Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Greenspan vs Trichet, a tie? / Politics / Central Banks
By: ECB_Watch
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Goldman-Greece-Draghi-Morgan-Stanley / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: ECB_Watch
We retrace the events of the Goldman-Greece-Draghi controversy and relate it to the Draghi-Morgan-Santley disclosure issue.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
18 Ways Government Wastes Your Money / Politics / Government Spending
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: Never mind the $15 trillion national debt; the government blew $592,000 on a study last year to figure out why chimpanzees throw poop. That's just one example of government waste described in a recent book by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK. His "Wastebook 2011" features 100 examples of needless or ill-advised government spending. It adds up to $6.9 billion that America can't afford. And while such waste is just a fraction of the federal government's $3.8 trillion budget, a country that needs to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spends should not be throwing money away on non-essential research. Like why chimps throw poop. Here are 17 other things the government wasted tax dollars on last year:
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Global Economic Lent / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2012
By: Jan_Skoyles
Today is Pancake Day and whilst many, including The Real Asset Co research desk, will be enjoying it, there is still an ongoing economic crisis in the foreground. Maybe its time to give up something other than chocolate or smoking, maybe its time to give up on reckless spending and fiat money.
Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday and is typically the day that signals the beginning of a period of abstinence and self-control.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The European Crisis, China and the Asian Model / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
The evolution of geopolitics is cyclical. Powers rise, fall and shift. Changes occur in every generation in an unending ballet. However, the period between 1989 and 1991 was unique in that a long cycle of human history spanning hundreds of years ended, and with it a shorter cycle also came to a close. The world is still reverberating from the events of that period.
On Dec. 25, 1991, an epoch ended. On that day the Soviet Union collapsed, and for the first time in almost 500 years no European power was a global power, meaning no European state integrated economic, military and political power on a global scale. What began in 1492 with Europe smashing its way into the world and creating a global imperial system had ended. For five centuries, one European power or another had dominated the world, whether Portugal, Spain, France, England or the Soviet Union. Even the lesser European powers at the time had some degree of global influence.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Gold and the 'R' Decade: Repression, Riot and Revolution / Politics / Gold and Silver 2012
By: Bob_Kirtley
Repression is in full swing, rioting is spreading and revolution is almost upon us. The next ten years will bring extraordinary change which hopefully will be for the better, however, there is the small matter of getting through the worst of it first.By the time 2022 rolls round there will be a gold backed Dinar, a silver backed Peso and a number of forms of digital currency led by Google's vary own cyber Dollar.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Ron Paul: Overspending on U.S. National Security Threatens National Security / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The administration recently released its 2013 budget proposal, and conservatives are correctly alarmed that it calls for unprecedented spending and continued annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion. But the same conservatives complain that the budget does not devote enough funds to overseas adventurism.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
Disability Fraud Holds Down U.S. Unemployment Rate / Politics / Unemployment
By: Mike_Shedlock
Looking for another reason for an artificially low unemployment rate?
Consider disability fraud, people claiming disabilities they do not have such as mental illness. Prior to the great recession 33% of applicants claimed mental illness. The number is 43% now.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
From Riches to Rags, the U.S. Housing Market Crash and Bankruptcy / Politics / US Housing
By: LewRockwell
Brad C writes: My experience with a tax audit, real estate crash, rental house woes, foreclosures, layoff and bankruptcy:
In a nutshell, we went from a 4,000 square foot home, worth more than $1 million, a vacation home, new RV, Mercedes convertible, Jeep, $50,000 SUV, 20 rental properties, a property management company and a great full time job... To living in a modest rental house in the middle of nowhere.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
Taxes, Pay Up or Die! / Politics / Taxes
By: LewRockwell
Laurence M. Vance writes: Because I don’t like to pay taxes, I was intrigued by the title of the article by Stephen Foster that I was directed to titled: "102 Things NOT To Do If You Hate Taxes." The article is a liberal defense of the legitimacy of the government (usually federal, but sometimes state or local) confiscating a portion of Americans’ incomes and redistributing and reallocating the incomes because the government provides certain services. Implied throughout the article is the myth that none of the 102 things listed "NOT to do" would exist without the government. The above Holmes quote appears at the end of the article.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Why Greece Must Exit the Eurozone, How it Will Happen and Why Portugal and Spain Will Follow / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
Several people have asked me about statements I have made that "Greece is in a hopeless situation until it exits the Eurozone."
