Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Is the United States the Next Argentina? / Politics / US Debt
By: Money_Morning
Garrett Baldwin writes: Drive the streets of Buenos Aires, and you will see regal architecture that rivals wealthy European enclaves in Monaco or London.
And along tree-lined walkways, you will witness monuments that speak of the legacy of Argentina's finest moments.
But all of it is just a façade-a reminder of what used to be.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
How Ben Bernanke Is Destroying Your Retiremen / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Uncle Sam has an unfunded pension liability of $800 billion.
Corporate pension funds have an unfunded liability around $400 billion.
State and local pension funds have an unfunded liability in the tony neighborhood of $3 trillion.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
The 4th Turning - Millennials Will Replace the Baby Boomers / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
A confluence of events last week has me reminiscing about the days gone by and apprehensive about the future. I’ve spent a substantial portion of my adulthood rushing to baseball fields, hockey rinks, gymnasiums, and school auditoriums after a long day at work. I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed every moment. Watching eight year olds trying to throw a strike for two hours can become excruciatingly mind-numbing. But, the years of baseball, hockey, basketball, and band taught my boys life lessons about teamwork, sportsmanship, winning, losing, hard work, and having fun. There were championship teams, awful teams and of course trophies for finishing in 7th place. As my boys have gotten older and no longer participate in organized sports, the time commitment has dropped considerably. Last week was one of those few occasions where I had to rush home from work, wolf down a slice of pizza and head out to a school function. It was the annual 8th grade Spring concert.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Iran’s Search for a “Master of the Economy” / Politics / Iran
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Iran’s Guardian Council announced yesterday that former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been barred from Iran’s presidency poll—reportedly due to his old age and debilitating health. In recent weeks, speculation over a Rafsanjani comeback bid had spurred some optimism among Iranians who recognize that their broken economy desperately needed a jolt. Some Iranian voters have described him as a “master of the economy” and the solution to their economic woes. However, a closer look at Iran’s misery index shows just how fatally flawed this perception is.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
iAvoid - Apple's New Pay No Tax App / Politics / Taxes
By: Jeff_Berwick
There has been an angry uproar recently because Apple has hardly paid any extortion fees in the last four years on its billions in profits. Why this warrants an angry uproar and not a giant cheer for them for not supporting criminal governments is beyond us. But the slave-on-slave action has been thick on this one.
One particular comment on a mainstream site caught my attention, "If our budget geniuses in Congress would hire enough IRS agents, this stuff would stop. But our beanies are cutting IRS budgets. Mitt's servants along with Bill Gates's are doing their job."
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Huge Discrepancy Between Investment Income and Public Liabilities / Politics / US Politics
By: Fred_Sheehan
The difficulty of institutions that need cash for payment have grown acute during the chalk-brained professors' zero-interest-rate pogrom. Insurance companies are one victim, pension plans another. Looking specifically at defined-benefit pension plans, the plan sponsor (corporation, maybe, or municipality) is obligated to pay current and future retirees a specific dollar amount from now until a spouses' death.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Why The Petrodollar System Is Crippled / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Andrew_McKillop
BRETTON WOODS BREAKDOWN, VIETNAM AND THE GREAT SOCIETY
For Jerry Robinson (http://ftmdaily.com/documents/Preparing-for-the-Collapse-of-the-Petrodollar-System.pdf) the reasons why the so-called Petrodollar System must collapse is ultimately because the political and monetary drivers of the system date back to the fast-fading times of 1945-1971 when the the USA's global hegemony and monetary power was almost unchallenged.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Is Jamie Dimon Too Big to Fire? / Politics / Banksters
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Jamie Dimon is the 57-year old banking mogul whose been running JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) since 2005, and he decisively won a shareholder vote yesterday to keep both his chairmanship and chief executive officer (CEO) titles at the nation's largest bank.
But don't celebrate yet.
Sure, only 32.2% of shareholders voted for a proposed resolution to split the company's two top jobs. And that may sound like great news (for him) but the winner wasn't Jamie Dimon, it was the Cult of the CEO.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Can Two U.S. Senators End Too Big to Fail Banks? / Politics / Banksters
By: John_Mauldin
I am often on a panel or at dinner with Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture), and he will remark, "I am going to have to rethink my position – I agree with John, and that can't be right." While I don't share that bias, I do agree with Barry about his recent take on legislation – which might actually pass – that would deal with too-big-to-fail banks in the US. Barry's latest take on that issue is this week's Outside the Box.
I have not written all that much on the topic lately, other than to say that Dodd-Frank was designed by big banks for big banks – the best legislation they could buy, I have been very critical of allowing too-big-to-fail banks to put taxpayers at risk, and I don't think it should ever be allowed to happen again. Dodd-Frank did not deal with that.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Is This Obama's "Waterloo"? / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: You're reading it right now.
