Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Cyprus Bailout An 80% Wealth Confiscation Scheme? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Graham_Summers
The news coming out of Cyprus only gets worse.
It was bad enough that the political class even promoted the idea of STEALING depositors’ savings. But now we’re finding out that they lied time and again about how much they’d take.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Sword of Damocles Still Hangs Over Cyprus / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Patrick_Henningsen
PATHOS – While bureaucrats and technocrats in Nicosia have been busy trying agree on an even horrible haircut than the each of the previous Troika proposals, the EU’s deadly pathogen has begun to spread to the far corners of the country, hitting the southern seaside tourist town of Pathos.
Cyprus managed to avoid the initial danger of an all out bank run and the potential for mass rioting this week, which is probably down to the fact that no Cypriot wants to see their country become a lawless banana republic in the Mediterranean.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Forget too-big-to-fail Instead Kill the Fractional Reserve Banking System / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Colin_Twiggs
Interesting discussion on Bloomberg about currency-backed deposits and equity-funded loans.
The fractional reserve banking system is the primary cause of instability and asset bubbles in the global economy, allowing banks to create money out of thin air. Credit expansion above the rate of real GDP growth has only two possible consequences: inflation or asset bubbles. Both do serious long-term damage to the economy.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Bank Depositor “Haircuts”: Grand “Financial Theft” is the Money Market’s “New Normal” / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Stephen_Lendman
On March 29, Cyprus Mail said banks opened Thursday. They did so amid calm.
Long lines queued. People waited patiently. A feared stampede didn’t materialize. Whether it’s the calm before the storm remains to be seen.
Looting Cypriot bank accounts reflects the new normal. It set a precedent. It did so for Europe. More on that below.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Crony Government Is The Threat / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Andrew_McKillop
DOCTRINAL DEFAULT
Some, like Brandon Smith of Alt-market blog (http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1417-big-government-an-unnecessary-evil-that-should-be-abolished) claim the basic problem is as simple as the fundamental dichotomy, even schizophrenia of all persons who on the one hand will defend freedom of action and choice but want sure, reliable laws, order and authority. Smith says it is a split between those persons who value freedom regardless of risk or pain, and those who value slavish obedience in a desperate bid to avoid risk and pain.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Zombie Apocolypse By Ben Bernanke / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Lance Burnham writes:
Is it a coincidence that the rise in popularity of zombie genre movies and shows( ie AMC Walking dead) is so high? In my opinion, it is a social manefestation of
what is happening economically in all the advanced economies of the west, led by the master of deception Ben Bernanke.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
As Cyprus Dust Settles, Talk of Reciprocity and Whispers of Retribution / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Patrick_Henningsen
On Friday at high noon the banks of Cyprus opened for the second day in a row and with minimal queues, and almost no trouble from a citizenry who have become the latest abused poster child for the global financial banking syndicate’s campaign of financial destruction through Europe.
The tension fueled by the fear of financial loss and hardship was palpable yesterday morning when the banks finally opened up after 15 days, but no major incidents took place in Nicosia. The Cypriots surprised the world again on Friday, re-enforcing their reputation as the most calm, cool and collected member of the European Union. This is probably down to the fact that this particular Mediterranean civilisation, in the words of one old resident, “has been occupied for 3,000 years”.
Friday, March 29, 2013
US and UK Depositors Bank Confiscation Scheme Imminent Risk / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Ellen_Brown
Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The Natural Selection of American Citizens / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Fabian de Silva writes: Recently I read about a poll, which I believe was from Gallup, that asked if the president can target US citizens for assassination without due process on US soil. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents (all Americans) said, “Sure it’s fine with me if the president wants to murder me with a drone.” How nice to have nearly 8 out of 10 Americans be so altruistic, apparently believing that the president must have some valuable reason to murder them, so it’s okay with them to sacrifice their lives in the name of protection against terrorists, or something, I guess. It’s so noble for so many Americans to valiantly offer up their lives as martyrs to the president if their deaths will keep them safer, or something, I guess (72 virgins?).
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Follies of Higher-Ed - Universities provide circuses but no bread / Politics / Education
By: William_Anderson
Modern American Higher Education is a PR juggernaut; a knowledge juggernaut it is not, and watching universities trying to become "relevant" often can be entertaining – if it were not so pathetic. Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton is one of those places that started small and wants to be relevant, but instead has become pitiful.
