Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Iran Political Situation Ready to Explode / Politics / Iran
Iran is standing on the verge of chaos after sitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the first stage of the presidential election in the country on June 12. His three rivals received less than a third of all votes, which triggered massive riots across the nation. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who obtained 33 percent of the votes cast, stated that the election had been totally fabricated. Two other candidates - Mohsen Rezaee, former Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of the Majlis, - said that they would support Moussavi in his endeavor to revise the election results.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wall Street vs. Main Street: The Regulatory Battle Begins Tomorrow / Politics / Market Regulation
Shah Gilani writes: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says the Obama administration’s overhaul of U.S. financial regulations is aimed at creating a “boring” financial system.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Life Is Destroying the Planet! / Politics / Climate Change
Butler Shaffer writes: Recent news stories advise us of yet another contributor to the menace of global warming, this one arising from the flatulence produced by cows. The metabolic processes engaged in by our bovine neighbors produce methane, one of the greenhouse gasses against which the environmentalist faithful are ever vigilant. Methane is also produced through the breakdown of organic matter (e.g., manure, dumpsites) and, other life forms. In his book Gaia the renowned chemist, James Lovelock, analyzed how methane, produced in the guts of termites, is an essential factor in the self-regulating nature of the earth’s atmosphere.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Crude Oil and Islam, Will America Shift Away from Its Past Unilateralist Policies? / Politics / Crude Oil
Prof. Peter Dale Scott writes: In his remarkable speech at Cairo University on June 4, President Obama promised “a new beginning.” In the words of the Israeli commentator Uri Avnery, the speech offered “the map of a new world, a different world, whose values and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language -- a mixture of idealism and practical politics, vision and pragmatism.”1
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Iran Election Result and Western Misconceptions About the Iranian Reality / Politics / Iran
In 1979, when we were still young and starry-eyed, a revolution took place in Iran. When I asked experts what would happen, they divided into two camps.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
De-Dollarization, Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire / Politics / Global Financial System
Michael Hudson writes: The Yekaterinburg Turning Point - The city of Yakaterinburg, Russia’s largest east of the Urals, may become known not only as the death place of the tsars but of American hegemony too – and not only where US U-2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down in 1960, but where the US-centered international financial order was brought to ground.
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Friday, June 12, 2009
Property Rights Take a Hit Due to Crony Capitalism / Politics / Government Intervention
“Crony capitalism” is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes what you know, and favoritism trumps the rule of law. Unfortunately, this week's events demonstrate that the phrase now more aptly describes our own country.
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Friday, June 12, 2009
The Bush Doctrine, Economic Warfare and Your Investment Portfolio / Politics / Market Manipulation
Let us be clear, that in the aftermath of 9/11, American policy vis-à-vis its relations with the rest of the world changed forever under the aegis of the Bush Doctrine:
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Friday, June 12, 2009
Global Booming Arms Trade Reaching $1.5 trillion / Politics / Global Economy
World’s leading countries spend too much of their war preparations. A new arms race has been gathering pace in the world recently, and even the global economic setback does not seem to be a reason to stop the race.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
American's Trapped by the Insidious Web of Debt by the Poisonous Banking Cartel / Politics / US Debt
Abby Normal
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck's?
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
U.S. Fed Hit by Subpoena - Fasten Your Seatbelt / Politics / Central Banks
The Federal Reserve was served a subpoena from a Congressional committee Tuesday, as lawmakers demanded documents related to Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. In our view, this is a precursor of more trouble to come for the Fed.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
Cuba Has Friends in High Places / Politics / GeoPolitics
On June 4, 2009, Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, were arrested by the FBI and charged with spying for the government of Cuba. According to court documents filed in the case, the Myers allegedly were recruited by the Cuban intelligence service in 1979 and worked for them as agents until 2007. On June 10, 2009, a U.S. Magistrate Judge ruled that the couple posed a flight risk and ordered them held without bond.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Financial Crash: The True Story / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Bob Chapman writes: On Friday, we had the latest edition of the FDIC “Friday Night Financial Follies” as regulators on Friday shut down Bank of Lincolnwood, a small bank in Illinois, marking the 37th failure this year of a federally insured bank. More are expected to succumb amid the pressures of the weak economy and mounting loan defaults.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Fear Has Made Every American a Suspect / Politics / US Politics
The power of irrational fear in the US is extraordinary. It ranks up there with the Israel Lobby, the military/security complex, and the financial gangsters. Indeed, fear might be the most powerful force in America.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
European Union Being Held Together With Duct Tape / Politics / Euro-Zone
Among its many other sins, the greenback is a press hog. The world’s reserve currency, loved and loathed as it is, simply gets most of the ink these days.
In that light many a U.S.-based commentator, not least your cynical Taipan Daily scribes, have repeatedly waxed eloquent on the long-run death of the dollar.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Obama's Pay Czar to Set Pay of Bailed out Corporations / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Will the Obama administration's meddling in the affairs of business ever end? That's what I am asking as I read Treasury to name pay czar on Wednesday.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
America's Money Machine, the Federal Reserve Bank / Politics / Central Banks
Elgin Groseclose, an eminent monetary economist in the 20th century, rips the roof off the Federal Reserve in this wonderful history that takes us from the Fed's founding to the 1960s. He shows that the gap between the promise and the reality is shockingly massive, so much so that the Federal Reserve must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of public policy.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The Money System Triggered the Bankruptcy of General Motors / Politics / US Auto's
Arian Nevin writes: Thomas Friedman believes G.M. is a “giant wealth-destruction machine.” He’s dead wrong. General Motors was, is and will be a giant wealth-production machine. Industry produces wealth, and G.M. is the victim of an unsound money system.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Conservative Economics Based Upon Greed / Politics / Economic Theory
Cage Innoye writes: In life we have the problem of self management. If we don’t manage ourselves, then disaster occurs. Self control is a key trait of this behavior, taking calculated risks is another, a strategy of balance is another. Most people accept this.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Geithner To Allow Banks To Repay Tarp Although TARP Panel Says Stress Test Was Flawed / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
In another case straight out of the Twilight Zone, Geithner will allow banks to repay TARP funds although a TARP panel advises running the tests again because the tests were so flawed.
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