Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Americans Drowning In Spin / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother’s subjects in George Orwell’s 1984 are better informed than Americans.
Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
The 1% Loves Socialism / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Scott Cruickshank submits: You’ll notice if you’ve been paying attention to the war of propaganda that the 1% and their obedient lickspittles are going all out to frame the 99% VS. 1% showdown as a battle between Capitalists and Commies. Capitalism of course being good, socialism bad. I laugh every time I hear it because logic and common sense just doesn’t support the spin.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
The Never Ending Euro Fiasco / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
Imagine if the local fire chief, in the spirit of conservation, decided he’d use no more than 1,000 gallons of water to put out any given house fire. Do you think the citizens would support that policy if their town was burned to the ground? And, yet, this is the same approach that eurozone leaders are using to address the debt crisis. The central bank (ECB) has virtually limitless resources (Think: printing press) to defend the debt of the individual states and to act as lender of last resort, but the eurocrats won’t hear of it. They refuse to use the ECB as every other central bank in the world is used. They’d rather reinvent the wheel by creating a funky, improvised emergency fund (European Financial Stabilization Facility or EFSF) that’s massively leveraged and which only provides a 20 percent “first-loss” guarantee on sovereign bonds. So, for example, if Italy goes belly-up in the next year or so and can’t repay its debts, then Mr. bondholder gets a whopping 20 cents on the dollar. Such a deal!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Occupy Wall Street, Peter Schiff Goes Head to Head in Defense of the 1% / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Last week, I spent the afternoon visiting the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan. I brought a film crew and a sign that said "I Am The 1%, Let's Talk." The purpose was to understand what was motivating these protesters and try to educate them about what caused the financial crisis. I went down there with the feeling that much of their anger was justified, but broadly misdirected.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Will Offshore Crude Oil Lubricate US–Cuba Relations? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Marin_Katusa
Marin Katusa, Casey Energy Opportunities writes: One of Spain's largest oil companies, Repsol, is gearing up to spud a deep, offshore well in Cuban waters, just 60 miles from the Florida Keys. A huge rig is still en route to the site from Singapore, and as it draws closer to its destination the zealous opposition from Floridian politicians who rely on the Cuban expatriate vote gets louder.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Euro Bailouts - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Axel_Merk
The markets appear euphoric about the ability for European policy makers to deliver on new promises. Low market expectations were met. We, too, have a positive takeaway, but only because of one detail of the grand plan; actually, let's call it a "grand sketch," as many details are still unknown.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, October 28, 2011
Trapped in Amerika, a fasco-communist police state / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Slowly, as Americans are waking up to the fasco-communist police state that surrounds them and realize that the economy in the US will never recover until after the US dollar hyperinflates into worthlessness, we receive more and more emails with sad stories and desperate cries for help.
The stories are often truly sad and usually entail abuse by the police or the state or being wiped out by the corrupt educational system or medical system which are fascist systems now designed to indebt and take as much wealth from Americans as possible.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Forget Wall Street, Instead Occupy Capital Hill / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
Central banks exist for a single reason – to inflate the supply of paper currency. They are a currency-creating and currency-inflating institution. This serves two interest groups in the main. One is the fractional-reserve banks that they regulate. The other is the government that created them.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
President Obama Announces Plan to Boost College Tuitions / Politics / Education
By: Peter_Schiff
resident Obama today announced a plan that will ensure students are able to commit to higher levels of federally backed student loans. By limiting student obligations to repay, and by passing more of the repayment burden onto taxpayers, colleges and universities will be able to continue to raise tuitions at a rate that outpaces nearly every other cost center in the American economy. The move will come as a great relief to an education establishment increasingly concerned that students might no longer be able to afford skyrocketing tuition rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Robin Hood Tax: Occupy Movement Now Marching Straight Off the Globalist Cliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Patrick_Henningsen
It was inevitable that a movement which has struggled to agree on a manifesto, would in the end, do the bidding of the very elite globalist powers that they are demonstrating against to begin with.
Instead of achieving freedom from Central Bank debt enslavement, naive Occupiers appear to have taken the bait, pulling the mob towards endorsing a global taxation system, and one to be administered…by a brand new global government body.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Decline of Empire, Idiot Solons and Pentagon Zombies / Politics / US Politics
By: Bill_Bonner
What’s Bill doing in Cyprus…?
