Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Could War Flare Again Between Iraq and Kuwait? / Politics / Iraq War
By: OilPrice_Com
According to Iraqi Council of Representatives Oil and Energy Committee member Furat al-Sharei, the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier are still waiting to have a line drawn through them to delineate the border, more than eight years after a coalition led by U.S. forces toppled the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Obama Gets Real / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
For most of his time as a national political figure, Barack Obama has been careful to cloak his core socialist leanings behind a veil of pro-capitalist rhetoric. This makes strategic sense, as Americans still largely identify as pro-capitalist. However, based on his recent speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, the President appears to have reassessed the political landscape in advance of the 2012 elections. Based on the growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the recent defeat of Republicans in special elections, he has perhaps sensed a surge of left-leaning sentiment; and, as a result, he finally dropped the pretense.
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Saturday, December 10, 2011
Cameron Shoots UK in the Foot Trying To Sabotage Euro Rescue / Politics / UK Politics
By: Andrew_Butter
The problem with UK these days is that they have an obsession with youth, Tony Blair was a kid that never grew up and thought going to war and water-boarding “sounded like fun”; David Cameron is looking much the same.
Grown-ups don’t start trying to negotiate side deals when their neighbors and partners are laying sand-bags to hold-back flood waters. That’s rude and immature.
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Saturday, December 10, 2011
Are Central Banks Buying Printing Presses? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Eric_McWhinnie
Gold and silver remain stuck in a range as Europe continues to keep investors waiting for the next headline. Reuters reports, “Europe divided on Friday in a historic rift over building a closer fiscal union to preserve the euro, with an overwhelming majority of countries led by Germany and France agreeing to forge ahead with a separate treaty, leaving the EU’s third biggest economy Britain isolated.” It is still unknown when more definite action will take place to address the debt crisis. A new treaty could take several months to negotiate, and may even require referendums in some countries.
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Saturday, December 10, 2011
David Cameron Chose Well / Politics / UK Politics
By: Paul_Tustain
David Cameron was today forced in Brussels to choose between the free market and the vanities of overreaching politicians...
Today is a very sad day. We believe that the markets are telling us that there is a horrible abscess in Europe, and that the Euro is the pus. We believe that fuelled by injustice, the infection of nationalism will now tear Europe apart - making outright enemies of Germany and Greece, France and Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
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Friday, December 09, 2011
Germany Wins Eurozone War, UK Veto Puts Britain on the Fast Track to EU Exit / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Nadeem_Walayat
"Britain will never join the Euro".... Germany has effectively won the Eurozone war as one after another EU states bowed to German pressure to toe the ECB / Bundesbank line for greater monetary union and centralised fiscal management under the guise of saving the euro or effectively face monetary death through either ever higher market interest rates such as that suffered by bankrupt Greece's 2 year bonds trading at a yield of 33%, or ejection from the Euro-zone and resulting economic collapse and an hyperinflationary wipeout of all savings.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Climate Change Conspiracy Changes Camps / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
In a recent New York Times article titled "Marching Off The Cliff" (6 December), Naom Chomsky brought together a mix and mingle of claimed facts including results from public opinion polls to advance his own climate change conspiracy theory. He wrote: "In 2009 the energy industries, backed by business lobbies, launched major campaigns that cast doubt on the near-unanimous consensus of scientists on the severity of the threat of human-induced global warming". He added: "The consensus is only 'near-unanimous' because it doesn’t include the many experts who feel that climate-change warnings don’t go far enough, and the marginal group that deny the threat’s validity altogether".
Friday, December 09, 2011
To Be Truly Dominant, America Must Regain Its Values / Politics / UK Politics
By: Barry_Elias
Last week’s column described the dynamics of our lost half century in America.
The decline was principally due to a devastating deterioration of values. For America to regain in pre-eminent status, its values deficit needs to be rebalanced.
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Friday, December 09, 2011
Jon Corzine Dodges the Fraud Question / Politics / Scams
By: Janet_Tavakoli
It's as if Jon Corzine's PR machine is in top spin mode. You'll recall Jon Corzine is the former head of Goldman Sachs and former CEO of MF Global that appeared in front of Congress yesterday to answer questions about an estimated $600 million to $1.2 billion in missing money from the segregated accounts of customers of MF Global.
Yesterday and today, I heard confusion about whether or not MF Global's diverting customer funds was allowable and the possibility that customers will eventually get the money back.
