Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, July 17, 2020
In Weaponizing the Dollar Trump’s Lieutenants Flunk Finance 101 / Politics / US Dollar
By: Steve_H_Hanke
In a scoop, Bloomberg reported last week that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and some of President Trump’s top lieutenants are considering fully weaponizing the U.S. dollar to undermine Hong Kong’s financial system. The idea has been hatched to punish China for its recent aggressions in Hong Kong.
Just what does the weaponization of the greenback entail? The U.S. dollar is the international currency. It is the major reserve currency held by central banks, the most prominent currency used to denominate debt, and the unit of account for invoicing goods and services in international trade. The dollar’s stable value means that it is used widely for both international payment and interbank transactions, as well as for official intervention in foreign-exchange markets. In short, the dollar is entrenched at the center of the international financial system. This gives the United States an “exorbitant privilege,” as the Frenchman Valéry Giscard d’ Estaing pointedly put it. For the U.S., the benefits are incalculable.
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Friday, July 10, 2020
Prepare for the global impact of US COVID-19 resurgence / Politics / Pandemic
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, the US has suffered a series of COVID-19 surges. The escalation won’t stay in America. It is likely to cause collateral damage worldwide.
In early June, U.S. states began to exit from the lockdown measures, even though the epidemic curve had not been adequately flattened. On July 4th, the White House sought for a “return to normal” with a celebration at Mount Rushmore, where President Trump, who has recently associated himself with far-right “white power” extremists, gave a bizarre speech warning about a “new far-left fascism.”
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Wednesday, July 08, 2020
Coronavirus Pandemic UK and US Second Waves, and the Influenza Doomsday Scenario / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Three weeks ago I warned to expect an end to the trends of reducing number of deaths from covid 19 in the wake of black lives matters protests, lack of social instancing and winding down of lockdown's across the US and UK, where the only figure that actually counts in terms of the impact of the virus is in the number of deaths.
Whilst my analysis of Mid March warned to expect several pandemic waves where each subsequent wave 'should' be smaller than the one before due to increased institutional, governmental and individual intelligence on combating the virus..
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Friday, July 03, 2020
How the Fed Gets Away With Ripping Off Ordinary Americans / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MoneyMetals
The Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars without generating runaway price inflation through the use of a neat trick.
The privately owned bank cartel shovels the bulk of the money to Wall Street banks and not to the public at large. Instead of millions of Americans rushing out to bid up prices on consumer goods, a relative handful of bankers is using the free money to bid up asset prices and then pay themselves huge performance bonuses.
It’s quite the racket. Fed officials have been able to point at stock prices as “proof” of how they successfully engineered an economic recovery.
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Thursday, July 02, 2020
US Fourth Turning Reaches Boiling Point as America Bends its Knee / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ― H.L. Mencken
After writing a particularly depressing article where I come to a logical conclusion, based upon the factual evidence of all previous Fourth Turnings, I always wonder whether I’m being too pessimistic and peddling doom, like many of the clickbait websites. The conclusions I reached at the end of my last two articles were particularly gloomy and made me wonder whether I was going too far. I thought maybe I was too pessimistic and my predictions of civil chaos and global disorder were overblown.
“A failure to meet the challenges ahead with bravery, grit, good judgement, adherence to our Constitutional principles, and a fair amount of luck, could lead to a defeat from which we will never recover. No one knows how and when the climax of this Crisis will play out, but the acceleration towards our rendezvous with destiny is in motion.” – Fourth Turning Accelerating Towards Climax – May 10
It just so happened I published my last article on May 24, predicting a 2nd Civil War. I figured we might have a couple years to prepare, as there is likely five to ten years before this Fourth Turning reaches a climax. Little did I know a black man with a long criminal background, high on fentanyl and resisting arrest in Minneapolis, would be killed by a white police thug named Derek Chauvin, who had seventeen complaints against him over his illustrious career, on the day after my article was posted. Oddly, it seems this murder will be our Fort Sumter/Pearl Harbor of this Fourth Turning.
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Thursday, July 02, 2020
Roosevelt 2.0 and ‘here, hold my beer' / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_Mills
In accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency on July 2, 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of a “new deal for the American people” who had been ravaged by the Great Depression.
After winning the 1932 election by a landslide, FDR, as he came to be known during World War II, took immediate action to bring about economic relief to the unemployed through public works programs, and to undertake reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, hydroelectric power, labor and housing.
Roosevelt’s New Deal, which lasted from 1933-39, also vastly increased the scope of the federal government in the economy.
Agencies such as the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps were established to provide short-term aid, as well as temporary jobs, employment on construction projects, and youth work in national forests.
