Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Iceland Monetary Reform Half-Right / Politics / Credit Crisis 2015
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: The prime minister of Iceland recently commissioned a report by Frosti Sigurjonsson to recommend a better money and banking system for Iceland. The recently released report recaps Iceland's sorry history of money and banking disasters and lays the majority of the blame for the 2008 collapse on the institution of fractional reserve banking, which caused an out-of-control increase in the money supply. Sigurjonsson recommends the abolition of fractional reserve banking, a separation of deposit and loan banking, and an end to deposit insurance.
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Monday, April 27, 2015
The Real War on The Middle Class / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
One of the great ironies of American politics is that most politicians who talk about helping the middle class support policies that, by expanding the welfare-warfare state, are harmful to middle-class Americans. Eliminating the welfare-warfare state would benefit middle-class Americans by freeing them from exorbitant federal taxes, including the Federal Reserve's inflation tax.
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Monday, April 27, 2015
Society's Leaders Have Been Digging a Bottomless Economic Pit / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2015
By: Brian_Bloom
A friend sent me the link below, which seems extraordinarily relevant in context of the fact that I once calculated the value of the Chinese ghost cities at around $6.5 trillion. The article discusses the downward pressures on China’s economy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-24/china-could-face-sharp-rise-capital-outflows-if-stocks-economy-lose-momentum
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Sunday, April 26, 2015
Migrant Crisis - Europe Has Completely Lost It / Politics / Immigration
By: Raul_I_Meijer
After the high-level EU summit on the migrant issue, hastily convened after close to a thousand people drowned last weekend off the Lybian coast, Dutch PM Mark Rutte was quoted by ‘his’ domestic press as saying ‘Our first priority is saving human lives’. That sounds commendable, and it also sounds just like what everybody knows everybody else wants to hear. One can be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that it’s somewhat unfortunate that the one person tasked by Brussels with executing the noble ‘saving lives’ strategy, doesn’t seem to entirely agree with Rutte:
Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
A republican form of government is one in which power resides in elected officials representing the citizens, and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people . . . .”
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Friday, April 24, 2015
Europe Migrant Crisis - For a Few Dollars More / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Tom_Naysburn
The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean is symptomatic of the wider malaise afflicting Europe, the new Wild West. As Sergio Leone put it " where life has no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That's why the bounty hunters appeared". Today, after the Euribor finally went negative, it seems quite plausible and legitimate to update the phase to "where Euros have little less value, death, sometimes, has its price, that's why the people traffickers appeared". When banks and governments are being paid to borrow Euros you have to ask the question: has this inverted perversion of classical economic theory hastened the beginning of the end for the Euro experiment?
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Poverty, Child Rearing, and Government Incentives / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Adam Vass Gal writes: When examining cyclical poverty, it is important to study the typical tendencies of people that have generational success. Some like to equate financial success to a level of work ethic, and assume the harder you work, the more you will make. This book’s study takes a different approach.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Existential Danger To The Euro Is Elections / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Dan_Amerman
There is a respectable chance that the euro will collapse sometime in the next several years, with implications for employment, economic growth and investment markets on a global basis. And the biggest threat is not directly money, debt, a potentially rapidly approaching Greek default, or a failure of central banking policies – but is instead something much simpler.
The risk is elections. That is, the near term existential threat to the euro – and indeed the global financial system – is when voters don't do what the status quo politicians, the media and bankers want them to do.
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Is China The Next United States? / Politics / China Economy
By: STRATFOR
By Mark Fleming-Williams: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote on April 5 that this month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system. His comments refer to the circumstances surrounding China's launch of a new venture, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Wary of China's growing ambitions and influence, the United States had advised its allies not to join the institution, but many signed up anyway. The debacle was undoubtedly embarrassing for Washington, but even so, Summers' prophecy is a bit premature at this stage.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Ukraine War - When Did We All Become Murderers? / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Appalled doesn’t cover it. Disgusted won’t do either. Angry doesn’t come close. Maybe I have yet to learn of a word that would express my feelings on the following topic. There’s a disease, an epidemic, that spreads through out the western world. We are all turning into accomplices to murder. And I still believe we are better than that. Just perhaps not all of us.
The US, and the rest of the west, have made plenty enemies already without needing to create their own out of thin air – as if there were ever a need to create enemies. But that’s still what we’ve been doing in many places in the world, including Ukraine. And there’s an entire multi-billion machine working just to make us think what someone else wants us to think about these ‘enemies’.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Libya Crisis - EU Leaders Are Indicted for Nazi-Style Crimes against Humanity / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_Butter
International Law says if you invade a country you are responsible for the well being of the civilians of that country. Hitler knew that, and with a few exceptions he followed the Law. As for the exceptions (murdering a several million Jews), his Lieutenants were put on trial in Nuremburg and punished.
