Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Don’t Fear a Trade War With China / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
The House Ways and Means Committee has just approved a bill that would attempt, albeit modestly, to crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit. The Ryan-Murphy currency bill (HR 2378) would allow the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy for the purpose of calculating countervailing duties intended as retaliation. This bill has to be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the Senate before becoming effective, but already the prophets of doom are squealing about the dangers of starting a trade war with China. They are wrong.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Cost of Fed Incompetence / Politics / Central Banks
By: Richard_Daughty
I have grown old yelling at my neighbors and family members to buy gold, silver and oil, to little-to-no avail, and I can see that they are getting bored with my same old million reasons why they should, and how their deliberate inaction only proves their stupidity, which I never tire of pointing out, so they can't say that they "didn't know" that they were stupid.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
NATO Expands Afghan War Into Pakistan / Politics / Pakistan
By: Rick_Rozoff
On October 7 the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization military allies will begin the tenth year of their war in Afghanistan, over 3,000 miles from NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
The following month midterm elections will be held in the U.S. and NATO will hold a two-day summit in Portugal. The American administration is eager to achieve, or appear to have achieved, a foreign policy triumph in an effort to retain Democratic Party control of the Congress and NATO something to show for the longest and largest military mission in its 61 years of existence.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Pakistan and the U.S. Exit From Afghanistan / Politics / Pakistan
By: STRATFOR
Bob Woodward has released another book, this one on the debate over Afghanistan strategy in the Obama administration. As all his books do, the book has riveted Washington. It reveals that intense debate occurred over what course to take, that the president sought alternative strategies and that compromises were reached. But while knowing the details of these things is interesting, what would have been shocking is if they hadn’t taken place.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Billionaires Unite! Against Public Education and Teachers / Politics / US Politics
By: Shamus_Cooke
In less than a week two billionaires have joined the anti-teacher "Billionaires Club": a group of ultra-wealthy individuals hell-bent on destroying public education and teachers’ unions. The newest members of the club are Oprah Winfrey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg.
Monday, September 27, 2010
U.S. Healthcare Reform: A Huge Misdiagnosis / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week marked six months since Congress passed the healthcare reform bill in what has become all-too-typical legislative chicanery. Those in power crafted a mammoth piece of legislation and rammed it through Congress under a dire sense of emergency. Insisting on time enough to read the bill was dismissed as dangerous and crazy in a time of crisis. We were told that if we really wanted to see what was in the bill, we would have to pass it first. I cannot imagine the founding fathers intended for Congress to legislate in this manner. I would think if a Member is not absolutely certain the entire legislation meets Constitutional muster, the default vote should be "no" in accordance with our oath of office.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Iran's Option In Case Of Attack On Its Nuclear Facilities / Politics / Iran
By: Global_Intel_Report
INCIDENT: Sources in the Gulf region report that Iran is preparing for a possible attack by Israel and/or the United States on one or more of its nuclear production units by stockpiling arms and munitions with its proxy militias in Kuwait and Bahrain. This comes as Bahrain arrests 23 opposition leaders accused of terrorism offences and hints that Iran is behind an alleged plot to overthrow the government.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Oliver Stone's New Wall Street Film Money Never Sleeps is Asleep / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
The lead headline in the New York Times is “EXTENSIVE FRAUD APPEARS TO MAR AFGHAN ELECTION.” The line below, “A BLOW TO CREDIBILITY,” as if anyone who follows Afghanistan, a country known for blatant and notorious corruption was at all surprised by this latest “blow.”
Today’s “blow” followed an earlier “blow” a few weeks back with the disclosure of the crash of the Kabul Bank with $300 billion still unaccounted for.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Russia to Spend Trillions on New Arms Race / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
In the next ten years, Russia will spend up to 22.5 trillion rubles on armaments. It was planned that the state program will not exceed 13 trillion rubles. However, the Defense Ministry considered that these funds are insufficient. The new program is designed to bring the share of new technology, adopted in the RF, to 70-80%. Now the number is approximately 10%.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
SEC Denies China's Dagong of Market Entry After U.S. Debt Downgrade / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Dian_L_Chu
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday denied the application by China's largest credit rating firm--Dagone Global Credit Rating Co.--to become a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) in the U.S.
The SEC cited concern regarding cross boarder supervision since “It does not appear possible at this time for Dagong to comply with the record keeping, production, and examination requirements of the federal securities laws."
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Obama and Congressional Democrats Trying to Blackmail China / Politics / US Politics
By: Professor_Emeritus
President Obama has just issued a blackmail to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China: "You immediately revalue the yuan or else..." According to an article of David E. Senger in The New York Times dated September 23, 2010, the two leaders met at the United Nations in New York and spent most of their two-hour session in a spare conference room, usually used by members of the Security Council, to discuss the currency issue. The session ended by Obama's issuing an ultimatum that is bound to be followed by trade war. Surely, this is a most unseemly use to which the sacred grounds of the Security Council, dedicated as it is to the maintenance of peace and prevention of war, have ever been put.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Richest People in America, The Forbes 400 List 2010 / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Tom Eley writes: While 2010 has seen the vast majority of the US population suffer the consequences of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—mass joblessness, wage cutting, plummeting home prices, record foreclosures, and spending cuts by near-bankrupt states and cities—for the handful of plutocrats who control the nation’s wealth it has been a very good year indeed.
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Red Ed Miliband New Leader of the Labour Party / Politics / UK Politics
By: Pravda
Ed Miliband, 41, is the new leader of Britain's Labour Party, beating his brother, former Foreign Secretary David, in the final round of voting, having wooed the Left, promising to unite Labour after years of covert division between Blairites and Brownists, promising tax rises over public spending cuts and earning the label "Ed Red".
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
India's Commonwealth Games Fiasco, Shaky Foundations of a Cheap Labour Economy / Politics / India
By: Finian_Cunningham
As the Commonwealth Games open in Delhi, India, the controversy over sub-standard accommodation and facilities for the participating nations continues to rage.
Several weeks ago, visiting country delegates voiced concern over the shambolic state of the newly built facilities. Now, as the games open, the event promises to turn into an embarrassing fiasco for the Indian government, with glaring publicity on what is still being widely reported as filthy and shoddy conditions. Media reports say that cleaners and labourers are “working through the night” in order to salvage conditions at the so-called Games Village, where more than 7,000 athletes from over 70 countries are scheduled to stay for the 12-day sporting tournament.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Credit Meltdown and Wall Street's Shadow Banking System / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Ellen_Brown
While local banks are held in check by the new banking czars in Basel, Wall Street’s “shadow banking system” has hardly been curbed by regulators at all; and it is here that the 2008 credit crisis was actually precipitated.
The banking system’s credit machine is systemically flawed and needs a radical overhaul.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
It Is Official, The U.S. Is a Police State / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
On September 24, Jason Ditz reported on Antiwar.com that “the FBI is confirming that this morning they began a number of raids against the homes of antiwar activists in Illinois, Minneapolis, Michigan, and North Carolina, claiming that they are ‘seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism.’”Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Ron Paul's Bill to Audit the Fed, A Red-Alert Threat to the Regime / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
"Show me the money!" Cuba Gooding made this phrase famous in the 1996 movie, Jerry McGuire. The phrase soon got into the language.
"Follow the money!" That came from the movie, All the President's Men. No one knows who said it. "Deep Throat" didn't. The screenwriter says that he does not know where he got it. It has entered the language.
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Friday, September 24, 2010
America Aping Britain’s Decline Through Free Trade / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
One of the most inexcusable things about America’s ongoing economic decline by means of free trade is how clear the historical portents are. For example, we are today treading the same path trodden by a nation that Americans know reasonably well: Great Britain. It is easy to forget that until about 1850 Britain, not the U.S., was the world’s leading economic power. But then, of course, they blew it. There were, of course, many causes of this decline, but free trade was undeniably a major one. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The White House Bubble as Summers Backs his Bags and Says Good Bye to the Recession / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
As the November election approaches, the White House seems to be ending its Rip Van Winkle-like slumber and has begun crawling out of the bubble of its own making. Many fear it’s a bit late.
The shakeup of President Obama’s economic team is long overdue. As Larry Summers slithers back to Harvard to save his tenure and write his book, he is likely to be replaced by exactly the wrong kind of person—a business executive, appointed to try to appease the Repugs and the Right. (Summers was paid $586,996-a-year at Hahvard and picks up all kinds of consulting deals on the side from Wall Street.)
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Thursday, September 23, 2010
30 Trillion for Quantitative Easing (QE) 2? It's Time to Get Radical! / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Chris_Kitze
Yes, it's time to get radical on the economy and no, I'm not talking about going full Karl Marx -- the politicians in Washington appear well down THAT road.. The next set of bailouts could run $30 trillion (as I'll explain in a bit) and that's probably not the end of it because all the future government entitlements are well over $100 trillion. This is not only unaffordable, any attempt to make good on even a small portion of this is a fool's errand. In addition to attempting an impossible task that is doomed to fail, we're bailing out the wrong people! Hopefully, this article will get you thinking -- feel free to leave a comment and help our discussion.