Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Obama Impotent As Wall Street Criminals Are Given A Free Pass And Watered Down Reforms / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
We now know that it was the Obama Administration led by the President himself who used techniques well understood and denounced decades earlier by none other than Mao TseTung.
Mao had no use for those who talked left to move right.
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Thursday, May 27, 2010
Chairman Alan Greenspan, A Fiat Mind for a Fiat Age / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
A speech delivered at the Ludwig von Mises Institute Conference: "Austrian Economics and the Financial Markets," held at the University Club in New York City, May 22, 2010. Comments in brackets and italics were cut from talk due to time constraints. The speech can be heard in the "Interviews" section of the AuContrarian.com website, and, on the Ludwig von Mises website along with those of other conference speakers.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Tobin Tax Plan Wall Street Hates … But Can’t Seem to Kill / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently came out in favor of a "Tobin tax" - a small tax on financial transactions, proportionate to the size of the transaction. The Tobin tax idea also has been proposed by Britain's former prime minister, Gordon Brown, and was proposed in Congress by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Health Care Industry / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Vijay_Boyapati
On May 3, 2010, I gave a talk to a class of students studying public health policy at the University of Washington. I began the talk by asking the students how many of them believed that the current healthcare system in America was flawed; everyone in the class raised their hand. I then asked how many of them believed that the recently passed healthcare legislation, supported by President Obama, was a step in the right direction in reforming America's healthcare system. Once again, everyone raised their hand.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Property Rights, Liberty, and Immigration / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Glenn Jacobs writes: Libertarian philosophy is based on the concept of self-ownership. Human beings own themselves. When we rightfully acquire property, either by making first claim to that property (homesteading) or through voluntary transfer with another person or persons, that property becomes part of our lives, and thus we lay claim to ownership of that property as we would our own bodies.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Television, The Reason Why Asia Will Overtake America / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
Asians manufacture cheap televisions and sophisticated home theater audio systems. Americans buy them. Then we use them, expensively. The cost in forfeited productivity of watching television is greater than any other single waste factor in the West's economy. The only thing that comes close is Web media. TV consumes on average 4 to 5 hours a day of every American's life. The statistics are really amazing.
Web-based time consumption is catching up, especially among teenagers. Teens spend between 7 and 8 hours a day on media-related leisure.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
U.S. Recession Breeds Escalating Violent Crime / Politics / US Politics
By: Janet_Tavakoli
The Wall Street Journal reported that violent crime is down in the big cities in the U.S., saying this breaks the pattern between economic downturns and an increase in crime. Supposedly this is because policing has advanced, not because human nature has changed. I do not believe the article is plausible.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Spill Puts U.S. Energy Bill on Slippery Slope / Politics / US Politics
By: OilPrice_Com
With energy, Senate Democrats find themselves between a rock and two hard places. Nonetheless, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have introduced their climate and energy bill.Its timing is awful. Its fate is uncertain. Yet its sponsors felt it had to be done now.
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010
U.S. Government Has Become An Overgrown Monstrosity / Politics / US Politics
By: Pravda
Today, the number of Americans who are able to financially survive without any reliance on the U.S. government whatsoever is declining at a staggering rate. Whether it is through direct handouts, entitlement programs, student loans, government bailouts, government contracts or direct employment, the truth is that now a solid majority of the American people are at least partially dependent on the federal government for their economic survival.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Germany After the E.U. and the Russian Scenario / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: STRATFOR
Discussions about Europe currently are focused on the Greek financial crisis and its potential effect on the future of the European Union. Discussions these days involving military matters and Europe appear insignificant and even anachronistic. Certainly, we would agree that the future of the European Union towers over all other considerations at the moment, but we would argue that scenarios for the future of the European Union exist in which military matters are far from archaic.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Merkel's Savage Blitz through Euroland, Germany Pushing Eurozone To Cliffs Edge / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
Angela Merkel has let a minor brush-fire on the periphery turn into a raging inferno that's sweeping across the continent. Absent Berlin's fumbling diplomatic effort and its ferocious attachment to Hooverian economics, the Greek matter would have been over by now. Instead, the fire continues to burn while the German Chancellor pushes the eurozone closer and closer to the cliff. And what for; to prove that prodigal spending by the member states (Greece) mustn't go unpunished? Is that what this is all about? Is Merkel really willing to break up the EU just to prove her point and to accommodate her towering sense of self righteousness?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The New Chaos / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
In last week's edition of Asia Times, Chan Akya correctly induces that the "new world" is one "where the definition of order is a state of continued chaos." He is speaking as an expert generalist about economics and the markets, but so too is this chaos found within every aspect of human society at this time and, I maintain, increasingly for some time to come.
