Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Grand Theft Pentagon, Massive Waste and Fraud / Politics / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
Longstanding Pentagon operations reflect a black hole of unaccountability. Reuters published a two-part report. In July, it discussed the Defense Department’s “payroll quagmire.”
It’s bureaucracy is stifling. It’s “unyielding,” said Reuters. Active duty and retired military personnel are routinely cheated. Pay errors are widespread.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
A Limited Central Bank For Improving Monetary Policy Effectiveness / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: John_Mauldin
This week’s Outside the Box is unusual, even for a letter that is noted for its unusual offerings. It is a speech from last week by Charles I. Plosser, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia at (surprisingly to me) the Cato Institute’s 31st Annual Monetary Conference, Washington, DC.
I suppose that if Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher had delivered this speech I would not be terribly surprised. I suspect there are some other Federal Reserve officials here and there whoare in sympathy with this view Plosser presents here, but for quite some time no serious Fed official has outlined the need for a limited Federal Reserve in the way Plosser does today. He essentially proposes four limits on the US Federal Reserve:
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
US Government Lets JPMorgan Off the Hook for Mortgage Fraud / Politics / Banksters
By: Barry_Grey
On Tuesday, the US Justice Department announced a long-awaited official settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest US bank, on an array of charges by state and federal agencies related to the bank’s sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities, which contributed to the 2008 financial crash.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Middle Class and To QE or not to QE? / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Jonathan_Davis
Of course, anyone who knows me will already know the answer to that. I often include this in tweets: #BanQE
It is proven beyond doubt (except for the liars – the politicians, the bankers, the central bankers, the media, the multi nationals – who pretend it has worked) that it has enriched the rich and the financial elite and it has impoverished the bulk of folk.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
New American Retirement Nightmare, No More Money to Retire / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Mike_Shedlock
Except for public union workers with pensions that ultimately will not be met, retirement age for most keeps inching up.
People need to work longer or go back to work after a few years of retirement because they have insufficient savings. This creates competition between those over 60 and those under 20 for low-paying jobs.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Janet Yellen “Pink Dream” and a Coming Economic Nightmare / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Joseph_T_Salerno
On Monday, former Fed official Andrew Huszar publicly apologized to the American public for his seminal role in executing the Quantitative Easing (QE) program, a program he characterizes as “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time,” and “the largest financial-markets intervention by any government in world history.” While this is a momentous admission from an insider (Mr. Huszar is also a former Wall Street banker), perhaps Mr. Huszar’s most revealing statement concerned the results of QE’s “relentlessly pumping money into the financial markets during the past five years.” He referred to the spectacular rally in financial markets and expressed agreement with the growing belief among expert observers that market conditions had become “bubble-like.”
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
America's New Police State Iron Curtain, Shutting Citzens In and Out / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Wendy McElroy writes: An iron curtain is slowly descending around the borders of America. When it falls, some people will be shut in; others will be shut out. It will be up to bureaucrats and agents with guns to decide which one of those people you are.
Changes in border policy are in the wind. On June 27th, 2013, the 1,300-page Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act passed the Senate and proceeded to the House of Representatives. Debate on the Act has focused on the path of citizenship being extended to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in America. This is controversial because Republicans fear that the new Americans, and especially Hispanics, will vote Democrat in upcoming elections. Happily, the bill has stalled in the House.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
U.S. Debt Russian Roulette? / Politics / US Debt
By: Andy_Sutton
One of the biggest shames in the world is when someone else has to take care of your business when you are perfectly capable of doing so yourself. It used to be the ultimate form of embarrassment. However, we in the United States have turned shame into an art form over the past hundred years or so, squandering everything from our riches and blessing to the sacred honor Thomas Jefferson wrote about all those years ago in a document that is barely covered in most school curriculums today.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Darwinism Is Nonsensical as well as very Politically Correct / Politics / Evolution
By: LewRockwell
Fred Reed writes: The intent of this essay is not to debate with the ardent of evolutionism, which is the Political Correctness of science. To do so would be pointless. The greatest intellectual divide is not between those who believe one thing and those who believe another, but between those who have an emotional need to believe something fervently and those who can say, “I don´t know.” The former group comprises those tedious Darwinists and Creationists who robotically hurl imprecations at each other like fans of rival football teams. Each blockheadedly refuses to concede the slightest possibility that its doctrine might be other than infallible. To my mind they constitute the best evidence that we did not descend from monkeys, but have not yet ascended to them. Stupidity beyond a certain point is intractable.
Monday, November 18, 2013
America’s Chemical Weapons Hypocrisy, Conspiracy and a Forgotten History / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: “The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” (J.Edgar Hoover,1895-1972.)
Since the fairy tale about weapons of mass destruction that can be launched against Western targets “within forty five minutes” is well past it’s sell by date, the trans-Atlantic hasbara industry has dreamed up a new Grim Reaper for Syria, their latest quarry: chemical weapons.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Ron Paul - Federal Reserve Bank Steals From The Poor and Gives to The Rich / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last Thursday the Senate Banking Committee held hearings on Janet Yellen's nomination as Federal Reserve Board Chairman. As expected, Ms. Yellen indicated that she would continue the Fed's "quantitative easing" (QE) polices, despite QE's failure to improve the economy. Coincidentally, two days before the Yellen hearings, Andrew Huszar, an ex-Fed official, publicly apologized to the American people for his role in QE. Mr. Huszar called QE "the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time."