The university itself is a place that rose from tiny beginnings but now is well-known because of a couple of things. The first is for something that recently occurred in a classroom. The second is for an inexcusable act in which the university has gained a corporate sponsor that would make Blackwater look like a good choice.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Let’s Get Cyprused! / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Andy_Sutton
There is little doubt that the past two weeks have brought about dramatic changes in most circles regarding the way people look at banks, bank deposits, and the monetary situation in general. This year’s ‘Ides of March’ will no doubt go down in history as a pivotal period where once again our world changed forever. One would be right in stating that there have been many such watershed events in the past decade and a half and that alone should be even more persuasive to those who believe we still live in the bull market of the 1980s. This is not your father’s market, nor his country, nor his world.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Totalitarianism is the New Normal / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Wendy McElroy writes: First it was a secret “kill list” on which Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama names those he wishes to be assassinated. The names included American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan who died in a drone strike in Yemen on September 30th, 2011. Neither was indicted or charged with a crime. They were killed as 'terrorists' at the discretion of one man whose signature now constitutes due process.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Euro-zone Cyprus Theft of Bank Deposits Serious Unintended Consquences / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: John_Mauldin
I admit to being surprised by Cyprus. Oh, not the banking crisis or the sovereign debt crisis or the fact that its banks were eight times larger than the country itself or even the fact that the banks were bloated with Greek debt that had been written down. I wrote about all that a long time ago. What surprised me was that all the above was apparently a surprise to European leaders.
While there is much to not like about what European leaders have done since the onset of their crisis some five years ago, they have demonstrated a prodigious ability to kick, poke, and massage the can down the road, to defuse crisis after crisis, and to indefinitely postpone the inevitable. They have demonstrated a remarkable ability to spend taxpayers’ and others’ money in order to keep Europe and the euro more or less in one piece. At every step they have been keenly intent on maintaining trust in the system. That they have been successful in keeping a majority of citizens in favor of the Eurozone and the euro, even in countries forced to endure serious austerity, must be recognized.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Will Your Bank Account Be 'Cyprused' Next? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Bill_Bonner
U.S. stocks continued mostly going up last week. But European markets fell. Gold bounced up and down... but held above $1,600.
Most people would much rather own stocks than gold. Most of the time, they are probably right. Gold pays no dividends. Nor does it invent new things or open up new markets... or any of the other things that make stocks go up.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
America the Great Global Arms Dealer / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The American imperial system incorporates much more than supporting the occasional coup or undertaking the occasional war. Coups, wars, assassinations and other forms of overt and covert violence and destabilization, while relatively common and consistent for the United States – compared to other major powers – are secondary to the general maintenance of a system of imperial patronage. A “stable” system is what is desired most by strategic planners and policy-makers, but this has a technical definition. Stability means that the populations of subject nations and regions are under “control” – whether crushed by force or made passive by consent, while Western corporate and financial interests have and maintain unhindered access to the “markets” and resources of those nations and regions. Since the 19th century development of America’s overseas empire, this has been referred to as the “Open Door” policy: as in, the door opens for American and other Western economic interests to have access to and undertake exploitation of resources and labour.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The Central Bank Lullaby / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Brady_Willett
Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
Why is a song about a severely injured baby and smashed cradle sung to children at night to lull them to sleep? Apparently, because If you sing this popular lullaby often enough the nonsensical violence in the storyline fades and the rhythmically appealing sounds endure.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Climate Crisis Apocalypse - But Not Quite Yet / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
REAL AND FAKE THREATS
Cocktails of real, partly real, mostly false and entirely false threats and menaces support a business niche for self-proclaimed Salvation Artists, usually modestly calling themselves unrecognized geniuses. Importantly, these geniuses only operate with entirely fake threats. Al Gore was a classic in this genre and his line of business - global warming and climate change - is still being given life support despite it being clinically dead, but only because "we ain't yet thought of anything else".
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The Lesson From Cyprus: Europe Is Politically Bankrupt / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Over the past week, Europe, or rather the present EU leadership, has done damage to itself it will never be able to repair.
It seems to escape everbody, but that doesn't make it any less true: people from Portugal to Spain to Italy to Greece to Cyprus and Ireland are worse off today than they were when they first adopted the euro. Moreover, their economies are all getting worse as we speak and projected to plunge further. The once highly touted blessings of the common currency are by now lost on most of southern Europe; for them, the euro has been a shortcut to disaster.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Don't Bother Raising The Minimum Wage / Politics / Employment
By: Jeff_Berwick
Gary Gibson writes: Elizabeth Warren just realized that the minimum wage should be $22 if it had kept up with economic growth. She suspects in her tender, socially conscious heart that greedy employers have been shafting the lowest level employees. But she's laying her suspicions on the wrong bunch of people. She might want to read up on the currency debasement of the central bank, the command economy vampire that sits at the center of America's supposedly free market economy.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Do We Really Need the Federal Reserve Bank? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Last week I spent two days speaking to senior government officials and business leaders in Bermuda, which is one of the world's leading international insurance and reinsurance hubs. The men and women in the room are responsible for hundreds of millions in assets worldwide.
I spoke for over an hour on the implications and opportunities of the financial crisis (I'll have specifics for Money Morning readers next week).
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