Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Where’s Our Oil Price Collapse? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: James_Quinn
Make no mistake about it, without plentiful, cheap, and easy to access oil, the United States of America would descend into chaos and collapse. The fantasies painted by "green" energy dreamers only serve to divert the attention of the non critical thinking masses from the fact our sprawling suburban hyper technological society would come to a grinding halt in a matter of days without the 18 to 19 million barrels per day needed to run this ridiculous reality show. Delusional Americans think the steaks, hot dogs and pomegranates in their grocery stores magically appear on the shelves, the thirty electronic gadgets that rule their lives are created out of thin air by elves and the gasoline they pump into their mammoth SUVs is their God given right. The situation was already critical in 2005 when the Hirsch Report concluded:
Monday, September 05, 2011
US Government versus World's Big Banks, Cascading Risks Multiply / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: DK_Matai
Make no mistake about it, history was made on September 2nd, 2011, after the financial markets closed in New York. As Churchill said in 1942, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." What are the unintended consequences of the massive multi-billion-dollar lawsuit in which an independent US Government regulator is suing 17 big banks from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and France? As we approach the 3rd anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15th September, 2008, as a result of cascading risks, markets may yet demonstrate extreme volatility once again with fundamentally destabilising consequences.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Are Wall Street Banks Too Big To Blame For Subprime? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: EconMatters
Goldman Sachs has historically been one of the more bullish investment houses on Wall Street, but the firm has recently taken a dark macro view. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 1 that Goldman issued a 54-page report sent to their institutional clients on August 16th arguing that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China’s growth may not be sustainable.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
President Obama's Jobs Speech / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, Labor Day Weekend 2011: The magic wand is being readied in the White House as the President and his minions finally unwrap the mother of all jobs plans that will be revealed to the rest of us in a speech next Thursday before the cameras and Congress with the gravitas-packed aura of a State of the Union Address.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
President Obama, Job Killer in Chief / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Friday morning many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession. I believe that we have been in one giant recession all along that was only temporarily interrupted by trillions of useless and destructive deficit and stimulus spending. Unfortunately, the August numbers will increase the talk of government efforts to stimulate the economy.
Friday, September 02, 2011
The Great GDP Caper, Consequences of a Fraudulent Statistic / Politics / Economic Statistics
By: Andy_Sutton
Last week the Commerce Department released its revised numbers for Quarter 2 GDP. The results were much less than satisfactory, with annualized ‘growth’ coming in at a pathetic 1.0%. Think of this as an economic stall speed. We know the GDP deflator allows the metric to be overstated to begin with, so it is VERY likely that America has re-entered the ‘great recession’ as it has been dubbed by the media. There are some burning issues in here that need to be discussed and they go way beyond the methodology of how GDP is calculated. I will end with the assertion, backed with output methodology, that is at least as reliable as what the Commerce Dept. offers that we never left the great recession.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Libya Regime Change, Panic After The Picnic / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
REGIME CHANGE :
Presented by mainstream media as a kind of high-tech "turkey shoot", the military intervention in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi regime threatens serious blowback. Through a fatal combination of analytic and judgemental errors, the Libyan regime-change experiment will deliver unwanted results, and a possible long delay before oil export supply recovers pre-war levels. Other unwanted effects could include added confidence and determination for what is loosely called "Political Islam", but in fact is an ethnic, religious and community-based Arab and Muslim identity quest that is basically hostile to and replaces the nation state concept, as well as western democracy the way it is preached and practised.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Disintegrate the Eurozone to Solve the European Sovereign Debt Crisis / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
It's often difficult to comprehend - much less internalize - the risks posed by the European sovereign debt crisis.
But understand this: If Europe's problems aren't resolved in an orderly fashion, the stock market drops we saw last month will be small potatoes compared to the steep declines that lie ahead.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011
Libya's Slippery Oil Prize / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
Muammar Qaddafi’s exactly 42 year-old regime is now firmly on its way into the dustbin of history, sealing the fate of his quixotic and brutal administration that many outsiders found more comic rather than dangerous - but above all supplied high quality light sweet crude.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Why the European Union Could be Dead Within a Week / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
The clock may be ticking on the future of the European Union (EU).
