Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Fake Unemployment and Inflation Figures Sustain the Illusion of an Economic Recovery / Politics / Economic Statistics
By: Joel_S_Hirschhorn
How do the powerful keep the US population dumb and distracted? A key tactic has been using methodologies that produce totally misleading underestimates of key economic factors. First we learned that official unemployment figures are too low by a factor of two. Now, understand that the official rate of inflation hitting consumers is even more inaccurate. You will hear about a low inflation rate of less than 3 percent. In reality, it is closer to 10 percent, according to the highly regarded analysis by John Williams.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The Establishment Train Is Going Off a Cliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
"A billion dollars doesn't go as far as it used to." – Bunker Hunt, 1980
That was Mr. Hunt's comment on his losses – at least $2 billion – in his attempt to profit from the silver market, which peaked at $49.50 in January 1980. The price fell by 75% over the next few months. Win some, lose some. At the time, he was regarded as the biggest financial loser in modern history. This was accurate, since seven years earlier, Mohammar Gadaffi had nationalized his oil operations in Libya. At the time, Hunt was the richest private citizen on earth. When Gadaffi got away with this in June of 1973, OPEC caught on and tripled the price of oil in October. That led to a worldwide recession in 1974-75. Win some, lose some.
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Saturday, April 16, 2011
United States Land of the Free, Indeed / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Woe is us. There is nary a nation state on the planet where a man can be free. The entire planet is a cobweb of governments, police, taxes, laws, rules and regulations.
It is with great sorrow that much of the population of the planet now has Stockholm syndrome. They've grown to adore and fawn after their captors. Billions flock to see their slave masters inaugurated or wed. Prince William of Wales has taken a bride, they shout! What a glorious day!
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Friday, April 15, 2011
Conventional Education Will Go the Way of Farming / Politics / US Politics
By: Douglas_French
Food is vital for survival, yet less than 2 percent of America's population works in agriculture. That's a big change from 100 years ago, when over 40 percent of the workforce was toiling away on the farm. If I had been born at the start of the 20th century in Kansas, rather than at the end of the 1950s, no doubt my life would have been spent on the farm.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Why We Are Totally Finished, Corporatocracy Has Replaced Capitalism / Politics / US Politics
By: D_Sherman_Okst
In A Nutshell: Corporatocracy Has Replaced Capitalism
Capitalism Fixes Problems & Preserves Democracy: Capitalism is what we should be relying on to fix our problems. Capitalism has it's own ecosystem, just like biology's ecosystem. An economic ecosystem that weeds out the weak, has parasites that eat the failures and new bacteria that evolves and grows replacements for that which failed. A system that keeps everything in balance.
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Friday, April 15, 2011
The West Dreams About Russia's Collapse / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
Why does Finland almost openly support the extremist forces opposed to Russia? This question arises increasingly more often following the latest news from Finland. Last week a criminal case was filed for inciting ethnic hatred against Finnish priest Juha Molari who dared to criticize the website "Kavkaz-Center".
Friday, April 15, 2011
Biofuel Pushes Millions of People Into Poverty / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Pravda
The growing production of bioethanol increases the shortage of food. Corn, sugar, other types of farm crops are required for the production of the biofuel. In addition, the growth of sowing for the green fuel reduces the square of lands designated for food cultures, which leads to smaller harvest and higher prices on food.
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Friday, April 15, 2011
Student Loans Big Business, Underwritten by Tax Payers / Politics / US Debt
By: Mike_Whitney
Student loans are a big business. In fact, student debt now exceeds $895 billion which is more than the total Americans owe on their credit cards. And, most of these loans are underwritten by the US government, which means that the taxpayer is on the hook when students can't repay the debt. This is a big problem, because many of the people taking out loans are not really qualified for college, so they end up dropping out of school and defaulting on their loans putting themselves in long-term debt while passing the bill along to Uncle Sam. But not everyone loses on the deal. In fact, the institutions that help unqualified applicants get loans, do quite well. After all, they're paid in full by the government. If this sounds like it might be a scam; it's because it is. All the recruiters need to do is find a credulous subject, bamboozle him into signing on the dotted line, and hold his hand for the first few weeks of the new semester. That's all it takes to net a big government payout. Here's a rundown of how it works from an article by Chris Kirkham at the Huffington Post:
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Libya War All About Oil or Gold and Banking? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Ellen_Brown
Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank – this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:
I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.