Actually Greece is in a horrific condition whether or not it exits the Eurozone as the Troika literally destroyed Greece (perhaps purposely to protect French and German banks), by dragging this mess out the way they have.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Ten Myths About Capitalism / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Pravda
Capitalism in the neoliberal version has exhausted itself. Financial sharks do not want to lose profits, and shift the main burden of debt to the retirees and the poor. A ghost of the "European Spring" is haunting the Old World and the opponents of capitalism explain people how their lives are being destroyed. This is the topic of the article of a Portuguese economist Guilherme Alves Coelho.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Who is Stronger: Iran or the West? / Politics / Iran
By: Pravda
While developed countries continue to print their money as fast as they can to overcome the debt crisis, investors turn their heads to the East. The West introduced sanctions against Iran, but it appears that the Islamic Republic is capable of throwing the world economy into deep crisis.
The European consumers of Iranian oil shudder at the thought that Iran may block the Hormuz Strait in response to the economic sanctions from the West. If it happens, all the efforts aimed at overcoming the financial crisis, will be wasted in an instant.
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Sunday, February 19, 2012
“We Are Drowning” On A Road To Nowhere: New War on the Horizon / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Oil prices are rocketing. Iranian warships are moving into the Mediterranean to shadow the US warships already there. Propaganda news is growing with rumors of Al Qaeda links with Iran, and, then, less speculative news about real links between the terror groups and the armed opposition in Syria.
As Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi puts it, the smell of war is in the air and on the air, “You can just feel it: many of the same newspapers and TV stations we saw leading the charge in the Bush years have gone back to the attic and are dusting off their war pom-poms.”
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Saturday, February 18, 2012
Feeding off the Syrian Carcase / Politics / UK Politics
By: William_Bowles
An uncle of mine, a quite extraordinary individual, used to say that he was privileged to have a ‘ringside seat’ when viewing the rampages of capitalism. To which I must add that the ticket to gain admission has been extremely costly, for the planet, but not for my uncle in spite of his lefty leanings. But privileged he was, as all of us are here in the West, insulated from the worst extremes of Empire by all those dead brown bodies.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Banker Occupied Europe and America / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Stephen_Lendman
Money power rules. Across Europe and America, governments follow banker diktats. They demand economies and people suffer to assure they're paid.
Money power in private hands and democracy can't co-exist. It buys what it wants at the expense of government of, by and for the people. It never was and isn't now.
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Saturday, February 18, 2012
Millions of Evangelical Christians Want to Start World War III … to Speed Up the Second Coming / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
Millions of Americans believe that Christ will not come again until Israel wipes out its competitors and there is widespread war in the Middle East. Some of these folks want to start a huge fire of war and death and destruction, so that Jesus comes quickly.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Crude Oil and Curreny Markets Instability: Petro-Dollars and the Oil Bourse / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Bob_Chapman
Several years ago free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing were discussed in the major media. As time wore on the issues disappeared and now it is not easy to find discussions of these policies virtually anywhere as the drain of jobs and companies leave the third world.
Not only have the better paying jobs been leaving, but the destruction of economic independence and sovereignty has been a victim as well, something few professionals, never mind the public, thinks about. If America is to ever have an economic recovery there will have to be trade legislation with tariffs on goods and services.
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Saturday, February 18, 2012
Exploring the Not-So-Altruistic Aspects of the Buffett Tax Rule / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
By Robert Ross, Casey Research This week, President Obama released his $3.8-trillion budget for fiscal year 2013. The plan calls for new taxes on the wealthy, a restructuring of the tax code, and short-term infrastructure spending aimed at boosting the economy (albeit artificially).
Also included in the budget are limitations on subsidies for oil and gas companies, an end to the Bush tax cuts, and a proposal to raise taxes on dividends, which could be as high as 39.6% for households making over $250,000 per year.
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Friday, February 17, 2012
Vanguard's Bogle: Tax Breaks For Private Equity Firms are 'Ridiculous' / Politics / Financial Markets 2012
By: Bloomberg
Vanguard Group founder John Bogle spoke with Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu yesterday at the Bloomberg Link Portfolio Manager Mash-Up conference in New York.
Bogle said that lower tax rates for certain types of gains earned by private equity firms are "ridiculous" and "I'm arguing for the capital gains rate taxable as ordinary income."
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