Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Here’s All You Need to Know About US Strategy In Asia-Pacific / Politics / US Military
By: John_Mauldin
BY XANDER SNYDER AND CHEYENNE LIGON : On a recent trip to the Pacific, US Defense Secretary James Mattis reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to guard Japan against foreign threats. Both the US and Japan have interests in the South China Sea. Geopolitical expert George Friedman has written extensively about this shared interest in This Week in Geopolitics (subscribe here for free).
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Sound Money Is Rising at the State Level / Politics / US Politics
By: MoneyMetals
Inflation is the most pernicious of taxes levied by our government. Officials systematically devalue the Federal Reserve Note "dollar," then levy capital gains taxes on assets when their dollar price rises.
The "gains" are largely illusory. Rising asset prices over time reflect the fact that the dollar buys less of everything. But the tax obligations triggered by this inflation are very real.
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Monday, March 06, 2017
This Map Shows How Much Four US States Depend On Mexico / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
Eighty-five percent of goods traded between the US and Mexico are transported by truck or railway, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Two-way trade across the border totals $1.4 billion per day and takes place at 25 major ports of land entry between the US and Mexico.
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Monday, March 06, 2017
Trump To Continue Bankrupting The US Through Foreign Wars / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Remember pre-election, how the theme was that a Killary presidency meant certain war? And, how a Trump presidency would mean friendship with Russia and bringing many of the troops home?
Well, so much for that! Trump is just as oriented toward war as Hillary. The difference is one of geography. Trump’s wars are located particularly in the Middle East. He is already looking even worse than Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack O'Bomber or George “Victory in Iraq” Bush.
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Monday, March 06, 2017
Arizona Challenges the Fed's Money Monopoly / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
History shows that, if individuals have the freedom to choose what to use as money, they will likely opt for gold or silver.
Of course, modern politicians and their Keynesian enablers despise the gold or silver standard. This is because linking a currency to a precious metal limits the ability of central banks to finance the growth of the welfare-warfare state via the inflation tax. This forces politicians to finance big government much more with direct means of taxation.
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Saturday, March 04, 2017
The Deep State’s Gold Scam And The Demonization Of Russia / Politics / Deep State
By: Stewart_Dougherty
As the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, and particularly its war component are floated, it has become clear that without continued, massive military spending, paid for with mass-produced electrons masquerading as money, U. S. GDP would collapse, taking the country’s financial and monetary systems with it. The nation, whose real economy has been hollowed out, for profit, by the Deep State plunderers, has become significantly reliant upon deliberately contrived wars and military tensions for its economic survival.
With systemic monetary risk now at an unprecedented level, intensified by a new, partisan, “politics of defeat,” scorched earth agenda being implemented by those displeased with the results of the 2016 election, there has never been a more dangerous time for people to denominate their wealth in unbacked, baseless, debt-drugged dollars.
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Friday, March 03, 2017
Rapid Decline in Demand for Wage Slaves - Go Long Chain Makers / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
This is turning into a very rewarding series, it opens up vistas I could never have dreamed of. First, in “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, I posited that peak wealth for the west, and America in particular, was sometime in the early ’70s or late ’60s of the last century.
That led to longtime Automatic Earth reader Ken Latta, who’s old enough to have been alive to see it all, writing, in “When Was America’s Peak Wealth?”, that in his view peak wealth for America was earlier, more like late ’50s to early ’60s, a carefree period for which Detroit provided the design, and the Beach Boys the soundtrack.
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Friday, March 03, 2017
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Trump... / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
...Follow the money, Sens. Collins and McCain.
“We are well past the time for any political niceties or benefits of the doubt. We need an independent and thorough investigation of Russia’s meddling in our democracy and its ties to the President and his allies,” wrote veteran CBS newsman Dan Rather on March 2. “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
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Thursday, March 02, 2017
This is the Internet Revolution / Politics / Internet
By: Rodney_Johnson
In early December, I bought a 15-year-old Jeep Cherokee for my kids to drive while they were home from college. It sounds a bit outrageous when I put that in print, but my reasoning seemed sound at the time.With all of them flying home, we’d have extra drivers around for five weeks, and only my car and my wife’s car available. I could have rented one instead of buying one, but the cost was substantial and I would still be the only driver allowed. As long as the old beater held up mechanically, even with registration and sales tax, it would be a better deal to simply buy an old one and then sell it.
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Thursday, March 02, 2017
Trump Before Congress / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
His Tuesday address was long on making America safe for Wall Street, war profiteers and other corporate predators, short on what’s most needed to serve all Americans equitably and promote world peace.
He focused on increased military spending at a time major cuts are needed, combating terrorism without explaining ISIS and likeminded groups are US creations, used as imperial foot soldiers.
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Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Trump Ramps Up US Military Debt Spending In Preparations for China War / Politics / US Military
By: Nadeem_Walayat
President Trump's announcement to request Congress to increase annual US 'defense' spending by $54 billion (10%) to over $650 billion, some ten times that of the likes of Russia or Britain and approximately 40% of total global military spending. Which underscores the reality that there is nothing defensive about the scale of US military spending as the US is a global military empire that far out spends any other nation, where whilst the establishment media makes much of the Russian military threat in reality is a mere smoke and mirrors propaganda exercise as my 'Trump Reset' series of articles illustrates :
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Changes NATO Must Make To Remain A True Alliance / Politics / NATO
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : US Secretary of Defense James Mattis met with defense ministers from other NATO member countries in Brussels on Feb. 15. He had a message to deliver from the Trump White House.
