Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, June 01, 2012
U.S. Congress Dumb and Dumber and the Facebook IPO Fiasco / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:
You're not imagining things. Congress is dumb and getting dumber.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, the median grade level for Congressional proceedings and speeches has dropped nearly a full grade level from eleventh to tenth grade.
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Truth About Europe: There Is No Solution / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
I like that title, The Truth About Europe: There Is No Solution. But I don't think it can all be summed up, the reasons why I mean, in one article. So I think I'll make it a running series. Still, whatever data we can look at, past, present and future, none of it will make an essential difference. The title stands: There Is No Solution For Europe. Period. All I can do is keep pointing to news and stats and data that confirm that. All of them do, so that should make it a lot easier, even if most voices out there never tire from pointing out the opposite.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Reform of US Monetary System: Message of 12 Year Old Goes Viral / Politics / US Dollar
By: Ellen_Brown
The youtube video of 12 year old Victoria Grant speaking at the Public Banking in America conference last month has gone viral, topping a million views on various websites.Monetary reform—the contention that governments, not banks, should create and lend a nation’s money—has rarely even made the news, so this is a first. Either the times they are a-changin’, or Victoria managed to frame the message in a way that was so simple and clear that even a child could understand it.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Ten Ways the US Is Worse Than It Was In 1947 / Politics / US Debt
By: Jeff_Berwick
Gary North is an icon in the Austro-libertarian world, and writes more in a day than most will write in their lifetimes. The majority of what he says is excellent and it is well worth your time listening to whatever he has to say.
In his recent article, entitled, "Why We Are Not On The Road to Serfdom", he takes a slightly different perspective than TDV on the state of liberty in the USSA. In it, he makes many good points and tries to lay out the case that because the US Government is on the verge of financial collapse, we should be optimistic about the future. He opens his argument with the following statement: "the federal government is no deeper into our pockets than it was in 1947," and presents us with the following chart:
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
GFC: Quality, Quantity, and The Chicken Little Phenomenon / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Mark Blair writes: The more complex a system is, the more vulnerable it is to collapse. This article offers insights into the ‘qualities’ and ‘quantities’ of stock-market prediction (which for me is human psychology vis a vis political systems).
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Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Capital Controls Have No Place in a Free Society / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The characteristic mark of a tyrannical regime is that it eventually finds it necessary to erect walls to keep people from leaving. This is why we should be troubled by the "Ex-PATRIOT Act," an egregiously offensive bill recently introduced in the Senate. Following a long line of recent legislation and regulations attempting to expropriate more and more wealth from hard-working Americans, this new bill spits in the face of overburdened taxpayers and tramples on the Constitution.
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Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Disease is our Monetary System / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Rudy_Avizius
f the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation [bubbles], then by deflation [recession or depression], the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Thomas Jefferson
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Graduates of 2012 Face Consequences of the Fourth Turning / Politics / Education
By: John_Mauldin
It is the season when students all over the country are graduating and listening to graduation speeches. I have heard more than my share over the years. But never one like this week's Outside the Box essay, from my friend and world-class demographer Neil Howe. Neil was co-author of The Fourth Turning, which way back in 1997 absolutely nailed the coming generational changes we are now living through, giving us a fascinating and eerily accurate guide to our future. The premise is that a generation is a 20-year period and that generational social tendencies repeat roughly every 80 years and have done so in the Anglo-Saxon world for hundreds of years. And now the Millennial generation is coming of age in a world dominated by Boomers, and we are seeing another cycle change.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sibera Could Vote to Seperate From Russia and Join United States / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
The idea to separate Siberia and annex the territory to the United States of America has been engrossing the minds of Siberian separatists for a long time already. Surprisingly, or maybe not, they find the support from across the ocean.
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Sunday, May 27, 2012
Greece Could Implode the Second Bailout and the EU by Mid-June / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
While most of my analysis so far has concerned France’s elections, it was in fact Greece’s May election which proved more significant for the future of the EU.
I do not want to delve too much into Greek history and political parties. So I’ll simply show the results along with the names and brief descriptions of each party:
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Sunday, May 27, 2012
Germany, Greece and the Game of "Chicken" / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
Summer unofficially kicks off this weekend, at least here in the U.S., as we celebrate Memorial Day.
Before we even get to the "official" beginning of summer on June 21, sweat will be pouring from every banker's brow on June 17.
