Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Climate Change and Fish Stocks – Burning Oxygen! / Politics / Climate Change
By: Richard_Mills
University of British Columbia students combed through studies of fish in the North Sea. Their results were surprising - some species are getting smaller due to warmer waters. That causes lower oxygen concentrations in the water, resulting in fish burning energy faster. Larger fish species can’t get enough oxygen to keep up with the higher metabolism, meaning they mature at a smaller size, explained Science magazine.
A story in IRIN, a blog about environmental and other crises, describes the “perfect storm” that is occurring in the oceans due to overfishing and climate change. The result could mean a dramatic decline in fish stocks, with the most serious affect being malnutrition in poor countries in tropical climates that depend on fishing as a protein staple.
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Saturday, June 16, 2018
Trump - See? Now You Did It! / Politics / UK Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
This is something I’ve commented on many times. Like two months ago, when I wrote:
Read full article... Read full article...“As for Donald Trump, as much as we would like to engage in constructive criticism of the man and his government, we find we no longer can. The anti-Trump echo-chamber has turned so deafening that any intelligent debate about his policies is being drowned out amid the never ending flow of fake news and half truths and innuendo and empty smears that US media continue to spout. With a brief lull when the bombs fell on Syria.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Trump-Kim Deal and the Long Path to Peace in the Korean Peninsula / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Dan_Steinbock
The new Trump-Kim joint agreement could prove a promising ‘memorandum of understanding.’ However, it is not just about denuclearization; it should also be about peace and U.S. withdrawal from the Korean peninsula.Here are the facts: Following hours of closed-door talks in the Hotel Capella Singapore, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a joint four-point agreement: to establish new US-North Korean relations, a stable peace regime, a North Korean commitment to achieve the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula, and the repatriation of the remains of American prisoners of war.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2018
G7 Globalist Fear Trump Trade Reset / Politics / Protectionism
By: BATR
President Trump has announced that the U.S. piggy bank will no longer subsidize or be sucked dry to finance a pack of ungrateful allies. Keeping the Socialist EU afloat and putting up with backstabbers like Canada or allowing Japan to roll up massive trade surpluses must stop. The latest rumblings out of the UK are that all efforts are working overtime to nix the will of the Brit public from the Brexit vote. As for corporatists within the United States, the bulwark of opposition to Trump's push to demand reciprocal treatment from "so called" trading partners means an end to the gravy train of plundering American workers and ripping off a viable domestic economy.
Monday, June 11, 2018
When Trump Met Fibonacci And Won / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Something curious happened during the Trump love fest at the G7 over the weekend. And I don’t think many people would have got it. In fact the entire western press, far as I could see, were blaming Trump for the dissolution of the treaties and whatall that the political class had worked so hard on for 50+ years.
But when you look at the whole thing from an energy level, Trump obviously won hands down. Merkel, Macron and Trudeau had no idea what to do with such a disruptive figure -though it could hardly have been a surprise to them- and so they sort of cowered back into a defensive posture as a group, saying Trump shouldn’t rock their boat. But that’s what he came there to do.
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Saturday, June 09, 2018
Billionaire Schools Teacher in NAFTA Trade Talks / Politics / Protectionism
By: Richard_Mills
What’s the best way to deal with a teacher who comes into your school and starts threatening all the other teachers? Well if you’re Liberal party leader, and Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, the answer is to lecture the bullying teacher about how his approach isn’t the way to get along with all the other teachers. If you’re the bully, you’re not going to listen to that, and instead, will react to the head teacher’s scolding by insulting him, or maybe putting him in a headlock. If that doesn’t work in getting your way, you could try to turn the other teachers against each other, dealing with them separately instead of with the whole teaching staff. “Divide and conquer” works well for bullies.
This little analogy is how we might look at the way Donald Trump has manipulated Canada and Mexico into a situation where not only have they failed to recognize and counter a typical Trump “art of the deal” strategy in coming up with a renewed tri-lateral trade agreement, but where the two countries may now be forced to negotiate separate trade deals with their largest trading partner. How did we get here and what does this ratcheted-up trade war mean for Canada, the United States and investors? This article will address these questions.