I'm calling it WII (WHY?), which stands for Washington Insights & Indictments.
Enjoy it.
It's likely to be a single issue.
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Stocks Go Long, Scandal! Keep 'Em Coming, Obama! / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: There's a lot of buzz that President Obama's current scandals - Benghazi, the IRS and the Department of Justice - may bring down the financial markets.
I disagree - if anything, they'll provide fuel for another leg up.
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Monday, May 20, 2013
The Feds Are Worried About the U.S. Dollar / Politics / US Dollar
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Over the past month there has been a statistically improbable concurrence of events that can only be explained as a conspiracy to protect the dollar from the Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing (QE).
Quantitative Easing is the term given to the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing 1,000 billion new dollars annually in order to finance the US budget deficit by purchasing US Treasury bonds and to keep the prices high of debt-related derivatives on the “banks too big to fail” (BTBF) balance sheets by purchasing mortgage-backed derivatives. Without QE, interest rates would be much higher, and values on the banks’ balance sheets would be much lower.
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Keynesian Phrenology - Our Rulers Are Nutty as Well as Evil / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Richard_Daughty
I am getting more and more upset about the future of the economy, especially the part where I will probably still be alive to suffer through it, instead of being safely dead and gone, laughing disdainfully from whatever circle of Dante’s hell that is reserved for us lousy fathers, worthless husbands, lackluster employees and all-around lazy bastards.
“Hahaha!” I will bellow. “Now suffer! Suffer, you morons who actually believed that the idiocy of Keynesian economics would NOT end in disaster! From the heart of hell I strike at thee!”
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Ron Paul - The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our Liberties / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
"What do you expect when you target the President?" This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave "special scrutiny" to organizations opposed to the current administration's policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President's opponents is part of their job.
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Can France Save The Euro - Or Even Itself? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
FRANCE'S CLAIMS ARE NOT ITS GAINS
French media, whether state-owned like 5 of its major TV channels and 2 major radio networks, or simply "government friendly" and entirely predictable, mindless repeater stations for government propaganda, have for several months applied the "ukase" (a French word borrowed from Russian, meaning autocratic law) which claims that France played a decisive role creating the euro system. As an "official truth"it is debatable, but more important is why the propaganda is belted out 24/7.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Big Energy Siezing Landowner Property / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek.
TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete. With the exception of a 300-mile extension between Cushing and Steele City, Neb., the rest of the $7 billion 1,959 mile pipeline is being held up until President Obama either succumbs to corporate and business pressures or blocks the construction because of environmental and health concerns.
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Friday, May 17, 2013
The UK Green Energy Policy Shambles / Politics / Renewable Energy
By: Andrew_McKillop
GREEN TAPE AND BUSINESS DONT MIX
BusinessEurope president Jürgen Thumann speaking to EurActiv at the European Business Summit, May 15, squarely blamed the European Commission for "the negative effects of green tape”, also saying EU regulations create ‘unnecessary burdensome legislative instruments in climate, energy and environment policies’. The UK Energy Intensive Users Group, an umbrella group that represents a dozen or more energy intensive sectors such as steel, cement, paper and chemicals which have no option but to compete on international markets, often have 70% or more of their operating costs swallowed by energy purchases. These industries are therefore very sensitive to the relative price of energy in the national economy. The EIUG's Director Jeremy Nicholson is outspoken on the negative impacts of Europe's "green tape", like its European continental opposite numbers which include Eurogas, the industry group representing the heavily penalized European gas industry.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Too Big to Jail - Enough to Make Your Blood Boil / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Here are two items that will upset you...
First, back in February, Attorney General Eric Holder christened the unofficial official doctrine of "Too Big to Jail."
He told Congress, "The size of some of these institutions [TBTF banks] becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute - if we do bring a criminal charge - it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."
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Friday, May 17, 2013
A Reminder, the Fed Is NOT Printing Money / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Jesse
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So I think central banking, I believe, has learned the dangers of fiat money, and I think, as a consequence of that, we've behaved as though there are, indeed, real reserves underneath the system." Alan Greenspan, 20 July 2005
Friday, May 17, 2013
Remember the $700 Billion Toxic Asset Bailout? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Bill_Bonner
The financial news is getting boring. The Dow goes only one way – up. But gold fell below $1,400 per ounce yesterday.
Rather than trying to figure it out, yesterday evening we drove down to Zombietown. A friend in Washington had promised to introduce us to Neil Barofsky, inspector general of the TARP program.
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