Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
U.S. Taxpayer Alert, We're About to Adopt Europe's Stealth Tax Model / Politics / Taxes
By: DailyWealth
We're headed for a massive tax increase.
Federal spending is soaring at the same time that individual income tax revenues have fallen to multi-year lows. From their peak in April 2008, personal income tax receipts have fallen by $232.1 billion, or 24.6%.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Washington Mafia's $20 Billion Shakedown of BP / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Jim Davies writes: I was very disappointed to hear how the D.C. Mafia had subjected BP to what the possibly vertebrate Joe Barton (R-TX) called a "shakedown" for $20B to compensate those hurt by its oil spill, but had also made the company agree not to cap that sum (meaning the bill may be higher yet) and to let a government nominee administer the payments (meaning it is almost sure to be higher yet).
Friday, June 18, 2010
Behind and Beyond The Sinking of The South Korean Cheonan / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
INCIDENT: Thousands rallied in Seoul in early June to protest perceived North Korean threats against their country after the severing of bilateral relations following the sinking of a South Korea naval corvette in which 46 sailors died. Despite this, South Korean officials on 8 June said they would not seek any new sanctions against Pyongyang.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Hyperinflation or Deflation? "Deficit Terrorists" Strike in the UK, USA is Next / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Ellen_Brown
Last week, England’s new government said it would abandon the previous government’s stimulus program and introduce the austerity measures required to pay down its estimated $1 trillion in debts. That means cutting public spending, laying off workers, reducing consumption, and increasing unemployment and bankruptcies. It also means shrinking the money supply, since virtually all “money” today originates as loans or debt. Reducing the outstanding debt will reduce the amount of money available to pay workers and buy goods, precipitating depression and further economic pain.
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Exploitation of Entrepreneurs / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Aaron Smith writes: In our society of victims, entrepreneurs are blamed for many of the hardships that ail our economy. Whether it is because of high prices, low wages, or substandard economic conditions, they are often accused of exploitation in their quest for profits.
Friday, June 18, 2010
EXTEND & PRETEND: A Matter of National Security / Politics / UK Economy
By: Gordon_T_Long
There is something seriously wrong in America. We all sense it, but few in the mainstream media are willing to touch it or can effectively articulate it within the public’s sound-bite oriented attention span.
It isn’t just about the remnants of the financial crisis; it isn’t the protracted jobs recession and slow recovery; it isn’t the trillions of dollars in deficit spending; it isn’t the degree of rampant financial malfeasants. It is something deeper which reaches into the soul of who we are as a people and society. It will soon be the central theme to your investment strategy and financial security.
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Friday, June 18, 2010
The Western Way of Life is Collapsing / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Kozy
The Age of Enlightenment was born sometime around the beginning of the eighteenth century. A mere three-quarters of a century later, industrialization ushered in the Age of Endarkenment, and human life has grown more and more perilous ever since. The Golden Age of capitalism cannot be recreated merely by applying the right mixture of spending, subsidies, re-regulation, and international agreements. Because the economic advantages of industrialization rely on overproduction and profit, balanced trade is impossible if the advantage is to be preserved; it entails no economic profit. Industrialism is a Hegelian synthesis which embodies the forces for its own destruction. The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The Crisis of Capitalism; Why the Socialists are Wrong / Politics / Economic Theory
By: David_Knox_Barker
Clearly international free market capitalism is the midst of the greatest long wave debt crisis in history; including government, corporate and personal debt. Overcapacity plagues virtually every industry around the globe from Taipei to Toledo to Timbuktu. Debt, overcapacity, and their impact on market prices are the key long wave winter season trends that have yet to run their course. The world now faces the final years of this long wave decline and winter season that will deliver global economic and financial upheaval until 2012.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Blaming the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis on Malevolent Speculators / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: MISES
