Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
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.”
Read full article... Read full article...
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.
Read full article... Read full article...
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.
Read full article... Read full article...
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).
Read full article... Read full article...
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.)
Read full article... Read full article...
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.”
Read full article... Read full article...
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?
Read full article... Read full article...
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.
Read full article... Read full article...
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!
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Why EU BrExit Single Market Access Hard line is European Union Committing Suicide / Politics / BrExit
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Some 8 months on from the British people voting against the interests of the establishment elite, most notable of which was for the emergence of an undemocratic european super state that further concentrated power into their own hands to the detriment of ordinary people. Britain is counting down to the triggering of Article 50, the formal request to LEAVE the European Union within a technical 2 year time limit for completion of but in practice may extend to several more years beyond. However, the EU elite even before the June 23rd 2016 vote, have been persistently warning the British people that they will be punished for voting for freedom from the EU super state, where the unsaid reason being so as to prevent a total collapse of the European Union as other states take Britians cue to rush for exit freedom.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Why the US Democratic Party Is Dead / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
One more time.
My fear is that well-meaning people will focus on 'getting rid of Trump,' without considering what sort of leadership will replace him.
Hillary Part Deux? Or some other corporatist stooge from the GOP who runs a smoother, more polished con on the working class?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Trump Chooses Hawkish National Security Advisor / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
On Monday, Trump named hawkish Army Lt. General HR McMaster to replace Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor (NSA).
Political pressure lead to his unfortunate sacking for harmlessly discussing sanctions with Russia’s US ambassador.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Trump Plans Mass Deportations / Politics / Immigration
By: Stephen_Lendman
Obama was notoriously called America’s “deporter-in-chief” for conducting sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids nationwide - expelling record numbers, more than all his predecessors combined.
He largely targeted undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans, averaging over 1,000 deportations daily - people in the United States because destructive NAFTA and DR-CAFTA trade deals destroyed their jobs at home, or sought asylum from domestic violence and chaos.
Trump appears bent on exceeding Obama’s viciousness. Thousands of new ICE and border patrol agents are being hired. Stepped up sweeping raids will follow, more than already.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
The Nexus Between Politics and Economics / Politics / US Economy
By: Michael_Pento
President trump made the following crucial statement on February 9th: "We're going to be announcing something I would say over the next 2 or 3 weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax." To be sure, the nucleus of the President’s economic plan is the simplification of the tax code. To get this accomplished means everything for the stock market. Without a reduction in tax rates the air compressor that has been blowing up equity prices to near record and unsustainable valuations will explode.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
NSA and CIA is the Enemy of the People / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: BATR
Astute students of history understand that government agencies often further their own interests and not the administration they are designated to serve. Seldom is the genuine national security advanced when bureaucrats pledge their loyalty to their respective fiefdoms of projecting influence and power. Absent in this supremacy struggle equation is the abstract notion that state legitimacy is founded upon the will and consent of the people. Such a quaint concept does not reflect a chapter in the training manual that breeds the spooks who operate as above the law and unaccountable super spies.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Is Trump's ISIS Plan Another US Military Invasion? / Politics / War on Terror
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Just over a week into the Trump Administration, the President issued an Executive Order giving Defense Secretary James Mattis 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. According to the Order, the plan should make recommendations on military actions, diplomatic actions, partners, strategies, and how to pay for the operation.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 20, 2017
Trump’s Tax System Could Spark The Wave Of Self-Employment / Politics / Taxes
By: John_Mauldin
Government is necessary.
That means we have to pay for the things government does. Hence, we have taxes.
The goal of tax policy should be simple: raise the required revenue to pay for whatever government actually—minimally—needs to do. And government should do those things as fairly and neutrally as possible.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 20, 2017
Here’s How to Stay Ahead of Machines and AI / Politics / AI
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : The Great American Jobs Apocalypse continues to tear our social fabric, and no one really knows what to do about it. If you’re not unemployed or underemployed now, then you know someone who is… and you could always be next.
I keep coming back to this theme in Connecting the Dots (subscribe here for free). That’s because it’s a monumental, paradigm-changing problem, and it affects all of us.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 20, 2017
Warning Signs Of Instability In Russia / Politics / Russia
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : Geopolitical Futures forecasted that 2017 will be “an inflection point in the long-term destabilization of Russia.” After just six weeks, there are clear signs that this forecast is right on track. You can read more about GPF's outlook for Russia in This Week in Geopolitics (subscribe here for free).
Russia has four areas of instability: the distribution and prevalence of wage arrears, pressure on its banking system, low-level social and economic unrest, and government purges.
Read full article... Read full article...