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Wednesday, July 01, 2020
Politicians Prepare New Money Drops as US Dollar Weakens / Politics / Government Spending
By: MoneyMetals
The gold and silver market rallied earlier this week to record slight new multi-year highs before giving back some of those gains late Wednesday and into Friday morning.
Concerns about rising COVID-19 infections weighed on industrial commodities and stocks. New York and Texas announced they would suspend further reopening plans, while a spike in cases in Arizona raised alarms among public health officials.
However, other data shows that death rates continue to decline – evidence that the novel coronavirus is far less lethal than previously thought. And the rebound in infections is coming primarily from the ongoing increase in testing and reporting.
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Sunday, June 28, 2020
Meet BlackRock, the New Great Vampire Squid / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Ellen_Brown
To most people, if they are familiar with it at all, BlackRock is an asset manager that helps pension funds and retirees manage their savings through “passive” investments that track the stock market. But working behind the scenes, it is much more than that. BlackRock has been called “the most powerful institution in the financial system,” “the most powerful company in the world” and the “secret power.” It is the world’s largest asset manager and “shadow bank,” larger than the world’s largest bank (which is in China), with over $7 trillion in assets under direct management and another $20 trillion managed through its Aladdin risk-monitoring software. BlackRock has also been called “the fourth branch of government” and “almost a shadow government”, but no part of it actually belongs to the government. Despite its size and global power, BlackRock is not even regulated as a “Systemically Important Financial Institution” under the Dodd-Frank Act, thanks to pressure from its CEO Larry Fink, who has long had “cozy” relationshipswith government officials.
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Monday, June 22, 2020
Most Shoppers have Stopped Following Supermarket Arrows, is Coughing the New Racism? / Politics / Shopping
By: N_Walayat
Eliza's first shop in 3 months at Tesco, weekly grocery shop. Eliza may be 5 but she knows what the arrows are for, it's simple FOLLOW THE ARROWS! Though most shoppers don't! Perhaps people have got bored with following the rules so choose to ignore. Though one should not make the mistake of pointing out the arrows to others, as it's not likely to work.
However, there appears to be a new manifestation of racism, coughing at asian people as they walk past! It happened TWICE to me on this one shop! Two middle aged men this time, stand and wait for us to walk past them, then cough, cough!
Has happened before but frequency appears to be increasingly, definetly going to attempt to video such occrences with a body cam of sorts.
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Friday, June 19, 2020
UK Schools Failure to Reopen Impacts Mental Health of Children Sat at Home Instead of in Classrooms / Politics / Educating Children
By: N_Walayat
Britain's schools are very badly failing children that will have consequences long after covid-19 becomes a paragraph in the history books as the continuing failure to open schools is resulting in untold damage being done to the educational and mental well being of many millions of children across Britain.
UK schools were supposed to open on the 15th of June 2020. Instead most if not ALL schools have only paid lip service towards school openings who have followed local city council dictats of self prophesied covid-19 experts, who it should not be forgotten closed schools about 3 weeks too late to start with thus contributing to the triggering of a huge wave of deaths well beyond the Governments upper estimate of 20,000. Who now with the deaths coming under control have swung in the other extreme direction by refusing to reopen schools.
So that there is no confusion, asking children to check their emails for assignments and online resources does NOT amount to reopening of schools!
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Thursday, June 18, 2020
REOPEN THE SCHOOLS! Kids Going Crazy in Lockdown Britain, Sheffield UK / Politics / Educating Children
By: N_Walayat
Depending on where you live and what year you are in some children are getting their first taste of school today. However still most are not being allowed the opportunity for any face to face contact. Pediatricians warn of huge amount of damage being done to children's life chances and mental health unless schools are immediately opened as many kids are literally going crazy sat locked down at home!
And apparently whilst it is okay for children to visit Primark many schools are refusing to let children back into school which gives the impression of teachers literally hiding under their desks fearful of the little monsters that they refuse to see let alone teach, instead barraging parents with junk mail asking them to do their jobs for them.
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Monday, June 15, 2020
For History Unfolding To Stay Informed, Watch Less TV / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Patrick_Watson
Pop math quiz: What is 1918 + 1932 + 1968?
Your calculator may say 5,818, but the real answer is 2020. This year has turned into a combination of those three historic years. In the US, we have
- A deadly pandemic, like the one in 1918
- An economic recession that could inspire major political change, as in 1932, and
- Social unrest, public anger, and mass protests similar to 1968.
The good news: we’re not also engaged in a military conflict, as was the case in 1918 and 1968. But we have lesser involvements around the world, any of which could blow up any time. (Let’s hope they don’t.)
