Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Can Madame BrExit Marine Le Pen Win French Presidential Election? / Politics / France
By: Nadeem_Walayat
All eyes are now on the second and final round of voting to be held in a few days time on 7th May 2017 when Centrist Macron and Far Right Le Pen go head to head. The consensus view is that Marine Le Pen just CANNOT Win, as the odds are heavily stacked against her with the polls giving Macron a healthy lead of 60% against Le Pen trailing heavily behind on 40%,that's a 20% gap!
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Who Are the World’s Biggest Military Spenders, Really? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Dan_Steinbock
The conventional narrative is that the world is threatened by the assertive China and Russia. The inconvenient narrative is that China is modernizing, while US priorities are misguided, Dan Steinbock says.When China recently launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, New York Times saw it as “a milestone in President Xi Jinping’s drive to extend China’s military reach far beyond its shores.” First reports surfaced in early 2016, when Washington Post headlined, “By 2030, South China Sea will be ‘virtually a Chinese lake’.”
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
British Secret Intelligence Service Spymasters / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: BATR
England is a mythical land of Magna Carter power politics heritage. Such cultural and emotional symbols as 'Mrs. Miniver' Rose or the White Cliffs of Dover are engrained in the public consciousness as essential British tradition. When the "Bard of Avon" presented his indispensable observations, Shakespeare on England defined the perception essence of countless generations.
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Trump's Tax Outline Won't Avert Stock Market Correction / Politics / Stock Market 2017
By: Michael_Pento
The primary catalyst to keep investor confidence sky-high while stocks are fliting with the most expensive valuations in history is the passage of Trump's comprehensive tax relief plan. But one thing is for sure, the current tax changes being proposed by the President will morph over time and will be significantly watered down if it is ever to become law. Therefore, since the final plan will be significantly diluted from the proposed form, its effect on the economy and for equity prices will be extremely attenuated. This means the current ebullience on Wall Street is about as far offside as possible.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Save Liberty, Shut Down the Government / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Congress ended the week by passing a continuing resolution keeping the government funded for one more week. This stopgap funding bill is designed to give Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a long-term spending bill. Passage of a long-term spending bill has been delayed over objections to Republican efforts to preserve Obamcare's key features but give states a limited ability to opt out of some Obamacare mandates.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Why is North Korea Being So Unreasonable? / Politics / North Korea
By: Antonius_Aquinas
On April 28, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. that North Korea “must dismantle its nuclear missile programs” before the US “can even consider talks.”*
Sounds reasonable.
Why hasn’t the Kim Jong-Un regime responded with open arms and shouts of joy for this generous and fair-minded proposal from Uncle Sam?
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Monday, May 01, 2017
America's Deep State Wars - The Horror! The Horror! / Politics / US Military
By: James_Quinn
I'm constantly amazed by the ability of those in power to create a narrative trusted by a gullible non-critical thinking populace. Appealing to emotions, when you have millions of functionally illiterate, normalcy bias ensnared, iGadget distracted, disciples of the status quo, has been the game plan of the Deep State for the last century. Americans don't want to think, because thinking is hard. They would rather feel. For decades the government controlled public education system has performed a mass lobotomy on their hapless matriculates, removing their ability to think and replacing it with feelings, fabricated dogma, and social indoctrination. Their minds of mush have been molded to acquiesce to the narrative propagandized by their government keepers.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Damn the Deficits, Huge Trump Tax Cuts Ahead! / Politics / Taxes
By: Peter_Schiff
Donald Trump has made good on one of his most audacious campaign promises by submitting what he describes as the biggest tax cut in U.S. History. For once, at least, this does not appear to be Trumpian braggadocio. It really may be the mother of all tax cuts. But if passed, what may this bunker buster do to the economy? While I have rarely met a tax cut I didn't like, this one just may be more likely to send the economy into a downward spiral than it is to send up to orbit.
Friday, April 28, 2017
Calling out the Central Bankers / Politics / Central Banks
By: Rodney_Johnson
I’m a fan of the Marvel Comics movies, like X-Men and Iron Man.My lovely wife often catches me watching tidbits of the Avenger films when I sit down in front of the TV to relax for a few minutes. I’ll flip around until I find one, watch just 20 to 30 minutes, then move on to another project in the house.
It drives her nuts!
I know the ending. The characters use their skills to better the world. They have clear goals, choose their targets, and execute. These are nice, neat packages, which is completely unlike the real world.
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Friday, April 28, 2017
Earth Overshoot Day - Human Population Growth / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Richard_Mills
The second half of the 20th century saw the biggest increase in the world’s population in human history. Our population surged because of:
- Medical advances lessened the mortality rate in many countries
- Massive increases in agricultural productivity caused by the “Green Revolution”
The global death rate has dropped almost continuously since the start of the industrial revolution – personal hygiene, improved methods of sanitation and the development of antibiotics all played a major role.
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Thursday, April 27, 2017
This Chart Reveals Turkey’s Real Economic Position In The Balkans / Politics / Turkey
By: John_Mauldin
By Geopolitical Futures : Building economic ties should be the major avenue for Turkey to develop inroads into the Balkans. Turkey is a European power as well as a Middle Eastern power, and it has been a key player in the Balkans for centuries.
But Turkey’s influence in the Balkans and the rest of southern Europe is currently limited at best.
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Thursday, April 27, 2017
The Political Left Has Lost Its Vision / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : French voters headed to the polls on Sunday in the first round of France’s presidential election. With the rise of National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, the election raises the question of what is happening to the “left.” What does it even mean to be on the left?
When the Industrial Revolution led to urbanization, the left became the champion of the poor and the working class. But over the last few decades, this has changed.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Another Potential US Government Shutdown... Oh My! / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
The U.S. Congress runs up against their self-imposed borrowing limit once again this week. During the last tussle over the borrowing cap in October 2015, Congress agreed to schedule this week's political theater to occur well after last Fall's elections.
They didn't even bother to guess how much additional headroom would be needed. They just suspended the debt limit altogether. Neither Democratic nor Republican leadership wanted voters focused on borrowing and spending when they went to the polls.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
The Great BrExit Divides - Britain, USA and France / Politics / BrExit
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Something hit me this week. The maps which came out on Monday and detailed the outcome of the French elections, were telling a story, and a familiar one by now. A story of deep division. There are a number of such maps now depicting the Brexit vote in the UK, the US presidential elections, and its French counterpart.
In all three cases they leave me wondering something along the lines of: ‘Are you guys sure you want to remain in the same country with each other?’ Because to me that is not all that obvious, and I think it’ll get less so as time passes. For instance in the case of France, the ‘ideological’ differences between Macron and Le Pen are substantial to say the least, they’re worlds apart.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
What Trump’s Next 100 Days Will Look Like / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
Reva Goujon : U.S. President Donald Trump approaches his 100-day benchmark on Saturday, a media deluge has already begun bemoaning the demise of the liberal order, celebrating waves of deregulation or simply blaming the president's rocky start on the "disaster" he inherited on taking office. Rather than wade into that predictable morass, we prefer to focus instead on what the next 100 days hold in store.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Buying American, Losing America / Politics / US Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, President Trump signed his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order. Ironically, while the stated goal is to put “America First,” the White House may actually subsidize old industries and undermine innovation.
Recently, President Trump traveled to Wisconsin to sign the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order, which seeks to crack down on fraud and abuse of the skilled worker (H-1B) visa program.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Real Reason Trump Why Reversed His Stance On NATO, China, and Mexico / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
By Allison Fedirka Donald Trump has recently reversed his stance on a number of key foreign policy issues: NATO, Russia, China, and Mexico. From a geopolitical perspective, Trump’s remarks validated that limitations exist in the real world—even for the US president.
These limitations explain why he has backtracked on some of his key campaign promises.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
What A War With North Korea Would Look Like / Politics / North Korea
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The possibility of war between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States has recently increased. It is necessary to consider what such a war might look like.
I use the term war rather than merely American attacks on North Korean nuclear and missile program facilities. We have to consider the possibility of North Korea’s response and a more extended conflict.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Trump Is Among The Institutionally Weakest National Leaders In The World / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
By George Friedman : During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump advocated for a more disengaged US foreign policy. Involvement in the world would be limited to actions in the interest of the United States.
On the surface, this was not an irrational argument. American involvement—chiefly militarily—has not yielded the outcomes the US hoped for in recent years.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
3 Maps That Explain the Geopolitics of Nuclear Weapons / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : North Korea has received a lot of focus due to a recent missile test and the expectation of another nuclear test. It is a poor country whose nuclear program has allowed it to punch above its weight internationally. This has also forced superpowers to approach it with great caution.
Nuclear bombs are in their own category of weapon. They are useful in that they deter aggression. The potential for massive destruction on both sides forces countries to rethink moves that may threaten an adversary’s national security interests.
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