Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The Fed's "Operation Twist". Europe and America. Grim Economic Prospects / Politics / US Economy
By: Bob_Chapman
Seven months after the official announcement on 9/21/11 of “Operation Twist” not much progress has been made at the long end of the market to reduce yields. The yield on the 10-year T-note has gone from 1.88% to 2.3% and the 30-year bond went from 3.03% to 3.41%. The episode has been marred by hedge fund and sovereign selling, which has left the short end a little higher, but the long end much higher. The question now is how much did this cost the Fed for such disappointing results?
Friday, March 30, 2012
Stormtroopin' USA, Redention, Indefinite Detention, Creeping Facism / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_Mills
No term generates more confusion or misunderstanding than fascism, too many people believe that fascism exists solely in images on the History Channel - storm troopers pounding thundering jackboots down cobblestone streets of occupied countries while throwing up the Roman salute. But fascism is not defined by clothing, symbolism or salutes.
Fascism is a totalitarian system of government that bases its economy on capitalism, it's a marriage of government authority and military/police power managed by corporate influence.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Who Captured the Fed? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Jesse
Future generations will look back and ask themselves, 'How could they not see what was happening? Were they blind?'
The Fed is not the only problem here, but a key enabler. White collar crimes and fraud flourished amongst the robber barons even in the days of the gold standard. It just was not as convenient, as easy, to defraud the people en masse through the debasement of the currency.
Friday, March 30, 2012
How to Prevent the Next Financial Crises / Politics / Financial Crash
By: Jesse
Nassim Taleb presents a very simple principle for avoiding financial crises.
But sometimes the simplest principles are the most difficult to implement. For example:
Read full article... Read full article...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the whole of the law.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Germany Monetary Policies Openly Working Against the ECB… What’s Next? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
While the mainstream financial media and 99% of investors continue to believe that Germany will align itself with the EU, we’ve been pounding the table Germany will in fact look after its own interests rather than the EU’s and that it might in fact leave the Euro temporarily.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Europe's Monetary Bazooka Will Fire Blanks / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
Europe continues to take a page out of Hank Paulson’s “Crisis Combat” booklet, by unveiling one monetary “bazooka” after another. Obviously, EU leaders didn’t notice that Paulson’s “bazooka” completely failed to stop the 2008 Crash.
Even more strangely, they keep pulling out bazooka after bazooka, first unveiling the EFSF which was supposed to raise €1 trillion but failed to raise even €10 billion without having to intervene in its own bond auctions.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Europe's Nuclear Exit Strategy / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Andrew_McKillop
At this time in April 2012 the nuclear industry has springcleaned its rhetoric and is making predictable
rearguard action, claiming it isn't dead yet. What almost any honest observer will say is that just one
more Fukushima type disaster will totally seal the fate of nuclear power, relegating the nuclear industry
back to only the domains of weapons, medicine, engineering and research. As the Japanese government
is obliged almost daily to up the estimate of costs that it and taxpayers will have to bear for the
Fukushima disaster - the latest estimate is for a total of around 11 trillion yen to 2020 - Japan moves
further to a probable complete exit from nuclear power. The costs were simply too high, like the risks
which are perceived by public opinion as far too high.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Before Making That IRA Contribution, Make Sure Your Pension Plan Assets are Safe / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Money_Morning
Larry D. Spears writes:
The middle of April is fast approaching and everyone knows what that means - time to get those 2011 income tax returns filled out and filed.
What few people realize is that they also have until Monday, April 16, to open a new individual retirement account (IRA) for 2011 or make your annual contribution to an existing one.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Are High Taxes About to Make Silicon Valley Pack Up and Leave? / Politics / Tech Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
California Governor Jerry Brown is at it again.
He's cut a deal with the teachers' unions that would take the top rate of state income tax from 10.3% to 13.3%.
If passed on the November ballot, that would increase taxes on the top tier by a hefty 29%.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Secret China Coup Could Send These Stocks Higher / Politics / China Stocks
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:
Reports of a coup in the past week have startled many long-time China watchers.
Of course, we've seen next to nothing in the Western media about it despite the fact that what is going on behind the scenes now may be the biggest political play we've seen in decades.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Goldman Sachs Should 'Stop Saying' It Puts Customers First / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Bloomberg
Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, who serves as a senior policy advisor for Goldman Sachs, spoke to Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker this morning on "Inside Track." Levitt said that Goldman should "stop saying" the firm puts customers first and that Lloyd Blankfein's "future is determined really by what the business is over the course of coming months."
