Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Will You Light $180,000 on Fire by Taking Social Security at Age 62? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Dennis_Miller
On the television series Dragnet, Sgt. Joe Friday was known for his calm demeanor while questioning witnesses. When they began to ramble, he would corral them with comments like, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Sound advice for the witness stand, but when it comes to retirement planning, Sgt. Friday was giving the wrong instructions. Instead of asking for “just the facts” we should ask for “all the facts.”
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
On Obama and the Nature of Failed Presidencies / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: We do not normally comment on domestic political affairs unless they affect international affairs. However, it is necessary to consider American political affairs because they are likely to have a particular effect on international relations. We have now entered the final phase of Barack Obama's presidency, and like those of several other presidents since World War II, it is ending in what we call a state of failure. This is not a judgment on his presidency so much as on the political configuration within it and surrounding it.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Globalism Free Trade Immigration Connection / Politics / Immigration
By: BATR
How is your life going under the Global Empire? If you answer honestly, for non billionaires, the response must reflect disappointment if not immense distress. Middle America stands on the precipice of oblivion. While the recent past decades have shown steep declines in financial security and net wealth, the future looks much more ominous. The link between the shift to an internationalist de-industrialization economy and open border immigration has hit the United States hard. This harsh reality is routinely denied in the financial press, but the social chaos that engulfs society is largely caused by this betrayal mindset. Corporatists are waging war against the American public.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Central Banks are Not Innocent Bystanders / Politics / Central Banks
By: MISES
Peter St. Onge writes: In a recent paper cited last month in The Economist, a trio of economists ran a kitchen sink’s worth of correlations on investment numbers. Kothari et al. concluded that profit growth and stock price boost investment, but that interest rates have a negative effect. This claim runs counter to Austrian business cycle theory, so let’s have a look.
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Monday, November 17, 2014
What The Fed Has Wrought, Who Needs Wage Earners Anyway? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: James_Quinn
The chart below might be the most powerful indictment of the Federal Reserve and our corporate fascist empire of debt ever created. Some people don't get charts. Charts tell a story. This chart tells the story of elitist bankers supporting the agenda of a corporate fascist state, resulting in the gutting of the middle class. Anyone who views this chart in a positive manner is either a Federal Reserve banker or their paycheck is dependent upon the continuation of the pillaging of the working class. Corporate profits are at all-time highs. Profit margins have always reverted to the mean throughout modern history. If they remain at all-time highs then something is terribly wrong.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Global Gulag - Imperium the Foe of the New World Order / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Sincere and serious scholars understand the deception and untruth of the linear political spectrum, Marxism on the Left and Fascism on the Right. Those who recognize Hegelian fraud for its mendacity, understand that the only difference between Communism and Nazism is their packaging. Both are one in the same - Totalitarianism. History and politics can only be accurately understood, if the hoax of diametrically opposed authoritarian regimes are exposed for what they are; namely, siblings of despotism.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Ron Paul on U.S. Internet Gambling Ban: A Losing Bet for Us All / Politics / Gambling
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Most Americans, regardless of ideology, oppose "crony capitalism" or "cronyism." Cronyism is where politicians write laws aimed at helping their favored business beneficiaries. Despite public opposition to cronyism, politicians still seek to use the legislative process to help special interests.
For example, Congress may soon vote on legislation outlawing Internet gambling. It is an open secret, at least inside the Beltway, that this legislation is being considered as a favor to billionaire casino owner, Sheldon Adelson. Mr. Adelson, who is perhaps best known for using his enormous wealth to advance a pro-war foreign policy, is now using his political influence to turn his online competitors into criminals.
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Monday, November 17, 2014
Stripping Off Their Royalties - Would you Like to Cheat an Author? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Walter_Brasch
He’s there by 7 a.m. almost every Sunday except in late Fall and Winter to make money in one of the largest permanent flea markets in northeastern Pennsylvania. In three-foot long cardboard boxes he has an inventory of hundreds of paperbacks, all of them displayed spine up. Westerns. Romances.Adventures. Whatever you want. Three for a buck; fifty cents each. The books are virtually mint condition, and if you don’t mind reading something without a front cover, it’s a bargain, especially since paperbacks with the covers, sold at supermarkets, pharmacies, and bookstores, are now going for as much as $7.95 each.
Monday, November 17, 2014
The World Is Run By Fools, And We Let Them / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Dumb and Dumber To, the sequel after 20 years, was released recently. Unfortunately for Jim and Jeff and the Farrelly brothers, unintended humor will always be funnier than the scripted kind, no matter how hard Hollywood tries. Case in point: the Dumber slapstick was easily upstaged over the past few days by the G20 summit in Brisbane.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Nothing Noble About the Mass Slaughter of WWI / Politics / WW1
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: A full century after World War I we still cannot understand how generals sent so many soldiers to be slaughtered. Ten million soldiers died on all sides; millions more were left maimed or shell shocked. Seven million civilians died. 20 million horses died.
The image we have of hapless soldiers being forced to climb out of their sodden trenches and attack across a hellish no-man’s land pock-marked by water-filled shell holes, deep mud, thickets of barbed wire and rotten bodies is quite accurate for the Western Front. Waiting for them were quick-firing guns, heavy artillery, the greatest killer or all – machine guns – and, later, poison or burning gases, and flamethrowers.
