Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Hackers and the Alternatives to the Global Financial System / Politics / Global Financial System
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.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Ferocious, Weak and Crazy: The North Korea Military Strategy / Politics / North Korea
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.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Public Schools Are Black Holes, Don't Drop Your Child into One / Politics / Educating Children
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
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.
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Monday, January 28, 2013
Reinventing Abraham: Organized Religion And The Crisis / Politics / Religion
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
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
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.
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Fed’s Plan B - "We're Going to Kill the Dollar" / Politics / US Dollar
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.
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
Obama's Endless Nonsense About Equality When Inequality is the Clear Fact / Politics / US Politics
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
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
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.
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Friday, January 25, 2013
Europe's Slushy Carbon Market: Weaker Every Day / Politics / Climate Change
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
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.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
On the Fringe of the Dominant Financial World / Politics / Market Regulation
Justin O’Connell writes: When CNN wrote recently, “Bitcoin, a virtual online ‘currency,’ seems to be gaining traction and legitimacy among those who need to transfer or launder their cash outside of the prying eyes of regulators,” they were elevating convenient prejudices over reality. For, although the prying eyes of regulators are something most people would rather avoid, the destructive policies of central bankers lead people to alternatives that may attract those eyes just the same. CNN referred to Bitcoin as "sketchy" and in so doing used a technique of identifying anything outside the purview of official transactions as “black market,” “gray market” or otherwise shady. The press outlet whittles Bitcoins’ userbase down to Iranians, hit men and drug dealers and others “who prefer to be paid in an untraceable currency.”
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
President Obama Falls for a Fallacy / Politics / US Politics
In his second inaugural address, President Obama made a series of direct and indirect references to the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents to make his case for collective (read: state) action. In doing so, he fell into the fallacy of argument ad antiquitatem – an illegitimate appeal to ages past in order to justify present and future actions.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Wall Street Kow Tows To Obama / Politics / US Politics
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
In 2008, Goldman Sachs executives and employees were the largest single Wall Street backers of the president, but by 2012 things had changed. Obama had "meddled with the free market", or perhaps had not been generous enough with billion dollar bailouts, the chemistry wasn't right. Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street heavyweights gave $21 million to Mitt Romney, more than any other presidential candidate since the USA's modern campaign system began in 1976, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
USA 2013 - The Existing Social Order Will be Swept Away / Politics / US Politics
After digesting the opinions of the shills, shysters and scam artists, I am ready to predict that I have no clue what will happen during 2013. The weekend weather last week was a perfect analogy for attempting to forecast the future. The professional highly educated meteorologists predicted sunny warm weather, just as the PhD Wall Street paid economist mouthpieces assure the multitudes 2013 will be the year when zero interest rates and $1.2 trillion deficits will finally lead to sunny economic skies. Instead, the weekend was overcast and damp. As I was writing this article and watching the miraculous Baltimore Ravens comeback against Denver, I received a two minute warning from my wife. I had to pick up my son and his buddies at the Montgomery Mall. As I pulled the car out of the garage, I backed out into fog that was thicker than pea soup. I’ve driven the roads to the Montgomery Mall hundreds of times, but the fog was so thick I couldn’t see ten feet ahead. I drove hesitantly, wondering what might be just over the horizon or what might dart out from a side street. I see 2013 as a year of maneuvering through thick fog with startling apparitions lurking to surprise us and force a deviation in our normal course. As I proceeded cautiously through the murky mist there were few cars on the roads and the strip centers and fast food joints resembled haunted houses and grave yards. I expected to see Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and Wolfman panhandling on the corners.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Decline of the Middle Class Under Obama / Politics / Social Issues
Ben Gersten writes: U.S. President Barack Obama often makes a point of talking about how important our country's middle class is to our economic growth - something he reiterated yesterday (Monday) in his second inauguration speech.
"Our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it," President Obama said. "We believe that America's prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class."
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The Unintended Consequence of Green Cars / Politics / Environmental Issues
Energy and environment conservation has been high on every nation’s agenda probably even before the oil crisis in the 1970s. Green cars such as hybrids and electric cars have been gaining popularity as well as auto market share in the U.S. driven in part by high oil and fuel prices, as well as government policies, and subsidies in some cases, pushing for higher fuel efficiency.
Most people think “eco-driving” or even carpooling is a win-win-- saving gas money and the environment at the same time. But it looks like what may be good for the environment, is actually bad news for the government.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
American's Don't Worry About Your Guns, There Is Nothing Left To Defend / Politics / US Politics
Jim Karger writes: "And, to you tough-talking Neo-Cons with your AR-15 rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo, here is reality: they will take your guns, and no, all your Second Amendment bluster aside, you are not going to do anything about it. You are not going to take on a platoon of Marines with state of the art automatic weapons and the best body armor you cannot buy protected by armed personnel carriers and attack helicopters unless you choose to die that day -- for nothing.
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