Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Focus on the 20% Because You Can Replace Lost Money But Not Lost Time / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
If this were a law firm, you would be wise to hire another.
I define puttering as follows: "Unsystematic work that fills time without accomplishing much output." I define frittering as follows: "The refusal to take advantage of opportunities that have been placed in your hand."
I have known some very successful people over the years. Some have been rich. Others have been influential. All of them have had this in common. They have not puttered. They have also not frittered.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Disclose Act (s. 3369) Destroying the First Amendment / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
John Rolls submits, KrisAnne Hall writes: ALERT: The Disclose Act (s. 3369)has been resurrected and it will further destroy the remnants of our 1stAmendment and diminish the power of our grassroots groups!
It is always shocking to me that those we elect are absolutely clueless to the true government that they were elected to support and defend. Day in and day out we hear our representatives refer to our government as a “democracy.” Our founders did not establish a democracy, they established a republic. At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a women referred to as Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia, “Well, Doctor, what have we, a republic or a monarchy?” It is said that Dr. Franklin, without hesitation, said, “A Republic, ma’am, if you can keep it.” Here we are 225 years later and our own representatives do not know the correct answer to this question.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Belief in the Fed Heads South / Politics / Central Banks
By: Paul_Lamont
In 1720, British legislators considered the South Sea Company's proposal to privatize the national debt. While they debated this swap of debt (in the form of annuities) for stock, a speculative mania for South Sea shares began. Edward Chancellor in Devil Take the Hindmost relates; "Exchange Alley in April 1720 resembled 'nothing so much as if all the Lunatics had escaped out of the Madhouse at once.'"
Most remarkable in this particular financial episode was the involvement of high level authorities.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
The Paradox of China's Naval Strategy / Politics / China
By: STRATFOR
Over the past decade, the South China Sea has become one of the most volatile flashpoints in East Asia. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan each assert sovereignty over part or all of the sea, and these overlapping claims have led to diplomatic and even military standoffs in recent years.
Because the sea hosts numerous island chains, is rich in mineral and energy resources and has nearly a third of the world's maritime shipping pass through its waters, its strategic value to these countries is obvious. For China, however, control over the South China Sea is more than just a practical matter and goes to the center of Beijing's foreign policy dilemma: how to assert its historic maritime claims while maintaining the non-confrontational foreign policy established by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1980.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Exposing Obama, Revealing the Depth of US Government Corruption / Politics / US Politics
By: Pravda
The solution for the United States is not to elect more "good" people to government because they are quickly co-opted and compromised by the corrupt political system.
It may sound cynical, but the solution is to make it politically advantageous for bad people to do the right thing.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Democracy, Tyranny and the 'good American' –the clock is approaching Midnight / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
What is so difficult for the majority of Americans to recognize, and for a majority of critical writers to accept, is that they—the so-called "people"—have turned to stone. They—the so called "people"—have become "good Germans". They—the so-called "people"—have been induced into an authoritarianism that threatens to open the door to tyranny: tyranny in government, in religion, in corporatism, in finance, and in and through a mushrooming military-security state that already is the deadliest toxin permeating every air molecule democracy inhales. Fascism and Totalitarianism are the watchwords of the day. The solution is not a Gold Standard, but a Moral Standard.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Ron Paul: Inflation is a Monetary Phenomenon / Politics / Inflation
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Later this month Congress will have an unprecedented opportunity to force the Federal Reserve to provide meaningful transparency to lawmakers and taxpayers. HR 459, my bill known as "Audit the Fed," is scheduled for a vote before the full Congress in July. More than 270 of my colleagues cosponsored the bill, and it has the support of congressional leadership. But its passage in the House of Representatives is only the beginning of the battle, as many Senators and the President still don't see the critical need to have a national discussion about monetary policy.
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Sunday, July 15, 2012
Fractional Reserve Banking, Let Unsound Money Wither Away / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Joseph_T_Salerno
[This is a revised version of written testimony submitted to the the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology of the Committee on Financial Services, US House of Representatives "Fractional Reserve Banking and Central Banking as Sources of Economic Instability: The Sound Money Alternative,"]
Chairman Paul and members of the subcommittee, I am deeply honored to appear before you to testify on the topic of fractional-reserve banking. Thank you for your invitation and attention.
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Sunday, July 15, 2012
A Better Way To Finance Public Projects / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Rudy_Avizius
In a local newspaper I recently read an article regarding how a school district was looking to “refinance” their outstanding bonds in an effort to reduce the interest burden on their debt. In the same issue I read how another school district expends nearly $2,000,000 yearly just to pay the interest burden on their debt. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Ethical Adaptation To Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
What is sometimes called the "Nazi theory of global warming" is relatively well known. One of the
pioneering theorists of apocalyptic global warming is Guenther Schwab (1902-2006), an Austrian Nazi.