Markets a big move to the upside. And why? No apparent reason. Gaddafi bit the dust, almost literally. And the Europeans seemed to be stumbling to yet another solution…in which they borrow more money to help fund the troubles created by borrowing money in the past.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The U.S. Is Fast Becoming a Third World Police State / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
As a P.T. (often referred to as perpetual traveller, permanent tourist or prior taxpayer), I have travelled to nearly 100 countries. During those travels there has always been one defining moment, upon entry into a country, which shows that the country is what is generally thought of as a "third world country".
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
We Pay Tax for the Privilege to Have Currency / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Casey_Research
In this video excerpt from the Casey Summit When Money Dies, Rich Dad advisor Mike Maloney explains how currency is created, "fractional reserve banking," and why our banking system is a pyramid scam of epic proportions.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Occupying Wall Street, The State Is the 1 Percent / Politics / US Politics
By: Douglas_French
The "occupy" protest movement is thriving off the claim that the 99 percent are being exploited by the 1 percent, and there is truth in what they say. But they have the identities of the groups wrong. They imagine that it is the 1 percent of highest wealth holders who are the problem. In fact, that 1 percent includes some of the smartest, most innovative people in the country — the people who invent, market, and distribute material blessings to the whole population. They also own the capital that sustains productivity and growth.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Wealth of the 1percent Provides the Standard of Living of the 99percent / Politics / US Politics
By: George_Reisman
The protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement and its numerous clones elsewhere in the country and around the world chant that 1 percent of the population owns all the wealth and lives at the expense of the remaining 99 percent. The obvious solution that they imply is for the 99 percent to seize the wealth of the 1 percent and use it for their benefit rather than allowing it to continue to be used for the benefit of the 1 percent, who are allegedly undeserving greedy capitalist exploiters. In other words, the implicit program of the protesters is that of socialism and the redistribution of wealth.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
How Difficult Will it be to Solve the Problems of the Eurozone? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
Do we need a law that makes it illegal to push a moose out of a moving aircraft? In baseball, what are the odds of a perfect game? How difficult will it be to solve the problems of the Eurozone? These and other issues are meditated upon by Grant Williams in his Things That Make You Go Hmmm… letter, which is this week’s Outside the Box. Maybe it was the baseball set-up (as my Rangers battle the Cardinals in the World Series) or that I keep getting asked about Europe here in New Orleans at the 2011 Oppenheimer Wealth Management Roundtable, but Grant really pulled me through his weekly missive when I got started, and I believe you will enjoy it as well. Long and short, Grant lays out the problems that we face in a very realistic assessment. I will also point out that he makes me look like a euro-optimist.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Global Debt Crisis, What They Are Doing? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Fred_Sheehan
The Euro and You described a fundamental problem of world finance. The quantity of debt grows as the quality recedes. The problem of bad loans is no longer just the pre-2008 mortgages, CDOs, and LBOs. Debt issued after the bust is defaulting, such as Greek sovereign bonds, issued in June 2010. Some securities are born to part investors from their money, but it's remarkable the extent and variety of such instruments issued in 2011. The world choked on similar bonds and derivatives only three years ago, many of which are still held at false prices on financial institutions' books.
Monday, October 24, 2011
What Do The Euro Crisis Summit Volcanic Eruptions Mean? Pyroclastic Flow Next / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: DK_Matai
1. The summits of European leaders and finance ministers happening this weekend appeared to be filled with despair as personal relations amongst major European leaders -- most notably the Germans and French -- collapsed much further. In parallel, Anglo-French relations also deteriorated as British prime minister Cameron became embroiled in a furious row with French president Sarkozy over Britain's role in talks to resolve the euro crisis. The heated exchange between Cameron and Sarkozy was so bad that it held up the conclusion of the EU-27 summit for almost two hours.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Europe’s Bank Bailout Bill: $3 Trillion / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
As the European Union continues to discuss the possibility of a new bailout fund, news is breaking that any European banking bailout may cost as much as 2 trillion Euros, or $3 trillion. The $3 trillion sum, which would be raised through the EFSF, may also be charged to the IMF.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Gov. Buddy Roemer Calls for Withdrawal From NAFTA, WTO / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ian_Fletcher
I have detailed in previous articles my search for a Republican presidential candidate who is good on trade issues. The candidates range from the pro-China Huntsman, to the corrupt and naïve Perry, to those who sound good but leave unclear where they really stand, like Cain, to those who leave doubt as to whether they would back up their nice words with deeds, like Romney.