Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Global Balance of Power Anarchy and Hegemony / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Robert D. Kaplan writes: Everyone loves equality: equality of races, of ethnic groups, of sexual orientations, and so on. The problem is, however, that in geopolitics equality usually does not work very well. For centuries Europe had a rough equality between major states that is often referred to as the balance-of-power system. And that led to frequent wars. East Asia, by contrast, from the 14th to the early 19th centuries, had its relations ordered by a tribute system in which China was roughly dominant. The result, according to political scientist David C. Kang of the University of Southern California, was a generally more peaceful climate in Asia than in Europe.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Examples of Wasteful U.S. Government Spending: Duplicate Programs Squander Billions / Politics / Government Spending
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: So many federal agencies are duplicating one another's efforts in so many different areas that the billions lost to such wasteful government spending is impossible to calculate.
A recent report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office uncovered 162 areas of duplicate spending, which at minimum wastes tens of billions of dollars every year.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
A Message for America's Middle and Lower Class Slaves / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Hi Slaveys,
What a month... near economic collapse in Cyprus giving us a taste of what's going to happen to our bank accounts here when things start to really fall apart (Bitcoin, anyone?), people blowing up people with bombs, badly maintained factories (inexplicably built near homes) exploding, Chicago under water, and a government that's 100% unresponsive and useless to anyone who isn't lining their pockets. Time to revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for some tips on how to live the calmest life possible for people who aren't able to leave the States.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Misguided Case for Capital Controls / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Casey_Research
By International Man, Network
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently penned an article in which he comes out in favor of capital controls.
Not surprisingly, his argument follows the near cookie-cutter justification used by governments throughout history to seize more control over their citizens.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
U.S. Government Set to End tax Free Internet Shopping / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: A controversial Internet sales tax moving through Congress will mostly benefit big corporations and state governments while hurting thousands of small businesses and consumers.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would essentially end tax-free Internet shopping by forcing online retailers with revenue of $1 million or more to collect sales taxes for the states in which their customers reside.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Farm Supports and Social Welfare / Politics / Food Crisis
By: BATR
The planting season is in full swing as is the transfer of subsidies to big agriculture and social welfare food stamps. Which has more worth, paying the Monsanto and property tax bill or running a public assistance program that allows for the buying of lottery tickets? Well, if you are Congress, both have benefit, but mostly for their political value. Why are food stamps part of the Farm Bill? Nancy Marshall-Genzer makes a shrewd observation.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
From New York to Boston, They Thought They Were Free / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Jorge Gato writes: ‘Twas an uneasy gut feeling that bid me to leave the Land of Milk & Honey several years ago. Something in the air didn’t smell right. The fascist frog pot has been steaming on low flame for a while now, but it is a slow simmer until you reach that exponential boiling point of no return. The recent turn of events has me somewhat startled (with fascination of course, as I shall fear no evil).
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Economic and Social Abnormality Reigns, American's Loving Their Servitude / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited
Monday, April 22, 2013
U.S. Moving Towards a Gold Standard / Politics / Gold and Silver 2013
By: Jan_Skoyles
Following the news that last week Arizona lawmakers passed a bill that will see precious metals become legal tender we thought this would be the perfect time to bring you a fourth installment of The Real Asset Report. Here we look at the moves several US states are making to move to sound money. Look out for the great infographic below.
Read full article... Read full article...‘No State Shall make any Thing but Gold and Silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts’ 1787 US Constitution: Article I, Section 8.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Ron Paul - How Congress Exploits Our Fears to Take Our Liberty / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week, as Americans were horrified by the attacks in Boston, both houses of Congress considered legislation undermining our liberty in the name of "safety." Gun control continued to be the focus of the Senate, where an amendment expanding federal "background checks" to gun show sales and other private transfers dominated the debate. While the background check amendment failed to pass, proponents of gun control have made it clear they will continue their efforts to enact new restrictions on gun ownership into law.
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Cyprus Crisis Prompts Russia to Create its Own Tax Haven / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
Since the time of the financial disaster in Cyprus, Russia has been cherishing the idea of creating its own offshore. It was previously suggested the special tax area should be created on the territory of Russia's Far East. A new idea has appeared now - to create an offshore zone on the base of the International Investment Bank (IIB). Many analysts were left perplexed with such a suggestion.
