Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Switzerland's New Controls for Runaway Alternative Investments, Shadow Banking & Tax Avoidance Schemes? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: DK_Matai
Switzerland is preparing sweeping new rules for its traditionally freewheeling private wealth management, investment banking, alternative investment and shadow banking industry, in an overhaul that is likely to unsettle investors and asset managers around the world. Based on the high density of emails and telephone calls received, ATCA 5000's distinguished members -- chairmen and chief executives, senior bankers, high-ranking government officials, significant investors, asset managers and ultra high net worth individuals -- from more than a hundred countries are seeking to get to grips with the potential scope of the proposed new Swiss laws, which have yet to be translated into English.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Spain Would Be Dead Without ECB Loans, Black Market Transactions in Spain; Bartering in Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
As Greece wonders whether its debt crisis will eventually spell its exit from the euro, one town, Volos, has formed an alternative local currency as noted by the BBC in Greece Bartering System Popular in Volos.
Read full article... Read full article...A few months ago, an alternative currency was introduced in the Greek port city of Volos. It was a grass-roots initiative that has since grown into a network of more than 800 members, in a community struggling to afford items in euros during a deepening financial crisis.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Battle for The “Soul” of Occupy Fear of Co-optation Leads to Self-Destructive Polemics / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Perhaps my problem is that I live in too many worlds at the same time, while many political eras live in me.
That may be why I responded so negatively to a recent polemic wrapped up in a poetic communique from AdBusters, the culture jammers in Canada, who do so much good work (and often so creatively) battling the consumption virus promoted by big corporations many of us have grown to despise.
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Sunday, April 15, 2012
Meet Thanatos: Real Life Superhero / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
Thanatos was the personification of Death in Greek mythology, and is perhaps now better known as the name ascribed to Sigmund Freud's "death drive". Freud understood thanatos as a psychological drive that causes human beings to act in self-destructive ways, or to "lead organic life back into the inanimate state", acting in opposition to the innate force of eros - the "life instinct".
Friday, April 13, 2012
Obama's Real Goal is to Make Us Poorer by Any Means Possible / Politics / US Politics
By: William_Anderson
California regulators recently announced their plans to try to force people to live in dense housing developments rather than single-family homes, which environmental bureaucrats believe are wasteful and contribute to dread global warming. Likewise, the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has issued an order that effectively will keep electric power companies from building new coal-fired power plants, which will mean even higher electricity prices.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Spain in the Debt Crisis Crosshairs / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: William_Bancroft
Only weeks ago Italian technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti proselytized that the Eurozone crisis was “almost over”. It felt like more propaganda from the European establishment, and since returning from the Easter break the markets don’t seem to be agreeing with him. Spanish and Italian yields are firmly on the rise again, marking a reverse of the trend helped into action by €1bn of refinancing money from the ECB. Tensions are rising once more given that Spain and Italy are ‘too big to bail’
Thursday, April 12, 2012
War Imminent between Pakistan and India Over Water? / Politics / Pakistan
By: OilPrice_Com
A peaceful and stable Pakistan is integral to western efforts to pacify Afghanistan, but Islamabad's obsessions with its giant eastern neighbor may render such issues moot.
Since partition in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought four armed conflicts, in 1947, 1965, 1971 (which led to the establishment of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan) and the 1999 Kargil clash.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The War at the End of the U.S. Dollar / Politics / US Dollar
By: Ron_Hera
The history of the U.S. dollar is closely linked to U.S. involvement in a series of wars. The Bretton Woods Accord and the resulting world reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar were both byproducts of World War II (1939-1945). The Korean War (1950-1953) was followed six years later by the Vietnam War (1959-1975) which led to the end of the Bretton Woods system. Unfettered by the constraint of gold backing after 1971, the U.S. dollar became a weapon in the Cold War (1945–1991) between the U.S. and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Each war corresponded with an increase in the U.S. money supply. The Gulf War (1990-1991) was followed by wars in Afghanistan, beginning in 2001, and in Iraq, beginning in 2003, and, simultaneously, by the U.S.-led War on Terror that began in 2001. Like the wars that came before them, the recent staccato of U.S. wars is correlated with increases in the U.S. money supply. The Iraq war, for example, is estimated to have cost as much as $4 trillion.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
ECB Soveriegn Debt Bond Buying Deja Vue All Over Again / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
ECB Says Bond-Buying Program Available
The ECB went from loading up on sovereign debt and making a huge mess of it when Greece defaulted, to the LTRO program which has not made a big mess yet but will. Things are about to go full-circle as the ECB threatens once again to make another mess of things with sovereign bond purchases.
The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank protested bond purchases the last time (correctly), and will do so again, likely to no avail, and with the same predictable results.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Forget About Moving Overseas, Small Town America is Safe / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
I have a site, Gary North's Specific Answers, where subscribers can post questions. I answer a lot of them. I have a lot of practical subscribers who also answer.
One of my site's forums is "Safe Places Forum."
