Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Can Government Debt Crisis Lies Calm the Financial Markets? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
The question of the day (for which everyone should know the answer) is Can Government Lies Calm the Markets?
In spite of the fact most of us realize lies will not help, and most often makes matters worse, governments repeatedly resort to lies, platitudes, and wishful thinking.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
War – The Fiscal Stimulus of Last Resort / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
“War! Good God, ya’ll. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”
So went the Bruce Springsteen pop hit of the 1980s, first produced as an anti-Vietnam War song in 1969. The song echoed popular sentiment. The Vietnam War ended. Then the Cold War ended. Yet military spending remains the government’s number one expenditure. When veterans’ benefits and other past military costs are factored in, half the government’s budget now goes to the military/industrial complex. Protesters have been trying to stop this juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
Obama Jobs Plan is More of the Same / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Although it was labeled and hyped as a "jobs plan," the new $447 billion initiative announced last night by President Obama is merely another government stimulus program in disguise. But semantics are of supreme importance in American politics...some could argue that word choice is the only thing that matters. As a result, despite the fact that this plan bears no substantive difference from previous stimulus bills, the President never once mentioned the word "stimulus" in his hour-long speech.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Obama's Job Numbers Don't Add Up / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Elias
Nearly 32 months after taking the oath of office, President Obama implied his administration failed America during a speech to a joint session of Congress last night concerning jobs.
Despite his repeated claims as a candidate and president to focus on job growth as his number one priority, the president elected to wait until his next campaign to address this issue.
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Friday, September 09, 2011
Dissecting Obama's Jobs Stimulus Lies / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Obama's rumored $300 stimulus program ballooned to $447 billion upon unveiling. For a full text of the speech, please see President Obama's jobs address
Amusingly, the plan is overweight tax cuts in an attempt to get Republican buy-ins.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Europe Runs Out of Time, Impossible to Untangle, Breakup Inevitable / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
One of the many interesting aspects of the Eurozone crisis is how many key political and central bank leaders fail see (or at least admit) that Europe is out of time.
Even more peculiar are statements by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet who finally does realize time is of the essence, yet Trichet "solution" is a set of measures that must be passed by all 17 nations when those nations cannot agree on EFSF funding, on Eurobonds, on collateral for Greece, or even on whether a fiscal union or transfer union must take place.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
A Raging Case of Bailout Fatigue / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Doug_Horning
Doug Hornig, Casey Research writes: I’ve used the term outrage fatigue on numerous occasions in this forum as a way of trying to explain why there has been such a muted outcry from the general population as the tally of financial atrocities committed against American citizens has exploded.
August 22 was just another average day with another average headline that could easily have been ripped from some radical economic watchdog website (liberal or conservative, either one): Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion from Fed.
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Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Eurozone Deathwatch / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
There's no way to overstate the calamity that's unfolding across the Atlantic. The eurozone is imploding. The smart money has already fled EU banks for safe quarters in the US while political leaders frantically look for a way to prevent a seemingly-unavoidable meltdown. Here's an excerpt from a post at The Streetlight blog that explains what's going on:
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Obama May Soon Join America's Unemployed / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
It may not be long before U.S. President Barack Obama joins the swollen ranks of America's unemployed.
A government report released Friday showed no job growth in August.
