Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, January 22, 2010
America's Impending Master Class Dictatorship / Politics / US Politics
By: Stewart_Dougherty
FOREWORD: At certain times, focusing on the big picture is important not just for investment success, but for personal welfare, and even survival. We believe such times are here. It is estimated that 98% of Americans have never held a gold coin in their hands. Yet 100% of Americans regularly handle Federal Reserve Notes. From a contrarian standpoint, the financial message from those two statistics is clear. Even so, gold is much more than money or an investment medium; it stands for liberty and throughout history has facilitated escape and ensured freedom.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Surpreme Court Ruling that Corporations are People Too? / Politics / US Politics
By: Andy_Sutton
Thursday’s landmark Supreme Court decision has been called everything from proper to despicable and misguided. Clearly in the historical realm, every nation, empire, and circumstance of human organization has clear signposts that mark first progress, then the eventual destruction of the entity. That is not meant to be melodramatic; it is simply the natural progression of societies. If you don’t agree, ask the Greeks, Romans, and British. So where does Thursday’s decision fit into America’s progression?
Friday, January 22, 2010
Obama, Now Fire Geithner and Summers / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
The new restraints on bank lending for speculation proposed yesterday by President Barack Obama follow the advice of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker but will be much more credible if the president now fires Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers.
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Friday, January 22, 2010
The United States of Corporate America: From Democracy to Plutocracy / Politics / US Politics
By: Prof_Rodrigue_Trembl
"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."Plato, ancient Greek philosopher
...“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
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Friday, January 22, 2010
The Establishment is in Crisis / Politics / US Politics
By: Butler_Shaffer
There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served. - ~ Jane Jacobs
Friday, January 22, 2010
How to Empower Shareholders and Improve Corporate Management in Two Easy Steps / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: wrote last week that Wall Street bonuses should be cut back by the shareholders, not by the government.
Well, a reader wrote back correctly to remind me that the majority of shareholders are institutions that would not want to antagonize major corporations that gave out fund management mandates for their pension funds and 401(k)s by agitating against top management bonuses.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Ominous Signs Are Aligned: Not A Particularly Good Sign (11-09) / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
By: Robert_Singer
Recall the baffling news events from November 2009?
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Does the Massachusetts Massacre Mean Obama's Healthcare Plan is Dead? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
In the wake of the Massachusetts massacre, inquiring minds are wondering "Is Healthcare Dead?"
That is certainly a good question given senator-elect Scott Brown's repeated statements he would be the 41st senator to reject it. However, that possibility needs to be balanced with the possibility the house accepts the senate version of the bill as is, or the house attempts a legislative move known as reconciliation (allowed only once per year).
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Nigeria’s Constitutional Dilemma Coming to an Unpredictable Head / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
Nigerian Pres. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 59, through failing health, is clearly no longer in control of the Government. Some are proclaiming that the "post-Yar'Adua era" has begun in Nigerian politics, but the reality is that there is still much maneuvering going on to plan the succession to the Presidency, even though the fiction of "business as usual" has become paper-thin.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Religion of Socialism and the Profit of Reform / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Frank_Chodorov
There is this to be said in behalf of avowed and doctrinaire socialists, that their faith in the State is sublime. To them, the institution of political power is the unerring shepherd of the flock, the guide to the Good Society; it is also the antidote for all evil, the maker of abundance, the embodiment of justice, the sublimation of human aspirations. That they believe. To be sure, they affect an elaborate rationalism, something they call dialectical materialism, which in turn rests on a verbal agglomeration known as Marxian economics. Logic and fact without end have been applied to these notions to prove that they are only notions. But all this cerebration has turned out to be sheer waste of effort as far as influencing the true worshipers is concerned. They still believe. One cannot help but marvel at, and admire, their devotional integrity.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Nation Building Should Begin At Home / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
I have been writing for the last two years or so that the strategy of the Federal Reserve has been to engineer a “soft landing” from the horrendous financial bubbles that were created during the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Since President Obama came to power in January 2009, his administration has been partners with the Federal Reserve in trying to do this.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Global Economic Crisis and the Need for World Bank Reform / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Global_Research
David Shaman writes: The world has come to a line in the sand. Over one and a half billion people live in abject poverty today. Millions die each year of malnutrition or from treatable disease. This condition has existed for decades and yet help from the rich nations of the world has been inadequate, inefficient and achingly slow.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Has Obama Become Bush II? / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Barack Obama's election seemed an anomaly, but clearly it was disgust with his predecessor that drove him from obscurity to the presidency.
Obama's "outside-inside" strategy inspired millions of new voters. He organised, rallied new voters, used social networks and invoked change orientated slogans with more symbolism than substance.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Will Obama Respond to U.S. Voter Anger at Lack of Action on Banksters / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Mike_Shedlock
After a Massachusetts wake-up call Obama has decided to pay more attention to Paul Volcker. Is it too little, too late to quell public anger? What will the effects be if new Glass-Steagall legislation is enacted?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
NHS Spending Cuts Mean Sheffield's Worst GP Surgeries Could Close / Politics / Sheffield
By: N_Walayat
The British economy is in the midst of a deep debt crisis that risks a collapse into a hyperinflationary bust. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the government spends £180 billion more on public spending than it earns, i.e. government revenues are £500 billion, and government expenditure is £680 billion (2009-10 est). The deficit of £180 billion is at 14% of GDP and is not sustainable that requires an urgent and near immediate cut in the deficit to below 6% of GDP to prevent igniting an out of control inflationary debt spiral.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Disaster Capitalism Comes to Haiti to Make a Profit / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Benjamin Dangl writes: US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
U.S. - China Growing Military Tensions / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Rick_Rozoff
Even though the U.S. military budget is almost ten times that of China's (with a population more than four times as large) and Washington plans a record $708 billion defense budget for next year compared to Russia spending less than $40 billion last year for the same, China and Russia are portrayed as threats to the U.S. and its allies. China has no troops outside its borders; Russia has a small handful in its former territories in Abkhazia, Armenia, South Ossetia and Transdniester. The U.S. has hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in six continents.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
U.S. Government is Too Big to Succeed / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission kicked off their first round of hearings on the causes of the economic meltdown on Wall Street. The commission is being compared to the the Pecora Commission launched in 1932 to investigate the causes of the Great Depression. The Pecora commission is beloved by those who believe the solution to every problem is more laws because it was used to justify a number of new laws, including Glass-Steagall.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Media and Political Hysteria Over Yemen Hides a Deeper Strategic Matrix of Long-Term Importance / Politics / Middle East
By: OilPrice_Com
US and Western European political leaders have begun to focus on Yemen as a source of projected instability and as a haven for jihadist terrorism against the West.
This simplistic and overly narrow view has largely been a reaction to media reporting of the links of alleged (and unsuccessful) Nigerian-born terrorist bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to a radical Yemeni group, and to intense ongoing fighting between insurgents and Yemeni and Saudi government forces on the Yemen-Saudi border.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Steve Keen on Banking Secrets and Fed Transparency / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Last week I asked Australian economist Steve Keen what he thought about the St. Louis Fed article on the Social Cost of Transparency.
I was highly critical of the Fed's article and wrote about it in In Defense Of Secrecy; Three Prong Attack On The Fed; Selective Myopia . I asked Steve Keen to take a look. Here is a snip from my post, Keen's comments follow: