Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Iceberg Ahead: The Big Money That Is Sinking Democracy / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
I keep thinking of that clear April night 100 years ago when the unsinkable HMS Titanic steamed towards New York. It was actually on its way to dock just a few blocks from where I live at what are now the Chelsea Piers. There was a sense of optimism abroad as a new record for a speedy transatlantic passage was about to be set.
There was music, dancing and fine wine. That is, until they saw that iceberg high in the water. The Captain and his mates were aware that 80 percent of it was underwater and out of sight. They didn’t react in time.
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Sunday, May 06, 2012
The French Elections: Flirting With The Abyss / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Andrew_McKillop
May 6 is Maybe not 5 years more for Sarkozy, but for France and Europe, and even for the world this election process and sequence has been and will continue to be a dangerous flirt with the abyss. Whether political, social, cultural, economic or otherwise, the election process which has dragged on for months has never ceased throwing red flags and danger signals, all of them ignored and snowed under by the rush to talk and not do, letting the glacier-like advance continue. Until the abyss is reached, everything seems fine; after it nothing is fine.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
U.S. Government Using Police Powers to Protect Hydralic Fracking, Being Fracked by the Merger of Government and Big Business / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
Fracking is polluting water all over the country. A new study published in the journal Ground Water predicts that the highly-toxic fluids used in fracking can migrate to aquifers within a few short years.
The government has officially stated that fracking can cause earthquakes. And see this. Some fracking companies now admit this fact.
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Sunday, May 06, 2012
American's Fed Disinformation On Every Front / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Some readers have come to the erroneous conclusion that the Matrix consists of Republican Party disinformation as if there is no disinformation from the left. Others think that propaganda is the business of Obama and the Democrats. In fact, propaganda from the right, the left and the middle are all part of the disinformation fed to americans.
If I may give some examples: The other day Chuck Colson, one of the Nixon officials imprisoned for Watergate crimes, died. This gave NPR the opportunity to relive the Nixon horror.
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Saturday, May 05, 2012
Stick to Value Investing, Charlie Munger / Politics / Investing 2012
By: Jeff_Berwick
While I am on strict orders from the doctor to never watch CNBC, for my mental health, I was forwarded a video of Charlie Munger on CNBC today where he stated, "gold is a great thing to sew onto your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939 but civilized people don't buy gold - they invest in productive businesses."
Saturday, May 05, 2012
New Private Equity Opportunities Are Coming Thanks to the JOBS Act / Politics / US Politics
By: Ron_Holland
An exceptional entrepreneurial company structure tainted unfairly by the actions of misnamed leveraged private equity buyout firms.
"Their new label became 'private equity,' a name that turns the facts upside-down: A purchase of a business by these firms almost invariably results in dramatic reductions in the equity portion of the acquiree's capital structure compared to that previously existing." – Warren Buffet
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Saturday, May 05, 2012
China, or How To Live in Interesting Times / Politics / China
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
Over the past few weeks I've read an absolute avalanche of articles on China, but because of all the traveling we were doing never got around to turning the information into stories for TAE. By the way, we're on the Sunshine Coast, an hour north of Brisbane, for a week or two right now, staying with friends and trying to catch our breath. It's where the Australasia tour started 11 weeks ago, so it feels kind of fitting. We’ll move over to Europe on May 15, and we will be available for lectures over there. We’re also looking for a place to stay for a month or so by the way, to do some catching up.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
The Euro End's on 6th of May 2012 / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Dr_Volkmar_G_Hable
Few Americans will have noticed that this Sunday the end of the Euro will take place. On that day the final run-off ballot between current French president Mr. Sarkozy and socialist presidential candidate Mr. Hollande will decide over the future of the Euro.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Americans Are Losing Trust In All U.S. Institutions / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
The signs are everywhere: Americans have lost trust in our institutions.
The Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index published yesterday shows that only 22% of Americans trust the nationÂ’s financial system.
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Friday, May 04, 2012
Is an Economic Deluge Nigh? / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Galland
David Galland, Casey Research writes: If history has taught one certain lesson, it is that the less fettered an economy, the better humankind is able to do what it does best: run from trouble and run toward opportunity. In this way mistakes are quickly resolved and progress assured.
Conversely, the deeper the muck of regulation, mandates, taxes, subsidies and other bureaucratic meddling, the slower we humans are in following our natural instincts until the point that progress is slowed or even stopped.
