Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
CORPORATOCRACY / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Record US corporate profits are the beneficiary of easy money, near zero interest rates and monopolist aided government tax policies. The upward surge in earnings since the depths of the financial collapse proves one incontrovertible fact; namely, tax regulations, implemented to aid favorite companies, is the operational model of the corporatist economy. Americans for tax fairness for 2013 report on 10 Companies and Their Tax Loopholes. Included in this examination on Bank of America, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell, Merck, Microsoft, Pfizer and Verizon, indicated "corporations have stepped into the fray with some of the most aggressive lobbying we’ve seen in years – calling for cuts to corporate tax rates, a widening of offshore tax loopholes."
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
From Financial Subprime To Global Energy Subprime / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
Russian Sanctions and the Energy Subprime
The U.S. subprime crisis of 2008, although it was cast in stone by 2006-2007, was a dreadful surprise for political deciders. It sprang at them from the murky world of Wall Street's frenzied brewing of incomprehensible financial instruments with names like algos, swaps and derivatives. The crisis surged at them from outside, forcing deciders to make a panic recourse to more government debt and massive new borrowing, to shore up the financial economy and then the real economy.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Donetsk Crimea 2.0 - Russia Ukraine Invasion and Annexation Before End of May 2014 / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Czar Putin having finished digesting Crimea being a mere entree of the main meal ahead that could ultimately seek to devour as much as 50% of Ukraine's original land mass, whilst the mainstream media's attention remains diverted by the likes of the irrelevant Oscar Pistorius court case, another expenses fiddling MP or the search for Flight MH370. However Putin's dark totalitarian forces have been quietly busy preparing the facts on the ground for a re-run of a Crimea style theft of territory enabling Russia to rip several more pounds of flesh off of Ukraine's body.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Armageddon - Obama Issues Threats To Russia And NATO / Politics / New Cold War
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The Obama regime has issued simultaneous threats to the enemy it is making out of Russia and to its European NATO allies on which Washington is relying to support sanctions on Russia. This cannot end well.
As even Americans living in a controlled media environment are aware, Europeans, South Americans, and Chinese are infuriated that the National Stasi Agency is spying on their communications. NSA’s affront to legality, the US Constitution, and international diplomatic norms is unprecedented. Yet, the spying continues, while Congress sits sucking its thumb and betraying its oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Monday, April 07, 2014
Humans, A Smart Species? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
And once again the markets are happily and excitedly awaiting more free zombie capital from a major central bank, this time the ECB. Of course this is capital the markets, judging from where stock exchanges find themselves, absolutely don’t need, but, you know, gift horses have foul breath and all that.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 07, 2014
Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Economic Aggression / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Gas is Getting Expensive
Quoted by 'Eurasia Review' and other media, April 7, Ukraine's SBU internal security force said it had detained 15 persons it called plotters who it said possessed a large cache of weapons and explosives and were attempting to overthrow pro-Kiev forces in the Russian-speaking east of the country, near the town of Luhansk. In Donetsk, a group of protesters estimated at about 2000 persons barricaded themselves inside the regional administration building and threatened to set up a “people’s council”, demanding a referendum like the one organized in Crimea, on whether the region should join Russia.
Monday, April 07, 2014
Zombification of America - Welcome To Terminus, Collapse will be Sudden / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
“Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.” – Edward Teller
I was a late arrival to the Walking Dead television program. I don’t watch much of the mindless drivel passing for entertainment on the 600 worthless channels available 24/7 on cable TV. I assumed it was another superficial zombie horror show on par with the teenage vampire crap polluting the airwaves. Last year a friend told me I had to watch the show. I was hooked immediately and after some marathon watching of seasons one and two, I understood the various storylines and back stories. What the show doesn’t openly reveal is the deeper meanings, symbolism, and lessons we can learn from viewing human beings trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. In my opinion, the horror and gore is secondary to the human responses to horrific circumstances and the consequences of individual and group decisions to their survival.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 07, 2014
How Minimum Wage Laws Increase Poverty / Politics / Economic Theory
By: George_Reisman
An Open letter to Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Dear Secretary Perez:
Raising the minimum wage is a formula for causing unemployment among the least-skilled members of society. The higher wages are, the higher costs of production are. The higher costs of production are, the higher prices are. The higher prices are, the smaller are the quantities of goods and services demanded and the number of workers employed in producing them. These are all propositions of elementary economics that you and the President should well know.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 07, 2014
Ron Paul - Ft. Hood, An Avoidable Tragedy / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week we saw yet another tragedy at Ft. Hood, Texas, as a distraught Iraq war veteran killed three of his fellow soldiers before killing himself. It is nearly five years after the last Ft. Hood shooting, where 13 people were killed. These tragedies are heartbreaking and we certainly feel much sympathy for the families of the victims.
Sunday, April 06, 2014
The Unsustainable Distortion That is America / Politics / US Debt
By: Gordon_T_Long
The Peril of a Two Class Society
Since the end of WWII the US might be considered as being divided into two eras. The first from after the war untill 1979 and the second from 1979 until today. The era's are determined by the growth of family income.
