Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Repairing the Damage of “Fraud as a Business Model” / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Janet_Tavakoli
Presentation to the Federal Housing Finance Agency Supervision Summit Washington, D.C.IMF: I’M Fantasizing
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Belligerent US Diplomacy Promotes War, the Coming Armageddon in Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
What could be more undiplomatic than confronting the other side? Accusing them? Taunting them? Threatening them? Demanding concessions? Refusing to hear their side? Acting high and mighty? Bluntly invoking "sticks" if they don’t do as demanded? Or simply rejecting what they say out of hand?
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Bernanke Lied His Way Through a '60 Minutes' Infomercial, He Misinforms with Gusto! / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
Ben Bernanke ought to write country music songs on the side. They would all have the same theme: I cheated on you honey, but take me back one more time.
His appearance on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, December 5, was clearly his attempt to deal with criticism of the Federal Reserve's policy of purchasing up to $600 billion of Treasury debt – or more, as he admitted.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Is the Political Class Economically Incompetent or Simply Bought and Paid For by the Elite? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are reading an interesting article in Forbes by writer Charles Kadlec regarding the Economic Incompetence of the Political Class.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
WikiLeaks - State Secrets or Clever Propaganda Tactics? / Politics / US Politics
By: OilPrice_Com
Is the US Government Machiavellian enough to orchestrate the recent brouhaha over the so-called website WikiLeaks, is this a real embarrassment, or will it indeed be damaging as some U.S. diplomats claim?
I am not one to support conspiracy theories but when you stop to analyze the content of the information that was leaked it seem that two things emerge: first, the content of the cables were not so earth shattering as to damage national security, or harm Washington's relations with other countries.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Quantitative Easing, An XtraNormal Office Discussion / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Mike_Hewitt
Two office co-workers discuss the reasoning of newest round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Bernanke's 2 Big Lies on 60 Minutes / Politics / Central Banks
By: Michael_Pento
This past Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes", Americans received a massive dose of mendacity from our Fed Chairman. Mr. Bernanke's shaky delivery, and even shakier logic may cause faith in America's economic leadership to evaporate faster than the value of our dollar. In particular, Bernanke delivered two massive distortions:
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Obama Announces Deal to Extend Tax Cuts for the Rich / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Grey
President Obama on Monday announced his support for a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, capitulating to Republican demands and reversing campaign pledges to end the windfall for families making more than $250,000 a year.
The announcement was made in a brief White House speech, after which Obama took no questions from the press. Extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy, set to expire January 1, has been a central preoccupation of the US corporate-financial elite. For precisely that reason, the cave-in by Obama and the Democratic Party on the issue was virtually assured. The extension will funnel an estimated $70 billion per year into the coffers of the rich.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Farewell to the E.U. Superstate / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
Wednesday's press conference with ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet turned out to be a real jaw-dropper. While Trichet didn't commit himself to massive bond purchases (Quantitative Easing) as many had hoped, he did impress the gathering with his magical skills. The Financial Times recounts Trichet's what happened like this:
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
BernankeLeaks, Fed and Wall Street Banks $12.3 Trillion Biggest Scam in World History / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: David_DeGraw
What if the greatest scam ever perpetrated was blatantly exposed, and the US media didn’t cover it? Does that mean the scam could keep going? That’s what we are about to find out.
I understand the importance of the new WikiLeaks documents. However, we must not let them distract us from the new information the Federal Reserve was forced to release. Even if WikiLeaks reveals documents from inside a large American bank, as huge as that could be, it will most likely pale in comparison to what we just found out from the one-time peek we got into the inner-workings of the Federal Reserve. This is the Wall Street equivalent of the Pentagon Papers.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Americans Say Goodbye to Benefits… Hello to “Interesting” Times / Politics / US Politics
By: Graham_Summers
Don’t they get it?
It’s truly bizarre to me that the powers that be cannot figure out WHY the average American is growing increasingly disenfranchised with how things are going.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
End Legal Loan Sharking Rally to Protect Poorest Borrowers / Politics / UK Politics
By: Submissions
Stella Creasy, Labour and Co-Operative MP for Walthamstow is to hold a rally in the House of Commons as part of the ongoing End Legal Loan Sharking campaign to end exploitation of the poorest consumers in Britain by payday and doorstep credit agencies. The meeting will take place from 7pm to 9pm in House of Commons Committee Room 5 on Tuesday 7th December 2010. Speakers will include Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, Gavin Hayes, General Secretary of Compass, Maurice Glasman of Citizens UK, Justin Tomlinson MP and Stella Creasy MP.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Bernanke and Republican Lies, Half Truths and 100% Hubris Crucifying the Middle Class / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
I am very disheartened but not at all surprised (given that I predicted it), the complete fiscal irresponsibility of the "compromise" tax proposal by president Obama that Democratic sheep will no doubt approve right along with deficit-hawk deficit-hypocrite Republicans.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Wikileaks and the Worldwide Information and Propaganda War / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The recent release of the 250,000 Wikileaks documents has provoked unparalleled global interest, both positive, negative, and everywhere in between. One thing that can be said with certainty: Wikileaks is changing things.
There are those who accept what the Wikileaks releases say at face value, largely due to the misrepresentation of the documents by the corporate-controlled news.
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Monday, December 06, 2010
Fed Report Reveals Great Bank Heist of 2008-2009 / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Barry_Grey
The US Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday released documents on emergency measures it took between 2007 and 2010, using taxpayer funds, to bail out major financial firms in the US and around the world. The sums involved are staggering.
Fed bailout loans outstanding reached a high of $3.3 trillion, but the cumulative amount of cash funneled by the US central bank to banks, hedge funds and major industrial corporations reached the tens of trillions of dollars.
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Monday, December 06, 2010
Julian Assange Wikileaks Marketing Genius / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
To understand what WikiLeaks has done, we must understand economic cause and effect. Let us begin with a comparable market: the market for gambling.
Governments have laws against gambling. Why? The justification is moral principles. This reason is less persuasive, once the government sets up state lotteries and also licenses taxable gambling, such as horse racing. The real reason is the governments want to monopolize the vice. They expect greater tax revenues.
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Monday, December 06, 2010
The Fourth Turning Crisis Outcomes, Will Presidential Election 2012 Be As Critical As 1860? / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Coalition Government NHS Reforms Disaster, Failure to Get GP Consortia's to Compete for Patients / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Coalition Governments NHS reforms to scrap ALL NHS Primary Care Trusts and replaced by competing GP Consortia's to directly manage the £85 billion budget for patient treatment commissioning, looks set to be heading for a complete disaster on the scale of the last Labour governments GP Contracts disaster, as GP Consortia's are being formed across the land on the basis of avoiding competition with one another.
Sunday, December 05, 2010
The Plot to Stop Ron Paul by Elitist Banksers and Congressional Leadership / Politics / US Politics
By: DeepCaster_LLC
With Republican control of the House, Ron Paul, as senior member of the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees monetary policy, is scheduled to become chairman of that subcommittee .
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Sunday, December 05, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico is Dying, Special Report on the BP Gulf Oil Spill / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Dr_Tom_Termotto
It is with deep regret that we publish this report. We do not take this responsibility lightly, as the consequences of the following observations are of such great import and have such far-reaching ramifications for the entire planet. Truly, the fate of the oceans of the world hangs in the balance, as does the future of humankind.