Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Saving Equals Squandering of Capital / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Chip_Hanlon
Do you put money away in the bank periodically? You're just wasting it, you know.
At least, that's the assertion of this mindless rant: Millionaire Slumdogs: the uber-rich need to put money back into the economy.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Market-Based "Bad" Bank Solution / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
Robert D. (Bob) Laurent was the smartest person I have ever encountered. I had the privilege of learning from and working with him at the Chicago Fed. Bob had a knack for coming up with market-based solutions for all kinds of political-economic challenges. One example that comes to mind is at what value to assess residential real estate for tax purposes. Bob's recommendation was to let the owner of the real estate place the value on his property with the proviso that the taxing authority could purchase the property at the owner-decided value. This would deter owners from placing too low a value on their properties. Because rational property owners would have no desire to pay excessive taxes, they would not place too high a value on their properties. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Financial Crisis Bad Bank "Deals of the Week" / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are reading about "Deals of the Week" in Five Things You Need to Know: Banana Republic . Let's take a peek. 1. Change Comes Hard
This morning I was rudely greeted by two bizarre news headlines; bizarre because they were written about roughly the same thing, yet presented two diametrically opposed thoughts.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Global Climate Change, Weather Warfare, Fossil Fuel Depletion And Hydrogen Energy / Politics / Climate Change
By: Submissions
Research by Manfred Zysk, M.E.,
1. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
FOOD CRISIS IS GLOBAL WARMING'S BIGGEST THREAT
Seattle Times Jan. 9, 2009,by University of Washington & Stanford Scientists.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Why The Aggregator Bank Will Fail / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Submissions
The beauty of capitalism is that the system lets the weak perish and the strong thrive. This is the main reason why the system has worked so well since its inception. Wall Street is a cutthroat place - one of the few places in the civilized world where human beings allow pure unadulterated Darwinism to work. But how can a capitalist system function properly if we are propping up insolvent banks and rewarding those who made the wrong decisions? Many people like to associate nationalization with socialism, but I see it differently. Nationalizing banks is just controlled Darwinism. It's a way of exterminating the dead banks in the least harmful way. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
U.S. $2 Trillion Bank Nationalization Proposal from Geithner / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Mike_Shedlock
Barney Frank once again is leading the way in a mad rush to do something, even though his track record in such cases is a perfect zero. Please consider Lawmakers Weigh Bad-Bank Plan
Top U.S. House and Senate Democrats are taking a wait-and-see approach to the Obama administration's potential plan to create a "bad bank" to buy up toxic assets, though there remains a sense of urgency for policy makers to put something in place fast.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Branch of the Bavarian Illuminati, “ Bones” in the Money Pit / Politics / New World Order
By: Robert_Singer
“ Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”—JFK.
Our consumer society didn't just happen, it was planned. Not in 1910, or 1954, but in the year 1832, the year William Huntington Russell and fellow classmate Alphonso Taft at Yale University founded the Skull and Bones society, a branch of the Bavarian Illuminati. According to most of the available biographical data on its early members, the money required to sustain the secret order's campus affairs and its broader role in placing its members into key positions of influence upon their graduation from Yale was derived from the opium trade in the Far East.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Economic Stimulus for Who? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Obama's Strategic Divergence: The Wars Against the Taliban and Al Qaeda / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: STRATFOR
Washington's attention is now zeroing in on Afghanistan. There is talk of doubling U.S. forces there, and preparations are being made for another supply line into Afghanistan — this one running through the former Soviet Union — as an alternative or a supplement to the current Pakistani route. To free up more resources for Afghanistan , the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq probably will be accelerated. And there is discussion about whether the Karzai government serves the purposes of the war in Afghanistan. In short, U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign promise to focus on Afghanistan seems to be taking shape.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Jim Dandy to the Rescue of the U.S. Economy / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Steve_Selengut
More than fifty years ago, LaVern Baker & The Gliders, brought Jim Dandy into the fray to lasso runaway horses, dry the tears in little girls' eyes, and to save special mermaids from the hooks of villainous fishermen. (Black Oak Arkansas' rendition on You Tube will help you understand what your parents and grandparents survived.) Go, Jim Dandy! Go, Jim Dandy!Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Financial Crisis Hits Obama Presidency as Republicans Plan to Oppose $825 Billion Stimulus / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon III writes: President Barack Obama's $825 billion stimulus plan heads to the floor of the House of Representatives this week, with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, saying many in his party will vote against the package unless significant changes are made.
“Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don't think it's going to work,” Rep. Boehner said yesterday (Sunday) on NBC-TV 's “Meet the Press.” “And so if it's the plan that I see today, put me down in the ‘No' column.”
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Why Politicians are Suckers for Protectionism / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MoneyWeek
Well, we managed to get through the weekend without any more banks being nationalised, or brave new stimulus packages from the Government being announced.
Perhaps the reaction to last week's put them off. Share prices in the banking sector were demolished, while sterling did a nose-dive from an already weak position.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama Announces "New Rules" To Address Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Mike_Shedlock
As part of his rescue plan, Obama Signals Tough Restrictions on Banks in Rescue Package .
President Barack Obama signaled that he would toughen restrictions on and oversight of banks as part of a fresh plan to aid the battered industry.Obama blasted the banks yesterday over reports that they've spent money renovating offices after receiving billions of dollars from the government and vowed they would be held accountable for any aid they receive in the future.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dem Bones is Connected To De Debt Bone / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Robert_Singer
It is an understatement to say we are experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis along with our world-wide environmental crisis. Neither crisis needs an Austrian economist to explain it. We live in a consumer society and consumers “use things up.” In recent history, this useless, toxic “stuff” comes from China, and this sad state of affairs is so simple to understand that even a child can follow. Just watch the, “Story of Stuff,” a web-based documentary about the dark underside of consumption.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Obama Blueprint for Solving the U.S. Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Money_Morning
By Jason Simpkins
And William Patalon III write: The first 100 days of President Barack Obama's administration officially begin today (Wednesday). But the reality is that President Obama already has a solid head start, as he and his advisor have been working for months to establish the groundwork for one of the most ambitious - and most important - economic-stimulus plans in U.S. history. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Goodbye President Bush, History will Remember You For.. / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
What will be George Bush's greatest legacy in decades to come ?
Sept 11th - "There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail." Oct 01
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
New President, New Opportunity / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Paul_J_Nolte
Every four years or in recent times eight years, the country gets a new President to lead the country into the future. With so much hope and expectations placed upon Mr. Obama, the risks of not making those expectations are large. And while the country may be filled with hope and pride upon the election of the first Africa-American President – back at Wall Street, it is more of the same old “stuff”. Both Citigroup and Bank of America went to the government well to take another drink of TARP money to cover over more of the past sins of lending.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Big Government, not Big Media, Threatens Free Speech / Politics / UK Politics
By: Ayn_Rand
Contrary to widespread cries that media consolidation threatens free speech, the real threat comes from laws regulating media ownership.
Self-appointed consumer watchdogs--including Obama’s recent pick for FCC chair, Julius Genachowski--have long complained about media consolidation. So it was no surprise that when the FCC recently loosened restrictions barring companies from owning a newspaper and TV station in the same city, these critics went apoplectic and are now urging the House to follow the Senate in blocking the measure.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
President Obama Faces Crisis in Afghanistan and Russia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in on Tuesday as president of the United States. Candidate Obama said much about what he would do as president ; now we will see what President Obama actually does. The most important issue Obama will face will be the economy , something he did not anticipate through most of his campaign. The first hundred days of his presidency thus will revolve around getting a stimulus package passed. But Obama also is now in the great game of global competition — and in that game, presidents rarely get to set the agenda . Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 19, 2009
What's Missing from Obama's Economic Recovery Plan / Politics / Economic Stimulus
By: Mike_Whitney
Barack Obama and Co. are planning to launch their own version of economic "shock and awe" in the opening weeks of the new administration. Aside from the $825 billion stimulus package, which will be used to create 3 million new jobs and make up for flagging consumer demand; Obama is planning a financial rescue operation for banks that are buried under hundreds of billions of dollars of troubled assets. Spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economics chief Lawrence Summers, the new program will create a government-backed "aggregator" bank that will purchase mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and other problem assets for which there is currently no active market. The proposed "bad bank" will do what the TARP program was supposed to do; wipe clean the banks balance sheets so they resume lending to consumers and businesses. Until the credit mechanism is fixed, the economy will continue slip deeper and deeper into recession. Read full article... Read full article...