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Saturday, May 26, 2012
A Fair Price For Energy In Europe ? / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
FROM ZERO TO INFINITY
One thing electricity consumers in Europe can expect, at latest by about 2017 but probably well before, is that power prices will be "highly variable". They will probably be higher than present, for starters - but on occasions power may also be literally given away - as happens in Germany today, when its a windy and sunny day and power demand is low, for example at weekends in May 2012. The reason is very simple: the combined wind and solar generating capacity of Germany is about 55 000 MW, and growing, but when national power demand is at its lowest, it is around 35 000 MW.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Can Obama Stop Casino Capitalism? / Politics / US Politics
By: Shamus_Cooke
The recent JPMorgan scandal where billions of dollars were lost in risky bets has re-ignited the move to properly regulate the U.S. banking system.
Among those asking for new regulations is Robert Reich, former labor secretary to Bill Clinton. Recently Reich made a plea of sorts to President Obama, whom he wishes would take the commonsense approach to bank regulation by re-installing the depression-era regulation, the Glass-Steagall Act.
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Saturday, May 26, 2012
Don't Worry About Your Kids' Economic Future, Worry about Yours / Politics / US Debt
By: Gary_North
I read that Americans who have spoken to poll-takers express the fear that their children will not live as well as they have. Here is an example. The poll was taken in October 2011.
Read full article... Read full article...More than two-thirds of voters say the United States is declining, and a clear majority think the next generation will be worse off than this one, according to the results of a new poll commissioned by The Hill.
Friday, May 25, 2012
America today is pro-war, pro-capitalist, pro-empire and in retrograde! / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
I quickly rented a car to meet an emergency medical appointment. Enterprise, the rental agency, sent its 30-something driver who I've known for years. In conversation, Pam (pseudonym), a conservative and Evangelical Christian, called me an "old Democrat". I hoped by "old" she didn't mean elderly, though I am. I hope she didn't mean a Clinton Democrat or a Carter or a LBJ Democrat either (which I wasn't). If she meant a "JFK" one she was close to correct. Thusly, I am a very, very old Democrat, in fact an FDR Dem born two years after he gave up the ghost and passed the atomic bomb to the then "warrior president" Democrat Harry Truman. So I am a child of the Bomb, born and adopted in the year of Roswell.
Friday, May 25, 2012
US Decides to Backstop the Anglo-American Derivatives Exchanges with Fed Dollars - 'Too Big To Fail' / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Jesse
It sounds like the principle of keeping AIG whole on its obligations so that it can pay off to the banks at 100 cents on the dollar. This should make Jamie feel a little better about his bad derivatives trades.
And Blythe should rest easy knowing that Benny has her back on those massive metals shorts.
Friday, May 25, 2012
U.S. Government Budget Deficit Sorting Out America's Fiscal Cliff Issue / Politics / US Debt
By: Asha_Bangalore
Under current law, the federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2013 will show a drastic decline from fiscal year 2012 as a result of scheduled increases in taxes and reductions in government spending. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the federal budget deficit of $1.17 trillion in fiscal 2012 will shrink to $612 billion in fiscal 2013. This sharp reduction of the federal budget deficit is referred to as the “fiscal cliff” in the financial media and macroeconomic discussions. The economic impact of these likely changes in the federal budget deficit is the subject of intense debate at the present time. The objective here is to highlight the impending changes in federal taxes and spending, with the help of CBO’s summary presented in Table 1, and attempt to understand the economic consequences of these changes.
Friday, May 25, 2012
The European Union (EU) the New Soviet Union (NSU) / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Christopher_Quigley
In an essay penned in June 2011 Bernard Connolly the author of "The Rotten Heart of Europe" explained how the European Union was actively morphing into the New Soviet Union. He outlined how democracy
was being destroyed and replaced by bureaucratic command. I have to congratulate Mr. Connolly for his
courage in expressing views which endanger his financial career but unfortunately many are coming to
comprehend that his analysis is the truth if only because it places a rational paradigm on disparate activity
that is actually happening to people in their daily lives. Below I list ten examples to support this thesis.
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
All Hail the Greek Exit / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
The dialogue between academics, officials, analysts and pundits in Europe has very obviously turned towards ways of spinning a Greek exit as a "good thing" for the system, or, at least, not such a "bad thing". Last week, we saw analysts at Bank of America and HSBC telling us that a Greek exit would actually cause a large market rally for a bunch of dubious reasons (i.e. the CBs will print to infinity and cause everything to soar, while also making a stark example out of Greece). That's a common argument, and there is at least some historical precedent in support. Like I said before, though, we can no longer use recent history alone as a reliable guide to the near future.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Poor People Will Foot The Bill For Nuclear White Elephants / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Submissions
Dr Gerry Wolff submits: “There is absolutely no case for subsidising nuclear power” said Dr Gerry Wolff of the Energy Fair group, responding to the recently-published draft of the Energy Bill 2012. “The proposed ‘feed-in tariff with contracts for difference’ is a blank cheque to a nuclear industry that is already heavily subsidised.”
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