Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
"High Frequency" Financial Trading is Wall Street High-tech Highway Robbery / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Mike_Whitney
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) knows that High-Frequency Trading (HFT) manipulates the market and bilks investors out of tens of billions of dollars every year. But SEC chairman Mary Schapiro refuses to step in and take action. Instead, she's concocted an elaborate "information gathering" scheme, that does nothing to address the main problem. Schapiro's plan--to track large blocks of trades by large institutional investors-- is an attempt to placate congress while the big Wall Street HFT traders continue to rake in obscene profits. It achieves nothing, except provide the cover Schapiro needs to avoid doing her job.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Criminalization of Wall Street, Lynching Bankers is not the Solution / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Global_Research
Six out ten Americans have a hostile view of Wall Street, according to a recent poll. And this survey was taken before the news last week that the US government is charging top Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs and its vice president with fraud over trade in mortgages and derivatives. The charge is serious, given that Goldman Sachs is accused of being aware that there would be an imminent collapse in the US housing market. Nevertheless, the bank went ahead anyway, merrily trading its toxic assets.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Goldman Sachs and the Mega Banks: Too Big To Obey The Law / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Global_Research
Simon Johnson writes: On a short-term tactical basis, Goldman Sachs clearly has little to fear. It has relatively deep pockets and will fight the securities “Fab” allegations tooth and nail; resolving that case, through all the appeals stages, will take many years. Friday’s announcement had a significant negative impact on the market perception of Goldman’s franchise value – partly because what they are accused of doing to unsuspecting customers is so disgusting. But, as a Bank of America analyst (Guy Mozkowski) points out this morning, the dollar amount of this specific allegation is small relative to Goldman’s overall business and – frankly – Goldman’s market position is so strong that most customers feel a lack of plausible alternatives.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Moscow Ascending, How Turkey’s New Axis With Russia Affects U.S. Interests / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
We have, in the past year, entered an entirely new dynamic in Eastern Mediterranean and South-East European strategic affairs. We are in a period and a region in which Russia, not the West, is taking the key initiatives and has much of the advantage. This is particularly significant given that Russian policymaking receives scant attention in US and other Western media, and remains as opaque to Western analysts as it was during the Cold War era when Russia was veiled by an Iron Curtain. At least during the Cold War, the West threw its best intellects into attempting to understand Russia and the Soviet Union.
Monday, April 19, 2010
How the Goldman Sachs Fraud Case Could Accelerate Wall Street Financial Reform / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday that it had filed a fraud action against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), the news hit the financial markets like a carefully targeted bomb.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Audit the Fed and End the Mandate / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week I introduced a very important piece of legislation that I hope will gain as much or more support as my Audit the Fed bill. HR 4995, the End the Mandate Act will repeal provisions of the newly passed health insurance reform bill that give the government the power to force Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance.
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Monday, April 19, 2010
ProPublica's (and NY Times') "Untold" Magnetar Story Creates Excuses for Wall Street and Washington / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
ProPublica, Planet Money, and radio show This American Life recently carried stories about Magnetar, a hedge fund that profited from the housing crisis. Unfortunately, many thought it was a fresh revelation. Magnetar wasn't a previously unknown hedge fund. Magnetar did not create the synthetic CDO structure, and the magnitude of Magnetar's role in the subprime crisis has been overblown.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Obama's Presidential Corruption / Politics / US Politics
By: Jack_D_Douglas
It's obvious from the bare facts known about Obama's receipt of "favors" from Rezko, a typically corrupt "fixer" and "briber'' in the sea of Chicago corruption, that Obama was willing to use illegal means to build his financial foundation for his rush to the top of politics, but it is also obvious that he was very careful in planning the pay-offs so that they could not be proved legally.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Silver Lining to U.S. Corruption / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Jennifer_Barry
Many Americans believe that their government is incompetent, but it’s actually corrupt. Transparency International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” Crony capitalism, sweetheart deals, lucrative post-government jobs, and campaign contributions in exchange for votes: these are all examples of corruption.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Goldman Sachs Mortgage Fraud Confirms Gordon Brown's Responsibility for the Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Gordon Brown yesterday confessed that Labour's light touch on financial regulation was a mistake that contributed towards the financial crisis. Previously he had repeatedly self congratulated himself for saving the banking system from collapse and blamed lack of banking sector regulation on pressure from the City of London, form the banking sector, Bank of England and FSA, all of whom he alluded to wanted light touch regulation so as to maximise profits which funded Labours public sector spending spree which he says he reluctantly went along with rather than implement the regulatory reforms that he had all along envisaged.