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Washington Obsesses Over Syria Whilst Mexico Burns / Politics / Mexico
By: STRATFOR
While the foreign policy elite in Washington focuses on the 8,000 deaths in a conflict in Syria -- half a world away from the United States -- more than 47,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2006 in Mexico. A deeply troubled state as well as a demographic and economic giant on the United States' southern border, Mexico will affect America's destiny in coming decades more than any state or combination of states in the Middle East. Indeed, Mexico may constitute the world's seventh-largest economy in the near future.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Death of the Entertainment Industry / Politics / Sector Analysis
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
There are things that many people in the developed world take for granted, especially in the states and Western Europe. Jobs, health benefits, social safety nets, affordable credit for homes/cars/etc. and cheap energy certainly rank among the most vital expectations, but even those things have been called into question within the mainstream consciousness, if for no other reason than the fact that they have simply evaporated in many locations. What hasn't really disappeared, though, are the [mindless] entertainment industries - i.e. sports, movies and video games.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
From Obamacare to Taxes: 5 Hot Topics Politicians Love to Lie About / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
Political lies are as old as the Republic, but that doesn't make the practice any less of an insult to the American people.
Whether they are about Obamacare or taxes, political lies are a special kind of deception.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Explaining Central Banking to the Publicly Educated / Politics / Central Banks
By: Jeff_Berwick
Don't understand economics? And the thought of even trying makes your eyes cross?
That's what they want. Government, which is an artificial, unnecessary construct has made a concerted effort to make economics sound as difficult as possible for decades. The reason? They can use your programmed ignorance as the publicly "educated" to confuse you about how they manipulate the economy for their benefit.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The United States in Korea: A Strategy of Inertia / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
After U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone on March 25 during his trip to South Korea for a nuclear security summit, he made the obligatory presidential remarks warning North Korea against continued provocations. He also praised the strength of U.S.-South Korean relations and commended the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Obama's visit itself is of little importance, but it is an opportunity to ask just what Washington's strategy is in Korea and how the countries around North Korea (China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) view the region. As always, any understanding of current strategy requires a consideration of the history of that strategy.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
HUGE Changes Coming To Planet Earth, 2012 is HERE! / Politics / Social Issues
By: T_Anthony_Michael
Cosmic Convergence Accelerates Epochal Change On Planet Earth
What happens when an unparalleled Solar Maximium occurs while Pluto is cruising through Capricorn, seismic activity and vulcanism (both undersea and on land) have already seen a dramatic uptick, technospheric breakdown has greatly accelerated, entire species have vacated the planet as whole ecosystems are irreparably destroyed, global climate change appears as global warming, cooling, drought or deluge, and the worldwide financial system is on the verge of collapse, as in a total and complete, irreversible monetary meltdown? Believe it or not, these actual occurrences and various eventualities are the very least of our problems.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
As the U.S. Constitution Burns, we sleep...then wake! / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Are Americans willing to surrender their constitutional protections in order to fight “terrorism”? Attorney General Erik Holder and President Obama believe they are willing, and continue to pave the way for dismantling our rights in the name of national defense.
From the Patriot Act to HR347 (acts of terrorism against Americans and the Constitution by this and past administrations), the American people have remained numb, dumb and compliant. When the Constitution, the legal foundation of law itself, is compromised and violated by the very branches of government to whom it is entrusted, all law is violated, and lawlessness prevails in its stead.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Will Holland Escape the Eurozone Debt Crisis by Exiting the European Union? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
For your Outside the Box today I treat you to another big, juicy slab of Grant Williams' Things That Make You Go Hmmm… I don't want to be all Grant all the time, but this is just so good I couldn't resist. This week, Grant is digging deep into the history and mystery of the European Union, taking us all the way back to the first inter-country treaty in April 1951 and then following the rather tortuous bureaucratic proceedings that led, by hook and by crook, to today's increasingly problematic eurozone.
Monday, March 26, 2012
New-Build Nuclear Power: A High-Risk Gamble / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Submissions
Dr Gerry Wolff writes: New report says there are five major areas of risk in putting money into new nuclear plants
According to a new report from the Energy Fair group (PDF, bit.ly/zGgbHF), anyone considering investing in new nuclear plants faces five major areas of risk: market risk, cost risk, subsidy risk, political risk and construction risk.