Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
The Real Reason Why Obama Wants to Lift Sanctions on Iran / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Mike_Whitney
“It is essential to recognize that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapons program, nor does it possess a nuclear weapon. On February 26, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Ayatollah Khomenei, the supreme leader of Iran, ended his country’s nuclear weapons program in 2003 and “as far as we know, he’s not made the decision to go for a nuclear weapon.” This repeats the “high-confidence” judgement of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) that was first made in November 2007.”
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Immigration Crisis Drives a Deep Wedge Between E.U. States / Politics / Immigration
By: STRATFOR
The European Union is once again struggling to come up with a coherent asylum strategy for its 28 members. In recent years, the rising number of asylum seekers entering the European Union through countries such as Italy and Greece has generated friction among member states, fueled criticism of the Schengen Agreement and contributed to the growing popularity of nationalist parties.
However, the European Union will not reform its asylum policies in any significant way. Member states will provide more financial assistance to Mediterranean countries, but they will refuse to accept quotas of immigrants over the coming months and years. Anti-immigration sentiments will persist across the Continent, putting substantial pressure on one of the European Union's founding principles: the free movement of people.
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Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Cash Payments - Prove You’re Not a Terrorist / Politics / Credit Crisis 2015
By: Casey_Research
Jeff Thomas writes: Recently, France decided to crack down on those people who make cash payments and withdrawals and who hold small bank accounts. The reason given was, not surprisingly, to “fight terrorism,” the handy catchall justification for any new restriction governments wish to impose on their citizens. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin stated at the time, “[T]errorism feeds on fraud, money laundering, and petty trafficking.”
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
The Banksters War on Cash / Politics / Banksters
By: BATR
Once upon a time, the famous criminal Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, and his response was simple, eloquent, and humorous: “Because that’s where the money is.” Well, soon that adage may be proven untrue. What exactly is the meaning of legal tender? In order to place money in its proper perspective, examine what the U.S. Treasury says.
“The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Prelude to a Japanese Revival / Politics / Japan Economy
By: STRATFOR
John Minnich writes: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has arrived in Washington, the third stop on his maiden voyage to the United States since assuming office in 2012. Over the next two days, he will hold a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama on U.S.-Japanese defense and trade cooperation, attend a state dinner in his honor and address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. In his speech before Congress, Abe will reaffirm Japan's commitment to promoting peace and security in East Asia and extol the virtues of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country free trade agreement that spans the Pacific Ocean Basin and pointedly excludes China.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
CIA Prefab State Terror for Human Bondage / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: BATR
The shadow cabal that exerts raw power over the public controls and dictates the mindset that passes as the popular culture. Keeping people in fear, real or manufactured is essential to keep the police state omnipresent. Both foreign and domestic operations are conducted to divide and rule, not only other nations, but the indigenous populations that are targets of the next clandestine mission. Since the end of WWII, the intelligence community has lead the way to overturn our constitutional republic and put into place a controlled social environment that is docile and obedient to the masters of the Amerika Empire.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
What Makes Brussels More Equal Than Others / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad ran a little article recently that we’re surprised no other news organization picked up. It concerned a proposal in the European Parliament in which the parliamentarians got to vote on raising their own paycheck (always a good idea). The best thing about the story is that not everyone voted in favor.
Most did though. It much amused me to see that apparently it was Angela Merkel’s party, the German Christian Democrats, which was behind the proposal. Initially, they had even wanted double what they actually got. Here’s some numbers and details – and please forgive me for not being a math wizard -.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Iceland Monetary Reform Half-Right / Politics / Credit Crisis 2015
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: The prime minister of Iceland recently commissioned a report by Frosti Sigurjonsson to recommend a better money and banking system for Iceland. The recently released report recaps Iceland's sorry history of money and banking disasters and lays the majority of the blame for the 2008 collapse on the institution of fractional reserve banking, which caused an out-of-control increase in the money supply. Sigurjonsson recommends the abolition of fractional reserve banking, a separation of deposit and loan banking, and an end to deposit insurance.
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Monday, April 27, 2015
The Real War on The Middle Class / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
One of the great ironies of American politics is that most politicians who talk about helping the middle class support policies that, by expanding the welfare-warfare state, are harmful to middle-class Americans. Eliminating the welfare-warfare state would benefit middle-class Americans by freeing them from exorbitant federal taxes, including the Federal Reserve's inflation tax.