The meeting was closed, but some of Mattis’s comments were released to the media: “America will meet its responsibilities, but if your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to this alliance, each of your capitals needs to show its support for our common defense.” He added, “America cannot care more for your children’s security than you do.”
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017
US Border Adjustment Tax Could Lead to Another Great Depression / Politics / Great Depression II
By: John_Mauldin
The border adjustment tax is disruptive by its very nature. (I’m writing a series of articles about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this tax reform in Thoughts from the Frontline. Read Part 1 here).
In their defense, Paul Ryan and House Ways & Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady know everything I just said and probably agree with much of it. They believe the BAT’s negative effects will disappear quickly due to currency flows.
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Monday, February 27, 2017
Hillary Planning a 2020 White House Run? / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
She tried and failed twice. Does she have another run in mind?
Reports suggest she may launch a TV talk show, featuring her as host, perhaps intending it to be platform for a third presidential campaign.
She considers herself party leader in exile, likely seeks revenge for losing to Trump. A TV show would be a way to bash him and serve as a self-promotion vehicle.
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Monday, February 27, 2017
Peak American Wealth – Revisited / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Let’s see. On February 18, I wrote an essay called “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, in which I said “..the Automatic Earth has said for many years that the peak of our wealth was sometime in the 1970’s or even late 1960’s”.
That provoked a wonderfully written reaction from long-time Automatic Earth reader Ken Latta, which I published on February 23 as “When Was America’s Peak Wealth?”. Ken put peak wealth sometime in the late ’50s to early 60’s. As I said then, I really liked his definition of ‘wealth’ as being “best measured by the capacity to be utterly wasteful”. The article spawned a series of nice comments, for some reason largely by people in his age bracket (Ken’s 73).
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Monday, February 27, 2017
The Border Adjustment Tax Will Make The Jobs Problem Worse / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
Under the border adjustment tax (BAT) plan, imports will be penalized and exports rewarded… which theoretically, in a perfect world without pushback, would leave our economy nicely balanced and undisrupted.
But I doubt it will happen that way, because the importers and exporters are not the same businesses. I’ve written extensively about this topic in my three part series, "Tax Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Really Ugly" in Thoughts from the Frontline. (subscribe here for free.)
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
Iran Holds Large Scale Naval Exercises / Politics / Iran
By: Stephen_Lendman
Iran is threatened by Israel and America’s regional military presence. In areas around the Persian Gulf, it has bases in every country except Iran - plus numerous others in North Africa and Central Asia.
Its actions destabilized much of the Middle East. It supports the region’s worst despots.
The late Chalmers Johnson said “the United States has been inexorably acquiring permanent military enclaves whose sole purpose appears to be the domination of one of the most strategically important areas of the world.”
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
Trump Relinquishes Control of Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
The war party is back in power and the odds of normal relations with Russia have dropped to zero.
The appointment of Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster to the position of national security adviser indicates that Trump has done an about-face on his most critical foreign policy issue, normalizing relations with Russia. General Michael Flynn– who recently stepped down from the post following allegations of lying to Vice President Mike Pence –was the main proponent of easing tensions with Moscow which is a position that had been enthusiastically embraced by President Donald Trump. But McMaster does not support normalizing relations with Russia, in fact, McMaster sees Russia as a “hostile revisionist power” that “annex(es) territory, intimidates our allies, develops nuclear weapons, and uses proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries.” So, what’s going on? Why has Trump put a Moscow-hating hawk like McMaster in a position where he’ll be able to intensify the pressure on Russia, increase the provocations and, very likely, trigger a conflagration between the two nuclear-armed superpowers?
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Friday, February 24, 2017
When Was America’s Peak Wealth? / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
A few days ago, I wrote an essay entitled “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, in which I posited, among many other things, that “..the Automatic Earth has said for many years that the peak of our wealth was sometime in the 1970’s or even late 1960’s” along with the question “..was America at its richest right before or right after Nixon took the country off the gold standard in 1971?”
That same day, I received an email from (very) long time Automatic Earth reader and afficionado Ken Latta, who implied he thought the peak of American wealth was even earlier. That turned into a nice conversation. I really like the way his head works to frame his words. And Ken knows what he’s talking about by grace of the fact that he was a witness to it all.
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Friday, February 24, 2017
California, Nestle and Decentralization - CalExit / Politics / US Politics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
Nestle USA has announced that it will move its headquarters from Glendale, California, to Rosslyn, Virginia, taking with it about 1200 jobs. The once Golden State has lost some 1600 businesses since 2008 and a net outflow of a million of mostly middle-class people from the state from 2004 to 2013 due to its onerous tax rates, the oppressive regulatory burden, and the genuine kookiness which pervades among its ruling elites.* A clueless Glendale official is apparently unconcerned about the financial repercussions of Nestle’s departure saying that it was “no big deal” and saw it as an “opportunity,” whatever that means!
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