Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ireland Debt Crisis and Economic Austerity / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Kevin_Geary
As details of the worst austerity budget in memory emerged ahead of the budget debate on Dec. 7th, This was overheard at the Irish Stock Exchange:"We don't know where the money went," said the trader, half in jest, but half in earnest. "We've been debating it all morning. Cars, flat-screen TVs, Bulgarian properties? Everyone round here used to have a Mercedes. The whole country was a pyramid scheme."
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Peaceful Countries do not Celebrate Thanksgiving / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Elizabeth Young writes: Thanksgiving commemorates the successful harvest and a time the Pilgrims gathered to give thanks, sharing a feast with their Native American neighbors, who had made possible their survival in the New England wilderness.
"Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" written by Henry "Dean" Alford, the gifted Christian leader of the 19th century and distinguished theologian and scholar, is considered to be one of the finest harvest and Thanksgiving hymns in all of the hymnals of Christian singing.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Duel over the Fed Dual Mandate of Inflation and Full Employment / Politics / Central Banks
By: Peter_Schiff
Given the opposing views of the potentially parsimonious new Congress and the continuously accommodative Federal Reserve, there is a movement afoot among Republicans to eliminate the Fed's "dual mandate." Prior to 1977, the Fed only had one job: maintaining price stability. However, the stagflation of the 1970s inspired politicians to assign another task: promoting maximum employment. This "mission creep" has transformed the Fed from a monetary watchdog into an instrument of social policy. We would do well to give them back their original job.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Why the Tea Party is a Sucker for Charlatans, Ignoramuses, and Statists / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
Ellen Brown is a leftist. I have hammered away at this since October 8: 52 original criticisms, followed by 30 responses. Still, her followers could not believe it. They sent me outraged letters. Poor Max Keiser publicly challenged me to defend myself. How did I dare say such things about his favorite anti-FED expert?
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
TSA Targets Pretty Women with Hot Bodies / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Karen De Coster writes: The latest backlash against the TSA's new groping procedures is finally reaching a level of furor that is in proportion to the atrocious crimes we have been subjected to since the government's favorite excuse for totalitarianism: 9/11.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The State is Killing the U.S. Jobs Market / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
The terrible job market has vexed an entire generation. It shows no hope of improving anytime soon. Young people are shut out. College students are taking refuge in matriculation without end. Thirty-somethings are zoning out in their parents' basements and attics. Despair for the future has become a theme of American public life.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Markets Rattled by New Conflict Between North and South Korea / Politics / North Korea
By: Static_Chaos
U.S. stocks dropped more than one percent on Tuesday with two Korea's exchanging fire adding to the already worrisome Irish debt crisis in Europe.
The latest with Ireland is that European Union (EU) officials estimate that a rescue package may amount to about 85 billion euros ($114 billion). That news sent S&P issuing a new downgrade on Ireland's sovereign debt.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Is Natural Gas Worse than Coal and Oil in Greenhouse Gas Emissions? / Politics / Natural Gas
By: Dian_L_Chu
Natural gas has long been touted as a cleaner alternative because natural gas releases about half as much of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as coal does. Although the natural gas market is in the doldrums right now due to supply glut, with advocates like T. Boone Pickens pitching as the fuel of the future, many market players are betting on increasing natural gas demand from transportation fuels and the generation of electricity to continue for years to come.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Bernanke Defends Fed Monetary Policy By Blaming China for Currency Manipulation / Politics / Central Banks
By: Barry_Grey
In a major speech delivered November 19, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the American central bank’s decision to print dollars in order to purchase $600 billion in Treasury securities. The second round of so-called “quantitative easing,” launched on November 3, is designed to lower long-term US interest rates.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korea Attacks South, Start of a Major New War? / Politics / North Korea
By: Pravda
North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong island of South Korea in the Yellow Sea. The attack was launched in the afternoon, local time, in the area of the western sea border, where the situation had been extremely tense lately.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
World Stands on the Brink of Food Crisis / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Pravda
World imports of food will exceed the level of $1 trillion as of the year-end because of the growing prices on agricultural production, UN expert said. Next year, many countries in the world may face the problem of food shortage. In the meantime, US authorities announced considerable losses of harvests of corn and barley.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Ireland Still Refuses To Contemplate Leaving the “Imperial” Euro and Joining a “Mediterranean” Euro Zone / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Christopher_Quigley
On Thursday 18th 2010 The IMF arrived in the Emerald Isle. What a sad sad day for the proud people of Ireland. Following 300 years of armed struggle the resident government have replaced English masters with the Continental variety. However the method of usurpation this time was not guns and bullets and starvation but economic and financial prowess.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Ellen Brown, Bernanke's Money Printing Cheerleader / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Gary_North
Ellen Brown is a lawyer. Lawyers are trained to settle a case when they are losing. Brown just settled with me.