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Monday, September 05, 2011
Central Banks, BIS and Goldman Sachs Coercion / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: BATR
Did you ever wonder why countries allow private central banks to issue their money? Somehow, missing in the self-governing status of governments is the courage to deny the seduction or the threats of the global banking cabal, over the control of a nation’s currency. How did this obvious usurpation of independence become an unquestioned acceptance by the very governments who proclaim to be sovereign nations? The answer reveals that the right of autonomous government is now dependent upon the approval of the banking cartel. The myth that a historic country can exert their populist will and financial self-determination, when it conflicts or opposes the interest and objectives of the moneychangers, is outright fantasy.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Don't Blame Bush: This is Obama's Economic Depression / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
This is Barack Obama's economy now. George Bush can no longer be blamed. And if the economy dips back into recession--as it most certainly will--then that will be Obama's fault, too. Because it's Obama's fiscal policies that are driving the economy back into the ditch. This is no small matter, because Obama's failure will likely result in political change that will deliver the White House to the GOP in 2012. Then the deficit hawks will control both houses of congress and the White House, and they will slash spending and push the economy into another Great Depression. This is not speculation. This WILL happen. Obama has made sure it will happen by shrugging off the warnings of every competent economist in the country, all of whom have said repeatedly that we needed more stimulus to lower employment, to reduce the output gap, to increase GDP, and to put the economy back on track.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Where’s Our Oil Price Collapse? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: James_Quinn
Make no mistake about it, without plentiful, cheap, and easy to access oil, the United States of America would descend into chaos and collapse. The fantasies painted by "green" energy dreamers only serve to divert the attention of the non critical thinking masses from the fact our sprawling suburban hyper technological society would come to a grinding halt in a matter of days without the 18 to 19 million barrels per day needed to run this ridiculous reality show. Delusional Americans think the steaks, hot dogs and pomegranates in their grocery stores magically appear on the shelves, the thirty electronic gadgets that rule their lives are created out of thin air by elves and the gasoline they pump into their mammoth SUVs is their God given right. The situation was already critical in 2005 when the Hirsch Report concluded:
Monday, September 05, 2011
US Government versus World's Big Banks, Cascading Risks Multiply / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: DK_Matai
Make no mistake about it, history was made on September 2nd, 2011, after the financial markets closed in New York. As Churchill said in 1942, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." What are the unintended consequences of the massive multi-billion-dollar lawsuit in which an independent US Government regulator is suing 17 big banks from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and France? As we approach the 3rd anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15th September, 2008, as a result of cascading risks, markets may yet demonstrate extreme volatility once again with fundamentally destabilising consequences.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Are Wall Street Banks Too Big To Blame For Subprime? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: EconMatters
Goldman Sachs has historically been one of the more bullish investment houses on Wall Street, but the firm has recently taken a dark macro view. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 1 that Goldman issued a 54-page report sent to their institutional clients on August 16th arguing that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China’s growth may not be sustainable.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
President Obama's Jobs Speech / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, Labor Day Weekend 2011: The magic wand is being readied in the White House as the President and his minions finally unwrap the mother of all jobs plans that will be revealed to the rest of us in a speech next Thursday before the cameras and Congress with the gravitas-packed aura of a State of the Union Address.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
President Obama, Job Killer in Chief / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Friday morning many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession. I believe that we have been in one giant recession all along that was only temporarily interrupted by trillions of useless and destructive deficit and stimulus spending. Unfortunately, the August numbers will increase the talk of government efforts to stimulate the economy.
Friday, September 02, 2011
The Great GDP Caper, Consequences of a Fraudulent Statistic / Politics / Economic Statistics
By: Andy_Sutton
Last week the Commerce Department released its revised numbers for Quarter 2 GDP. The results were much less than satisfactory, with annualized ‘growth’ coming in at a pathetic 1.0%. Think of this as an economic stall speed. We know the GDP deflator allows the metric to be overstated to begin with, so it is VERY likely that America has re-entered the ‘great recession’ as it has been dubbed by the media. There are some burning issues in here that need to be discussed and they go way beyond the methodology of how GDP is calculated. I will end with the assertion, backed with output methodology, that is at least as reliable as what the Commerce Dept. offers that we never left the great recession.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Libya Regime Change, Panic After The Picnic / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
REGIME CHANGE :
Presented by mainstream media as a kind of high-tech "turkey shoot", the military intervention in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi regime threatens serious blowback. Through a fatal combination of analytic and judgemental errors, the Libyan regime-change experiment will deliver unwanted results, and a possible long delay before oil export supply recovers pre-war levels. Other unwanted effects could include added confidence and determination for what is loosely called "Political Islam", but in fact is an ethnic, religious and community-based Arab and Muslim identity quest that is basically hostile to and replaces the nation state concept, as well as western democracy the way it is preached and practised.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Disintegrate the Eurozone to Solve the European Sovereign Debt Crisis / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
It's often difficult to comprehend - much less internalize - the risks posed by the European sovereign debt crisis.
But understand this: If Europe's problems aren't resolved in an orderly fashion, the stock market drops we saw last month will be small potatoes compared to the steep declines that lie ahead.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011
Libya's Slippery Oil Prize / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
Muammar Qaddafi’s exactly 42 year-old regime is now firmly on its way into the dustbin of history, sealing the fate of his quixotic and brutal administration that many outsiders found more comic rather than dangerous - but above all supplied high quality light sweet crude.