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Friday, June 12, 2020
US and UK Black Lives Matter Protests, Riots and Looting To Trigger 2nd Covid-19 Wave Peak? / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Briefly, the protesting and rioting of the past week that has shown little signs of social distancing coupled with relaxation of lockdown's is likely to trigger a second wave of sorts that a few weeks down the road could result in a rising death tolls for both the US and UK.
As things stand the Covid-19 deaths trend in the US continues to move the right direction with the 7 day average at 835 and the 14 day at distant 970, though the rate of decline has slowed over the past couple of weeks that implies that the US could be at risk of at least stalling at an average of about 800 deaths per day and worse risk an upwards trend towards a second peak over the coming weeks.
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Thursday, June 11, 2020
When Profits and Politics Drive Science: The Hazards of Rushing a Coronavirus Vaccine at “Warp Speed” / Politics / Pandemic
By: Ellen_Brown
More than 100 companies are competing to be first in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market. It’s a race against time, not because the death rate is climbing but because it is falling – to the point where there could soon be too few subjects to prove the effectiveness of the drug.
So says Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company that is a frontrunner in the race. Soriot said on May 24th,
Read full article... Read full article...“The vaccine has to work and that’s one question, and the other question is, even if it works, we have to be able to demonstrate it. We have to run as fast as possible before the disease disappears so we can demonstrate that the vaccine is effective.”
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Trump's Final Gamble: From Chinagate to Hybrid Wars / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Dan_Steinbock
The disastrous failure of the Trump administration to contain COVID-19 will result in catastrophic 2nd quarter data. As a result, Trump is risking his re-election on domestic unrest, fatal geopolitics and a global depression.
The cold reality is that the Trump administration learned about the virus already on January 3, when CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield informed Secretary of Health Alex Azar that China had discovered a new coronavirus. Yet no mobilization was initiated until toward late March (see my report here):
Indeed, the Trump White House missed three opportunities to contain the virus outbreak; in January (between CDC alert and WHO’s international emergency), the 1st quarter (between the WHO emergency and the pandemic alert) and the 2nd quarter (since social distancing began 6-8 weeks late and inadequately).
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Tuesday, June 09, 2020
US Red Shirts and the Boogaloo / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_Mills
The race riots seen around the United States over the past few days are troubling for sure, but they are nothing new.
If there is one thing uniting the 50 American states of the union, historically, it is divisions over race, primarily Caucasian versus African American. It is disturbing to note that 157 years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and many decades after the race riots of the 1960s ushered in an era of equal opportunity and affirmative action, the United States is still struggling with questions of justice and inequality pertaining to its large black population.
Yet there is a marked difference between what is happening now compared to 100 years ago. During the period leading up to the 1920s, it was usually white people who instigated and participated in race riots. The purpose of these violent demonstrations was to assert white dominion rather than to express black anger and frustration.
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Monday, June 08, 2020
LOCKDOWN 2020: Everybody Was Kung Flu Fighting / Politics / Pandemic
By: Jeff_Berwick
Suddenly, we’re not "in this together" anymore.
Suddenly, it’s "every man for himself".
Especially when it comes to deliberately destroying old ladies’ shops in the name of Anarchy!
Larken Rose, that "angry white guy with a gun", says it best:
"One common misconception about anarchy is that it means "every man for himself" or "survival of the fittest," where everyone has to be selfish and self-sufficient, where there is no real cooperation or organization, and where people all behave like violent, selfish animals."
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Saturday, June 06, 2020
Is America Headed for a Post-Apocalyptic Currency Collapse? / Politics / Pandemic
By: MoneyMetals
Just when it seemed as though America may be turning the corner after months of lockdown… just when it seemed as though we were on a path to reopening and gradually returning to normalcy… just when the prospects of panic-induced social unrest seemed to be behind us…
…America’s cities erupted into flames.
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Friday, June 05, 2020
UK Coronavirus Catastrophe Trend Analysis Video / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Britains half witted response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold catastrophically, with bringing the pandemic under control virtually wholly left to the good sense of the general public to achieve as Government Ministers, MP's and Advisors fail to follow that which they have been preaching since the government ordered lockdown on the 23rd of March (a good 3 weeks too late).
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Thursday, June 04, 2020
Social Unrest Rises as Confidence Falls / Politics / Pandemic
By: MoneyMetals
Protests egged on by the legacy media quickly devolved into large-scale riots and looting over the weekend in more than a dozen U.S. cities.
Some important institutions have betrayed the public trust, and Americans facing quarantine and staggering unemployment have arrived at the boiling point.
Meanwhile, the ranks of people buying gold and silver as a hedge against economic chaos and financial malfeasance swelled again in recent months.
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