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Friday, June 08, 2018
America’s One-sided Domestic Financial War / Politics / Financial Markets 2018
By: Raymond_Matison
Domestically, there are two institutions which are capable of starting, executing, and managing a domestic or a global financial war. The first is the Federal Reserve System, which with its banks has the unfettered power to print money, create credit, and set interest rates. The second is our own government which through its elected officials sets foreign policy that includes its demonstrated power to influence foreign elections, covertly remove uncooperative foreign leaders from office, and to wage war both physical and financial without any formal declarations. America’s participation in the Korean War over seventy years ago was defined as a police action rather than a war which would have required Congressional approval, and conflicts since then have mostly eluded the requirement for congressional approval. However, no financial war has required a formal declaration nor Congressional approval, as they are initiated against any targeted country without visible bloodshed, frequently on a clandestine basis.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, June 08, 2018
Advanced World’s Reality: G6 Summit Minus G1 / Politics / Global Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
The G7 Summit is split between the United States and six other major advanced economies. President Trump’s unipolar economic and strategic doctrines are undermining US alliances, world trade – and America itself.Recently, the Trump administration’s officials marked its 500 days with a chorus of tweets. “Many believe I’ve accomplished more than any other president,” Trump said. When he arrived in the office, markets had enjoyed an unsustainable boom, as corporate America expected the president to fulfill his pledges of radical liberalization, privatization and deregulation.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2018
Credit And Bank Cards Stop Working, Sending Masses Into Frenzy / Politics / War on Cash
By: BATR
The digital cashless empire took a huge credibility blow Friday as Visa card holders all over Europe were unable to make transactions.
Caused by an apparent ‘hardware failure,’ the widespread network outage affected large portions of the continent---a region that’s already made dangerous moves toward a cashless society.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2018
Progressive Google Internet Censorship / Politics / Google
By: BATR
You remember? "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." also applies to a cosmos other than Star Wars. The degrading of free speech inevitably leads to censorship and a societal purge of ideas that conflict with the latest evolution of political correctness. The 21st Century version of book burning has gone digital and automated using Artificial Intelligence that applies algorithm filters to exclude the free exchange of different views and accounts of historic analysis. The most partisan progressive cannot maintain that the liberal bias which has now become the hallmark of Google's search results and news is based upon any objective standards of empirical information or fair and balanced reporting.
Monday, June 04, 2018
US Tariffs vs China, EU, NAFTA – and the Rest of the World? / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
After months of trade war with China, US subjected its EU and NAFTA partners to steel and aluminum tariffs. EU leaders missed a year seeking appeasement with Trump’s protectionism. It’s time to defend the multilateral trading regime.
Unsurprisingly, the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico have lambasted the US steel and aluminum tariffs. European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker criticized Trump’s tariffs and pledged retaliation in due time. French President Emmanuel Macron and German government spokesman called the move unlawful. In Britain, the Brexit proponents and opposition quickly blamed each other for the tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the tariffs would “harm industries and workers on both sides of the Canada-US border.”
Sunday, June 03, 2018
Climate Change Mass Extinction - Birds, Bees and Bugs: Going Going Gone / Politics / Climate Change
By: Richard_Mills
The twitter of birds, the buzzing of bees, the drone of insects are all welcome signs of spring, but could species reduction or extinction, made worse by climate change, mute these sounds to the point where we will have to install apps on our phones to mimic them?
The idea of a silent spring might seem a tad alarmist, but the fate of the world’s wildlife - both land-based and marine - is not looking good. According to research by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, over the past 40 years the number of wild animals living on Earth has been cut in half. Among the most hard-hit species are forest elephants in central Africa, where deaths by poachers now exceed birth rates, the Hoolock gibbon in Bangladesh, the European meadow and asp vipers, grey partridges in the UK and curlew sandpipers in Australia.