The mandate that the Western Powers got rubber-stamped at the U.N. four-years-ago, when they sought and got permission to bomb Libya back to Mission Accomplished, clearly said that the objective was only to “protect civilians”.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Debt Crisis - When All News Is Bad News / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2015
By: John_Rubino
One of the defining traits of financial bubbles is the willingness of traders and investors to interpret pretty much everything as a buy signal. Rising corporate earnings mean growth, while falling profits mean easier money on the way. War means more revenues for defense contractors and easy money for everyone else. Blizzards means consumer spending will rebound in the Spring. Inflation means higher asset prices for speculators while deflation means, once again, easier money for everyone. When people are this optimistic they find the silver lining in every black cloud and happily to buy the dips with borrowed money.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
They Said Go to College - Learning to become Debt Slaves / Politics / Student Finances
By: James_Quinn
When I graduated from college in 1986 it was easy to get a job. The economy was booming and 82% of college graduates had a job. The other 18% were probably raising kids because their college educated spouse made enough to raise a family. The mantra for my entire life has been – go to college and you’ll get a good paying job. It seems something went wrong on the road to riches. The percentage of college graduates with jobs has been falling for the last 30 years and has been plummeting since 2008. It is now at an all-time low of 74.3%. Shouldn’t these people have obtained jobs since the government tells us the unemployment rate has dramatically dropped from 10% to 5.5% since 2009?
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Unsound Banking: Why Most of the World's Banks Are Headed for Collapse / Politics / Credit Crisis 2015
By: Casey_Research
You’re likely thinking that a discussion of “sound banking” will be a bit boring. Well, banking should be boring. And we’re sure officials at central banks all over the world today—many of whom have trouble sleeping—wish it were.
This brief article will explain why the world’s banking system is unsound, and what differentiates a sound from an unsound bank. I suspect not one person in 1,000 actually understands the difference. As a result, the world’s economy is now based upon unsound banks dealing in unsound currencies. Both have degenerated considerably from their origins.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
The Greece 'Grexit' Issue and the Problem of Free Trade / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: The Greek crisis is moving toward a climax. The issue is actually quite simple. The Greek government owes a great deal of money to European institutions and the International Monetary Fund. It has accumulated this debt over time, but it has become increasingly difficult for Greece to meet its payments. If Greece doesn't meet these payments, the IMF and European institutions have said they will not extend any more loans to Greece. Greece must make a calculation. If it pays the loans on time and receives additional funding, will it be better off than not paying the loans and being cut off from more?
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Greek Crisis and Southern Europe Immigrant situation / Politics / European Union
By: Submissions
luciano malocco writes: Europe is facing a crisis. Well actually Europe is facing two and both of them are of their own making and almost as serious as each other. The news that nearly 1000 illegals from Libya died over the weekend making the treacherous journey from North Africa to the Italian coastline should shock nobody. This is the result of a disastrous policy by the West namely the US to destabilise not only Libya but also Tunisia, Egypt and previously Iraq. It was called the Arab Spring back in 2011 when the region which was filled with hope for better times to come and a fairer way of life, while Western commentators spoke of bringing democracy to the people of these countries. It was sold to the Western population as the Arab people standing up to their cruel authoritarian rulers to demand something that we here in the West take for granted, Democracy.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Why Europe Lets People Drown / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
That Europe let almost 1000 people die in the Mediterranean in one night shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, at least not to those who are still occasionally awake. The Club Med migrant crisis has been going on for a long time, and the EU’s only reaction to it has been to slash its budget and operations in the area, not to expand them.
So when the New York Times opens with “European leaders were confronted on Monday with a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean..”, they’re a mile and a half less than honest. Brussels has known what was going on for years, and decided to do less than nothing.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Wealth Destruction for the 99.9 Percent / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Blaming the 1% for diminished prosperity avoids the real reasons for designed poverty. In round terms, the seven billion souls that populate this planet translate into seventy million to be part of the 1%. Well, that amount is still a very large number to blame for the systemic transfer of riches into the hands of the few. A far more relevant approach is to examine the .001% or around seven million that fall into the mover or shakers of asset and possessions. Before targeting this group of mega wealth, that figure includes a very significant number, who are non players when it comes to global politics or transnational finance.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
No Scripture Is Divine, Authentic and Beyond the Creation of the Human Brain / Politics / Religion
By: Dr_R_M_Mathew
All the existing scriptures were created in the Age of Ignorance and Illiteracy. In such an age, if somebody was telling something unheard by the masses, it was quite natural for the clever men to make the ignorant masses believe it as Divine or Godly or Super Human or Authentic or Directly from the God. Once it became the part of tradition, it turned into the unquestionable edifice of faith.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Is Legal Tax Avoidance Extinct in the UK? / Politics / Taxes
By: MISES
Simon Wilson writes: In the context of the financial crisis, and the government’s ever expanding fiscal deficit, it is perhaps no surprise that the issue of taxation has become one of the most hotly debated topics in the United Kingdom’s upcoming election. Nor is it surprising that the establishment has successfully avoided any discussion of what makes dealing with the deficit so imperative, namely, the taxpayer bailout of the banking system.