own physician said she was an excellent candidate to receive an adult organ transplant, government officials refused to even consider modifying their rules.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
George Zimmerman, Is This Still America? / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Thomas Sowell writes: There are no winners in the trial of George Zimmerman. The only question is whether the damage that has been done has been transient or irreparable.
Legally speaking, Zimmerman has won his freedom. But he can still be sued in a civil case, and he will probably never be safe to live his life in peace, as he could have before this case made him the focus of national attention and orchestrated hate.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
George Zimmerman, Prosecutorial Abuse, and the Sorry Politics of Race / Politics / US Politics
By: William_Anderson
As a somewhat casual observer of George Zimmerman’s show trial, I was surprised that it ended with a “not guilty” verdict, given how the politics of race had so infected the entire saga from beginning to the announcement of the jury’s decision. After all, not only was Zimmerman indicted on charges that assumed he had intentionally pursued Trayvon Martin with personal ill will and animosity with his being in that supposed frame of mind when he shot the teenager, but the very President of the United States already had effectively declared Zimmerman guilty of a racially-motivated murder.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
NHS Catastrophe, A National Health Service that Kills it's Patients / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The fleeting glare of the mainstream press is once more focused on the latest report that gives a window into the reality of just how bad Britain's NHS is in terms of the poor quality of health service it provides to the people of Britain, which as a matter of routine results in thousands of unnecessary deaths each year.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Money. Religion. Power. / Politics / Religion
By: Raul_I_Meijer
French President Hollande declared on TV on his nation's national holiday that the recession in France is over. You can just see the discussions in the Elysee Palace: we can't say that!, well, we have some graphs that show a little recovery, we just need to hide the ones that don't, and the president desperately needs a positive message to look presidential on Quatorze Juillet, so why don't we just go for it, instruct the interviewers not to push too hard; what's important is not whether it's true or not, but whether or not we can make people believe what he says, if only for the day. And so it was decided: the emperor would have clothes for a few hours.
Monday, July 15, 2013
My Excellent Adventure at the Federal Reserve Headquarters / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: David_Hague
Dear reader, I was afforded a most extraordinary experience recently that has given me unique insight into our global financial and political systems. I intend to share my experience with you. However, I caution you, that the information I gleaned from this experience will be disturbing. What you are about to read will forever change your view of banking, politics, economics and money. Read on, if you dare.
Monday, July 15, 2013
U.S. Senators Move to Create 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Garrett Baldwin writes: Warren, John McCain (R-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Angus Kin (I-Maine) introduced legislation that would again separate bank's traditional activities (like deposits currently backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) from riskier activities like investment banking, insurance underwriting, swap dealing, and hedge funds.
Glass-Steagall was repealed by Congress back in 1999.
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Monday, July 15, 2013
The Global Gulag - Psychotic Militarization of Law Enforcement / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
How did it ever come down to abandoning peace keeping and accepting law enforcement by any means? Even the New York Times expresses alarm in, When the Police Go Military.
"The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally bars the military from law enforcement activities within the United States. But today, some local and city police forces have rendered the law rather moot. They have tanks - yes, tanks, often from military surplus, for use in hostage situations or drug raids - not to mention the sort of equipment and training one would need to deter a Mumbai-style guerrilla assault."
Monday, July 15, 2013
Internet Fascism and the Surveillance State / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: MISES
Ben O'Neill writes: What is the purpose of telecommunication and internet surveillance?
The NSA presents its surveillance operations as being directed toward security issues, claiming that the programs are needed to counter terrorist attacks. Bald assertions of plots foiled are intended to bolster this claim.[1] However, secret NSA documents reveal that their surveillance is used to gather intelligence to achieve political goals for the US government.
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Monday, July 15, 2013
The Unspoken Truth: Coup d’etat in America / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The American people have suffered a coup d’etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere “scrap of paper.”
An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints.
