Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Banks Survive 5 MPH Bumper Stress Test / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Dr_Martenson
With great fanfare it was leaked (at strategic market moments throughout the week) and then announced that the 19 largest banks all passed the so-called "stress tests." Under a test track of their own choosing, and with the ability to negotiate the interpretation of the damage resulting from an ultra low-speed collision, the banks have now been proclaimed "safe at any speed." If you are not comforted by this news, you are not alone.
Friday, May 08, 2009
The Bank Stress Test Scam (Part 1) / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Mike_Stathis
I haven't made any comments about these so-called stress tests for the banks because it was obvious (to me anyway) it was just the latest PR scam devised by Larry Summers (carried out by his puppet, Geithner) to exaggerate the financial health of the banking system.
While I was confident the results of these “tests” would be ludicrous, I wanted to hold off until they were released so I could deliver the knockout punch. In short, it's clear these "stress tests" weren't so stressful, as I had suspected.
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Friday, May 08, 2009
Credit Card Companies Draw Battle lines / Politics / Credit Cards & Scoring
By: Global_Research
Will The US Senate Pass Long Needed Reforms Of Credit Card Abuses?
I recently was advised by American Express, a company whose credit cards I pay in full each and every month, and with whom I have been a paying “member” since l981 that my credit card limit is being cut. I have become unworthy.
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Requiem for the Republican Party / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
The experts think the Republican party can get up off the canvas and stage a comeback, but don't bet on it. The poor GOP isn't really even a party anymore; it's more like a vaudeville troupe scuttling from one backwater to the next performing the same worn slapstick. They've simply become irrelevant, a "non-party" that no one pays much attention to apart from the occasional zinger on the Daily Show or Letterman. In truth, the GOP is so deeply-traumatized from their shocking fall from power, they'd probably benefit from a spell on the couch. Perhaps if they spent a few weeks in therapy, they'd see what a mess they've made of everything.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Market Discipline: Margaret Thatchers True 30 Year Legacy / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Adrian_Ash
Revealing the hideous off-spring of Margaret Thatcher's "market disciplines" and the ever-swelling tax-funded state...
LIFE AFTER THE BALLOT BOX is rumored to pay pretty well, no matter how hateful you become in office.
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Case Against the Fed and Fractional Reserve Lending Banking System / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Fractional Reserve Lending (FRL) is fraudulent. Indeed, FRL in conjunction with micro-mismanagement of interest rates by the Fed is the root cause of the financial crisis we are in.
Unfortunately many do not see FRL for the fraudulent scheme that it is. Here are the most common defenses against the allegation of fraud.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Urgency of the American Monetary Act / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Richard_C_Cook
On Thursday, April 23, 2009, Stephen Zarlenga, director of the American Monetary Institute (AMI), delivered two briefings on Capitol Hill on the American Monetary Act that AMI drafted and that may be introduced as legislation during the current congressional session. This single measure has the potential of bringing together the tens of millions of people who have realized it’s our bank-run debt-based monetary system that lies at the center of the financial rot that is destroying our republic and its values.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Global Monetary & Financial System: Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part I / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Stephen_Lendman
This is the first of several articles on Ellen Brown's superb 2007 book titled "Web of Debt," now updated in a December 2008 third edition. It tells "the shocking truth about our money system, (how it) trapped us in debt, and how we can break free." Given today's global economic crisis, it's an appropriate time to review it and urge readers to digest the entire work, easily gotten through Amazon or Brown's webofdebt.com site. Her book is a remarkable achievement - in its scope, depth, and importance.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Are The Financial Markets Addicted to Deception? / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: T_Anthony_Michael
The current self destruction of Crony Cowboy Capitalism has struck a death blow to the Anglo-American Corpocracy. This in turn will result in the long awaited demise of UK-US Imperialism and, ultimately, cause the downfall of the British/American Empire. The consequent deterioration of Civil Society by way of the ongoing financial/economic, political/social and moral/religious bankruptcy will lead to the inevitable collapse and dissolution of Western Civilization as we know it.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Is the United States Preparing For War in Pakistan? / Politics / Pakistan
By: Global_Research
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will undoubtedly come under renewed pressure to allow US military forces to wage war within Pakistan when he visits Washington this week for a trilateral summit meeting with President Obama and Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai.