After being shaken to its core by the sovereign debt crisis, the entire Eurozone now runs the risk of blowing up within a week.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Cutting Government Spending Will Increase the Budget Deficit / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Mike_Whitney
The US consumer's decade-long spending spree has ended, but there's still an ocean of red ink left to mop up. And with housing prices falling and unemployment tipping 9 percent, it will take longer to clear the family balance sheet than many had anticipated.
Traditionally, the government has helped to ease the pain of deleveraging by providing fiscal stimulus to boost economic activity and lower the real cost of debt. But Capital Hill is now in the grips of deficit hawks who frown on such Keynesian remedies, so households and consumers will have to fend for themselves and pay-down debts as best as they can or default when repayment is no longer possible . That's bad news for the economy that depends on consumers for 71 percent of GDP. Without a healthy consumer, the economy will face years of sluggishness and stagnation.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
U.S. Presidential Election 2012 and Sound Money / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
Walter Williams has been a professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia since 1980. He is the author of many books, hundreds of articles and a weekly syndicated column. You may have caught some of his many radio and television appearances - a champion of free-market economics speaking out against socialism and intrusive government. He has described laissez-faire capitalism as "the most moral and most productive system man has ever devised."
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Russia and China's Energy Dispute and the Struggle for Eurasian Dominance / Politics / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
China's voracious appetite for energy from anywhere has led most oil-producing nations to attempt to feed the dragon, including Russia.
But a curious situation has developed as regards Russian oil exports to the Celestial Kingdom, underlining that the two nations, which fought for global supremacy over the Communist movement for four decades, remain at best, "frenemies."
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Can we Trust Government Statistics on the Economy? / Politics / Economic Statistics
By: Gary_Dorsch
Whenever speaking before a Congressional committee, former Fed chief, “Easy” Al Greenspan was fond of saying, “I guess I should warn you. If I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I’ve said.” His protégé, Fed chief Ben “Bubbles” Bernanke borrowed the script from his mentor, and speaking in the shadow of the majestic Grand Teton mountains, before a symposium of G-20 central bankers, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on August 26th, - left most his audience wondering what he meant.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Libya Premature Victory Celebration / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
The war in Libya is over. More precisely, governments and media have decided that the war is over, despite the fact that fighting continues. The unfulfilled expectation of this war has consistently been that Moammar Gadhafi would capitulate when faced with the forces arrayed against him, and that his own forces would abandon him as soon as they saw that the war was lost. What was being celebrated last week, with presidents, prime ministers and the media proclaiming the defeat of Gadhafi, will likely be true in due course. The fact that it is not yet true does not detract from the self-congratulations.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Mission Accomplished in Libya? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Even as a major hurricane hit America's eastern seaboard, the administration is determined to expand the war in Libya while threatening the regime in Syria. Is there any limit to government's appetite to create more problems for our nation and economy?
Americans may be tempted to celebrate the apparent victory of US and NATO backed rebels in Libya, since it seems the Gaddafi regime is overthrown. But I believe any enthusiasm for our Libyan misadventure is premature.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
U.S. Avoid Trade War? We're Already In One! / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ian_Fletcher
Whenever protectionists like myself demand that the U.S. government do something to stand up for America in global trade, we are shouted down with the stern admonition, "You'll start a trade war."
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The West Wants to take Control of Libya's Oil Wealth / Politics / Middle East
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
While Libyan revolutionaries have not yet won the war in the oil-rich country, Western powers are already discussing the post-Gaddafi period on such issues as how the interim government there needs to honor its oil contracts.
In case of internal fighting in Libyan crisis, will the US and its coalition NATO allies deploy boots on the ground to protect their oil interests?
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Trade With China and India Will Not Collapse America's Economy / Politics / US Economy
By: Gary_North
For over half a century, I have read warnings that free trade is a threat to America. The freer it gets, the more we are told that slave labor in Asia is threatening the workers of America.
We hear calls for fair trade. Who is to decide what is fair trade? Congress. Ah, yes: Congress. The source of fairness if ever there was one. No special interests there, putting their PAC-filled fingers on the balance scale of justice.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Behind Closed Doors at the Fed: Ten Years of Research into America's Central Bank / Politics / Central Banks
By: EWI
During the past few years, The Federal Reserve has engaged in a "deliberate inflating policy."
This policy earned disfavor, both at home and abroad.
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