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Saturday, April 20, 2013
How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
I thank Fan Zhiqiang for his decision to translate Panderer to Power. His great attention to detail in asking me to explain dozens of phrases and terms for a Chinese audience reminded me of how the book concentrates on the United States. The influence of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's actions spread around the world. It would have been a much longer book, though, if I wrote of how United States' policy influenced China (for example), other than writing of it in reference to the United States.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Obamacare's War on Full-Time Jobs Will Sucker Punch Economy / Politics / Employment
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: Obamacare's rules regarding hours worked and employer-sponsored healthcare coverage have entire industries looking at cutting down on their number of full-time employees in favor of more part-time employees.
Large industries affected include hotels, restaurants and retailers, as well as small businesses of all stripes.
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Protect Your Wealth by Internationalizing Your Assets / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
Since writing The International Man in 1976, I've had quite a bit to say about internationalizing yourself. The book's subtitle was Making the Most of Your Personal Freedom and Financial Opportunity Around the World; but in going over past editions of our newsletters, I find that most of what I've written in recent years has been about the financial aspects of expatriation. Now seems a good time to confront the rest of the subject head on – the reasons to very seriously consider leaving your home country, and to do so now, not next year.
The International Man is long out of print, of course, and only available through used bookstores and finders (including amazon.com). While I'm obviously biased, it's actually still an excellent read, although the world is a different place and I've learned a few things since 1976. The book was directed to Americans, but found a fairly broad international market – becoming, among other things, the biggest-selling book in the history of Rhodesia. That, in and of itself, provides a bit of an object lesson in how things can change, I think.
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
In CO2 We (Didnt) Trust / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
ALL THE PROOF WE NEED
Recent articles by myself have said the obvious - the view of any sane unbiased person - that the European Union's "faith in carbon" was as slippery, unsure and worthless as its "commitment' to the convertible go-anywhere euro. It is now not convertible if you are Cypriot or have a Cypriot bank account, in which case any amount above 100 000 euro in that account will be punitively taxed and any amount exceeding a few thousand euros (the amounts change, by decree, quite often) cannot be legally taken outside the country.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Taxation Is Theft / Politics / Taxes
By: LewRockwell
Andrew P. Napolitano writes: With a tax code that exceeds 72,000 pages in length and consumes more than six billion person hours per year to determine taxpayers’ taxable income, with an IRS that has become a feared law unto itself, and with a government that continues to extract more wealth from every taxpaying American every year, is it any wonder that April 15th is a day of dread in America? Social Security taxes and income taxes have dogged us all since their institution during the last century, and few politicians have been willing to address these ploys for what they are: theft.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Boston Massacre Theories / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Hours after the tragic massacre at the Boston Marathon on April 15, web writers and bloggers filled the internet with "theories", and professional new organizations did likewise.
Alex Spillius of UK's The Telegraph summarized these theories the morning after: "The first is that domestic right-wing extremists were responsible. The second is that Islamists, either foreign or American, and linked to al-Qaeda spiritually or practically, were to blame. A third possibility is killers with no ideological agenda whatsoever." However, Mr. Spillius, sitting 4,800 km from Back Bay Boston, strikingly missed theory Number Four: the bombing was a "false flag attack" by the US Government. Clearly, he didn't have full insight into the American Right, especially the faction called "Truthers" who generally believe the U.S. government commits acts of terrorism against itself to justify public support for state repression, i.e., beginning with a "cover-up" of 9/11.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The Government Wants Your Money or Your Life / Politics / Taxes
By: LewRockwell
April 15th is a horrible day, because it sums up all the wealth destruction called taxation that we are subjected to all year long.
As Murray Rothbard pointed out, taxation is the worst method of looting us. Inflation is destructive, of course, and it might make a loaf of bread cost $10. But at least you get a loaf of bread. With taxation, you get nothing—except theft and other violations of our civil liberties.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Cyprus Too Small To Fail / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Steve_H_Hanke
The political elites in Brussels can once again breathe a sigh of relief. Cyprus did not implode and take the euro with it. In many ways, the latest drama in Cyprus followed a familiar pattern: the so-called troika of European leadership (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) flew to a country on Europe’s periphery to rescue its failing banks, that country’s leadership balked, and then eventually caved to Brussels’s demands.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013
China and North Korea: A Tangled Partnership / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
China appears to be growing frustrated with North Korea's behavior, perhaps to the point of changing its long-standing support for Pyongyang. As North Korea's largest economic sponsor, Beijing has provided the North Korean regime with crucial aid for years and offered it diplomatic protection against the United States and other powers. To outsiders, China's alliance with North Korea seems like a Cold War relic with little reason for persisting into the 21st century. However, Beijing's continued support for Pyongyang is not rooted in shared ideology or past cooperation nearly as much as in China's own security calculations.