Friday, April 16, 2010
France Does Not Like Crude Oil Speculators / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Andrew_McKillop
France wants Group of 20 nations to limit easy access by the "trading community" to the betting chips, that is derivative holdings and leveraged positions, traders use to speculate on oil. This makes oil prices not only volatile, which perhaps is OK, but at present also makes them rise, which is not OK. Speculative excesses driving down traded natural gas prices to near-record lows are perhaps not surprisingly for a country which imports gas as well as oil, absent from a new French proposal. In a French Finance Ministry report, authored by finance professor J-M Chevalier, the belles idees of France are set out in what reads like a fight for cheap oil in a science fiction trading world of the distant future.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Central Banking is an Engine of Corruption / Politics / Central Banks
By: Thomas_J_DiLorenzo
Much has been written about the famous debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the constitutionality of America's first central bank, the Bank of the United States (BUS). This was where Jefferson, as secretary of state, enunciated his "strict constructionist" view of the Constitution, making his case to President George Washington that since a central bank was not one of the powers specifically delegated by the states to the central government, and since the idea was explicitly rejected by the constitutional convention, a central bank is unconstitutional.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Iceland Ash Cloud, Beginning of an Ecological Disaster? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Pravda
In just one day, volcanic ash spewing forth from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull has brought airports to a halt in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland and is expected to spread over other areas of Europe by Thursday evening. The last time this volcano blew, it was deadly, emitting large quantities of toxic fluoride gas.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Kyrgyzstan, Business, Corruption and the U.S. Manas Airbase / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
Kyrgyzstan’s mass anti-government protests last week were essentially the culmination of more than a decade of disillusionment and dissatisfaction that accumulated in the nation’s political, economic and social spheres from the period of Akayev to his successor Kurmanbek Bakiyev, with virtually every Kyrgyz concerned about rising prices and falling standards of living, both issues of little concern and dimly understood in Washington. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Why Are Corporations Funding the Tea Party? / Politics / US Politics
By: Shamus_Cooke
Rank and file Tea Partiers are, politically speaking, lost at sea in the dead of night, looking for the light of common principles. On land, those manning right-wing lighthouses are broadcasting ideas loaded with hidden motives into this ocean of conservative public opinion. What the Tea Party will become is presently unknown; but those with an agenda will do their best to steer lost boats at sea in their direction, with potentially dangerous consequences.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Fed Lies, Counterfeit Money, Counterfeit History / Politics / Central Banks
By: LewRockwell
Ryan McMaken writes: The talking points have been written and the official spokesmen have been briefed. Now all that remains is for them to deliver the government-approved version of the history of the financial collapse that has led to the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Aftermath of the Kyrgyzstan Revolution - The Lesser Players / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
The recent unrest in Kyrgyzstan has largely been portrayed as an epic clash between U.S. and Russian interests.
That said, interest in events in Bishkek extend far beyond Kyrgyzstan throughout the regional and one should expect the following voices to add their concerns as the situation evolves. While largely overlooked by media coverage, their influence could be a significant factor in both interim and long-term solutions that emerge to Kyrgyzstan’s recent upheavals.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Financial Reform, Three Ways to Fix Wall Street / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: The financial-reform bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-CT, seems likely to pass both houses without all that much alteration.
And that should immediately raise our suspicions. After all, the U.S. financial-services business has a very effective lobby, so if there isn't huge opposition to the legislation, it probably won't achieve all that much.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Potential Death of the American Dream, Protect Your Wealth From the Government / Politics / US Politics
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: When I was a kid, the world was my oyster...
Some days, my buddies and I would go exploring in the woods. Other days, we'd play wiffle ball in Wade Welch's yard... or we'd play "kill the man with the ball" in Mike Bruner's yard.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
How Bush Tried to Stop Predatory Bank Lending / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Whitney
When the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on investigations convenes on Tuesday, they'll be presented with a mountain of evidence showing that Washington Mutual intentionally issued subprime mortgages that they knew would fail, and then bundled the loans into securities so they could be sold to investors. The senate's year-and-a-half long investigation, has strung together hundreds of e mails and other internal documents that will prove beyond a doubt that the now-defunct bank was engaged in industrial-scale fraud. This is from the Los Angeles Times: