Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Student Loans Big Business, Underwritten by Tax Payers / Politics / US Debt
By: Mike_Whitney
Student loans are a big business. In fact, student debt now exceeds $895 billion which is more than the total Americans owe on their credit cards. And, most of these loans are underwritten by the US government, which means that the taxpayer is on the hook when students can't repay the debt. This is a big problem, because many of the people taking out loans are not really qualified for college, so they end up dropping out of school and defaulting on their loans putting themselves in long-term debt while passing the bill along to Uncle Sam. But not everyone loses on the deal. In fact, the institutions that help unqualified applicants get loans, do quite well. After all, they're paid in full by the government. If this sounds like it might be a scam; it's because it is. All the recruiters need to do is find a credulous subject, bamboozle him into signing on the dotted line, and hold his hand for the first few weeks of the new semester. That's all it takes to net a big government payout. Here's a rundown of how it works from an article by Chris Kirkham at the Huffington Post:
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Libya War All About Oil or Gold and Banking? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Ellen_Brown
Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank – this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:
I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.
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Thursday, April 14, 2011
Obama's Deficit Plan will Impoverish Main Street America / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Kevin Zeese writes: President Obama announced the outlines of his deficit plan, leaving a lot up for negotiation. He planted his poll at the center right and where he ends up, with his history of compromising to bring right wing Republicans and Democratic corporatists together, can only be worse.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Playing the Lyre of U.S. Budget Madness as the Empire Burns / Politics / Government Spending
By: BATR
SARTRE writes: By Washington DC standards the just concluded budget agreement for funding the federal government through September, is a big win for Republicans. Emily Miller in Human Events describes, "The final agreement will be for $38.5 billion in cuts from current spending over the remaining six months of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. The spending cuts, although historic in size, account for only 2.5% of this year's projected budget deficit of $1.6 trillion." Here lies the obscenity of the central government; namely, that a mere drop in the bucket reduction in a historic deficit is lauded as the great achievement of compromised negotiations.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Why Monetary Expansion Must Stop / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: Introduction: The Illusion of Unlimited Resources
The current problems faced by all the world's economies stem, primarily, from one source: the demise of sound money, whose quantity could not be increased without significant cost, and its replacement with fiat money that can be inflated to infinite amounts at almost no cost to the producer.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Fed Obliterates the Savings Ethic / Politics / Central Banks
By: Douglas_French
Depression babies learned early that "saving for a rainy day" was not something one hopes to do but a requirement. The saying originated when most people worked on the farm. And when it rained, the fields were too wet to plow, and the farmer — not to mention the hired hands — made no money.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Volcano Erupts / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
Shares plunged across Europe and Asia on Tuesday as the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant deepened and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the atomic alert level to its highest rating. Conditions at the stricken facility have steadily deteriorated and now the station is intermittently spewing lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and around the world. A French nuclear group has warned that children and pregnant mothers should protect themselves from the fallout.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Revolving Door Between Washington and Wall Street / Politics / US Politics
By: Trader_Mark
As regular readers know, there is a fast track revolving door between Washington D.C. and Wall Street. All part and parcel with a captured government run for a small cabal of corporations and their leadership. After all corporations are people too - the Supreme Court says so. There is a lengthy but insightful story in New York Magazine on the latest to make the transition from D.C. to Wall Street - Peter Orzag. Actually the piece intertwines the fate of Robert Rubin and Orzag, but really if we're talking Rubin, Orzag, Summers, Daley, Paulson, et al - the names can simply be interchanged.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Japan's Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Yoichi Shimatsu writes: Confused and often conflicting reports out of Fukushima 1 nuclear plant cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) seem to be driven by some unspoken factor.
Monday, April 11, 2011
One Man's Fiscal Austerity is Another's Economic Prosperity? / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
Fiscal austerity is all the rage these days in the developed economies. The proponents of fiscal austerity argue that it will lead to economic prosperity. The opponents of fiscal austerity argue that it will lead to poverty. Who is correct?
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Monday, April 11, 2011
The Symptoms of Nuclear Hysteria / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Peter_Schiff
Imagine you invented a machine that revolutionized travel. You know your invention could cut local and long distance travel time substantially and vastly improve the ability for business to deliver freight efficiently. The invention would add trillions to global GDP. If released, your invention would no doubt be universally used and admired. However, based on the initial safety assessments, analysts predict that if used widely your invention would cause the deaths of 300,000 Americans per year and countless more around the globe. Would you still release it?
Monday, April 11, 2011
The U.S. Budget Battle / Politics / Government Spending
By: LewRockwell
Watching the public debate on the budget, we are reminded of two boys on the floor playing with toys. One has a bear and the other has a dinosaur. They are forever threatening the other kid with taking the toy away. One warns he will take away the dinosaur (military spending) and the other says he will grab the bear (domestic spending). They pull and tug and eventually settle the dispute so long as each gets to keep his favorite.
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Monday, April 11, 2011
European Union Prepares to send Ground Troops to Libya / Politics / Middle East
By: Global_Research
Chris Marsden writes: The European Union is seeking to utilise the humanitarian cover of the fate of the besieged city of Misrata to send ground troops to Libya under its command. The operation could be mounted within a matter of days. In a reversal of previous policy, the German government of Angela Merkel has offered to play the leading military role.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Japanese Government Cover Up Aftershock Damage to Fukushima Nuclear Reactor / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Washingtons_Blog
The Japanese government and Tepco nuclear plant operator said that the leaking Fukushima reactors suffered no additional damage in the aftershock last week.
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Monday, April 11, 2011
Why Iceland Voted ‘No” to the Diktats of the Creditor Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Michael_Hudson
About 75% of Iceland’s voters turned out on Saturday to reject the Social Democratic-Green government’s proposal to pay $5.2 billion to the British and Dutch bank insurance agencies for the Landsbanki-Icesave collapse. Every one of Iceland’s six electoral districts voted in the “No” column – by a national margin of 60% (down from 93% in January 2010).
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Monday, April 11, 2011
Hearken to the Sacred Geese of Juno Moneta / Politics / Central Banks
By: Professor_Emeritus
On April 6 last I sent an open letter Congressmen Ron Paul of Texas accusing the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Dr. Ben Bernanke, that
Monday, April 11, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Godzilla / Politics / Japan Economy
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Japan’s nuclear calamity has shown once again the remarkable courage, patience, and stoicism of that nation’s people.
As a visitor to Japan for the past 36 years and former columnist for one of its leading newspapers, Mainichi Daily News, the giant earthquake and ensuing tsunami that savaged northern Japan filled me with anguish and sorrow.
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Sunday, April 10, 2011
Obama Hails Budget Deal to Impose Record Cuts in Social Spending / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: A partial shutdown of the US federal government was postponed by a deal struck late Friday night between White House and congressional negotiators to resolve a protracted standoff on legislation to finance government operations.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
U.S. Government Looting Social Security To Wage War / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Sherwood Ross writes:“As long as the $1.2-trillion annual budget for the military-security complex is off limits (to cutting), nothing can be done about the US budget deficit except to renege on obligations to the elderly, confiscate private assets or print enough money to inflate away all debts,” Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Reagan warns.
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Saturday, April 09, 2011
U.S. Government Survives Shutdown But Economic War Continues / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
The Capitol Hill battlefield is still for the moment as the Easter holidays approach and the combatants get a break from the heated polemics and overnight bargaining sessions. In a last minute deal, milked by both sides for maximum drama and political advantage, the government will not shut down—at least not now—even as its budget has taken a major wack.