As dramatically different as these two eras are, they are even worse when we consider the structural change, where the US family income shifted from a single to a two family income, which closely mirrors these two eras.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Another Fake Afghan Election / Politics / Afghanistan
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Afghanistan’s national election held this week is a sham. A group of candidates, handpicked by the US, will pretend to compete in an election whose outcome has already been determined – by Washington.
The candidates include US groomed politicians, and drug-dealing warlords from the Tajik and Uzbek north. Chief among them, Rashid Dostam, a major war criminal and principal CIA ally who ordered the massacre of over 2,000 Taliban prisoners.
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Russia and U.S. Waging Financial War? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
As the Ukrainian crisis unfolded threats of financial war came from Russia and to a lesser extent from the E.U. and the U.S. They were not carried out except a few sanctions targeting key personnel in Russia. These were shrugged off and the crisis appears to have dropped to a series of posturing by both sides. A sigh of relief crossed the developed world and investment life went back to normal. In the past we have had similar events that were defused in a similar way. But history teaches us that that the world can suppurate easily and quickly in tense situation like this. The First World War started because of one shot from a pistol. He Second World War were preceded by trumpeting of 'peace in our time' as mistaken politicians thought they had made peace with Germany.
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Party Time Over For French Political Ecology / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Once-Was Natural Party of Government
When President Hollande swept to power a long time ago on the political timescale - nearly 24 months ago – sweeping out the eccentric and ever more-corrupt Sarkozy with his non-performing economy and ever-rising jobless numbers, budget deficits and national debt, Hollande also swept in the ecologists. To do just the same thing as Sarko! French ecology politicians banded together in a shifting coalition called Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV, and were handed key roles in Hollande's first government, of course receiving the Energy-Ecology ministry, and also the Housing ministry.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 04, 2014
The Fed Desecrates The U.S. Constitution / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Raul_I_Meijer
An amusing discussion is firing up ever more about what the ECB should do in the face of a – perceived or not – deflation threat. Many voices are clamoring for immediate action, claiming Mario Draghi et al may well already be too late, or even use words like “the spectacular idiocy of EMU policy”, as Ambrose Evans Pritchard does, who’s been on the topic for a very long time. IMF’s Christine Lagarde is a little less impolite and says: “More monetary easing, including through unconventional measures, is needed in the euro area.” Draghi yesterday showed an unexpected sense of humor when he responded to Lagarde: “The IMF has been very generous in its suggestions on what we should do.”
Friday, April 04, 2014
The Energy “Crisis Curve” is Accelerating in a Dangerous Part of the World / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: Sitting in a new land of plenty, Americans rarely notice disturbing energy trends elsewhere in the world.
But in the course of my global work, it’s impossible not to recognize there are serious energy shortages developing in other parts of the world.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 03, 2014
The Government Foil to Energy Independence (and Profit) / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: As the rush to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) gathers steam, the Energy Advantage portfoliois primed for even bigger gains.
Make no mistake, LNG exports are now set to hand us one of the best investment opportunities of the decade.
That's a stunning reversal from just seven years ago, when everyone agreed the United States would be using LNG imports to meet 15% of its gas needs by 2020.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Indiana Jones And The Real New World Order / Politics / New World Order
By: Andrew_McKillop
From G7 to G20 and Back Again
Although attempts are made, from time to time, to define “the New World Order” these attempts are almost exclusively made by leaders of the G7 group of “mature postcolonial democracies”, which only these past few days shrunk back from G8 including Russia, to G7 excluding Russia. The much larger and more representative world grouping of the G20, which was formalized only in 2008 at the Washington Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, has already moved to head off any exclusion of Russia from the next G20 summit, to be held in Brisbane in November.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 03, 2014
What to Expect From Janet Yellen / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: No change.
Oh, you want more? Groucho Marx used to tell a joke on himself that “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would admit me as a member.” That pretty much sums up why we shouldn’t expect much from the new chairman of the Federal Reserve System. This administration and this Congress will never admit anyone that is not of the Keynesian-School-of-economics persuasion. As long as this mentality resides in the political halls of power, our nation will not get another Paul Volcker.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 03, 2014
3 First Steps To Cleanse The Economic System / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Since we can all attest to the fact that our financial banking economic system is bust and busted, we should probably look at ways to repair and cure it. And we don’t want to wait for the system to repair itself from the inside with the aid and abetment of its political stooges, revolving door and otherwise, because that will only lead to everyone else paying through the nose for a system they didn’t break to begin with. If we don’t seize control over this ourselves, it will never be cured, and the guys that went for broke and succeeded will make out like bandits and disappear like thieves into the night, leaving us with enough damage to last for multiple and miserable generations.
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Ukraine and the Most Profitable Gas in the World / Politics / Natural Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
There is only one certainty in Ukraine: The energy sector must and will be transformed, and how long this takes will depend on who ends up in the driver's seat and how serious they are about becoming a part of Europe and reducing dependence on Russia. But by then, investors will have missed the boat.
Read full article... Read full article...