Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, April 27, 2013
The Fed Responsible for Grandest Larceny of All Time / Politics / Central Banks
Gold seems to be coming back fast. It rose $38 per ounce yesterday.
Of course, the Fed's monetary meddling doesn't work. And it will most likely cause a financial disaster.
But the biggest scandal of today's central bank policy is that it is essentially the grandest larceny of all time.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
The US Turned India into a Dangerous Nuclear Power / Politics / India
Eric Margolis: While the United States beats the war drums over North Korea and Iran’s long-ranged nuclear armed missiles –which they don’t even possess – Washington remains curiously silent about the arrival of the world’s newest member of the big nuke club – India.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
U.S. Government Manipulated Economic Statistics / Politics / Economic Statistics
Don Draper, Mad Men's master advertiser likes to say "when you don't like what they are saying, change the conversation." When it comes to the current economic weakness, which was confirmed again today by the release of lower than expected GDP data, Washington would love do just that. Fortunately for them, they consistently outdo the master minds of Madison Avenue when it comes to misdirection. If the government doesn't like what people are saying, they don't bother just to change the conversation, they change the meaning of the words.
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
The Old Are Prospering at the Expense of the Youth / Politics / US Politics
Billionaire financier and Home Depot founder Ken Langone guest-hosted Bloomberg TV's "Market Makers" today and discussed the U.S. economy, the Obama administration, generational theft, along with Wall Street banks and director pay.
On generational theft: "I like to get a bunch of old geezers in the room and say, you're on an island with your grandchild. You have one meal left. One of you is going to starve to death. What are you as a grandfather going to do? Everyone says, I give the food to my grandchild. They are not doing that now. We are not doing that now."
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Friday, April 26, 2013
From Subprime Crisis to QE3 the Federal Reserve has Failed America / Politics / Central Banks
Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to early 2006. Greenspan used monetary policy to ignite one of the longest economic booms in history. Of course booms can soon turn to bust and nowhere was the boom more evident than in the housing industry - the sub-prime crisis collapsed the housing boom just after Greenspan left the Fed.
Sub-Prime Crisis
"The banking problems of the '80s and '90s came primarily, but not exclusively, from unsound real estate lending." L. William Seidman, former chairman of both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation
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Friday, April 26, 2013
American Empires Drone Wars Flow On / Politics / War on Terror
As far back as May 8, 2009, Tom Englehardt (in an LRC article) mentioned reports that drones in Pakistan had killed "hundreds of bystanders". (I haven't searched for the earliest such reports.) By October, 2012, a 36-page study appeared out of Columbia Law School, and I believe it was not the first. Analysts for quite some time had begun saying that drone strikes created more terrorists than they killed, and that the people being targeted were not "high" terrorist figures. There was also a great deal of criticism of second strikes on funerals for the people killed. But drone policy was Obama's baby, and he favored it.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Global Balance of Power Anarchy and Hegemony / Politics / GeoPolitics
Robert D. Kaplan writes: Everyone loves equality: equality of races, of ethnic groups, of sexual orientations, and so on. The problem is, however, that in geopolitics equality usually does not work very well. For centuries Europe had a rough equality between major states that is often referred to as the balance-of-power system. And that led to frequent wars. East Asia, by contrast, from the 14th to the early 19th centuries, had its relations ordered by a tribute system in which China was roughly dominant. The result, according to political scientist David C. Kang of the University of Southern California, was a generally more peaceful climate in Asia than in Europe.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Examples of Wasteful U.S. Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander Billions / Politics / Government Spending
David Zeiler writes: So many federal agencies are duplicating one another's efforts in so many different areas that the billions lost to such wasteful government spending is impossible to calculate.A recent report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office uncovered 162 areas of duplicate spending, which at minimum wastes tens of billions of dollars every year.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
A Message for America's Middle and Lower Class Slaves / Politics / Social Issues
Hi Slaveys,
What a month... near economic collapse in Cyprus giving us a taste of what's going to happen to our bank accounts here when things start to really fall apart (Bitcoin, anyone?), people blowing up people with bombs, badly maintained factories (inexplicably built near homes) exploding, Chicago under water, and a government that's 100% unresponsive and useless to anyone who isn't lining their pockets. Time to revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for some tips on how to live the calmest life possible for people who aren't able to leave the States.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Misguided Case for Capital Controls / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By International Man, Network
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently penned an article in which he comes out in favor of capital controls.
Not surprisingly, his argument follows the near cookie-cutter justification used by governments throughout history to seize more control over their citizens.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
U.S. Government Set to End tax Free Internet Shopping / Politics / Taxes
David Zeiler writes: A controversial Internet sales tax moving through Congress will mostly benefit big corporations and state governments while hurting thousands of small businesses and consumers.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would essentially end tax-free Internet shopping by forcing online retailers with revenue of $1 million or more to collect sales taxes for the states in which their customers reside.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Farm Supports and Social Welfare / Politics / Food Crisis
The planting season is in full swing as is the transfer of subsidies to big agriculture and social welfare food stamps. Which has more worth, paying the Monsanto and property tax bill or running a public assistance program that allows for the buying of lottery tickets? Well, if you are Congress, both have benefit, but mostly for their political value. Why are food stamps part of the Farm Bill? Nancy Marshall-Genzer makes a shrewd observation.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
From New York to Boston, They Thought They Were Free / Politics / US Politics
Jorge Gato writes: ‘Twas an uneasy gut feeling that bid me to leave the Land of Milk & Honey several years ago. Something in the air didn’t smell right. The fascist frog pot has been steaming on low flame for a while now, but it is a slow simmer until you reach that exponential boiling point of no return. The recent turn of events has me somewhat startled (with fascination of course, as I shall fear no evil).
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Economic and Social Abnormality Reigns, American's Loving Their Servitude / Politics / US Politics
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited
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Monday, April 22, 2013
U.S. Moving Towards a Gold Standard / Politics / Gold and Silver 2013
Following the news that last week Arizona lawmakers passed a bill that will see precious metals become legal tender we thought this would be the perfect time to bring you a fourth installment of The Real Asset Report. Here we look at the moves several US states are making to move to sound money. Look out for the great infographic below.
Read full article... Read full article...‘No State Shall make any Thing but Gold and Silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts’ 1787 US Constitution: Article I, Section 8.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Ron Paul - How Congress Exploits Our Fears to Take Our Liberty / Politics / US Politics
This week, as Americans were horrified by the attacks in Boston, both houses of Congress considered legislation undermining our liberty in the name of "safety." Gun control continued to be the focus of the Senate, where an amendment expanding federal "background checks" to gun show sales and other private transfers dominated the debate. While the background check amendment failed to pass, proponents of gun control have made it clear they will continue their efforts to enact new restrictions on gun ownership into law.
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Cyprus Crisis Prompts Russia to Create its Own Tax Haven / Politics / Russia
Since the time of the financial disaster in Cyprus, Russia has been cherishing the idea of creating its own offshore. It was previously suggested the special tax area should be created on the territory of Russia's Far East. A new idea has appeared now - to create an offshore zone on the base of the International Investment Bank (IIB). Many analysts were left perplexed with such a suggestion.
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Saturday, April 20, 2013
How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession / Politics / Central Banks
I thank Fan Zhiqiang for his decision to translate Panderer to Power. His great attention to detail in asking me to explain dozens of phrases and terms for a Chinese audience reminded me of how the book concentrates on the United States. The influence of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's actions spread around the world. It would have been a much longer book, though, if I wrote of how United States' policy influenced China (for example), other than writing of it in reference to the United States.
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Obamacare's War on Full-Time Jobs Will Sucker Punch Economy / Politics / Employment
David Zeiler writes: Obamacare's rules regarding hours worked and employer-sponsored healthcare coverage have entire industries looking at cutting down on their number of full-time employees in favor of more part-time employees.
Large industries affected include hotels, restaurants and retailers, as well as small businesses of all stripes.
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Protect Your Wealth by Internationalizing Your Assets / Politics / US Politics
Since writing The International Man in 1976, I've had quite a bit to say about internationalizing yourself. The book's subtitle was Making the Most of Your Personal Freedom and Financial Opportunity Around the World; but in going over past editions of our newsletters, I find that most of what I've written in recent years has been about the financial aspects of expatriation. Now seems a good time to confront the rest of the subject head on – the reasons to very seriously consider leaving your home country, and to do so now, not next year.
The International Man is long out of print, of course, and only available through used bookstores and finders (including amazon.com). While I'm obviously biased, it's actually still an excellent read, although the world is a different place and I've learned a few things since 1976. The book was directed to Americans, but found a fairly broad international market – becoming, among other things, the biggest-selling book in the history of Rhodesia. That, in and of itself, provides a bit of an object lesson in how things can change, I think.
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