Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Fear of IRS Tax Audits Diminish / Politics / Taxes
By: BATR
The announcement that Federal government’s tax-take hits all-time high as the federal government collected a record amount of taxes in fiscal year 2014, topping $3 trillion in revenue for the first time in its history, has the tax man taking a bigger bite than ever. Yet, the take that the collection bureau seems un-phased from all their scandals to put the taxpayer through their third degree audits are easing up. Why? The answer may surprise when the ledger is tallied up.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
The Truth Behind Central Banks' Machinations / Politics / Central Banks
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Central bankers aren't stalwart free-market shepherds, although that's how they cloak themselves.
The truth is they're more like wolves… communist wolves in sheep's clothing. Today I'm going to show you what their game really is.
Then I'm going to show you how we'll fight back…
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Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Can Putin Survive? / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: There is a general view that Vladimir Putin governs the Russian Federation as a dictator, that he has defeated and intimidated his opponents and that he has marshaled a powerful threat to surrounding countries. This is a reasonable view, but perhaps it should be re-evaluated in the context of recent events.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
"To Be or Not To Be" Part of the Establishment / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
The immortal words uttered by Prince Hamlet as he contemplates death and suicide, applies for an entire society. The enormous gravity that permeates William Shakespeare’s tragic hero represents the same fate confronting the normal mortals, who make up the ranks of Americans. The rapid decline in intelligence and moral character has approached epidemic levels. The ROT which has seeped into the popular culture has become a metamorphosis Reign of Terror. The transformers from a heritage of principle, courage and honor have sunk to a level of Slouching Towards Gomorrah. Such a fate was feared by our Founding Fathers.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Euro Crisis - It’s Time for Angela Merkel to Stand Up / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I need to start of off the bat with an update to this piece, which I started writing yesterday, since I now know that Angela Merkel actually did invite Alexis Tsipras on Monday. It only took her two months…. But that doesn’t take away anything from my point that Merkel has been sorely lacking and missing, it just goes to prove that point.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Margin Call from Hell - Why Strong Dollar Leads to Deflation, Recession and Crisis / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Whitney
The crisis that began seven years ago with easy lending and subprime mortgages, has entered its final phase, a currency war between the world’s leading economies each employing the same accommodative monetary policies that have intensified market volatility, increased deflationary pressures, and set the stage for another tumultuous crack-up. The rising dollar, which has soared to a twelve year high against the euro, has sent US stock indices plunging as investors expect leaner corporate earnings, tighter credit, and weaker exports in the year ahead. The stronger buck is also wreaking havoc on emerging markets that are on the hook for $5.7 trillion in dollar-backed liabilities. While most of this debt is held by the private sector in the form of corporate bonds, the stronger dollar means that debt servicing will increase, defaults will spike, and capital flight will accelerate. Author’s Michele Brand and Remy Herrera summed it up in a recent article on Counterpunch titled “Dollar Imperialism, 2015 edition”. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Monday, March 16, 2015
The Greek Debt Tragedy Continues / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andy_Sutton
A few years ago, Poland made the first such move to ‘nationalize’ a portion of its pension system. Nationalize probably isn’t the right word though: steal is more appropriate. Given the fact that most Americans probably can’t even point out Poland on a map, the news was given little attention. If something doesn’t happen right in our own backyard, it might as well happen on Mars.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Green Light for the American Empire / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The American Empire has been long in the making. A green light was given in 1990 to finalize that goal. Dramatic events occurred that year that allowed the promoters of the American Empire to cheer. It also ushered in the current 25-year war to solidify the power necessary to manage a world empire. Most people in the world now recognize this fact and assume that the empire is here to stay for a long time. That remains to be seen.
Empires come and go. Some pop up quickly and disappear in the same manner. Others take many years to develop and sometimes many years to totally disintegrate. The old empires, like the Greek, Roman, Spanish and many others took many years to build and many years to disappear. The Soviet Empire was one that came rather quickly and dissipated swiftly after a relatively short period of time. The communist ideology took many decades to foment the agitation necessary for the people to tolerate that system.
