Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
EU Threatens Russia, Greece Pivots to Russia as War in Ukraine Intensifies / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: GoldCore
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss imposing further sanctions on Russia following an upsurge in fighting in east Ukraine.
A new poll shows 80 percent of Russians would give up Western food for a stronger economy. Reuters
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Thursday, January 29, 2015
Exploring the Clash Within Civilizations - Mind the Gap / Politics / Religion
By: STRATFOR
Jay Ogilvy writes: The Charlie Hebdo attack and its aftermath in the streets and in the press tempt one to dust off Samuel Huntington's 1996 book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Despite the criticisms he provoked with that book and his earlier 1993 article in Foreign Affairs, recent events would seem to be proving him prescient.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Doomsday Clock. There is no safe place. No where to hide! / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
If I criticize the U.S. government, I am put on a "watch list". If I quote an Israeli, I am attacked by anti-Zionists. If I defend the Palestinians, I am an anti-Semitic. If I defend the police, I am considered an apologist of police brutality. If I defend unarmed black kids shot by copes, I am an enemy of the police. If I defend the rights of Islamists, I am a promoter of "terrorism". If I quote the Pope, I am the target of anti-clerics in Europe. If I quote a "New Atheist", I am a spokesman for Satan. If I propose gun regulation, I will be threatened by NRA people. If I defend the right to own and carry guns, I will be labeled a "2nd Amen" fanatic by liberals. If I agree with Ron Paul, I am an anarchist. If I agree with Bernie Sanders, I am a communist. If I say Vladimir Putin is a tyrant, I am considered brainwashed by Western propaganda. If I claim Putin never invaded Ukraine, I am an anti-American. If I warn of a market collapse and Great Great Depression, I am a Cassandra. If I predict the DOW hitting 20,000 in four months, I am a paid agent for Wall Street. If I claim Charlie Hedbro promoted racism, I am an enemy of free speech. If I defend free speech, I am told to shut-up. If I decide to take to the North Woods until the wars spend themselves, I am an escapist. If I jump into the morass and voice one opinion about one topic...well...considering what I know and have just outlined...I would be a damn fool, wouldn't I!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Davos Man Fears Social Instability Due to Inequality and Injustice / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jesse
"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."
September 30, 1934
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The Age of Intervention Continues / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dennis_Miller
By Dennis Miller
One key perk to working alongside investing seers is the opportunity to ask them the big questions. Wondering what lies ahead, I asked Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad and technical analyst Dominick Graziano to share their views on what investors should expect in 2015.
These two gentlemen blow me away. Bud can make big-picture forecasts with uncanny accuracy. Dominick is a pure trader, relying on historical charts and graphs and seeing relationships in a way I had never before experienced. He is totally unemotional in his approach and makes decisions based on what the charts tell him. Like Bud, Dominick has made so many calls ahead of time I’ve stopped keeping track.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The Fed and ECB Take the West back to when the Rich Owned Everything / Politics / Social Issues
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
When the former Goldman Sachs executive who runs the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that he was going to print 720 billion euros annually with which to purchase bad debts from the politically connected big banks, the euro sank and the stock market and Swiss france shot up. As in the US, quantitative easing (QE) serves to enrich the already rich. It has no other purpose.
The well-heeled financial institutions that bought up the troubled sovereign debt of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain at low prices will now sell the bonds to the ECB for high prices. And despite depression level unemployment in most of Europe and austerity imposed on citizens, the stock market rose in anticipation that much of the 60 billion new euros that will be created each month will find its way into equity prices. Liquidity fuels the stock market.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Washington's War on Russia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Washington’s attack on Russia has moved beyond the boundary of the absurd into the realm of insanity.
The New Chief of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, Andrew Lack, has declared the Russian news service, RT, which broadcasts in multiple languages, to be a terrorist organization equivalent to Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and Standard and Poor’s just downgraded Russia’s credit rating to junk status.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Lies And Deception In Ukraine's Energy Sector / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: OilPrice_Com
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly claimed it is doing its best to improve the oil and gas investment climate, but official statements are the opposite of the reality, as Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is leading the great deception.
According to Prime Minister Yatseniuk, Ukraine has taken a number of important steps to reform the energy sector, and has even achieved success in the formidable fight against rampant corruption, as well as signed open and transparent contracts for purchase of the natural gas from EU member states. Now he claims Ukraine is looking forward to Western companies' investment in Ukraine's gas transportation system.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Greek Vote Pushes EU to Limit / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: BATR
The resounding victory of Alexis Tsipras in the Greek election was certainly a referendum that rejected the austerity demands placed on Greece by the European Union. The Wall Street Journal says the following, in Syriza Win in Greek Election Sets Up New Europe Clash.
“A Syriza victory marks an astonishing upset of Europe’s political order, which decades ago settled into an orthodox centrism while many in Syriza describe themselves as Marxists. It emboldens the challenges of other radical parties, from the right-wing National Front in France to the newly formed left-wing Podemos party in Spain, and it sets Greece on a collision course with Germany and its other eurozone rescuers.”