She has just switched sides. Instead of becoming an Austrian School critic of the Federal Reserve, she has become its cheerleader.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korean Artillery Attack on a South Korean Island / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea and South Korea have reportedly traded artillery fire Nov. 23 across the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea to the west of the peninsula. Though details are still sketchy, South Korean news reports indicate that around 2:30 p.m. local time, North Korean artillery shells began landing in the waters around Yeonpyeongdo, one of the South Korean-controlled islands just south of the NLL. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Geithner Politicizes the Fed, Warns Congress to Not do the Same, Inflation Targeting Parabolic Curve / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
The hypocrisy of treasury secretary Tim Geithner would be stunning except for the fact hypocrisy from Geithner is pretty much an every day occurrence.
Geithner is blasting Congress for politicizing the Fed, while doing the same thing himself. To top it off, the Fed itself is politicizing the Fed by interfering and commenting on Fiscal policy while bitching about Congress commenting on monetary policy.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Investors Betting In The Endgame of Capitalism / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
There is a difference between betting in the endgame and betting on the endgame. The former is a fool’s avocation whereas the latter is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The endgame of capitalism is a uniquely different environment where investors find themselves faced with increasingly dangerous options. In the endgame, proven strategies are improvident, buying and holding becomes a time bomb and speculators are favored over investors because of excessive liquidity and volatility.
Monday, November 22, 2010
U.S. Military War Gaming for Large Scale Economic Breakdown and Civil Unrest / Politics / US Politics
By: Mac_Slavo
The majority of Americans believe that recent government intervention into financial markets, the economy and corporate insolvency has reversed the economic downturn which was described by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as being “on the brink” in 2008. The stimulus, bailouts and unrelenting quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve have thus far been perceived as having averted the further erosion of the U.S. real estate and equities markets. And though the Federal Reserve and economic analysts have recently readjusted their economic growth forecasts downward for the next six months, Americans no longer have to worry about, as Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said on the house floor in October of 2008, the sky falling, multi-thousand point drops in stock markets and martial law in America.
Monday, November 22, 2010
TSA Treats Air Travelers as Criminal Suspects / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The growing revolt against invasive TSA practices is encouraging to Americans who are fed up with federal government encroachment in their lives. In the case of air travelers, this encroachment is quite literally physical. But a deep-seated libertarian impulse still exists within the American people, and opposition to the new TSA full body scanner and groping searches is gathering momentum.
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Monday, November 22, 2010
How and Why the State Destroys Society / Politics / Social Issues
By: Frank_Chodorov
It is not incumbent on a diagnostician to prescribe a remedy, and it would be quackery for him to do so when he has misgivings as to its curative value. It may be that the struggle between Society and the State is inevitable; it may be in the nature of things for the struggle to continue until mutual destruction clears the ground for the emergence of a new Society, to which a new political establishment attaches itself to effect a new doom.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Who's Behind the Budget Deficit Crisis / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Shamus_Cooke
From the U.S. to Europe media and politicians are singing the same tune: "budget deficits must be drastically reduced -- by cutting social programs -- so that global bond investors do not threaten the economy."
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