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Monday, April 27, 2015
Society's Leaders Have Been Digging a Bottomless Economic Pit / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2015
By: Brian_Bloom
A friend sent me the link below, which seems extraordinarily relevant in context of the fact that I once calculated the value of the Chinese ghost cities at around $6.5 trillion. The article discusses the downward pressures on China’s economy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-24/china-could-face-sharp-rise-capital-outflows-if-stocks-economy-lose-momentum
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Sunday, April 26, 2015
Migrant Crisis - Europe Has Completely Lost It / Politics / Immigration
By: Raul_I_Meijer
After the high-level EU summit on the migrant issue, hastily convened after close to a thousand people drowned last weekend off the Lybian coast, Dutch PM Mark Rutte was quoted by ‘his’ domestic press as saying ‘Our first priority is saving human lives’. That sounds commendable, and it also sounds just like what everybody knows everybody else wants to hear. One can be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that it’s somewhat unfortunate that the one person tasked by Brussels with executing the noble ‘saving lives’ strategy, doesn’t seem to entirely agree with Rutte:
Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
A republican form of government is one in which power resides in elected officials representing the citizens, and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people . . . .”
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Friday, April 24, 2015
Europe Migrant Crisis - For a Few Dollars More / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Tom_Naysburn
The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean is symptomatic of the wider malaise afflicting Europe, the new Wild West. As Sergio Leone put it " where life has no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That's why the bounty hunters appeared". Today, after the Euribor finally went negative, it seems quite plausible and legitimate to update the phase to "where Euros have little less value, death, sometimes, has its price, that's why the people traffickers appeared". When banks and governments are being paid to borrow Euros you have to ask the question: has this inverted perversion of classical economic theory hastened the beginning of the end for the Euro experiment?
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Poverty, Child Rearing, and Government Incentives / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Adam Vass Gal writes: When examining cyclical poverty, it is important to study the typical tendencies of people that have generational success. Some like to equate financial success to a level of work ethic, and assume the harder you work, the more you will make. This book’s study takes a different approach.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Existential Danger To The Euro Is Elections / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Dan_Amerman
There is a respectable chance that the euro will collapse sometime in the next several years, with implications for employment, economic growth and investment markets on a global basis. And the biggest threat is not directly money, debt, a potentially rapidly approaching Greek default, or a failure of central banking policies – but is instead something much simpler.
The risk is elections. That is, the near term existential threat to the euro – and indeed the global financial system – is when voters don't do what the status quo politicians, the media and bankers want them to do.
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Is China The Next United States? / Politics / China Economy
By: STRATFOR
By Mark Fleming-Williams: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote on April 5 that this month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system. His comments refer to the circumstances surrounding China's launch of a new venture, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Wary of China's growing ambitions and influence, the United States had advised its allies not to join the institution, but many signed up anyway. The debacle was undoubtedly embarrassing for Washington, but even so, Summers' prophecy is a bit premature at this stage.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Ukraine War - When Did We All Become Murderers? / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Appalled doesn’t cover it. Disgusted won’t do either. Angry doesn’t come close. Maybe I have yet to learn of a word that would express my feelings on the following topic. There’s a disease, an epidemic, that spreads through out the western world. We are all turning into accomplices to murder. And I still believe we are better than that. Just perhaps not all of us.
The US, and the rest of the west, have made plenty enemies already without needing to create their own out of thin air – as if there were ever a need to create enemies. But that’s still what we’ve been doing in many places in the world, including Ukraine. And there’s an entire multi-billion machine working just to make us think what someone else wants us to think about these ‘enemies’.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Libya Crisis - EU Leaders Are Indicted for Nazi-Style Crimes against Humanity / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_Butter
International Law says if you invade a country you are responsible for the well being of the civilians of that country. Hitler knew that, and with a few exceptions he followed the Law. As for the exceptions (murdering a several million Jews), his Lieutenants were put on trial in Nuremburg and punished.
The mandate that the Western Powers got rubber-stamped at the U.N. four-years-ago, when they sought and got permission to bomb Libya back to Mission Accomplished, clearly said that the objective was only to “protect civilians”.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Debt Crisis - When All News Is Bad News / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2015
By: John_Rubino
One of the defining traits of financial bubbles is the willingness of traders and investors to interpret pretty much everything as a buy signal. Rising corporate earnings mean growth, while falling profits mean easier money on the way. War means more revenues for defense contractors and easy money for everyone else. Blizzards means consumer spending will rebound in the Spring. Inflation means higher asset prices for speculators while deflation means, once again, easier money for everyone. When people are this optimistic they find the silver lining in every black cloud and happily to buy the dips with borrowed money.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
They Said Go to College - Learning to become Debt Slaves / Politics / Student Finances
By: James_Quinn
When I graduated from college in 1986 it was easy to get a job. The economy was booming and 82% of college graduates had a job. The other 18% were probably raising kids because their college educated spouse made enough to raise a family. The mantra for my entire life has been – go to college and you’ll get a good paying job. It seems something went wrong on the road to riches. The percentage of college graduates with jobs has been falling for the last 30 years and has been plummeting since 2008. It is now at an all-time low of 74.3%. Shouldn’t these people have obtained jobs since the government tells us the unemployment rate has dramatically dropped from 10% to 5.5% since 2009?