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Monday, May 24, 2010
Congress Writes More Blank Checks for the Military Industrial Complex / Politics / Government Spending
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Congress, with its insatiable appetite for spending, is set to pass yet another "supplemental" appropriations bill in the next two weeks. So-called supplemental bills allow Congress to spend beyond even the 13 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. These are akin to a family that consistently outspends its budget, and therefore needs to use a credit card to make it through the end of the month.
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Monday, May 24, 2010
Fix the Economic Recession By Undermining Public Sector Workers Rights / Politics / Social Issues
By: Shamus_Cooke
In the state of Oregon, the most widely distributed paper, the Oregonian, announced on its front page that the state should expect “Ten Years of Pain.” The perpetrator: the budget crisis — $2.5 billion in the coming two-year budget cycle, with $2 billion projected deficits until 2019. Sadly, these depressing numbers assume that the economy will recover, a belief lacking any credible evidence.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Will the Financial Reform Bill Really Rein In Wall Street? / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Kerri Shannon writes: The Senate on Thursday approved an extensive financial reform bill that would give Washington broad new powers over Wall Street. However, there's still a question over whether the bill will really be able to rein in Wall Street, or if it will simply become another broken barrier tripping up the free market.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Gerald Celente with Max Keiser on Food Riots, Tent Cities, Mob Rule / Politics / Great Depression II
By: Videos
"Here we are in 2012. Food riots, tax protests, farmer rebellions, student revolts, squatter digins, homeless uprisings, tent cities, ghost malls, general strikes, bossnappings, kidnappings, industrial saboteurs, gang warfare, mob rule, terror. How could it have come to this? Across the nation and around the world, it was a variation of the same theme. In the United States it was called “Obamageddon,” in the rest of the world it was “The Greatest Depression.” Did no one see it coming? Yes and no. There were intelligent, informed people who saw it. But for the most part they didn’t want to believe their eyes and didn’t want to hear it.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The 1099 Tsunami in the Healthcare Insurance Bill / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
Earlier this year, some staffer in some office on Capitol Hill dutifully inserted a provision into the health insurance bill that will force businesses to file 1099 forms on every transaction with another business for over $600. Buy a $601 used car for your business? You must file a 1099. The Cato Institute describes this law.
Monday, May 24, 2010
US Senate Rubber-Stamps the Dictatorship of the Big Banks / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: The US Senate’s passage of the Obama administration’s financial reform bill Thursday was hailed in the media and by official Washington as a landmark effort to curb the power of the big banks. But on Wall Street itself, the news was greeted with a mixture of dismissal and applause.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Financial Reform Is Here But Banks Are Still Too Big To Jail / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
I was among those raving about the passage of the financial reform bill. And now I am just raving,
“Unbelievable,” said one advocate who hoped for the best but expected the worst. He was amazed it even passed. The wise men in the media immediately began making comparisons with the New Deal. The pundits praised the President and the fact that a handful of Republicans did not just say no this time.
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Sunday, May 23, 2010
U.S. Senate Passes Fake Financial "Reform" Bill / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Washingtons_Blog
The Senate passed a financial "reform" bill today by a 59-39 vote which won't fix any of the core problems in the financial system, and won't prevent the next financial crisis.
The bill doesn't include the Volcker Rule (it wasn't even debated), doesn't break up or even substantially rein in the too big to fails, and doesn't force transparency in the derivatives market.
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