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Friday, December 09, 2011
Pulling Back the Curtain on the Wall Street Money Machine / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Ellen_Brown
On November 27, Bloomberg News reported the results of its successful case to force the Federal Reserve to reveal the lending details of its 2008-09 bank bailout. Bloomberg reported that by March 2009, the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion in below-market loans and guarantees to rescuing the financial system; and that these nearly interest-free loans came without strings attached.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Engineering the Eurozone Collapse / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Videos
The leaders of the EU prepare for a summit this week as the Eurozone continues to spin out of control. But how did the collapse begin, and who will profit from it?
Friday, December 09, 2011
Iran Airs Footage of Downed U.S. Stealth Cylon Spy Drone / Politics / Iran
By: Videos
Iran has released video footage of the most advanced US reconnaissance drone which was downed by the Iranian Army in the eastern part of the Islamic Republic earlier this week.
On Sunday December 4, the Iranian Army's electronic warfare unit downed the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft which was flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225km) from the Afghan border.
Friday, December 09, 2011
The Rotten Heart of Europe / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Fred_Sheehan
To Americans, European problems may seem as remote as they did in 1939. There is a good chance, though, that the crumbling financial structure will not be "contained" or "ring-fenced": the latter being the common description of how Europe had isolated itself from Italy's difficulties. That lasted a week or so. We may soon discover the extent of American exposure to European financial insolvency.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
How the "New Cold War" with China Will Change America's Future / Politics / New Cold War
By: Money_Morning
Few things push the frontiers of the future more than an army's desire to defeat its enemies.
Just look at what happened to America after World War II. Our need to counter Soviet power delivered a tidal wave of innovation.
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Thursday, December 08, 2011
Getting Raided by FBI Thugs, It Can and Is Happening Here / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Less than two months ago I was the guest on a radio program out of Fairbanks Alaska called Patriot's Lament (click here to view the video). Two of the hosts were David Giessel and Joshua Bennett.
David and I had become good friends ever since we met at the recent Casey summit. Being a young anarcho-capitalist, we had him on Anarchast (click here to view). Living in Alaska, they had been very curious about my libertarian hideaway in southern Mexico (AcaCondos) and David had made plans to visit this December.
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Thursday, December 08, 2011
Hugo Salinas-Price: What Every Politician Needs to Know About Silver / Politics / Mexico
By: Ron_Hera
The Hera Research Newsletter (HRN) is proud to present a vitally important interview with Hugo Salinas-Price, Founder, Director and Honorary President of Grupo Elektra, S.A.B. de C.V., which is now run by his son, Ricardo Salinas-Pliego. Grupo Elektra is a part of Grupo Salinas, which owns businesses in the television industry, the telecommunications sector, banking and financial services, and other industries. Grupo Salinas companies include TV Azteca, Azteca América, Grupo Elektra, Banco Azteca, Afore Azteca, Seguros Azteca, Iusacell, Azteca Internet, GS Motors and Italika y la Asociación del Empresario Azteca. Each of the Grupo Salinas companies operates independently, with its own management and board of directors.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
S&P Warns Eurozone, Fix it or Else! / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
By timing its downgrade threat to the same week as a key European Union (EU) summit on the debt crisis, Standard & Poor's is essentially telling Europe's leaders to "Fix it or else."
The ratings agency said late Monday that it had put the credit of 15 Eurozone countries, including AAA-rated Germany, on a 90-day watch. The move means each affected country has 50% chance of a downgrade.
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Wednesday, December 07, 2011
The American Dream In Reverse / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
It all seems like a dream now, doesn't it?
In the 20th century, while America had plenty of flaws - nothing is perfect - it was a beacon of liberty for most of the world. In a century where nazis, communists and fascists ran rampant in destroying life, liberty and property, the USA stood out. No one ever defected from the US to the Soviet Union. Until now.
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Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Durban: Deep Change And Climate Talk / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
One thing is sure: world climate is changing. The second thing is that nobody knows why, but the favoured official reason is global warming due to burning fossil fuels, followed by all and any human activity able to release carbon containing gases, and other greenhouse gases. This activity includes deforestation, burning wood and organic wastes, marsh and peat bog draining, cement making, urbanization, road building, agriculture, industrial development, port construction, and several others.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Psychopathic Economics 101 / Politics / Economic Theory
By: D_Sherman_Okst
Psychopaths flew financial weapons of mass destruction (derivatives) into the twin towers of our economy, the housing market and the stock market. Ten trillion dollars of wealth imploded in a cloud of dust.
Ninety-nine percent of the economic experts – financial planners, economists, economic professors, brokers, and investors – missed the largest bubble in history as well as the systemic risk that the bubble posed.
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