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
France America And Religious Terror War / Politics / War on Terror
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Unique Nation Syndrome and Religion
Absolutely verboten for the mainstream media packaging "Islamic terror" for its dwindling consumer credulous faithfuls, the cult of The Unique Nation was custom built to conflict with the more aggressive of the so-called Abrahamic religions and especially with the youngest and most modern of these, Islam. Religion-building came a long time before what leading historians including Eric Hobsbawm call the "era of modern nationbuilding" which he places in the period about 1760-1790. This started with the creation or founding, by revolution, of the USA and modern France. It ended, according to Hobsbawm in the late 1980s for reasons we look at, below.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
The New Drivers of Europe's Geopolitics / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: For the past two weeks, I have focused on the growing fragmentation of Europe. Two weeks ago, the murders in Paris prompted me to write about the fault line between Europe and the Islamic world. Last week, I wrote about the nationalism that is rising in individual European countries after the European Central Bank was forced to allow national banks to participate in quantitative easing so European nations wouldn't be forced to bear the debt of other nations. I am focusing on fragmentation partly because it is happening before our eyes, partly because Stratfor has been forecasting this for a long time and partly because my new book on the fragmentation of Europe — Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe — is being released today.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Oil Prices Changing The Face Of Global Geopolitics / Politics / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
In a documentary that aired recently on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular The Fifth Estate program, an allegory of Vladimir Putin was presented. The wily Russian president was described growing up in a shabby St. Petersburg apartment, where he would often corner rats. Now, punished by low oil prices and Western sanctions against Russian incursions in Ukraine/ Crimea, Putin is himself the cornered rat. Many wonder, and fear, what he will do if conditions in Russia become increasingly desperate.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Alexis-The-Greek Can save Europe from Friedman Chicago-Boy Fascism / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Andrew_Butter
The election of Alexis Tsipras is the best thing that happened to Greece in years. He is going to say “NO” to Milton Freidman “Shock” therapy, unless someone shoots him, which is a real possibility.What’s wrong with Europe is that they wholeheartedly embraced the Chicago-Boy theories most recently tested by Milton Friedman’s prodigy, Donald Goering Rumsfeld, in Iraq. What a mess, and what a mess Europe is in thanks those ideas.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
It’s Not The Greeks Who Failed, It’s The EU / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
In what universe is it a good thing to have over half of the young people in entire countries without work, without prospects, without a future? And then when they stand up and complain, threaten them with worse? How can that possibly be the best we can do? And how much worse would you like to make it? If a flood of suicides and miscarriages, plummeting birth rates and doctors turning tricks is not bad enough yet, what would be?
Monday, January 26, 2015
Ron Paul Warns Education is Too Important Not to Leave to the Marketplace / Politics / Education
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week, events around the country will highlight the importance of parental control of education as part of National School Choice Week. This year's events should attract more attention than prior years because of the growing rebellion against centralized education sparked by the federal Common Core curriculum.
The movement against Common Core has the potential to change American education. However, anti-Common Core activists must not be misled by politicians promoting "reforms" of the federal education bureaucracy, or legislation ending Common Core while leaving all other federal education programs intact. The only way to protect American children from future Common Core-like programs is to permanently padlock the Department of Education.
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Monday, January 26, 2015
A Closer Look At Ukraine Mariupol Crisis / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: STRATFOR
As the situation on the ground quiets down in the wake of the Jan. 24 barrage by Russian-allied forces near the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Stratfor is continuing the watch initiated by our Red Alert. We believe, at the very least, that Russia is keeping its option to mount an offensive open, and at most, is preparing to launch an offensive to secure its hold on the Crimean Peninsula.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Euro Crash: Why's Greece About To Exit Eurozone Taking Euro With It? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: DK_Matai
Pay close attention to Greece now.
1. No austerity for posterity as the anti-bailout Syriza party extends its lead in the polls just before elections in Greece on Sunday.
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Sunday, January 25, 2015
Unjust and Undeclared Wars / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Raymond Matison writes: The history of the human race and war seem inseparable. For as long as history has been written, starting with etchings on clay tablets, recording and depiction of war has been an important part of it. Indeed, ancient and modern history books alike generally focus mostly on rulers and their conquests of lands and people. With this long history of warlike behavior, it is easy to believe that war is an endemic part of humans and our society.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
The World Misery Index: 108 Countries / Politics / Social Issues
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 108 countries based on “misery.”
Below the jump are the index scores for 2014. Countries not included in the table did not report satisfactory data for 2014.
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Sunday, January 25, 2015
Red Alert: Is Russia Preparing a New Offensive in Ukraine? / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: STRATFOR
Reports of heavy rocket artillery firing on the eastern parts of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, as well as a statement made by a separatist leader, indicate the potential preparation of an offensive on the city. While this would be a significant escalation and an indicator of Russian intent to push further into Ukraine, potentially forming a much-rumored land connection to the northern border of Crimea, there are also several indicators required for such an offensive that are currently still missing.