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Friday, May 04, 2012
Forget Global Warming And Move Up To Real Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
Ambassador Richard H. Jones, deputy director of the IEA, opened the IEA's April conference by-lined 'Clean Energy Progress', by saying global temperatures are "probably" going to rise by "6 degrees celsius" by about 2050. The main problem, apart from this being totally impossible - barring massive meteorite attack or massive volcanic eruptions - is that fewer and fewer persons believe this story.
Friday, May 04, 2012
The Fate of the Eurozone Hangs on Sunday's French Elections / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
It now looks as though Nicolas Sarkozy's days are numbered. In the balance lies the fate of the Eurozone itself.
It appears Socialist Francois Hollande will win the French election runoff on Sunday and that June's legislative elections will give the Socialists a powerful position in France's parliament.
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Thursday, May 03, 2012
Americans and Their Totalitarian Government / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Scott Lazarowitz writes: Morning in American - That was Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign slogan, which manipulated the voters to give Reagan a second term of deficit-spending, expanding the welfare/warfare state, and further enlarging Big Government.
Barack Obama will do similar manipulating of the masses.
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Thursday, May 03, 2012
The Gold Standard is the Pet Peeve of the Power Elite / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
Ben Bernanke journeyed across town to give a 4-part seminar to 30 undergraduates at George Washington University.
This was clearly a public relations stunt. Why would the head of the world's most powerful central bank lecture to 30 undergraduates? This was not quite the equivalent of George W. Bush reading "My Pet Goat" to third graders, but it was close. Think of it as "My Pet Peeve." His first speech was an overview of central banking. He used PowerPoint to create slides. The presentation had 49 slides.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Big vs Small Bank Loans / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: BATR
If your Main Street business needs capital and seeks a loan, your prospects are slim to none. It is evident that the real economy has never recovered from the collapse of the financial system. TARP was a temporary rescue of the large money center banks. For the local community banks, the massive give away has strings attached and penalties to be paid. Not much consolation for a small business endeavor that is desperate for cash and an improved business environment.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Swiss National Bank Loses 10% of GDP in Gold trade! / Politics / Gold and Silver 2012
By: Mario_Innecco
We have heard this morning that the Swiss National Bank or SNB has almost doubled its reserves of pound sterling or British pounds to £14.52 billion in the first quarter of 2012 as they try to diversify away from the euro. With that in mind we dug a bit deeper into the activities of this central bank and especially their gold sales that took place between 1999 and 2008.
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Wednesday, May 02, 2012
A National Network for U.S. Manufacturing Innovation? / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
It’s no secret American manufacturing is in crisis, and that its problems form a significant component of our present economic mess. I’ve written before about how the Obama administration may (may!) be starting to get serious about the problem.
Another small but significant data point on the question of whether the administration is serious took place this last week: the government’s new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation held its first conference, designed to elicit public input on how this program will be designed and run.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Economic Austerity Fires Voter Vengeance Against Euro / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: John_Browne
Over the last few years, as the debt crisis has engulfed Europe, the risk that has most concerned economists has been the possibility that the so-called 'olive growing countries' of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, joined by Ireland (and known as the PIIGS) might leave, or be forced out, of the Eurozone. The possibility that Germany may choose to leave, however, is something that has received far less consideration. Though there can be little doubt the euro would survive without the Greeks or the Spanish, there is greater doubt of the euro surviving without the Germans solidly behind it. As the world's second largest reserve currency, the collapse of the euro would precipitate a major international monetary crisis.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
The Inflation Lovers’ Spat / Politics / Inflation
By: Michael_Pento
Two lovers of the notion that inflation can cure everything that ails an economy recently squared off in a battle over who adores counterfeiting the most. Paul Krugman, who probably has a statue of Al Capone at his bedside, chided Ben Bernanke in a New York Times Magazine article for his unwillingness to raise the Fed’s inflation target in order to reduce the unemployment rate. The recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics penned an article titled “Earth to Ben Bernanke” on April 24th. In it he encouraged Bernanke to embrace the idea that more money printing can save the world by writing, “Higher expected inflation would aid an economy.”
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Britain's Strategy of Allying Closely With U.S. Whilst Hedging Bets in Europe / Politics / UK Politics
By: STRATFOR
Britain controlled about one-fourth of the Earth's land surface and one-fifth of the world's population in 1939. Fifty years later, its holdings outside the British Isles had become trivial, and it even faced an insurgency in Northern Ireland.
Britain spent the intervening years developing strategies to cope with what poet Rudyard Kipling called its "recessional," or the transient nature of Britain's imperial power. It has spent the last 20 years defining its place not in the world in general but between continental Europe and the United States in particular.
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