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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Bernanke, The Professor Who Did NOT Save the World / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
"The Fed's efforts prevented a 'total meltdown' of the financial system at a time when fears of a second Great Depression were 'very real,' Mr. Bernanke said Tuesday at the third of his four lectures at George Washington University in Washington."
- Wall Street Journal, "'Fed Prevented Total Meltdown,' Bernanke Said," March 28, 2012.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I'm Worried About America's Future / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
I debated with myself about what to send as this week's Outside the Box. I have decided on a recent short but important post from my friend David Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Cumberland Advisors. He calls it "I'm Worried." There are some very thought-provoking ideas here, but what makes it particularly interesting is that I'm running into this sentiment more and more as I travel around the US; and when I'm abroad I also hear from people who are worried about the US. These are folks who rightly realize the world needs a strong US, both as an economic engine and as a leader –a chairman of the board, if you will –of a growing world. (Can the world grow and prosper without us? Of course, but not as easily, and the transition will not be pretty.)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Moloch State, When Government Safety Nets Break / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
The West's governments are going to default, one way or another. Politicians cannot bring themselves to stop spending money the governments do not have.
The deficits of the major Western governments are now so great as to be irreversible. The governments must now borrow money to be used to pay interest on money already borrowed. In the housing market, this is called a backward-walking mortgage. It invariably spells default. The subprime mortgages were mostly of this type.
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Monday, April 09, 2012
Ron Paul In Praise of Private Charity / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
One of the great fallacies of our time is that if government doesn't do something, no one will. Its corollary is that if you are opposed to the government doing something, that you are opposed to anyone performing that function at all. These disastrous fallacies color much of our national debate concerning heath care, education, poverty, housing, and disaster relief, and other issues.
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Monday, April 09, 2012
Obama's Supreme Court Rebuff / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Many Americans still revere the Supreme Court. As one of the three branches of the Federal government, confidence in their conduct and authority is usually higher than Congress or the Presidency. Yet when a real or contrived constitutional crisis develops, the screams and indignation arise and point to a convenient culprit. The current Obamacare case before this court has all the trappings of a full-blown confrontation. The reason is simple. The underlying question before the Supremes is not purely a legal matter. At stake is whether this country is actually a government under laws. Alternatively, is it an authoritarian dictatorship nuisance by irritating lawful restraints?
Monday, April 09, 2012
Sayonara To Mike Wallace And The News Era He Led / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Danny_Schechter
New York: Mike Wallace lived a long life and became one of America’s best-known non-anchor news stars, whose frequent appearances stirred controversies and broke countless stories.
The picture in the New York Times obit showed his wall of Emmys—I am sure he had a museumfull—all thanks to his relentless drive and unlimited energy.
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Sunday, April 08, 2012
Blythe Masters Speaks Out On JPM and Market Manipulation / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Jesse
A number of people have asked me what I think about Blythe Masters' interview on CNBC in which she categorically denies that JPM is involved in anything but legitimate hedging of customer positions in the silver market.
I think a detailed description of all of JPM's hedging positions in the futures and derivatives market, and the related customers and bullion holdings, should be supplied to Gary Gensler's CFTC as government regulator so they can look them over. That is what the CFTC has been asked by the people who pay them, the investing public, to do.
Sunday, April 08, 2012
America's Middle Class is Being Wiped Out, Soon to be a Nation With a Very Tiny Elite / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
End of the American Dream writes: The middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in the United States today. America is a nation with a very tiny elite that is rapidly becoming increasingly wealthy while everyone else is becoming poorer. So why is this happening? Well, it is actually very simple. Our institutions are designed to concentrate wealth in the hands of a very limited number of people. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have had a big centralized government have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have allowed big business or big corporations to dominate the economy have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. Well, the United States has allowed both big government and big corporations to grow wildly out of control. Those were huge mistakes. Our founding fathers attempted to establish a nation where the federal government would be greatly limited and where corporations would be greatly restricted. Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on those principles and now we are paying the price.
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Nothing in Washington Is Worth Your Money, Including the "think-tanks" / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
The Washington Beltway is a war zone. It is the battleground over what the United States government does and what it does not do. It does a great deal.
Conservatives send tens of millions of dollars each year to Beltway resistance organizations. Some of them are called think tanks. They are dedicated mainly to getting the federal government to do other things, or else to do evil things without spending as much money. These organizations promote this idea: "Running government like a business." Whenever you hear this, think of a serious business: Cosa Nostra.
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Sunday, April 08, 2012
Greening The Desert / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
In the real world, the non-polar deserts are growing at a rapid rate, totally overwhelming the small but valiant attempts at pushing them back. http://hqweb.unep.org/geo/GDOutlook/
One neglected cause among many includes the annihilation of tropical forests. These contain 600 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to about 4.6 trillion barrels of oil or 145 years of oil-burning at the present annual rate of 32 billion barrels a year. This amount of carbon is almost as much as is contained in the atmosphere, but much of it is likely to be released into the atmosphere in the next decades by uncontrolled logging and deforestation.
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