Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Lockhart Tries To Justify The Fed’s Love of Printing Money / Politics / Central Banks
By: Brady_Willett
Following up on Bernanke’s ‘don’t blame me’ shtick last week, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president Dennis Lockhart had this to say yesterday:
“The Fed, like every other central bank, is powerless to prevent fluctuations in the cost of living and increases of individual prices. We do not produce oil. Nor do we grow food or provide health care. We cannot prevent the next oil shock, or drought, or a strike somewhere —events that cause prices of certain goods to rise and change your cost of living.”
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Uncle Ben Wants You! - To Buy Stocks / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reviewed his Quantitative Easing, Second Inning (QE2) at the National Press Club on Thursday, February 3, 2011. His conclusion: "The economic recovery that began in the middle of 2009 appears to have strengthened in recent months..."
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
U.S. Politics of Hate Driving Out of Control Government Spending / Politics / Government Spending
By: David_Galland
In describing the current situation in these United States, and in many of the world’s other superpowers, we here at Casey Research have often used the word “intractable”… as in, “impossible to resolve.”
While that may not be technically accurate – because there is no problem related to economics that can’t be solved if one is willing to swallow sufficiently strong medicine – it is a correct assessment, given the overwhelming role that politics now play in the economy.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2011
The Burying of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Global_Research
Andre Damon writes: Late last month, the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued the first official report on the causes of the 2008 financial meltdown.
The report is devastating. The commission interviewed over 700 witnesses, held 19 days of public hearings, and investigated millions of documents. Based on this research, it gives a fairly accurate picture of the fraud and criminality that led to the greatest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2011
British Government Must Give Us Answers Before Banks Make More Pay-outs Warns Independent Commission / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Submissions
Zoe Gannon writes: The UK bank bonus season opens on 15th February when Barclays publishes its results which will show how much it has allocated to pay, this will set the bar for pay-outs at other banks, including nationally owned RBS and Lloyds which are due later this month.
With some pay-outs expected to reach seven figures, the independent High Pay Commission today argues that the reasons often cited for these awards don't add up when the economy is still reeling from the crisis the banks helped create.
Monday, February 07, 2011
The Student Loan Swindle / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
An interview with Professor Alan Nasser
MW--Is it possible to "walk away" from a student loan and declare bankruptcy?
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Monday, February 07, 2011
America Is Not a Republic, U.S. Constitution Is on Life Support / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
"This is a republic, not a democracy. Let's keep it that way!"
When I was a teenager, that was a popular saying in conservative circles. Conservative circles in 1958 were very few and very far between. The movement lacked slogans. Every fringe movement needs a few slogans. Slogans are like secret handshakes in a club. They identify one's true colors to those in the know.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
Egyptian Crisis To Only Get Deeper With No Quick Fix Likely / Politics / Middle East
By: Danny_Schechter
The African journalist Nathanial Manheru chose a quote from French icon Andre Malraux’s Anti-Memoirs to understand current events in Egypt, “it is in Egypt that we are reminded that (man) invented the tomb.”
The tomb may be the appropriate metaphor not only for wannabe President for forever Hosni Mubarak but also for the 30 plus year neo-colonial economic system that he has presided over. Not surprisingly Frank Wisner Jr, the former U.S. Ambassador and son of a CIA dirty tricksters, wants the President to stick around –in the country’s interest, of course.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
Egypt Crisis Financial Bonanza for Wall Street Investors and Speculators / Politics / Middle East
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
Mubarak's decision not to resign was taken in close consultation with Washington. The US administration including US intelligence had carefully identified the possible scenarios. If Washington had instructed Mubarak to step down, he would have obeyed forthright.
