Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Europe's Monetary Bazooka Will Fire Blanks / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Europe continues to take a page out of Hank Paulson’s “Crisis Combat” booklet, by unveiling one monetary “bazooka” after another. Obviously, EU leaders didn’t notice that Paulson’s “bazooka” completely failed to stop the 2008 Crash.
Even more strangely, they keep pulling out bazooka after bazooka, first unveiling the EFSF which was supposed to raise €1 trillion but failed to raise even €10 billion without having to intervene in its own bond auctions.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Europe's Nuclear Exit Strategy / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Andrew_McKillop
At this time in April 2012 the nuclear industry has springcleaned its rhetoric and is making predictable
rearguard action, claiming it isn't dead yet. What almost any honest observer will say is that just one
more Fukushima type disaster will totally seal the fate of nuclear power, relegating the nuclear industry
back to only the domains of weapons, medicine, engineering and research. As the Japanese government
is obliged almost daily to up the estimate of costs that it and taxpayers will have to bear for the
Fukushima disaster - the latest estimate is for a total of around 11 trillion yen to 2020 - Japan moves
further to a probable complete exit from nuclear power. The costs were simply too high, like the risks
which are perceived by public opinion as far too high.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Before Making That IRA Contribution, Make Sure Your Pension Plan Assets are Safe / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Larry D. Spears writes:
The middle of April is fast approaching and everyone knows what that means - time to get those 2011 income tax returns filled out and filed.
What few people realize is that they also have until Monday, April 16, to open a new individual retirement account (IRA) for 2011 or make your annual contribution to an existing one.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Are High Taxes About to Make Silicon Valley Pack Up and Leave? / Politics / Tech Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
California Governor Jerry Brown is at it again.
He's cut a deal with the teachers' unions that would take the top rate of state income tax from 10.3% to 13.3%.
If passed on the November ballot, that would increase taxes on the top tier by a hefty 29%.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Secret China Coup Could Send These Stocks Higher / Politics / China Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:
Reports of a coup in the past week have startled many long-time China watchers.
Of course, we've seen next to nothing in the Western media about it despite the fact that what is going on behind the scenes now may be the biggest political play we've seen in decades.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Goldman Sachs Should 'Stop Saying' It Puts Customers First / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Bloomberg
Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, who serves as a senior policy advisor for Goldman Sachs, spoke to Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker this morning on "Inside Track." Levitt said that Goldman should "stop saying" the firm puts customers first and that Lloyd Blankfein's "future is determined really by what the business is over the course of coming months."
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Washington Obsesses Over Syria Whilst Mexico Burns / Politics / Mexico
By: STRATFOR
While the foreign policy elite in Washington focuses on the 8,000 deaths in a conflict in Syria -- half a world away from the United States -- more than 47,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2006 in Mexico. A deeply troubled state as well as a demographic and economic giant on the United States' southern border, Mexico will affect America's destiny in coming decades more than any state or combination of states in the Middle East. Indeed, Mexico may constitute the world's seventh-largest economy in the near future.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Death of the Entertainment Industry / Politics / Sector Analysis
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
There are things that many people in the developed world take for granted, especially in the states and Western Europe. Jobs, health benefits, social safety nets, affordable credit for homes/cars/etc. and cheap energy certainly rank among the most vital expectations, but even those things have been called into question within the mainstream consciousness, if for no other reason than the fact that they have simply evaporated in many locations. What hasn't really disappeared, though, are the [mindless] entertainment industries - i.e. sports, movies and video games.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
From Obamacare to Taxes: 5 Hot Topics Politicians Love to Lie About / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
Political lies are as old as the Republic, but that doesn't make the practice any less of an insult to the American people.
Whether they are about Obamacare or taxes, political lies are a special kind of deception.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Explaining Central Banking to the Publicly Educated / Politics / Central Banks
By: Jeff_Berwick
Don't understand economics? And the thought of even trying makes your eyes cross?
That's what they want. Government, which is an artificial, unnecessary construct has made a concerted effort to make economics sound as difficult as possible for decades. The reason? They can use your programmed ignorance as the publicly "educated" to confuse you about how they manipulate the economy for their benefit.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
After U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone on March 25 during his trip to South Korea for a nuclear security summit, he made the obligatory presidential remarks warning North Korea against continued provocations. He also praised the strength of U.S.-South Korean relations and commended the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Obama's visit itself is of little importance, but it is an opportunity to ask just what Washington's strategy is in Korea and how the countries around North Korea (China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) view the region. As always, any understanding of current strategy requires a consideration of the history of that strategy.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
HUGE Changes Coming To Planet Earth, 2012 is HERE! / Politics / Social Issues
By: T_Anthony_Michael
Cosmic Convergence Accelerates Epochal Change On Planet Earth
What happens when an unparalleled Solar Maximium occurs while Pluto is cruising through Capricorn, seismic activity and vulcanism (both undersea and on land) have already seen a dramatic uptick, technospheric breakdown has greatly accelerated, entire species have vacated the planet as whole ecosystems are irreparably destroyed, global climate change appears as global warming, cooling, drought or deluge, and the worldwide financial system is on the verge of collapse, as in a total and complete, irreversible monetary meltdown? Believe it or not, these actual occurrences and various eventualities are the very least of our problems.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
As the U.S. Constitution Burns, we sleep...then wake! / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Are Americans willing to surrender their constitutional protections in order to fight “terrorism”? Attorney General Erik Holder and President Obama believe they are willing, and continue to pave the way for dismantling our rights in the name of national defense.
From the Patriot Act to HR347 (acts of terrorism against Americans and the Constitution by this and past administrations), the American people have remained numb, dumb and compliant. When the Constitution, the legal foundation of law itself, is compromised and violated by the very branches of government to whom it is entrusted, all law is violated, and lawlessness prevails in its stead.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Will Holland Escape the Eurozone Debt Crisis by Exiting the European Union? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
For your Outside the Box today I treat you to another big, juicy slab of Grant Williams' Things That Make You Go Hmmm… I don't want to be all Grant all the time, but this is just so good I couldn't resist. This week, Grant is digging deep into the history and mystery of the European Union, taking us all the way back to the first inter-country treaty in April 1951 and then following the rather tortuous bureaucratic proceedings that led, by hook and by crook, to today's increasingly problematic eurozone.
Monday, March 26, 2012
New-Build Nuclear Power: A High-Risk Gamble / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Submissions
Dr Gerry Wolff writes: New report says there are five major areas of risk in putting money into new nuclear plants
According to a new report from the Energy Fair group (PDF, bit.ly/zGgbHF), anyone considering investing in new nuclear plants faces five major areas of risk: market risk, cost risk, subsidy risk, political risk and construction risk.
Monday, March 26, 2012
A Fistful of Euros / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week, my congressional committee will hold a hearing to examine how the Federal Reserve bails out European banks, propping up spendthrift European governments in the process. Unfortunately this bailout comes at the expense of American citizens, in the form of higher prices and diminished savings down the road.
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Bank Lobby's Onslaught Shifts Debate on Volcker Rule / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG TV EXCLUSIVE: Bloomberg Television's economics editor Michael McKee spoke to Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser from the Banque de France in Paris. Plosser said that he sees no need for more stimulus as the U.S. economy recovers, and he has "cautious optimism" for economic improvement.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Why Printing Money is Immoral, Value Subjectivism and Monetary Instability / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Ron_Hera
Subjectivism is the philosophy that reality is what we perceive to be real and that no underlying, true reality exists independent of human perception. In other words, the nature of reality for an individual person is dependent on that individual's own consciousness. It follows that each person experiences their own reality that is not shared with others. What is true and what seems moral to one person may not be true or moral for another person, i.e., truth and morality are relative. In contrast, objectivism is the philosophy that reality exists independent of human consciousness; that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception; and that objective knowledge of reality can be obtained through perception, evidence and logic, e.g., through scientific methods.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Bernanke, Mister In-Between is 100% Sure / Politics / Inflation
By: Fred_Sheehan
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong" ~ Wolfgang Pauli, Cambridge University physicist, attempting to read a colleague's paper.
60 MINUTES: "Can you act quickly enough to prevent inflation from getting out of control?"
BERNANKE: "We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to. So, there really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation, at the appropriate time. Now, that time is not now."
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Will Helicopter Bernanke Become 'Hurricane Ben'? / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Gary_North
This report will deal with quantitative easing (QE). To prepare you for this report, I ask you to watch a short video. It is under 3 minutes. This video is the best thing I have seen on quantitative easing. I wish Bernanke would be this forthright, but I suppose this will never happen.
I will assume from this point on that you have seen the video. If you deal with colleagues who have been confused about what QE really means, forward it to them.
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