Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Don’t Plan on Retiring, Work Until You're Dead? / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Whitney
Millions of older Americans say they will never be able to retire. They simply don’t have the savings. According to CNN, “Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings…50% have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all….” (“76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck“, CNN Money)
Thursday, January 02, 2014
2014 Trends - Government Overreach, Economic Stagnation & Civil Discontent / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Martenson
At the beginning of 2013, I identified eight key dynamics that will play out over the next two to three years (2013-2015):
Trend #1: Central Planning intervention in stock and bond markets will continue, despite diminishing returns on Central State/Bank intervention
Trend #2: The omnipotence of the Federal Reserve will suffer a fatal erosion of confidence as recession voids Fed policy and pronouncements of "recovery"
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Thursday, January 02, 2014
The Geopolitics of the Gregorian Calendar / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
When England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, some 170 years after it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, Benjamin Franklin wrote, "It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on Sept. 2, and not have to get up until Sept. 14." Indeed, nearly two weeks evaporated into thin air in England when it transitioned from the Julian calendar, which had left the country 11 days behind much of Europe. Such calendrical acrobatics are not unusual. The year 46 B.C., a year before Julius Caesar implemented his namesake system, lasted 445 days and later became known as the "final year of confusion."
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Everything Better Is Purchased At The Price Of Something Worse / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I thought I’d start off 2014 on a philosophical note, with something that I hope perhaps people will remember as the year progresses, or even through the rest of their lives, and share with those around them. In my humble view, that would do the planet a world of good. But it’s not easy; we have wandered far.
There are many things we have neglected and forgotten, if not never understood or even thought about, that are nevertheless essential to our personal well-being and that of our surroundings. If anyone in the western world has considered and analyzed these forgotten ‘things’, it’s Carl Gustav Jung, the psycho-therapist who died in 1961. Jung defined the collective unconscious, archetypes and synchronicity, among many other things. It was his active interest in Eastern civilization and philosophies that led him to ponder how the collective unconsciousness influences our notion of progress.
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Thursday, January 02, 2014
One Million Romanian and Bulgarian's to Descend upon Elysium - Britain's Immigration Catastrophe / Politics / Immigration
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It should not come as any surprise to most that Britain continues to experience what amounts to out of control immigration as the latest manifestation of which is the start of a horde of Romanian and Bulgarian workers and benefits claimers that if follow what transpired during the past decade will turn out to be 20 times the academic estimates. The recent movie Elysium depicts what in many respects has been taking place in the UK this past decade as hordes of economic migrants from across the world have descended upon Elysium (Britain) that under the weight of which risks Britain's economic social and cultural destruction.
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
U.S. Economy 2013 Dense Fog Turns Into Toxic Smog / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In mid-January of this year I wrote my annual prediction article for 2013 – Apparitions in the Fog. It is again time to assess my inability to predict the future any better than a dart throwing monkey. As usual, sticking to facts was a mistake in a world fueled by misinformation, propaganda, delusion and wishful thinking. I was far too pessimistic about the near term implications of debt, civic decay and global disorder. Those in power have successfully held off the unavoidable collapse which will be brought about by their ravenous unbridled greed, and blatant disregard for the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution and rights and liberties of the American people. The day to day minutia, pointless drivel of our techno-narcissistic selfie showbiz society, and artificially created issues (gay marriage, Zimmerman-Martin, Baby North West, Duck Dynasty) designed to distract the public from thinking, are worthless trivialities in the broad landscape of human history.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Death and Taxes: How Inevitable Are They Really? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Don_Miller
With the advent of more and more anti-aging and life-extension R&D in the biotech field—a subject my colleague Alex Daley knows all about—death may not be as inevitable as we think. While I don't believe that I will be among the lucky ones to reach a dainty 200, that feat may very well be achieved within this century. My wife and I have one grandson born in the late 1990s, and his life could span three centuries.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
The Crisis of the American Middle Class / Politics / Social Issues
By: STRATFOR
When I wrote about the crisis of unemployment in Europe, I received a great deal of feedback. Europeans agreed that this is the core problem while Americans argued that the United States has the same problem, asserting that U.S. unemployment is twice as high as the government's official unemployment rate. My counterargument is that unemployment in the United States is not a problem in the same sense that it is in Europe because it does not pose a geopolitical threat. The United States does not face political disintegration from unemployment, whatever the number is. Europe might.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Ron Paul - Government Policies Hurt Low-Wage Workers / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Fast-food workers across the county have recently held a number of high profile protests to agitate for higher wages. These protests have been accompanied by efforts to increase the wages mandated by state and local minimum wage laws, as well as a renewed push in some states and localities to pass "living wage" laws. President Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to ten dollars an hour.
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Sunday, December 29, 2013
Fukushima Radiation Ten Times More than From All Nuclear Tests Combined / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Washingtons_Blog
Putting Fukushima In Perspective
There was no background radioactive cesium before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.
Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:
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Sunday, December 29, 2013
France Economic Stupidity Taxing Facebook, Google And YouTube, to Finance French Films No One Watches / Politics / France
By: Mike_Shedlock
The economic stupidity in France is astounding. It's hard keeping up with all the inane ideas of President Francois Hollande's socialist administration. Here's another one of Hollande's ideas for your amusement.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
France's Culture Tax And The Cult Of Exception / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
TAX INTERNET AND SMARTPHONES
Although he makes a point of not living in France and denies he does that to avoid taxes, Depardieu is an ikon for French films and the business needs money. Why it needs money is already political – since many in France say the film industry should not be subsidized – and is already complicated because film theaters and some movie and TV producers pay taxes to the government, while they and others can also receive huge grants, aid and tax rebates from the same government.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Key Zeitgeist and Anthropology Trends 2014: What If The Unexpected Happens? / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Based on the ATCA 5000 poll of key distinguished members in more than 150 countries around the world -- carried out by the mi2g Intelligence Unit in London -- we present to you the uncensored collective consciousness in regard to what are perceived to be the key trends for 2014 under the categories of Opposites, Opportunities, Autonomy, Climate Chaos, New Financial Paradigms and Cultural Metamorphosis. We trust this will start an enduring Socratic dialogue leading to concrete executive decisions amongst our distinguished members and the global community of world leaders, business decision makers and ordinary citizens to build a more equitable world in 2014 and beyond.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Edward Snowden Warning on the Orwellian US Government Total Surveillance State - Video / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Videos
On December 25th 2013 Edward Snowden delivered an alternative Christmas message on the UK’s channel 4 TV station. Before the broadcast a short version of the speech was leaked and immediatly uploaded to youtube. That upload was immediatly blocked but many re-uploads made the clip available everywhere. This is one of those places. If you want to thank Edward Snowden for giving up his relationship, familiy, job and any chance of a normal life to inform us all go here (freesnowden.is/donate/index.html) and donate. Or spread his message. And do something with it. Because if something is done all of Edward’s sacrifices have meaning.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Facing the Future – Mitigating a Credit Crisis Liquidity Crunch 2014 / Politics / Credit Crisis 2014
By: Nicole_Foss
Despite the media talking up optimism and recovery, people are not seeing the supposed good news playing out in their own lives. As we have discussed here many times before, the squeeze continues on Main Street, while QE has generated asset bubbles at the top of the financial food chain. Complacency reigns, but this is the endgame. Increasingly delusional collective optimism, based on illusory wealth for the few, has ben the driving force for 2013, even as the smart money has been selling everything not nailed down for most of the year – cheerfully handing the empty bag to a public that demands it. It’s been a five year long party, where, demonstrably, no lessons were learned from the excesses preceding the previous peak, and the consequences that followed from it.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Lenin's Goelro And The Myth Of Total Electrification / Politics / Electricity
By: Andrew_McKillop
LENIN AND THE GOELRO
Announcing the Goelro plan on 21 February 1920, Vladimir Lenin said that communism was to politics what electricity is for the economy, saying: “Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country”. Without total electrification “industry cannot be developed” and for Lenin, the plan was even a bulwark against barbarism, ignorance and disease, and a silver bullet for Russian recovery from the ravages of WWar I and the October Revolution.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
U.S. Federal Reserve Fuels Global “Financial Parasitism” / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Global_Research
Nick Beams writes: The decision by the US Federal Reserve Board to begin to “taper” its program of “quantitative easing” (QE)—the pumping of $1 trillion a year into the financial markets—was supposed to signal a return to more normal monetary policy.It turned out to be a commitment to continue the provision of ultra-cheap money to fuel the financial parasitism that has brought untold wealth to the corporate and financial elites, while creating ever-worsening social conditions for billions of people the world over.
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Thursday, December 26, 2013
Colossal Fraud - There are No Free Markets - Video / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Videos
Financial analyst Rob Kirby says, “There is colossal fraud and price control going on. There are no free markets.” Kirby goes on to say, “What we’ve seen over the last six months is a ramp-up in interest rate swaps to the tune of $12 trillion . . . . What the build in these interest rate swaps is achieving, it’s stemming the rise in interest rates.” Kirby, who has 15 years experience in trading derivatives, says these complicated derivatives overseen by the U.S. Treasury control the price of virtually everything. Kirby contends, “I refer to this as a price control grid.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Why Bankers Created the Fed 100 Years Ago / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Christopher_Westley
The Democratic Party gained prominence in the first half of the nineteenth century as being the party that opposed the Second Bank of the United States. In the process, it tapped into an anti-state sentiment that proved so strong that we wouldn't see another like it until the next century.
Its adversaries were Whig politicians who defended the bank and its ability to grow the government and their own personal fortunes at the same time. They were, in fact, quite open about these arrangements. It was considered standard-operating procedure for Whig representatives to receive monetary compensation for their support of the Bank when leaving Congress. The Whig Daniel Webster even expected annual payments while in Congress. Once he complained to the Bank of the United States President Nicholas Biddle, “I believe my retainer has not been renewed or refreshed as usual. If it be wished that my relation to the Bank should be continued, it may be well to send me my usual retainer.”
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
North Korea's Ferocious, Weak and Crazy Strategy / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea's state-run media reported Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's top security officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," which has been widely interpreted to mean that North Korea is planning its third nuclear test. Kim said the orders were retaliation for the U.S.-led push to tighten U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's missile test in October. A few days before Kim's statement emerged, the North Koreans said future tests would target the United States, which North Korea regards as its key adversary along with Washington's tool, South Korea.