Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Low Carbon - High Political Price / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
Speaking on July 7, Poland's environment minister Marcin Korolec used a roundabout way to say how strongly his government feels about moves to save the European mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, the ETS. He said: " The ETS is delivering on its target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest possible cost and there’s no need to “manipulate” the market after a slump in industrial output drove carbon prices to a record low".
Thursday, July 12, 2012
From Each According to His Inability, To Each According to His Greed / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
I think the one recurring question that has been on everyone's minds since at least 2008-09 is - what will the government do? We all know what the large private corporations and high-level bankers are going to do - they are going to lie, cheat, scheme and steal their way into whatever forms of wealth and control they can get their grubby little hands on (see the Libor scandal for the most recent example). But then we must ask whether the government is going to help them do those things and how exactly they are going to help. After four painful years of betrayal, the answer to the first part of that question seems to be a resounding YES.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Ron Paul on Fractional Reserve Banking, Government, and Moral Hazard / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week my subcommittee held a hearing on fractional reserve banking and the moral hazard created by government (taxpayer) insured deposits. Fractional reserve banking is the practice by which banks accept deposits but only keep a fraction of those deposits on hand at any time. In practice, nearly 100% of deposits are loaned out, yet depositors believe that they can withdraw the full amount of their deposit at any time. Loaned funds are then redeposited and reloaned up to the limit of the bank's reserve requirements, compounding the effect.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Germany Loses to Italy, Again / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
June was not a particularly good month for Germany. First, she suffered a loss to Italy in the semi-finals of the European Cup soccer tournament. Then, she suffered a more significant blow when Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Monti, extracted important concessions from German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the European Summit. A loss on the soccer pitch can put a dent in the national ego. But a loss on the field of finance can be far more serious.
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Monday, July 09, 2012
Super Mario Monti and the Dictatorship of Economic Austerity in Italy / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
In Part 1 of this series (The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy), I examined the Technocratic coup in Italy, which removed the democratically-elected Berlusconi and replaced him with an unelected technocrat, Mario Monti, an economist, Bilderberg member, former European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, former European Commissioner for Competition, and a former adviser to Goldman Sachs International, was also on the board of the Coca-Cola Company, and founded the European think tank, Bruegel. Mario Monti was installed by the European elites with one purpose: punish the population of Italy through ‘fiscal austerity’ and ‘structural adjustment.’
Monday, July 09, 2012
U.S. Iran War Gaming Scenario's as Washington Prepares Plans for Aggression / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
When we hear that the United States government is announcing a new policy, it is usually the result of a detailed process, a calculated weighing of options and scenarios in which planners seek to calculate the likely impact and reaction to policies they are advocating.
The stepped-up anti-Iranian sanctions strategy now underway was not an off the top of the head impulsive decision, but one reached through a process of careful strategizing ---as in, if we do this, what are they likely to do?
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Monday, July 09, 2012
London Shard and Other Boomerang Towers of Hubris Before The Storm / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I was leafing through some recent Bloomberg articles and noticed this running thread connecting them: hubris, decisions based on false data, inertia, things like that. It wouldn't be hard to find dozens more pieces just like it in the press, but once you recognize the pattern, it stands out like a sore thumb anyway. It's pretty easy to see where mistakes are made, especially when they're big mistakes.
Monday, July 09, 2012
Crude Oil And National Security / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE WIDENING GULF
Oil and national security were at one time treated like they meant the same thing, using the extra loop of logic that cheap oil = economic security. Today, Goldman Sachs, and other major financial market players are pulling out all the stops, using all the tricks to try and stop oil prices from falling. High oil prices are now a critical prop to the world's failing financial, banking, monetary and trading systems.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Merkel's Magic Hat Running Out of Rabbits; Most Germans Believe Further Euro-zone Bailouts Are Pointless / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
A pair of articles translated from German and Spanish further highlights the pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to not give into to further demands by Spain, Italy, and France.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Emulate Scrooge McDuck, Make a Bucket List / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
On October 3, 2009, I attended my 50th high school reunion. The 50th high school reunion is the last hurrah institutionally in the United States. No other final meeting will attract as many people from a person’s generation. There is nothing like your 50th high school reunion to remind you that the clock is ticking.
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Germany Will Bail On the Euro Rather Than Bail the Euro Out / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
It all boils down to Germany.
I’ve been forecasting for months that the country will increasingly focus on domestic interests and that it will ultimately opt to leave the Euro rather than prop up the EU.