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Sunday, March 15, 2015
How Italy’s Government Enables the Mafia / Politics / Italy
By: MISES
Emilio Parodi writes: Beyond nice wines, warm beaches, and sultry women, Italy is well-known for something less savory — the mafia. It is interesting to understand how such a powerful “machine” managed to enter society in such a strong and meaningful way, but more importantly to grasp its role alongside the central government of Italy. On the one hand, it is easy to state that the mafia and the corrupt economic system it functions within are wrong and unproductive for the country. On the other hand its presence may be of help to a country’s economy, something that is especially true in the case of Italy.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: GoldCore
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January 6th post here.) It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on the threat.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Russia's Military Options in Ukraine -: Gaming a Russian Offensive / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: STRATFOR
Editor's Note: As part of our analytical methodology, Stratfor periodically conducts internal military simulations. This series, examining the scenarios under which Russian and Western forces might come into direct conflict in Ukraine, reflects such an exercise. It thus differs from our regular analyses in several ways and is not intended as a forecast. This series reflects the results of meticulous examination of the military capabilities of both Russia and NATO and the constraints on those forces. It is intended as a means to measure the intersection of political intent and political will as constrained by actual military capability. This study is not a definitive exercise; instead it is a review of potential decision-making by military planners. We hope readers will gain from this series a better understanding of military options in the Ukraine crisis and how the realities surrounding use of force could evolve if efforts to implement a cease-fire fail and the crisis escalates.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Eurozone Crisis - There Is No Better Way Than to Pay for Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Investment_U
Martin Stephan writes: The Oxford Club’s deep international roots are invaluable... A few weeks back, we published a piece titled “How Germany Can Save Greece and the EU.” Since then, the German parliament voted to extend financial aid to Greece by four months - a mere Band-Aid (and a small one at that). In order to right the EU economy, a permanent solution must be found. For an insider perspective on this situation, we asked our colleague Martin Stephan from The Oxford Club’s German office to give his thoughts. We hope you enjoy his unique viewpoint.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
U.S. Perpetual War to Justify the Permanent War of Terror / Politics / War on Terror
By: BATR
The saga of continuous deployment and a garrison empire is a long and sad state of affairs. Using the trumped up fright that America’s enemies are geared up to bomb malls and sporting venues, builds a phony fear that the only response to combat the threat is to wage continuous foreign campaigns. What put such sophistry to rest are the facts that such uninterrupted carnage just feeds the fields of growing hostility towards America. If the War on Terror was winnable, why not start by stopping the War of Terror that is the center piece of aggressive projection of bellicose power.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The Paradox of America's Electoral Reform / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: We are now in the early phases of selecting the president of the United States. Vast amounts of money are being raised, plans are being laid, opposition research is underway and the first significant scandal has broken with the discovery that Hillary Clinton used a non-government email account for government business. Ahead of us is an extended series of primaries, followed by an election and perhaps a dispute over some aspect of the election. In the United States, the presidential election process takes about two years, particularly when the sitting president cannot run for re-election.
Monday, March 09, 2015
Abolish; Not “Audit the Fed” / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Submissions
Antonius Aquinas writes: In recent remarks to the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen was her typical evasive and non committal self when the topic of interest rate hikes were broached. When the subject of potential oversight of the Fed came up, however, Ms. Yellen became quite forthright in her response.
When asked about a bill introduced by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to “Audit the Fed,” Ms. Yellen declared: “I want to be completely clear: I strongly oppose ‘Audit the Fed.'”* Ms. Yellen defended her position on the grounds, which have been given by every previous Fed Chairman, that oversight would lead to politicized monetary decision making thus compromising the central bank’s “independence.”
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Monday, March 09, 2015
EU Warmongers Juncker Requests Creation of European Army / Politics / European Union
By: Mike_Shedlock
Warmongers United
European discussion of Russia has gone from dumb to dumber.
Of course, the highly regarded "Warmongers United Think Tank" (WUTT) would dispute that. "Warmongers United" believes more armies, more missiles and more fighting are precisely the right thing to do.
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Monday, March 09, 2015
Financial Crisis Aftershocks - That Austrian Bank / Politics / Credit Crisis 2015
By: John_Rubino
Sometimes little things are the start of much bigger things. Probably the most famous historical example of this is the June 1914 assassination of an Austrian archduke who, it's safe to say, 99% of the world had neither heard of nor cared about. But the aftershocks of the deed produced the biggest war in human history.
More recently, the US government's 2008 decision to allow mid-tier investment bank Lehman Brothers to fail is frequently blamed for turning a mortgage bubble into a global financial collapse.
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Monday, March 09, 2015
Don't Be Fooled by The Federal Reserve's Anti-Audit Propaganda / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
In recent weeks, the Federal Reserve and its apologists in Congress and the media have launched numerous attacks on the Audit the Fed legislation. These attacks amount to nothing more than distortions about the effects and intent of the audit bill.
Fed apologists continue to claim that the Audit the Fed bill will somehow limit the Federal Reserve's independence. Yet neither Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen nor any other opponent of the audit bill has ever been able to identify any provision of the bill giving Congress power to dictate monetary policy. The only way this argument makes sense is if the simple act of increasing transparency somehow infringes on the Fed's independence.
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Sunday, March 08, 2015
How Putin Blocked the U.S. Pivot to Asia - Get Vlad! / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Mike_Whitney
Read full article... Read full article...“The collapse of the Soviet Union removed the only constraint on Washington’s power to act unilaterally abroad…. Suddenly the United States found itself to be the Uni-power, the ‘world’s only superpower.’ Neoconservatives proclaimed ‘the end of history.'”— Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury
“Don’t blame the mirror if your face is crooked.” — Russian proverb
Sunday, March 08, 2015
Europe, The Morally Bankrupt Union / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The European Union is busy accomplishing something truly extraordinary: it is fast becoming such a spectacular failure that people don’t even recognize it as one. People have no idea, they just think: this can’t possibly be true, and they continue with their day. They should think again. Because the Grand European Failure is bound to lead to real life consequences soon, and they’ll be devastating. The union that was supposed to put an end to all fighting across the continent, is about to be the fuse that sets off a range of battles.