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Thursday, April 14, 2011
Obama's Deficit Plan will Impoverish Main Street America / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Kevin Zeese writes: President Obama announced the outlines of his deficit plan, leaving a lot up for negotiation. He planted his poll at the center right and where he ends up, with his history of compromising to bring right wing Republicans and Democratic corporatists together, can only be worse.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Playing the Lyre of U.S. Budget Madness as the Empire Burns / Politics / Government Spending
By: BATR
SARTRE writes: By Washington DC standards the just concluded budget agreement for funding the federal government through September, is a big win for Republicans. Emily Miller in Human Events describes, "The final agreement will be for $38.5 billion in cuts from current spending over the remaining six months of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. The spending cuts, although historic in size, account for only 2.5% of this year's projected budget deficit of $1.6 trillion." Here lies the obscenity of the central government; namely, that a mere drop in the bucket reduction in a historic deficit is lauded as the great achievement of compromised negotiations.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Why Monetary Expansion Must Stop / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: MISES
Patrick Barron writes: Introduction: The Illusion of Unlimited Resources
The current problems faced by all the world's economies stem, primarily, from one source: the demise of sound money, whose quantity could not be increased without significant cost, and its replacement with fiat money that can be inflated to infinite amounts at almost no cost to the producer.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Fed Obliterates the Savings Ethic / Politics / Central Banks
By: Douglas_French
Depression babies learned early that "saving for a rainy day" was not something one hopes to do but a requirement. The saying originated when most people worked on the farm. And when it rained, the fields were too wet to plow, and the farmer — not to mention the hired hands — made no money.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Volcano Erupts / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
Shares plunged across Europe and Asia on Tuesday as the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant deepened and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the atomic alert level to its highest rating. Conditions at the stricken facility have steadily deteriorated and now the station is intermittently spewing lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and around the world. A French nuclear group has warned that children and pregnant mothers should protect themselves from the fallout.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Revolving Door Between Washington and Wall Street / Politics / US Politics
By: Trader_Mark
As regular readers know, there is a fast track revolving door between Washington D.C. and Wall Street. All part and parcel with a captured government run for a small cabal of corporations and their leadership. After all corporations are people too - the Supreme Court says so. There is a lengthy but insightful story in New York Magazine on the latest to make the transition from D.C. to Wall Street - Peter Orzag. Actually the piece intertwines the fate of Robert Rubin and Orzag, but really if we're talking Rubin, Orzag, Summers, Daley, Paulson, et al - the names can simply be interchanged.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Japan's Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Yoichi Shimatsu writes: Confused and often conflicting reports out of Fukushima 1 nuclear plant cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations from Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) seem to be driven by some unspoken factor.
Monday, April 11, 2011
One Man's Fiscal Austerity is Another's Economic Prosperity? / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
Fiscal austerity is all the rage these days in the developed economies. The proponents of fiscal austerity argue that it will lead to economic prosperity. The opponents of fiscal austerity argue that it will lead to poverty. Who is correct?
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Monday, April 11, 2011
The Symptoms of Nuclear Hysteria / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Peter_Schiff
Imagine you invented a machine that revolutionized travel. You know your invention could cut local and long distance travel time substantially and vastly improve the ability for business to deliver freight efficiently. The invention would add trillions to global GDP. If released, your invention would no doubt be universally used and admired. However, based on the initial safety assessments, analysts predict that if used widely your invention would cause the deaths of 300,000 Americans per year and countless more around the globe. Would you still release it?
Monday, April 11, 2011
The U.S. Budget Battle / Politics / Government Spending
By: LewRockwell
Watching the public debate on the budget, we are reminded of two boys on the floor playing with toys. One has a bear and the other has a dinosaur. They are forever threatening the other kid with taking the toy away. One warns he will take away the dinosaur (military spending) and the other says he will grab the bear (domestic spending). They pull and tug and eventually settle the dispute so long as each gets to keep his favorite.
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Monday, April 11, 2011
European Union Prepares to send Ground Troops to Libya / Politics / Middle East
By: Global_Research
Chris Marsden writes: The European Union is seeking to utilise the humanitarian cover of the fate of the besieged city of Misrata to send ground troops to Libya under its command. The operation could be mounted within a matter of days. In a reversal of previous policy, the German government of Angela Merkel has offered to play the leading military role.