For weeks, the US political and military establishment and the American media have been mounting an increasingly shrill campaign to bully Islamabad into fully complying with US diktats in what Washington has redefined as the AfPak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) war theater.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The Many Faces of Bank Nationalization's / Politics / Nationalization
By: Global_Research
Dr. Jack Rasmus writes: Calls for nationalizing the banking industry have been bubbling since at least last September 2008, when the current Banking Panic began in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bank collapse, the initial AIG bailout, and the quick absorption of Merrill Lynch-Wachovia-Washington Mutual banks by their larger competitors, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Getting on the Socialist Bandwagon: Let’s All Take a Ride! / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: LewRockwell
On Friday, January 30, as an unwelcome surprise to both of us, my husband, Mr. Comic Mom, was laid off. Three weeks and over 100 résumés later, he had two job offers. Although he has not yet found a so-called permanent job – although, really, all jobs are temporary – he is making more money than he did, at a job that’s been promised to him through the end of September. The weekend after his layoff, he was already polishing his résumé.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Obama Attacks Hedge Fund Chrysler Capitalists / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Peter_Schiff
The Obama administration singled out hedge funds as the bad guys this week in its attempt to reorganize Chrysler. The accusation falls comfortably into the administration's view that unfettered capitalists on Wall Street and poor planning by short-sighted CEO's are responsible for our financial problems.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Swine Flu: When Government Plays Doctor / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week, concerns about swine flu have dominated the media and many government officials. While the American people should be made aware of infectious diseases and common sense preventative measures, much of the hysterical reaction from government only serves to remind us how detrimental to your health it can be when government plays doctor.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Internet Blogging Equated With High Treason in Many Countries / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Pravda
Being a blogger can be criminal even if bloggers do not attack the authorities of their countries. Any slip of the tongue or a side remark can be enough. This is a peculiar feature of authoritarian regimes that see the Internet as a threat to their existence. People may say anything they want on their blogs, and their points of view may not always coincide with the official point of view of a certain government.
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Monday, May 04, 2009
Origins of the Swine Flu Pandemic May Not be Mexican Pigs / Politics / Global Pandemic
By: Global_Research
Michel Chossudovsky writes: The WHO announced on May 1st that it will be dropping the designation of "swine flu". The flu will henceforth be designated A H1N1, to be known more broadly as "the Mexican Flu", intimating that the disease originated in Mexico through human to human transmission.
Monday, May 04, 2009
The Geopolitics of Pandemics / Politics / Global Pandemic
By: STRATFOR
Word began to flow out of Mexico the weekend before last of well over 150 deaths suspected to have been caused by a new strain of influenza commonly referred to as swine flu. Scientists who examined the flu announced that this was a new strain of Influenza A (H1N1) derived partly from swine flu, partly from human flu and partly from avian flu strains (although there is some question as to whether this remains true). The two bits of information released in succession created a global panic.
Monday, May 04, 2009
The Real Undreported Pandemics, Not Fake Ones Like Avian and Swine Flu / Politics / Global Pandemic
By: Stephen_Lendman
In his April 29 Global Research.ca article, F. William Engdahl discussed "Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms" and shed light on the current swine flu hysteria - hyped by the same folks who engineered the 2006 (H5N1) Avian Flu scare that had more bark than bite. But it proved hugely profitable for drug makers like Roche and Gilead Sciences, the company Donald Rumsfeld led as chairman from 1997 - 2001 and remains a major shareholder. Although he won't discuss his "private finances," he's likely benefitting handsomely from the current panic.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Market-Long-Waves: Geithner's "Stressful" Katrina Bank Stress Test / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Andrew_Butter
The results of the Stress Tests are about to be released. The leaked news is that these won't be a "whitewash", but that's not the point, whatever they say, no one is going to believe them anyway.
So what IS the point?
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Monday, May 04, 2009
Flying Pigs and the World Health Organisation (WHO) / Politics / Global Pandemic
By: F_William_Engdahl
WHO takes a page from a Michael Crichton Novel - As the late great American poet Yogi Berra might have put it, ‘this just gets absurder and absurder.’ The international agencies supposedly responsible for monitoring worldwide dangers of new pandemic threats, the WHO and CDC are acting like the directors of a Hollywood ‘B’ grade sci-fi movie or the author of a copycat version of Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain novel. The global panic over outbreak of a new human-to-human Swine Flu pandemic is increasingly revealed as a likely operation in mass psychological terror whose only beneficiaries are the few global pharmaceutical giants that are in the business of peddling so-called ‘antiviral’ drugs—Roche, SmithKlineGlaxo and Novavax most prominently. The losers are the rest of us normal folks.