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
The EU Respond Angerly to Trump’s Steel and Aluminium Tariffs / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ben_Jardine
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Making Italy Great Again / Politics / Italy
By: Peter_Schiff
This week, market watchers around the world are justifiably fixated with the high-stakes, high-drama political developments unfolding in Italy. While a political crisis in the world’s 9th largest economy (International Monetary Fund figures, 4/17/18) would normally not be enough to cause an international meltdown, given how thin the global economic ice has become as a result of ever-increasing debt loads, even small disruptions can create systemic problems. But from my perspective, what makes the Italian drama so interesting is that it parallels so precisely developments in the United States. It’s amazing that more Americans do not realize, that when looking at Italy, they are looking at a fun house mirror reflection of the United States.
Saturday, June 02, 2018
Is the EU About to Collapse? Stocks Don’t Think So / Politics / European Stock Markets
By: Graham_Summers
The “Italy Crisis” is over.
I know the headlines read as though Italy was collapsing and the Euro is about to implode. But the headlines are reporting on yesterday’s news.
The collapse of the Italy government means a new election. That, in turn, means a pro-Euro politician heading Italy. And that in turn means the Italy Crisis is over.
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Friday, June 01, 2018
This is Italy Not Sparta / Politics / Italy
By: Raul_I_Meijer
“European Stocks Surge Celebrating New Spanish, Italian Governments”, says a Zero Hedge headline. “Markets Breathe Easier As Italy Government Sworn In”, proclaims Reuters. And I’m thinking: these markets are crazy, and none of this will last more than a few days. Or hours. The new Italian government is not the end of a problem, it’s the beginning of many of them.
And Italy is far from the only problem. The new Spanish government will be headed by Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, who manoeuvred well to oust sitting PM Rajoy, but he also recently saw the worst election result in his party’s history. Not exactly solid ground. Moreover, he needed the support of Catalan factions, and will have to reverse much of Rajoy’s actions on the Catalunya issue, including probably the release from prison of those responsible for the independence referendum.
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Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Why Philippines Economy Is Thriving, Despite IMD / Politics / Asian Economies
By: Dan_Steinbock
According to the 2018 IMD World Competitiveness report, Philippines ranking plunged nine notches. In reality, competitiveness indexes often fail to capture disruptive change.According to the IMD report, executed in cooperation with the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines fell by nine places to 50th among 63 countries.
Nevertheless, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia called the findings a “misobservation” - and rightly so.
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Sunday, May 27, 2018
How Trump’s Ditching of Iran Nuclear Deal Affirms American Unipolarity with Obama’s help / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
The Trump White House plans to break the Iran deal by sanctioning companies from Europe and Asia doing business in and with Iran. Ironically, President Obama paved the way to unilateral sanctions.For three years, the comprehensive nuclear accord (JCPOA) has offered Iran relief from US, UN and multilateral sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors. But recently that era came to a halt. “The United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” President Trump said on May 8.
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Sunday, May 27, 2018
Blackstone, BlackRock or a Public Bank for California’s Money? / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
California needs over $700 billion in infrastructure during the next decade. Where will this money come from? The $1.5 trillion infrastructure initiative unveiled by President Trump in February includes only $200 billion in federal funding, and less than that after factoring in the billions in tax cuts in infrastructure-related projects. The rest is to come from cities, states, private investors and public-private partnerships (PPPs). And because city and state coffers are depleted, that chiefly means private investors and PPPs, which have a shady history at best.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Trump “Victories” on Trade are Anything But / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Earlier this year when President Trump began beating the drums loudly, causing fear of a trade war (and assuring us that such a conflict could be easily won), I cautioned that he had no idea the trouble he was courting. Based on his spectacular misunderstanding of the power dynamic built in to international trade, he was also in danger of bringing a knife to a gunfight.
As the year has progressed, the underbrush has gotten thornier, Trump’s progress on trade has slowed, and now it has likely stopped altogether. Despite that, in true Trumpian fashion, the President has declared resounding victory. But a quick look back reveals the opposite to be true.
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