In 1958, following his action as a propagandist during the 1939-45 war, Schwab wrote a fictional novel built on Goethe's Faustian religious play entitled "Dance with the Devil." While a few scientists or Natural Philosophers as they were called at the time (literally "philosophers of nature") had contemplated the possibility of global warming or climate change arising from coal burning as far back as the late 18th century, Schwab used Goethe's dramatic approach to convert the theory into an apocalyptic crisis, due to industrial pollution.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Banking Industry / Regulators Time-Bomb! / Politics / Banksters
By: Sy_Harding
When President Eisenhower left office in 1961 his parting message to the nation was to “beware the Industrial/Military complex”. He warned that military contractors had become so chummy with Congress and the Pentagon that “the potential for a disastrous rise of misplaced power exists.”
We now face a much more dangerous power grab that could actually melt down the entire financial system of the country if it isn’t brought under control.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Low Carbon - High Political Price / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
Speaking on July 7, Poland's environment minister Marcin Korolec used a roundabout way to say how strongly his government feels about moves to save the European mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, the ETS. He said: " The ETS is delivering on its target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest possible cost and there’s no need to “manipulate” the market after a slump in industrial output drove carbon prices to a record low".
Thursday, July 12, 2012
From Each According to His Inability, To Each According to His Greed / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
I think the one recurring question that has been on everyone's minds since at least 2008-09 is - what will the government do? We all know what the large private corporations and high-level bankers are going to do - they are going to lie, cheat, scheme and steal their way into whatever forms of wealth and control they can get their grubby little hands on (see the Libor scandal for the most recent example). But then we must ask whether the government is going to help them do those things and how exactly they are going to help. After four painful years of betrayal, the answer to the first part of that question seems to be a resounding YES.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Ron Paul on Fractional Reserve Banking, Government, and Moral Hazard / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week my subcommittee held a hearing on fractional reserve banking and the moral hazard created by government (taxpayer) insured deposits. Fractional reserve banking is the practice by which banks accept deposits but only keep a fraction of those deposits on hand at any time. In practice, nearly 100% of deposits are loaned out, yet depositors believe that they can withdraw the full amount of their deposit at any time. Loaned funds are then redeposited and reloaned up to the limit of the bank's reserve requirements, compounding the effect.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Germany Loses to Italy, Again / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
June was not a particularly good month for Germany. First, she suffered a loss to Italy in the semi-finals of the European Cup soccer tournament. Then, she suffered a more significant blow when Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Monti, extracted important concessions from German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the European Summit. A loss on the soccer pitch can put a dent in the national ego. But a loss on the field of finance can be far more serious.
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Monday, July 09, 2012
Super Mario Monti and the Dictatorship of Economic Austerity in Italy / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
In Part 1 of this series (The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy), I examined the Technocratic coup in Italy, which removed the democratically-elected Berlusconi and replaced him with an unelected technocrat, Mario Monti, an economist, Bilderberg member, former European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, former European Commissioner for Competition, and a former adviser to Goldman Sachs International, was also on the board of the Coca-Cola Company, and founded the European think tank, Bruegel. Mario Monti was installed by the European elites with one purpose: punish the population of Italy through ‘fiscal austerity’ and ‘structural adjustment.’
Monday, July 09, 2012
U.S. Iran War Gaming Scenario's as Washington Prepares Plans for Aggression / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
When we hear that the United States government is announcing a new policy, it is usually the result of a detailed process, a calculated weighing of options and scenarios in which planners seek to calculate the likely impact and reaction to policies they are advocating.
The stepped-up anti-Iranian sanctions strategy now underway was not an off the top of the head impulsive decision, but one reached through a process of careful strategizing ---as in, if we do this, what are they likely to do?
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Monday, July 09, 2012
London Shard and Other Boomerang Towers of Hubris Before The Storm / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I was leafing through some recent Bloomberg articles and noticed this running thread connecting them: hubris, decisions based on false data, inertia, things like that. It wouldn't be hard to find dozens more pieces just like it in the press, but once you recognize the pattern, it stands out like a sore thumb anyway. It's pretty easy to see where mistakes are made, especially when they're big mistakes.
Monday, July 09, 2012
Crude Oil And National Security / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE WIDENING GULF
Oil and national security were at one time treated like they meant the same thing, using the extra loop of logic that cheap oil = economic security. Today, Goldman Sachs, and other major financial market players are pulling out all the stops, using all the tricks to try and stop oil prices from falling. High oil prices are now a critical prop to the world's failing financial, banking, monetary and trading systems.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Merkel's Magic Hat Running Out of Rabbits; Most Germans Believe Further Euro-zone Bailouts Are Pointless / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
A pair of articles translated from German and Spanish further highlights the pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to not give into to further demands by Spain, Italy, and France.