Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Cyprus Lifts the Curtain on Central Banking / Politics / Central Banks
By: Peter_Schiff
This week financial analysts, economists, politicians, and bank depositors from around the world were outraged that European leaders, more specifically the Germans, currently calling many of the shots in Brussels and Frankfurt, could be so politically reckless, economically ignorant, and emotionally callous as to violate the sanctity of bank deposits in order to fund a bailout of Cyprus. The chorus of condemnation may have been the deciding factor in giving the Cypriot parliament the confidence to unanimously vote down the measures in hopes that Berlin will cave or Russia will swoop in with a bailout.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Iraq War: Worth It Or Not? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS NO
Writing for Bloomberg (19 March), Meghan O'Sullivan who is a professor of international affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government avoids any real answer and bows out by saying "we need more time". Nice answer!
She claims this is the "frustrating reality" and, anyway, as she says, talking about Iraq is emotional for many Americans and even for some Brits, given that the 2003 war was a co-production of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, both of them heavily guarded today in sumptuous retirement hideaways, but with problems concerning which countries they could visit without being indicted: for war crime. Costs of the war, as well as the number of deaths are instantly controversial, as well as hard to estimate. Joseph Stiglitz guesses $1 trillion, which could be compared with the number of years of average US oil import spending this equals: given that US imports are on an increasingly steep downtrend, due to rapid shale oil output growth and very slow demand growth, the number of years stretches onward and upward. To be sure, this would imagine the US took all Iraq's oil exports and received it gratis!
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
Cyprus and the Confiscation of State-guaranteed Bank Deposits / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Fred_Sheehan
Even for those living on a distant continent, the confiscation of state-guaranteed bank deposits in Cyprus is a reminder. (At this stage, it is not clear the Eurocrats will succeed.) Governments and central-banks blew their capital to save a financial Ouija board - not system - in 2008. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker reminded an audience last week there is no financial system: "And what I'm talking about is the international monetary system. Of course you know it's hard to call it a system. A system concerns itself with some interrelated parts and a mechanism that are working together to produce some stability and progress. That's hardly a description of the international monetary system. And as many people have said, 'international non-system.'"
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Hugo Chávez Is Gone, but His Oil Legacy Lives On / Politics / Venezuela
By: Marin_Katusa
On March 5, 2013, Hugo Chávez, one of the most iconic presidents in the world, died at the age of 58. While he was alive, Chávez was a highly controversial figure, calling George W. Bush a drunkard and a "psychologically sick man" and Tony Blair an "imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favor with Danger Bush-Hitler."
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
Why Lenin Would be Proud of the Global Banking System / Politics / Banksters
By: Jeff_Berwick
Justin O'Connell writes: “Without big banks, socialism would be impossible.” – Vladimir Lenin
Socialism is not crafted solely on the backs of standing human or robotic armies, police, and bureaucracy.
The modern state must also possess an apparatus of big banks, as Lenin wrote at the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution, for it is banks which perform most accounting and financial recording. In socialism, banks must be expanded, made more comprehensive and, in our globalized age, reach worldwide.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Military Industrial Complex Stimulus Program is Undeterred / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Is there a panic on the Potomac? The Congress has turned into a wailing wall just to hear all the moans about threatened cuts in what is patriotically known as our Defense budget.
Never mind that many of the cuts were ordered from above because the people at the top know how much they have to slash given all the waste, planned obsolescence and other waste they can afford to trim before they cut the bone or some hostile force can bring us to our knees.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Eurozone Lying: The Root Of The Debt Crisis Problem / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
WE HEARD THAT BEFORE
After the ritual tussles and plays to the crowd, any German-French bilateral summit or private bilateral meeting "on the margin of" similar ritual EU-27 summits, will wind up with a rousing declaration of complete and total agreement: We will tackle the root of the problem. Believe us!
With total predictability the most recent March 14 get together of Merkel and Hollande, "on the margin of" a two-day EU summit in Brussels rolled out the lies in royal fashion. Both leaders told the press that, in Europe, "the crisis" is now 3 years old. Not 4 or 5 or longer, but 3 years young or old. In 2009 for example, things were simply humming for Europe's economy!
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Paul Ryan Magical Mystery Chop, Dice, and Slice Budget / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
In 2011, before he was the Republican nominee for vice-president, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) proposed a federal budget. He called it, “The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise.”
Two years later, now in his second year as chair of the House budget committee, he dusted off and polished his old proposal. He calls this one: “The Path to Prosperity: A Responsible Balanced Budget.” His plan is to cut the federal deficit by $4.6 trillion in four years, reducing the deficit to about $12.1 trillion.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Cyprus Bailout Exposes a World of Thieves, Cheats, and Liars / Politics / Banksters
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Let's talk about the Cyprus bailout, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank.
Let's call what the IMF and ECB are doing what it really is. After all, it is the ultimate institutional goal. It's thieving.
So let's start with the thieves...