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 18, 2013
Banks Syphoning Off the Financial Blood of their Customers / Politics / Banksters
By: James_Quinn
Reports like the recent one from SNL Financial – Branch Networks Continue to Shrink really get my goat. As I travel the increasingly vacant highways of Montgomery County, PA I’m keenly aware of my surroundings. If I were a foreigner visiting for the first time, I’d think Space Available was the hot new retailer in the country. I’ve detailed the slow disintegration of our suburban sprawl paradise in previous articles:
Saturday, November 16, 2013
The Yellen Dilemma - Rebel Now Bagholder / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Janet Yellen appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on the approval process, more a production than a process. The veteran economist and banker was given respectful treatment. The good Senators do not wish to be subjected to smear campaigns (see Menendez of New Jersey) or to have their banker donations cut off, better described as relentless bribery toward policy control. After all, Wall Street firms wrote the Financial Regulatory Bill. She will be confirmed for the US Federal Reserve Chair post with some minor heckling by the Senators. Expect Corker (Tennessee), Vitter (Louisiana), and Rand Paul (Kentucky) to pitch in some salty commentary. Yellen fits the job description as an insider, with ample experience inside the Federal Reserve Board and the Council of Economic Advisors, with the correct tribal pedigree. She has carefully scripted her own commentary, with some tacit comprehension of the impossible task of fostering a strong enough economy to sustain itself toward spinning off adequate job growth. Yellen will continue the Zero Interest Rate Policy Forever and a day, since raising rates would kill the economic structure and financial lattice work.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Why Banking, Corporate America And The Government Need Each Other / Politics / Banksters
By: GoldSilverWorlds
It should not come as a surprise that banking, industry and government are closely connected. The recent draconian decisions of the US Fed or the US foreign policy towards the Middle East are obvious examples. In order to understand who is behind most of those decisions and who the beneficiaries are, one should go back in history to the end of the 19th century.
Murray N. Rothbard revealed in his book “Wall Street, Banks and American Foreign Policy” in great detail that the financial and political stakeholders are one and the same. Rothbard, being an author and great thinker, highlights the role of political capitalism and crony capitalism in the US by tracing the historical references and connections in US financial and political decision making. This was also the context in which the US Fed was created.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Economics of ObamaCare / Politics / US Politics
By: Robert_Murphy
Near the end of Human ActionLudwig von Mises declared that it was the “primary civic duty” to learn the teachings of economics. The public’s growing furor over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — popularly known as “ObamaCare” — beautifully illustrates Mises’s point. No one has any business being shocked — shocked! — thatmillions of Americans will losetheir current health insurance (including the present, irritated, writer), because such an outcome was obvious all along. Furthermore, the hilarious snags with healthcare.gov are merely a sideshow; the true problems with ObamaCare run much deeper than a malfunctioning website.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Egypt Marches to a Saudi Drummer / Politics / Egypt
By: OilPrice_Com
Felix Imonti writes: General El-Sisi may have found the solution to Egypt's economic woes. It is called war.
During the weeks up to the coup, General El-Sisi had much to consider. With his access to the presidential palace and the trust of the Muslim Brotherhood, the general would have known the well-kept secret that Egypt was facing in a few short months a currency collapse and a famine that would very likely throw the country into a bloody revolution that his soldiers would be forced to quell.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, November 14, 2013
NSA $52 Billion Black Budget, A Sense of Magnitudes / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Steve_H_Hanke
On October 28th, I wrote a blog post, “The NSA’s Rent is Too Damn High,” in which I looked at the $52.6 billion price tag for America’s spook infrastructure – the so-called “black budget.” When allocated across every American taxpayer, this staggering sum comes out to $574 per taxpayer, per year.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, November 14, 2013
China Demographics - The Next Phase of Reform / Politics / China
By: STRATFOR
The commitment and ability of China's leaders to follow through on new policies and to meet rising expectations will be tested as they strive to balance competing social, economic, political and security challenges. Three decades ago, China embarked on a new path, creating a framework that encouraged the country's rapid economic rise. The successes of those policies have transformed China, and the country's leadership now faces another set of strategic choices to address China's new economic and international position.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
How to Avoid Second Passport Scams and Traps / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor, International Man
It's a predictable reaction that a government in need of cash will turn to destructive measures, such as currency creation and increasing taxes and regulations.
Unfortunately, those measures are just the hors d'oeuvres before a 10 course meal.
As they become progressively more desperate, governments throughout history and all around the world have always turned to more destructive policies, such as capital controls, price controls, people controls, official currency devaluations, wealth confiscations, retirement account nationalizations, and more.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Public Banking in Costa Rica: A Remarkable Little-Known Model / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Ellen_Brown
In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it.