Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
U.S. Debt Day of Reckoning Is Coming, Despite Universal Blindness of the Masses / Politics / US Debt
By: Gary_North
The debt ceiling battle led to a compromise. Congress and the President promised to submit to mandatory budget cuts. A bipartisan super committee was set up to put together a package of debt reduction cuts totaling several trillion dollars over supposedly a decade. If the committee deadlocks, the cuts will begin automatically on January 2, 2013. These must be $1.2 trillion in cuts, or $120 billion a year.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Occupy Wall Street “What’s Your Agenda?" / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
One of the most frequently repeated, recycled and dismissive questions about Occupy Wall Street is its supposed lack of an “agenda.”
The “what do you people want” question has featured in media interviews almost to the exclusion of all others.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Eurozone Bailout Deal: Hold the Cheers / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Stephen_Lendman
More debt agreed on exacerbates an out-of-control problem. Only its final resolution is delayed. The longer crisis conditions continue and grow, the worse they'll be when day of reckoning time arrives.
Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance and punisher of hubris and arrogance in Greek mythology, may have final say.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Carbon Fear And Loathing In Riyadh / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
A little trip to Riyadh is interesting. There, young western educated planners and cadres are all rigorously indoctrinated, or self-indoctrinated with Postcarbon Sustainability themes and memes. All government agencies are full of them. The holy city of Mecca now boasts an urban rail system able to carry 60 000 passengers per hour, and Saudi railway boomers intend to rival American and Russia railway builders of the 19th century, with 2400 miles of rail track currently under construction. To be sure, the main goal is replacing and substituting oil in the Saudi economy. In their colorful powerpoints, the Postcarbon Prophets of the Kingdom show these rail networks lined by Super Grids fed with clean green energy from huge windfarms and glistening solar power plants, miraculously protected from airborne sandstorm grit and stones. Whatever it is, Future Energy is not oil.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Euro-zone Treaty of Debt, ESM Bailout Mechanism Explained / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are interested in the terms of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) accord scheduled to replace the EFSF. The following video highlights the key sections of the proposed treaty.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Euro Trillion Bailout Deal, Devil is in the Detail / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Bob_Kirtley
Euphoria hit the financial markets as the news was announced of a one trillion euro bailout package. The large European banks jumped by as much as 20% in a single day increasing their market caps by billions. This burst of excitement followed through to the United States where the DOW leaped forward as the banking sector lead the way to higher ground.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Saving The Eurozone, Will it Work? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Bob_Chapman
It is now clear to the most casual observer that the world’s monetary and financial system cannot function without massive amounts of additional money and credit. That means the system no longer functions the way it should. Europe really doesn’t know what to do and neither does the Fed and the Bank of England. The exception is throwing more money at the problem and keeping interest rates near zero indefinitely. Many US, UK and European banks are insolvent. The real estate market continues to deflate throughout Europe with the exception of Germany, which never really rose in price. Again, there are no solutions offered to solve this problem. Just as there are no solutions elsewhere. These conditions tell us the euro has serious problems to face as does the pound and the US dollar. You have to then say to yourself against what. Each currency has its own problems, thus, the only alterative is to measure each currency versus gold and silver. These are the true benchmarks, and when compared over the last 11-1/2 years, versus nine major currencies gold and silver on average annually have appreciated more than 20%. That tells you anyone holding currencies has been a major loser.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Americans Drowning In Spin / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother’s subjects in George Orwell’s 1984 are better informed than Americans.
Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
The 1% Loves Socialism / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Scott Cruickshank submits: You’ll notice if you’ve been paying attention to the war of propaganda that the 1% and their obedient lickspittles are going all out to frame the 99% VS. 1% showdown as a battle between Capitalists and Commies. Capitalism of course being good, socialism bad. I laugh every time I hear it because logic and common sense just doesn’t support the spin.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
The Never Ending Euro Fiasco / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
Imagine if the local fire chief, in the spirit of conservation, decided he’d use no more than 1,000 gallons of water to put out any given house fire. Do you think the citizens would support that policy if their town was burned to the ground? And, yet, this is the same approach that eurozone leaders are using to address the debt crisis. The central bank (ECB) has virtually limitless resources (Think: printing press) to defend the debt of the individual states and to act as lender of last resort, but the eurocrats won’t hear of it. They refuse to use the ECB as every other central bank in the world is used. They’d rather reinvent the wheel by creating a funky, improvised emergency fund (European Financial Stabilization Facility or EFSF) that’s massively leveraged and which only provides a 20 percent “first-loss” guarantee on sovereign bonds. So, for example, if Italy goes belly-up in the next year or so and can’t repay its debts, then Mr. bondholder gets a whopping 20 cents on the dollar. Such a deal!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Occupy Wall Street, Peter Schiff Goes Head to Head in Defense of the 1% / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Last week, I spent the afternoon visiting the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan. I brought a film crew and a sign that said "I Am The 1%, Let's Talk." The purpose was to understand what was motivating these protesters and try to educate them about what caused the financial crisis. I went down there with the feeling that much of their anger was justified, but broadly misdirected.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Will Offshore Crude Oil Lubricate US–Cuba Relations? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Marin_Katusa
Marin Katusa, Casey Energy Opportunities writes: One of Spain's largest oil companies, Repsol, is gearing up to spud a deep, offshore well in Cuban waters, just 60 miles from the Florida Keys. A huge rig is still en route to the site from Singapore, and as it draws closer to its destination the zealous opposition from Floridian politicians who rely on the Cuban expatriate vote gets louder.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Euro Bailouts - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Axel_Merk
The markets appear euphoric about the ability for European policy makers to deliver on new promises. Low market expectations were met. We, too, have a positive takeaway, but only because of one detail of the grand plan; actually, let's call it a "grand sketch," as many details are still unknown.
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Trapped in Amerika, a fasco-communist police state / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Slowly, as Americans are waking up to the fasco-communist police state that surrounds them and realize that the economy in the US will never recover until after the US dollar hyperinflates into worthlessness, we receive more and more emails with sad stories and desperate cries for help.
The stories are often truly sad and usually entail abuse by the police or the state or being wiped out by the corrupt educational system or medical system which are fascist systems now designed to indebt and take as much wealth from Americans as possible.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Forget Wall Street, Instead Occupy Capital Hill / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
Central banks exist for a single reason – to inflate the supply of paper currency. They are a currency-creating and currency-inflating institution. This serves two interest groups in the main. One is the fractional-reserve banks that they regulate. The other is the government that created them.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
President Obama Announces Plan to Boost College Tuitions / Politics / Education
By: Peter_Schiff
resident Obama today announced a plan that will ensure students are able to commit to higher levels of federally backed student loans. By limiting student obligations to repay, and by passing more of the repayment burden onto taxpayers, colleges and universities will be able to continue to raise tuitions at a rate that outpaces nearly every other cost center in the American economy. The move will come as a great relief to an education establishment increasingly concerned that students might no longer be able to afford skyrocketing tuition rates.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Robin Hood Tax: Occupy Movement Now Marching Straight Off the Globalist Cliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Patrick_Henningsen
It was inevitable that a movement which has struggled to agree on a manifesto, would in the end, do the bidding of the very elite globalist powers that they are demonstrating against to begin with.
Instead of achieving freedom from Central Bank debt enslavement, naive Occupiers appear to have taken the bait, pulling the mob towards endorsing a global taxation system, and one to be administered…by a brand new global government body.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Decline of Empire, Idiot Solons and Pentagon Zombies / Politics / US Politics
By: Bill_Bonner
What’s Bill doing in Cyprus…?
Markets a big move to the upside. And why? No apparent reason. Gaddafi bit the dust, almost literally. And the Europeans seemed to be stumbling to yet another solution…in which they borrow more money to help fund the troubles created by borrowing money in the past.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The U.S. Is Fast Becoming a Third World Police State / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
As a P.T. (often referred to as perpetual traveller, permanent tourist or prior taxpayer), I have travelled to nearly 100 countries. During those travels there has always been one defining moment, upon entry into a country, which shows that the country is what is generally thought of as a "third world country".
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
We Pay Tax for the Privilege to Have Currency / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Casey_Research
In this video excerpt from the Casey Summit When Money Dies, Rich Dad advisor Mike Maloney explains how currency is created, "fractional reserve banking," and why our banking system is a pyramid scam of epic proportions.