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Friday, November 14, 2014
The Syrian War Goes On / Politics / Syria
By: Andrew_McKillop
Confused Names – Confused Games
Real world Syria was dimly recognized and not accepted by western leaderships and their security strategists, in just another unfortunate example of the stumble-to-war process that is now heavily analyzed, discussed and reported, retrospectively, as the consensus explanation for World War I. For many non-German politicians and strategists in 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm was a surrogate for Osama bin Laden after 2001 – fanatical and sure to overreach when opposed Al Assad's overreach by declaring a total war strategy did happen but his regime's resistance to ISIS or ISIL helped force the fanatics and psychopaths to also overreach and look for a softer enemy and easier pickings - over the frontier, in Iraq. To be sure there are huge differences with the 1914-18 war in this case of another war that "could only" be short and would be “all over by Christmas”, but few persons can forecast the possibly massive sequels of the Syrian war across the Middle East, North Africa, western Asia and Europe.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Rumors Swirl at the Kremlin - Struggle Over Russia's Interior Ministry Could Emerge / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
In recent weeks, rumors that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev will be replaced have been circulating among Russian media and pundits who watch Moscow. Stratfor has been monitoring the Russian government's coherence and the strength of its leader, President Vladimir Putin, as the country faces a series of crises involving its faltering economy and tensions with the West over Ukraine. Although Kolokoltsev is of little consequence as a personality, the office he holds oversees one of the most powerful tools for anyone seeking political power in Russia: a significant part of the country's internal surveillance apparatus.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Preventing Taxpaying Milk Cows from Seeking Greener Pastures / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
It’s undeniable that the window of opportunity is getting smaller… especially when you connect all the dots and see the big picture.
To help connect those dots, it’s important to understand the things that make being an American citizen uniquely burdensome.
First, Americans are the only people in the entire world who effectively suffer under an inescapable, worldwide system of taxation.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014
The Case for Optimism / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Jeff Deist writes: I promised you some optimism today. Perhaps one of the most optimistic libertarians ever was Murray Rothbard, a happy intellectual warrior if ever there was one. And he was very enthusiastic about the revolution of libertarian ideas, because he understood fundamentally that liberty is the only manner of organizing society that is compatible with human nature and human action. And it was this optimism, this unshakeable belief that we’re right and the statists are wrong, that drove him to produce a staggering body of work in defense of personal liberty. Now let me stress that Rothbard, despite his reputation as an uncompromising intellectual, saw his efforts as pragmatic, not utopian. He understood quite clearly that utopianism was the hallmark of the state’s intellectual champions, not the state’s detractors. He understood that utopianism and statism, not liberty, produced the great monsters and the great wars of the twentieth century.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Pakistan and the Problem of U.S. Military Aid / Politics / Pakistan
By: MISES
Salmaan A. Khan writes: “Trade, not aid” said the current prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. It was six years after its 1947 independence from India that Pakistan experienced a near-famine due to two failed crop seasons from lack of monsoon rains. Meanwhile, Pakistan didn’t have enough hard currency to buy wheat on the international market. The US State Department considered Pakistan on the brink of starvation, so President Eisenhower gained approval from Congress to send one million tons of wheat (known as the Wheat Aid Act), thus beginning Pakistan’s tragic addiction to US foreign aid.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Alan Greenspan Confesses / Politics / Central Banks
By: Investment_U
A Note From the Editorial Director: Alex Green's column yesterday struck a nerve. He decried "hard money types" as wrong in five different ways... and the comments at InvestmentU.com haven't stopped. Dr. Mark Skousen is our favorite hard money type - and, as chance would have it, he just returned from private meetings with none other than Alan Greenspan. Below is Mark's detailed account. - Andrew Snyder
"The Federal Reserve is not independent. I never said it was." - Alan Greenspan
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014
President Flim-Flam Leads Democrats to Midterm Massacre / Politics / US Congressional Elections
By: Mike_Whitney
The White House has denied claims that the midterm elections were a referendum on Barack Obama, but the polling data shows that they were. According to a CBS News exit poll:
Read full article... Read full article...“Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said their opinion of the president influenced their vote… 34 percent said they wanted to make a statement in opposition to Mr. Obama, while 20 percent said they voted in support of him.”
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Why I No Longer Wear A Poppy / Politics / WW1
By: Jeff_Berwick
Mark E. Jeftovic writes: “The threat of people acting in their own enlightened and rational self-interest strikes bureaucrats, politicians, and social workers as ominous and dangerous.” - W. G. Hill
It's that time of year again where we are all encouraged to "Remember the Fallen". The words "Lest We Forget" adorn everything from bus shelters to fast food wrappers. What is it we're not supposed to forget? Ostensibly, we're not supposed to forget those who killed and were killed by, other people (usually "over there") in the course of "defending our freedom".
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Tuesday, November 11, 2014
What the Fall of the Berlin Wall Did Not Change / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: Twenty-five years ago, a crowd filled with an uneasy mixture of joy and rage tore down the Berlin Wall. There was joy for the end of Germany's partition and the end of tyranny. There was rage against generations of fear. One fear was of communist oppression. The other fear was of the threat of a war, which had loomed over Europe and Germany since 1945. One fear was moral and ideological, while the other was prudential and geopolitical. As in all defining political moments, fear and rage, ideology and geopolitics, blended together in an intoxicating mix.
Marxism's Sway
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Obama Lame Duck in a NeoCon Congress / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
That Nefarious Warrior Organism is eager to accelerate the next stage of the master plan. Under an openly NeoCon front, John McCain’s chairmanship of a Senate Armed Services Committee will get to pressure the public into believing that their national security requires vigorous interventionism. Before you think that the Democrats differ from this same post WWII strategy, it would be best to brush up on a necessary history lesson.