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Great Cyprus Bank Robbery / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: BATR
When does banksters’ extortion become outright theft? The latest example and escalation by the placing a levy fee on bank deposits in the tax haven of Cyprus illustrates the bold step of seizing private liquid saving accounts, under the guise of a government tax. The prospects of an all out run on the banking system have jumped tenfold. Essentially, a government is using the power of the state, to steal funds not because of the bankruptcy of a banking institution, but because of a failure of the entire EU financial system. The forbidding precedent of a seizure of individual wealth, by a stroke of a pen, runs contrary to the shrinking confidence in fiduciary trust of cash placed in banking accounts.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Iraq, America's Arab Slaughterhouse / Politics / Iraq War
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Ten years ago today the Bush regime invaded Iraq. It is known that the justification for the invasion was a packet of lies orchestrated by the neoconservative Bush regime in order to deceive the United Nations and the American people.
The US Secretary of State at that time, General Colin Powell, has expressed his regrets that he was used by the Bush regime to deceive the United Nations with fake intelligence that the Bush and Blair regimes knew to be fake. But the despicable presstitute media has not apologized to the American people for serving the corrupt Bush regime as its Ministry of Propaganda and Lies.
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
German Economic War Reparations - Cyprus Is The Start / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
IT HAPPENED BEFORE
It was also not good for Germany - in the end. For other "players" it started bad, and got worse. Major spinoff from war reparations won by a triumphant Germany in 1871 included a worldwide stock market crash starting in Europe, and a Long Recession which was especially strong in Europe - but among today's differences we already have a "relatively weak and manageable" European recession. Already set and ready to spin entirely out of control.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Cyprus Record Bank Heist Spells End Game For Your Wealth / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Jeff_Berwick
The emergency bank holiday in Cyprus has been extended through Tuesday and Wednesday in what as far as the team at Dollar Vigilante has researched, will be the longest emergency bank holiday in Europe or North America since the Second World War.
Marking the first time during the five-year-old global credit crunch, depositors may be forced to pay upfront for their nation's bailout. European finance ministers are reaching into Cypriot savings accounts to backstop a 13 billion euro bailout for Cyprus. The decision was made public early Saturday morning, shortly after which Cyprus banks closed to slow down withdrawals.
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Oz: The Great and Powerful” Perfect Analogy of the Fed / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Profit_Confidential
Mitchell Clark writes: “Oz: The Great and Powerful” is The Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE/DIS) latest flick about a character named Oscar Diggs who is a con artist. He finds himself in the Land of Oz, where he is a magician that’s ethically challenged. It’s quite the analogy to what’s happening today in the U.S. economy.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Cyprus Haircut: Germany's Social Darwinist Economic Miracle / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
ANGELA MERKEL WAS FIRM
The now celebrated "Cyprus haircut" of bank depositors' savings and private wealth, from the account of the smallest "man in the street" to those of the Russian oligarchs who have transformed Cyrus's banking system into a vast money-laundering machine, was described by Germany's Angela Merkel as follows:
Monday, March 18, 2013
Ron Paul - U.S. Congressional Budget Debate Is Just A Sideshow / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Federal spending once again dominated the debate in Washington last week, as House Republicans and Senate Democrats began work on their ten-year budget plans. Contrary to claims, neither party's budget reduces spending. While the Republican plan increases spending a little less than the Democrat plan, it would still spend $5 trillion in 2023, an almost two trillion dollar increase over this year's budget.
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Cyprus Bailout Deal is Already Under Threat (Of Course) / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
One day after it was agreed on and announced by the Eurogroup and Cyprus president Nicos Anastasiades, the deal that would turn the Eurozone into a Pandora's box like no other EU measure to date has done looks like it may never reach the finish line. The Cypriot parliament, in which freshly elected Anastasiades holds just 20 of 56 seats, has pushed a vote on the deal forward until Monday, a clear sign that the president's political adversaries will not easily be locked into an agreement that is obviously and for good reason hugely unpopular.
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Biggest Lie Ever Sold to the American Public / Politics / Inflation
By: Graham_Summers
The US has been lying to all of us for decades now.
We’re not talking about some kooky conspiracy theory… we’re talking about INFLATION.
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
America's Criminal War on Iraq 10th Anniversary / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.
In October, 2002, I wrote a cover-story about Iraq for the first issue of American Conservative magazine, entitled "The March to Folly." My article predicted the impending invasion of Iraq would be a disaster for all concerned.
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Saturday, March 16, 2013
Sequester Holding Americans Hostage / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
Judges who wish to assure that a jury has no outside influence will sequester them.Legally, a sequestered jury is seized by authority and isolated from all outside influences.
The jurors are escorted into and out of the courtroom. They aren’t allowed to read newspapers, listen to radio news, or watch TV news, ’lest they could be influenced by the media. They are escorted to and from meals, and isolated from other customers. They can’t discuss the case with family or friends. They can’t even go home at the end of the day; they’re housed in hotel rooms.
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