Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Is an International Financial Conspiracy Driving World Events? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Richard_C_Cook
"They make a desolation and call it peace." -Tacitus
Was Alan Greenspan really as dumb as he looks in creating the late housing bubble that threatens to bring the entire Western debt-based economy crashing down?
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
New Middle East War Rumours / Politics / Middle East
By: John_Mauldin
This is a Special Edition of Outside the Box from my friend George Friedman and Stratfor. You've heard me say before that these guys see the world in a different way, but this piece just makes it crystal clear. There are serious rumblings about a major war coming between Israel and its neighbors, and George has put what seems like innocent dots on the board and wonders if there is not a pattern emerging. I am especially looking forward to seeing George and his wife and partner Meredith at my conference this weekend.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 07, 2008
US Presidential Investment Politics: Jobs and The Economy / Politics / US Politics
By: Steve_Selengut
Who wants to be a president; the President of the United States? Social Security reform is the winning ticket. Research supports the thesis that Social Security reform would provide all the lubrication necessary to get our economic ball bearings rolling in the right direction. Economies do not grow, or increase employment, when job providers are taxed and regulated unmercifully, throttling their energy, creativity, and profitability. Consumer spending pushes the economy; we need to do more than hand out a few hundred bucks.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 07, 2008
Will the US go Protectionist? / Politics / US Politics
By: William_R_Thomson
It's a ritual that repeats every four years, first during the US Presidential primaries and then later the election itself – the candidates stomp the prairies, and industrial heartlands, with promises to better the lot of the American worker in today's global economy. Fair trade not free trade is a particularly popular slogan. Then comes the election and the installation of the new President and it is more or less business as usual: more free trade agreements, more Doha rounds and more mock battles between the Executive and Legislative branches over environmental and health and safety standards, which are the codes words official Washington uses for its fairly mildly protectionists policies. Globalisation supported by huge commercial and financial interests pushes ahead remorselessly.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Bethlehem Steel– A Look Back in Time / Politics / Steel Sector
By: Andy_Sutton
“…And we're living here in Allentown , and they're closing all the factories down…”
Billy Joel's famous song ‘ Allentown ', released back in the 1980's satirized the end of the road for industry in this part of the world. As someone who grew up accustomed to watching the large cranes, smokestacks and activity in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , it was a way of life.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tax-payers & Savers: Game for a Laugh? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Adrian_Ash
"...We need a continuing message from tax-payers and savers that they will do what it takes to support economic growth..."
JUST BEFORE the staff here at BullionVault start their monthly experiments with the cocktail cabinet, how about a thought experiment to get this party started.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Bear Stearns Bailout and My Outrage / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Fake_Ben
I have been a longtime critic of the Fed, but the latest moves by the Fed are beyond even my most cynical estimations.
Bear Stearns was one of the most aggressive banks in facilitating the excessive lending that helped create the mortgage mess. This mortgage mess is impoverishing millions of Americans and affecting us all through a lower dollar and higher gasoline prices.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Banking Institutions Present Clear and Present Danger to American Citizens / Politics / Money Supply
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
The Die is Cast- The Case Will Die - If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, (i.e., the "business cycle") the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States 1801-1809 Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
US Tax Payers Funding Banks Corporate Welfare System / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Walter_Brasch
It's a Welfare State—If You're Rich - Listen to conservative talk show pundits and blowhards. Listen to any of the political candidates who proudly amend their names with the phrase “conservative Republican.” One theme resonates in all of the heavy wind—keep the government out of our private lives; let business enjoy a free market economy. Not only should government regulation be minimal, they say, but we must end the “welfare state.”Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Clinton-Obama Fracas Ignores Voter Call for Revolution / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
What should be the real issue of the 2008 presidential election is being lost in the noise of the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama fracas. According to polls, three-fourths of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction. This is an astounding statistic. At other times and in other places, revolution would be in the air.
But is there any indication that something truly substantial might change starting with the election of a new president eight months from now? Something that would take the U.S. in a radically new direction?
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 14, 2008
Al Qaeda, Afghanistan and the Unwinnable War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: John_Mauldin
I hope you enjoy this special edition of Outside the Box from my friend George Friedman and his team at Stratfor. He talks about the "good war" in Afghanistan and why in some ways it is far more difficult than the war in Iraq. This is a view that is quite different from what we read in the mainstream media. It highlights Stratfor's geopolitical intelligence capabilities. Trying to trade global markets - and now all markets are global - without an understanding of geopolitics is like trying to trade juice futures without a weather forecaster. You can do it - but good luck. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Carbon Taxes versus Living Standards / Politics / Climate Change
By: Gerard_Jackson
I recently wrote two articles strongly critical of John Humphreys' proposal for a carbon tax. In his rejoinder ( The Gerry chronicles: carbon tax & bad economics ) he completely ignored my fundamental point that a carbon tax is a direct tax on capital and hence Australia's capital structure and the process of capital accumulation.
(The Austrian school defines capital as a heterogeneous structure consisting of complex stages of production with a time dimension. It is within this theoretical framework that my argument against a carbon needs to be understood).
Sunday, March 09, 2008
US Elections- Why the Press Corp Keeps Getting it Wrong / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek called Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination “inevitable.” It also called for Hillary Clinton to “start campaign for Sen. majority leader.” Newsweek was one of only dozens of national media that made that “analysis.” But the voters had their own ideas. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Why a Carbon Tax Would Hit Living Standards / Politics / Climate Change
By: Gerard_Jackson
Mr Humphreys complains that I ignored his proposal to offset the costs of a carbon tax by cutting other taxes. It's clear that he overlooked the fact that I made the effort of stressing that his proposal was designed to be "revenue neutral". But one of my major points is that it does not matter whether the carbon tax is "revenue neutral" or not. What matters is the impact of the tax on Australia's capital structure. This is a vital question that Humphreys failed to address.(I should point out that the Centre for Independent Studies — for whom Humphreys' monograph was written — have been as equally remiss).Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 02, 2008
US Election Make or Break Tuesday for Democrats Clinton and Obama / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It makes a refreshing ' CHANGE' as we have heard so many times over recent months, to have a real election campaign especially given today's hand picked Russian pseudo-election which effectively re-elects Putin for another 8 years.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 02, 2008
New Russian President Elected Medvedev Putin / Politics / Russia
By: Ian_Brockwell
ew Russian President Elected Medvedev Putin
Even before the polls close, there is no doubt that Dmitry Medvedev will be the new President of Russia. The only information that remains outstanding is the margin of his victory.
By all accounts, Dmitry Medvedev´s landslide victory could collect around 70 percent of the votes, but may fall a little short of Putin´s 71.3 percent victory in 2004 (but not by very much!)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
US Election Investor Political Priorities - A Survey / Politics / US Politics
By: Steve_Selengut
Here we are, in the midst of a presidential campaign, trying to select a new leader for what is still the most economically powerful nation on Earth. The candidates are kissing all the babies they can get their palms on and smiling until their cheek muscles ache; but will they be able to produce any of the changes they talk about? Do we really want them to?Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
China Factor on US Economics and Politics - The Adverse Feedback Loop, Part One / Politics / China
By: Paul_Petillo
My wife begins by offering a disclaimer. She is, she tells me, not a watcher of The View but tunes in only for the first five minutes. I, as a disclaimer, never watch the program nor do I consider myself much more than common couch critic of what television has to offer. The reason she brings this up to me over cocktails one night hinges on China. Why, she asks me, does Whoopi Goldberg seem so fixated on the country? Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Why is the Centre for Independent Studies Supporting the Destructive Carbon Tax? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Gerard_Jackson
Last week I wrote an article in which I condemned a carbon tax that John Humphreys is promoting for the Centre for Independent Studies. Mr Humphreys responded with an email to a reader in which he said: "I never claimed that a tax was a free-market mechanism". But I never accused him of making such a claim. What I did was call his approach "fallacious" and I used the following quote in support of my opinion:Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Obama Beating Clinton - Hope Prevails Over Help / Politics / US Politics
By: Joel_S_Hirschhorn
Hope mongering has been working much better than experience mongering. Now, the rest of the story….As befits American culture, politics is all about slick selling to the masses. Hillary Clinton is selling Day-1 help to victims and sufferers. Barack Obama is selling effervescent hope to yes-we-can dreamers. This media hyped horse race is like a fight between diet Coke and diet Pepsi, artificially sweetened candidates devoid of real nourishment.
Read full article... Read full article...