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Sunday, July 14, 2013
Syria, Egypt And The Middle East Oil Price Risk Premium / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
SYRIAN OIL
The role of Syria's disastrous civil war as a “tailwind” helping maintain oil prices at artificially high levels is easy to show. Claims by oil analysts that this civil war “will spillover and deflagrate the entire Middle East” bump up prices. The same applies to Egypt, the Arab world's biggest country now potentially facing the risk of civil war. With imagination, the contagion talk can be extended to Libya, Tunisia, the Yemen, Bahrain, the other Gulf states, and other Mid East and North African countries. The talk helps nudge up day traded prices for Brent or WTI by 50 cents or a dollar, quite regularly, but the risk and fear premium on Arab oil is highly uncertain. When we drill down to strict net export surplus fundamentals – production versus national oil demand - any claims that Syria, Egypt, the Yemen or other countries, except Libya, Algeria, Iraq and the Gulf states, are more than tiny exporters probably moving towards net oil importer status, are very hard to defend. This is a political risk premium.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Cyprus Deposits Theft Bang Moment Implications for All Bank Deposits / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: John_Mauldin
Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time. – Alvin Toffler
What is it about humans that we fail to see a crisis in advance, yet when we look back, its likelihood or inevitability so often seems blindingly obvious? Rather than a flaw, our under-reliance on foresight as opposed to hindsight is perhaps a necessary evolutionary design feature that has allowed us to make rapid progress as a species (especially over the last few thousand years), but in a complex modern society it can really create quite the crisis for individuals. This week we resume our musings about Cyprus, to see what that tiny island can teach us about our own personal need to engage in ongoing critical analysis of our lives and investment portfolios. Cyprus is not Greece or France or Spain or Japan or the US or … (pick a country). I get that. No two situations are the same, but there may be a rhyme or two here that is instructive.
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Saturday, July 13, 2013
U.S. Arms Egypts Military For Crack Down on Democracy / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Bill Van Auken writes: The Obama administration has announced it will go ahead with the shipment of four F-16 fighter planes to the Egyptian military, signaling its intention to ignore US laws requiring a cutoff of aid to countries that have suffered military coups.
This gesture of support to the so-called interim government, which is dominated by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and its top commander, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, comes as the ruling junta is intensifying its police-state crackdown against supporters of ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi.
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Saturday, July 13, 2013
Everyone Knows that the Federal Reserve Banks Are PRIVATE … Except the American People / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Washingtons_Blog
Most Americans Still Don’t Know that Federal Reserve Banks Are Private Corporations
The country’s most powerful “agency” – the Federal Reserve – is actually no more federal than Federal Express.
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Saturday, July 13, 2013
China's Great Humiliation / Politics / China
By: Andrew_McKillop
MODERN MYTH'S OF NATIONAL TRIUMPH
Writing in 'Wall Street Journal' and saying China needs “a new national story”, Orville Schlee and John Delury basically claim China has for too long been hobbled and fettered, ideologically, by its modern history of humiliation. This was due to the so-called unequal treaties it was forced to sign with what for Chinese, were the Western Barbarians. These unequal treaties started with the British in 1842.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Confiscation of Retirement Accounts - Another Brick in the Wall / Politics / Banksters
By: Andy_Sutton
For the past few months we have been sounding the alarm both separately and collaboratively regarding the impending (although not necessarily imminent) looting of the Western financial system including bank accounts, public pension funds, and likely private retirement accounts to some extent. With regard to the bail-in doctrine now in place in much of the rest of the world, it appears as though Australia is jumping on board as well - as part of the 2013-2014 government budget no less. Details are still sketchy, but we’ll analyze what we have so far.
We remain absolutely convinced that a minimum of 95% of the people will do absolutely nothing. Most of them will not become familiar with the term ‘bail-in’ until it is already too late. We can’t do a thing about that. What is most depressing is that of the numerous people we have talked to who actually understand what is going on, the vast majority of them have also done nothing. Now is not the time to have that deer in the headlights, over analysis paralysis mindset.
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