Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, February 01, 2013
Restoring the Articles of Confederation America’s Last Chance to Control Washington / Politics / US Politics
By: Ron_Holland
Americans demanding a return to limited government, a balanced budget and an end to spiraling sovereign debt have been voting for the GOP for decades and the result has been total failure on all counts. To accomplish these goals we really must turn the government structure back to our first government model, the Articles of Confederation, so the centers of real power are at the state rather than the federal level. Since 1913, it has been very easy, between maintaining the two-party monopoly and buying off Congress, for the power elite to control leviathan from the top down. This would be far more difficult if power, authority and programs were decentralized and returned to control of the individual states.
Friday, February 01, 2013
Too Late to Leave the U.S.? / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Wendy McElroy writes: The Ex-PATRIOT Act lies like a coiled snake on a table in the U.S. Senate. The longer title of this unenacted bill from 2012 is the Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act. Its self-description is, "A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that persons renouncing citizenship for a substantial tax avoidance purpose shall be subject to tax and withholding on capital gains, to provide that such persons shall not be admissible to the United States, and for other purposes."
Thursday, January 31, 2013
EU Super State Wants the Power to Sack Journalists to Control the News / Politics / Propaganda
By: Mike_Shedlock
"Big Brother" in Action
In case you have not already realized it, 1984 has come and gone politically. All that remains is how fast we march down the path of "thought suppression". Here are a couple of articles that will make my point.
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Trillion Dollar Coin, Anything Is Better Than Taxes / Politics / US Debt
By: Joseph_T_Salerno
As outlandish as the idea of the $1 trillion platinum coin at first appears, it gives us a glimpse of a monetary arrangement that, although far from ideal, is superior to the current system. Now that the Obama Treasury has definitely ruled out the scheme to mint the coin to circumvent the gimmicky debt ceiling, it is instructive to take a closer look at the reason why it did so and to articulate the lessons that can be learned from the episode.
To begin with, the scheme has ramifications far beyond a one-off political trick to avoid the debt ceiling. Indeed, it presented an implicit challenge to the much vaunted and sacrosanct "independence" of the Fed. That is why, from the very beginning, Fed worshippers in the establishment media – left, right and center – mercilessly mocked the idea and denigrated its supporters as grossly ignorant or irresponsible, although they dared not spell out its full policy implications.
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Trillion Dollar Babies / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Redmond Weissenberger writes:
“Million dollar baby, Billion dollar baby, Zillion dollar baby, Trillion dollar baby.” — Alice Cooper, 1973
With the US Congress once again chomping at the bit to raise the limit on government borrowing, it has become exceedingly comical to watch as what was once the world’s leading economic power print, borrow, and spend its way down the path of failed states. For all their talk of scaling back Leviathan, Republicans in the House of Representatives tucked in their tails and voted to raise the debt ceiling to ensure Wall Street and welfare clingers will still get paid. If this sad display of dishonesty isn’t enough to convince you the dollar is on its way out, I don’t know what will.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Chinese Takeover with Free Trade Zones / Politics / Protectionism
By: BATR
The long-term goal of Communist Red Chinese is to take over the wealth creation resources of the planet. The quasi merger between the authoritarian Maoists and the global capitalists plays out as a sorry act in the Beijing Red Theater. The performance designed to distract and confuse really has the destruction of Western economies as the climax. The sell out of the West, under the skilled dirty hands of Herr Heinz Henry A. Kissinger, is entering the final stages of a planned implosion. Now that the de-industrialization of America as described in the article, Free Trade Created the Chinese Model, has taken placed, the theft of our natural assets is the next to go. The Chinese exploits the use of U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones. A depiction of the function and working of such Foreign-Trade Zones follows:
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Meet the Global Corporate “Supra-Government” / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
We live in a corporate culture, where most of us have worked or currently work for corporations, we spend our money at corporate venues, on corporate products, watch corporately-owned television shows and movies, listen to corporate-sponsored music; our modes of transportation, communication and recreation are corporately influenced or produced; our sports stadiums and movie theaters are named after car companies and global banks; our food is genetically altered by multinational conglomerates, our drinking water is brought to us by Coca-Cola, our news is brought to us by Pfizer, and our political leaders are brought to us by Exxon, Shell, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Hackers and the Alternatives to the Global Financial System / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Submissions
Keith Hilden writes: We find ourselves as a world currently at a pivotal point where the current maligned global financial system is falling way to multiple alternatives as new global financial system models emerge as solid competitors. Hackers will undoubtedly prove themselves as a disruptor to the alternative new financial system frameworks that emerge, and will sculpt the initial framework into its matured institutional state. Due to the leverage that hackers will possess, emerging alternative global financial system frameworks will be heavily influenced by hackers. Simply said, regardless of which global financial alternative is chosen, hackers will own the day. And investment into cybersecurity firms products and services will absolutely skyrocket.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Ferocious, Weak and Crazy: The North Korea Military Strategy / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea's state-run media reported Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's top security officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," which has been widely interpreted to mean that North Korea is planning its third nuclear test. Kim said the orders were retaliation for the U.S.-led push to tighten U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's missile test in October. A few days before Kim's statement emerged, the North Koreans said future tests would target the United States, which North Korea regards as its key adversary along with Washington's tool, South Korea.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Public Schools Are Black Holes, Don't Drop Your Child into One / Politics / Educating Children
By: LewRockwell
Butler Shaffer writes: Never let school interfere with your education.~ Mark Twain
There is an old joke about how knowledge accumulates in universities: students enter college, knowing everything, and graduate knowing nothing. In this way does knowledge continue to grow within universities. My years of experience in what is referred to as "higher education" inform me that there is more than sophomoric humor in this description.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Failure of the Iranian Sanctions / Politics / US Politics
By: Steve_H_Hanke
In light of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel for U.S. Secretary of Defense, the issue of Iran — and the economic sanctions, in particular — promises to stay in play. Hagel has been lambasted by the neo-conservatives and some hard-line supporters of Israel for daring to question (in the past) that sanctions are the best way to confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Well, as it turns out, the sanctions have failed to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. Indeed, sanctions have a long history of failure.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Reinventing Abraham: Organized Religion And The Crisis / Politics / Religion
By: Andrew_McKillop
TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING
We like to imagine that mutual understanding promotes tolerance. But the modern communication saturated 'global village' enables us to better hate people because we understand them all too well.