His decision not to resign indelibly serves US interests. It creates a situation of social chaos and political inertia, which in turn generates a vacuum in decision making at the government level.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
Who is the Real Opposition in Egypt? / Politics / Middle East
By: Shamus_Cooke
The revolution in Egypt erupted like all revolutions do, from the bottom up. It was unemployment and high food prices that propelled working and poor people into action. Now, the media reports that the "opposition” in Egypt is a group of well-to-do folks who have very little in common with the poor of Egypt.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
The Battle for Egypt - The People vs. Washington / Politics / Middle East
By: Michael_T_Bucci
As it now stands on 5 February, Washington has engineered the Egyptian situation to where revolution is repressed, installation of a military regime is proposed, and the West can go back to business as usual, or so it hopes.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
Egypt's Revolution: Creative Destruction for a 'Greater Middle East'? / Politics / Middle East
By: F_William_Engdahl
Fast on the heels of the regime change in Tunisia came a popular-based protest movement launched on January 25 against the entrenched order of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Contrary to the carefully-cultivated impression that the Obama Administration is trying to retain the present regime of Mubarak, Washington in fact is orchestrating the Egyptian as well as other regional regime changes from Syria to Yemen to Jordan and well beyond in a process some refer to as "creative destruction.&
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Financial Markets and the U.S. Orwellian Non Farm Payrolls Report... / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Jesse
The weather ate the recovery.
Now we know why the Wall Street demimonde had been pimping the unemployment number as 'the key number to watch' as compared to actual jobs added earlier this week. Although at the time they never really said why.
Friday, February 04, 2011
American History Is Not What They Say, The Reagan Fraud and After / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Riggenbach
Like most Republican politicians since the early 1930s, Ronald Reagan always portrayed himself throughout his political career as a champion of limited government, individual rights, and free enterprise — the classical-liberal values, which, of course, he absurdly described as "conservative." But, like almost all Republican politicians since the early 1930s, he seemed to forget all about these values once he got into office and assumed the reins of power. Consider, as a case in point, Reagan's eight years (1966–1974) as governor of California. As Murray Rothbard noted in 1980,
Friday, February 04, 2011
How Banks and Investors Are Starving the Third World Into Political Crisis / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Ellen_Brown
“What for a poor man is a crust, for a rich man is a securitized asset class.” --Futures trader Ann Berg, quoted in the UK Guardian
Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment. The Associated Press reports that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle along at the World Bank-set poverty level of under $2 per day. Analysts estimate that food price inflation in Egypt is currently at an unsustainable 17 percent yearly. In poorer countries, as much as 60 to 80 percent of people's incomes go for food, compared to just 10 to 20 percent in industrial countries. An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.
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Friday, February 04, 2011
Egyptian Revolution Will Eventually Be Betrayed / Politics / Middle East
By: LewRockwell
Mark R. Crovelli writes: There is nothing in this dark and cynical world that is more beautiful than when a people rises up en masse against its suffocating and predatory political system and tells its murderous "leaders" to get the hell out of the country. Such a scene is all the more inspiring when it is motivated solely by the hope for freedom and prosperity, and the participants resort to the protest instead of the assault rifle. In the face of such a powerful grassroots lunge toward liberty, it is a foregone conclusion that the "leaders" of the country will eventually be forced to abdicate power and run for their lives. When this happens, the victorious and free people will fill the streets and countryside with joyous and uproarious song. They will have won the battle for liberty.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Falling Prices and The End of the Nation State / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
We are living in the greatest era of falling prices in the history of man. Our lives are being transformed by this phenomenon year by year, yet most of us take the change for granted. We barely notice it. Yet we would wonder what is wrong if it ceased.
Falling prices, you say? What falling prices? Where is there any sign of this.
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Friday, February 04, 2011
The U.S. Government Budget Deficit Scam / Politics / US Debt
By: Richard_Daughty
I am constantly amazed at the number of people who think that a budget deficit is the same thing as the total federal deficit, which it ain't.
Actually, I remember one time early in my career where I was so desperate to cover up the results of my own incompetence that I tried to exploit this confusion with a "budget deficit" scam of my own, and it seemed to work for almost a month!
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Thursday, February 03, 2011
Understating the Economic Cost of a Carbon Tax / Politics / Climate Change
By: Robert_Murphy
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Alan Blinder listed numerous alleged benefits of a phased-in carbon tax. Out of his entire column, he devoted a single sentence to the possible downside of his plan when he wrote, "No one likes to pay higher taxes." A more balanced assessment shows that a carbon tax presents very real dangers, even if we rely on the same economic analysis that so enthralled Blinder.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Reagan for President...of China! / Politics / US Politics
By: Axel_Merk
With Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday around the corner, it seems fitting that the world may need another President with the same level of foresight. This time it’s not the U.S., but China that may need a President Reagan.
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