Malte Tobias Kahler writes: Many commentators (the majority of whom are not economists) blame the imminent crisis in the eurozone on malevolent speculators. I find it necessary to take up the cudgels on the traders' behalf and explain why they are not culpable for the current mess.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Humiliation and Shame, Part of Being Health Insured in America / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Donna Smith writes: Oh, the things we did not fix in the healthcare bill are shocking. Just as seniors falling into the Medicare drug benefit donut hole begin to get the $250 checks meant to calm their fears about our new healthcare legislation, the rest of us would do well to remember the abuses of the for-profit healthcare system that will continue and even accelerate in the coming years.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Afghanistan Resources War For Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a "Just War", a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate "Islamic terrorism" and instate Western style democracy. The economic dimensions of the "Global War on Terrorism" are rarely mentioned.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Albany New York’s Public Pension: Perfect Example of What’s Wrong in This Country / Politics / US Politics
By: JD_Rosendahl
New website reveals NY retirees' public pensions. We have the same kind of website in California, which confirms similar data on pay.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Well Underground Ocean Floor Blowout Disaster Concern Video / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Videos
Mainstream Media reports fears of Underground Casing Blowout and Subsurface Failures, with the likelihood of multiple oil leaks in the sea floor.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Nurses are Right about the Problem, but Wrong about the Solution / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Mike_Stathis
Last week, more than 14,000 nurses from Minnesota hospitals staged a 1-day walk-out as a sign of protest over excessive patient loads.
The nurses are right about staffing shortages and overloaded responsibilities.
However, their solution – hiring more nurses will add further costs pressures to America’s unsustainable healthcare bubble.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Russian Perspective on the Kyrgyzstan Crisis / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
The UN Security Council is currently looking into the situation in Kyrgyzstan too. The UN promised to guarantee the delivery of food and medical help to Kyrgyz nationals through specially formed humanitarian corridors.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Busted Governments, Pensions and Unions / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
We are seeing the end of an era. The trade union movement in the United States has declined for the last 30 years. It is now in its final stages. The only area of the economy in which unions still have any degree of clout is in government. The union movement barely functions outside of government employment. Today, as states and municipalities face massive deficits, the union movement is threatened with destruction.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Phantom Iranian Ship sails for Gaza / Politics / Middle East
By: Mike_Whitney
Why are members of the western media saying that an Iranian ship is on its way to Gaza? Is it just an innocent mistake or is there something more sinister involved?
The first reports of an Iranian flotilla first appeared on Israeli news-sites late Sunday night. This (accurate report) is from the Jerusalem Post:
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Kyrgyzstan Crisis and the Russian Dilemma / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
Peter Zeihan writes: STRATFOR often discusses how Russia is on a bit of a roll. The U.S. distraction in the Middle East has offered Russia a golden opportunity to re-establish its spheres of influence in the region, steadily expanding the Russian zone of control into a shape that is eerily reminiscent of the old Soviet Union. Since 2005, when this process began, Russia has clearly reasserted itself as the dominant power in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine, and has intimidated places like Georgia and Turkmenistan into a sort of silent acquiescence.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Criminal Legacy of Alan Greenspan / Politics / Central Banks
By: LewRockwell
Ryan McMaken writes: For those of us who were mere economics undergraduates in the 1990's, Alan Greenspan was rather like a god. Admittedly, the vision of Greenspan handed down to the undergrads by the faculty wasn't one of vulgar hero-worship. Greenspan's mumblings and evasions were, after all, treated with bemusement by the faculty. But, there was the feeling that Greenspan, for all his lack of clarity, seemed to understand things that the rest of humanity didn't understand, and there was indeed faith in the idea that he must possess almost supernatural powers in fine-tuning the economy to ensure economic prosperity indefinitely.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Authoritarianism is Bad for Your Health / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The administration's terrible healthcare reform bill is now law, but the debate over how-- and whether-- the federal government should be involved in providing healthcare services is not over. It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a government run, "single payer" healthcare system.
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