The former (focusing on domestic issues) is already underway.
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Saturday, July 07, 2012
The European Union’s Latest Smoke and Mirrors Deal / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: InvestmentContrarian
Danny Esposito writes: The market cheered news out of the European Union that a deal was made to tackle this financial crisis head-on and provide capital to the Spanish banks. Forget the numbers for the moment; what is more important to note is that the money to help the Spanish banks is supposedly going to come from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which requires the approval of all 17 countries of the European Union in order to be enacted.
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Friday, July 06, 2012
Third World America 2012: A Country At War With Itself / Politics / US Politics
By: Janet_Tavakoli
On the Fourth of July, comedian Chris Rock tweeted: "Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks." Chris Rock disowns the holiday with tongue-in-cheek.
Well right back at you Mr. Rock. My continental European ancestors weren't in the USA when colonists won their independence from England. My grandparents didn't even speak English when they arrived in the U.S., but according to this tweet, their whiteness took ownership of Independence Day from African Americans. Is there nothing those poor European immigrants didn't ruin for real Americans?
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Thursday, July 05, 2012
Destroying the Young with Permanent Bank Bailouts / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Paul_Tustain
The tyranny of banking deposit insurance is leading young people to hate 'the market'...
Why aren't young people protesting against bailouts?
Younger adults are usually pretty quick to protest injustices, but they're strangely quiet on financial rescues. Few of them seem able to join the dots and see that bailouts are clobbering them hardest.
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Thursday, July 05, 2012
LIEbor Financial Crimes, Serious Fraud Office has Serious Questions to Answer / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Nadeem_Walayat
LIEbor rate fixing is just one aspect of the mega financial crimes of the century that continue to be perpetuated by bankster's that earlier today were rewarded with another £50 billion of free money from their god fathers at the Bank of England.
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Hot Air Independence Day, Can Americans Escape the Deception? / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Hot Air Day is upon us. On July 4 hot air will spew forth all over the country as dignitaries deliver homilies to our “freedom and democracy” and praise “our brave troops” who are protecting our freedom by “killing them over there before they come over here.”
Not a single one of these speeches will contain one word of truth. No speaker will lament the death of the US Constitution or urge his audience to action to restore the only document that protects their liberty. No speaker will acknowledge that in the 21st century the Bush/Obama Regime, with the complicity of the Department of Justice, federal courts, Congress, presstitute media, law schools, bar associations, and an insouciant public have murdered the Constitution in the name of the “war on terror.”
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Thursday, July 05, 2012
Germany's Energiewende ,The Losers Line Up / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Andrew_McKillop
European business news, 3 July, took a partial break from European crisis response Stability Funds,
which have no money but nicely written "forward looking" prospectuses, to look at Germany's sinking
giants of postwar reconstruction and growth - the Big 4 power producer companies E.On, RWE,
Vattenfall and EnBW. These are all floundering with Germany's Energiewende transition plan. RWE
has the present headlines because, after spending about 1 billion euros on its Nordsee Ost wind park in
the North Sea, it finds that it cannot start production because Tenne-T TSO, the local power transport
(grid) operator has not built the connector to the 48-mill 295 MW windfarm 30 kilometres out to sea.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/stress-on-the-high-seas-germany-s-wind-power-revolution-in-the-doldrums-a-805505.html
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
MP's Fail to Hold Bob Diamond, Barclays to Account for Libor Fraud, Public Inquiry Needed / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The 3 hour Treasury Select Committee session has just concluded and clearly it has failed to live up to expectations as the politicians failed to hold Bob Diamond the ex-ceo of Barclays to account. The facts are that the FSA and the Bank of England are incompetent because it has taken the regulators 4 years to do only half a job.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Threat of "European Monster State" About to Splinter Merkel Coalition / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
Winning the Summit but Losing the War
German chancellor Angela Merkel was the EU Summit Winner. She gave next to nothing to Italy and France, and a pittance to Spain.
However, there was a price to that pittance, and it could cost Merkel dearly. Please consider German Party Leader Threatens To Axe Coalition
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Europe Wake-Up call Whilst U.S. Politicians Continue Snoring Away / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink spoke with Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker and Trish Regan on "Market Makers" today and said that, "our politicians are guardians too, and they're not acting in ways that guardians should...Europe is a great wake-up call and they're still snoring away."
Fink went on to say, "we need more clarity, and that is my message to every politician I see...it's all about confidence. No one is investing for tomorrow."
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