To be sure, religion is a major vector or enabler of organized hate and most starkly concerns adepts and fanatics of the so-called "Three Religions of the Book": because their numbers are well over 2 billion persons worldwide, this has "a certain significance".
Monday, January 28, 2013
Ron Paul - U.S. Action in Mali is Another Undeclared War / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
President Obama last week began his second term by promising that "a decade of war is now ending." As he spoke, the US military was rapidly working its way into another war, this time in the impoverished African country of Mali. As far as we know, the US is only providing transport and intelligence assistance to France, which initiated the intervention then immediately called Washington for back-up and funding. However, even if US involvement is limited, and, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, US boots on the ground are not being considered "at this time," this clearly is developing into another war. As usual, the mission is creeping.
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Monday, January 28, 2013
Davos $14 Trillion Extortion for a Global Warming Scam / Politics / Climate Change
By: BATR
The latest megalomaniacal threat from the financial globalists wants to saddle the world economy with a cost of trillions of dollars that benefits favorite corporatists. The phony global warming cult has a core purpose. Their objective is to drive down the standard of living for non-elites and prevent the use of fossil fuel energy. The fallacious science used to create a disinformation scare for politically unsophisticated "True Believers" is a direct result of transnational money manipulators. The Davos crowd sponsors the educational and media institutions that trump up junk research and manufacture idealistic solutions.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Fed’s Plan B - "We're Going to Kill the Dollar" / Politics / US Dollar
By: Mike_Whitney
How do you solve a problem when you’re running a 10% fiscal budget deficit? You are not going to get growth without private sector credit demand. The government’s idea right now is that we’re going to export our way out of this, and when I asked a senior member of the Obama administration last week how are we going to grow exports if we will not allow nominal wage deflation? He said, “We’re going to kill the dollar.” Kyle Bass interview.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Obama's Endless Nonsense About Equality When Inequality is the Clear Fact / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: "Second Term Begins With a Sweeping Agenda for Equality," ran the eight-column banner in which The Washington Post captured the essence of Obama's second inaugural. There he declared:
"What binds this nation together ... what makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago."
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
Oh No! Not Another Osama! This Time Created by France / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: LewRockwell
PARIS – The bloody attack on an Algerian gas installation and France’s invasion of Mali are the result of troubles that have been brewing for years – we simply have not been paying attention.
Jihadist guerilla leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, headlined as a new Great Islamic Satan by French media, has been making trouble in the Sahara for a long time, kidnapping westerners, robbing caravans, smuggling cigarettes.
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Friday, January 25, 2013
U.S. Debt, Deficit and Government Spending - The Fiscal Cliff Was A Wasted Opportunity / Politics / US Debt
By: Casey_Research
The label "the fiscal cliff" evoked the fear that something terrible was about to happen if the previously legislated spending cuts and tax increases came into effect. From my point of view, our nation's deficits and debt are growing at an alarming rate and need to be cut back. The reason these laws were enacted was to offer markets some hope that we would eventually work toward eliminating our serious deficits. But the prevailing opinion that such drastic decreases in our deficit would slow our economy and bring recession created the impression that this "cliff" must be avoided.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Europe's Slushy Carbon Market: Weaker Every Day / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
GETTING DESPERATELY CHEAP
Anybody who wants to know how Europe's forced and mandatory Emissions Trading Scheme or ETS works - or doesn't work - needs only to check out the figures. One barrel of oil emits about 430 kilograms of CO2 when burned; 1 tonne of CO2 is therefore equivalent to burning about 2.25 barrels. European total CO2 output was about 5.1 billion tons, or 7.5 tons per capita in 2012, for a 3% decline on 2011 according to Holland's PBL Environmental Assessment Agency.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Credit Meltdown Transcripts - It's All in the Flows / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Fred_Sheehan
The 2007 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcripts were released last week. Media reports have concentrated on the Fed's forbearance during the credit meltdown. Implied, but not stated (in what I have read) is the major reason for such nonchalance: The Fed only acknowledges flows, not stocks. This might sound boring. It is also very important to understand.