Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, March 04, 2010
The Fall of Greece, Is it a Capitalist Plot? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
Diana Johnstone writes: For Europe’s poorest countries, European Union membership has long held out the promise of tranquil prosperity. The current Greek financial crisis ought to dispel some of their illusions.
There are two strikingly significant levels to the current crisis. While primarily economic, the European Economic Community also claims to be a community, based on solidarity -- the sisterhood of nations and brotherhood of peoples. However, the economic deficit is nothing compared to the human deficit it exposes.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Why Political Leaders Lie Most of the Time? / Politics / Social Issues
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), French economist
"Certain hierarchs of the Catholic Church in Latin America used prayer as an anesthesia to put the people to sleep. When they cannot dominate us with law, then comes prayer, and when they can't humiliate or dominate us with prayer, then comes the gun." Evo Morales, President of Bolivia (July 13, 2009)
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
CNBC Protects Bad Guys Who Took Huge Bailouts from Taxpayers / Politics / Mainstream Media
The economy is in trouble because banks borrowed massively, and they borrowed many multiples more than they could afford. CNBC acts as if over-borrowing by U.S. consumers created a global financial crisis. This myth protects Wall Street banks.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Vulture Funds Preying on African Debt Video / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
In Britain, lawmakers have voted in favor of a bill to restrict so-called vulture funds—that is, financiers that buy up poor country debts cheaply and then sue for massive profits. The Debt Relief Bill would pave the way for banning private investors from pursuing the world’s poorest countries for debts in British courts.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Bill Gates Talks About Vaccines to Reduce World Population / Politics / Social Issues
Microsoft founder and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates, projects an image of a benign philanthropist using his billions via his (tax exempt) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to tackle diseases, solve food shortages in Africa and alleviate poverty. In a recent conference in California, Gates reveals a less public agenda of his philanthropy—population reduction, otherwise known as eugenics.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Real Financial Reform... or Political Gridlock? / Politics / Market Regulation
Shah Gilani writes: U.S. senators Christopher Dodd, D-CT, and Bob Corker, R-TN, have fashioned a compromise on stalled banking regulation that straddles divisions over establishing a financial consumer protection agency and addresses unwinding too-big-to-fail firms.
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Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Politicians Hopelessly Bad at Economics / Politics / Government Spending
Wilt Alston writes: Nancy Pelosi claims that the new "healthcare" bill will "create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately." The audacity and shamelessness of these lying politicians is something to behold. ~ Bill Anderson (on the LRC Blog)
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Wednesday, March 03, 2010
On The Road To Armageddon / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
For the last three days the most popular article on OpedNews, a tough progressive website, has been The Road to Armageddon:
Read full article... Read full article...“Inside the Beltway” report, “Explosive News,” about the 31 press conferences in cities in the US and abroad on February 19 held by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization of professionals which now has 1,000 members.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Paul Ryan, the Man Who Could Save America / Politics / US Politics
Doug Hornig, Casey Research writes:Since the stunning result of the Massachusetts senatorial race, President Obama has softened his tone quite a bit, essentially saying to Republicans that if they have any good ideas, “Bring ’em on.”
Whether he’s sincere or not remains to be seen, but the implication is that he’s unworried, because in his opinion the opposition party only knows how to criticize and doesn’t have anything constructive to say.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
The Case Against Greenspan and Bernanke / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
Is there enough evidence to indict Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan on charges that they aided and abetted the banks and other financial institutions in the sale of fraudulent loans to investors?
That depends on whether there is sufficient proof to show whether the two men KNEW that the nation's lenders were engaged in large-scale predatory lending and chose to do nothing. As we'll see, both Greenspan and Bernanke were warned repeatedly about the mortgage/derivatives scam by credible professionals and industry regulators, but failed to act.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
New Falklands War for Oil Suits British and Argentinian Politicians / Politics / GeoPolitics
The artificially-engendered revival of the dispute, which began in February 2010 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, has been portrayed as a posturing by embattled Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, taking advantage of both the start of exploratory oil and gas drilling by British company Desire Petroleum in the Falklands waters, and the talks by Latin American and Caribbean leaders of the Rio Group in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen, beginning on February 22, 2010. But the crisis may well play into the political posturing of equally embattled United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces a general election by June 2010 at the latest.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
We Are Being Spent Into Oblivion / Politics / Government Spending
As we continue to ponder and debate, with way too much focus, on the mundane and inane, the perfect storm grows and rapidly approaches. It brings with it a financial tsunami and a societal train wreck. October 2008 was the outer wall of the storm, we have been living in the eye since then. Now the inner wall approaches: the global debt crisis.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010
IMF Economic Fear Mongering Comes to America / Politics / US Debt
In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a “mandatory savings” tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President’s new budget task force. These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary, however, but will actually make matters worse. The push for “fiscal responsibility” is based on bad economics.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Major War Coming Between Union Parasite "Haves" and Non-union "Have-Nots / Politics / Demographics
Perhaps by necessity, perhaps by desire, but most likely by both, An increasing percentage of Americans say they more enjoy saving than spending.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Bizarre Government Spending Habits / Politics / Government Spending
Last week I had the opportunity to bring up spending and transparency in two important hearings. On Wednesday I questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on some highly questionable uses of funds at the Federal Reserve, and on Thursday I asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about exorbitant spending at the State Department.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Were the Founding Fathers Media Socialists? / Politics / US Politics
The Federal Communications Commission’s Chief Diversity Officer, Mark Lloyd, wants government to socialize the media. In his 2006 book Prologue to a Farce, Lloyd calls for a far-reaching government program that would straitjacket private media companies and funnel tens of billions of dollars into a tax-supported “public” media--an agenda shared by many of his associates. A massive nonprofit media run by the state would better inform Americans, Lloyd claims, although, feeling generous, he allows that “there should be a place for private communications services in a republic.”
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Monday, March 01, 2010
The Axis of Greed, The Nature and Structure of the Economic Elite / Politics / US Politics
David DeGraw writes: This is the third-part of a six-part report. Part one can be viewed here, part two here.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Crashing Towards a New World Social Order 2012 / Politics / New World Order
Richard K. Moore writes: Historical background – the establishment of capitalist supremacy
When the Industrial Revolution began in Britain, in the late 1700s, there was lots of money to be made by investing in factories and mills, by opening up new markets, and by gaining control of sources of raw materials. The folks who had the most money to invest, however, were not so much in Britain but more in Holland. Holland was the leading Western power in the 1600s, and its bankers were the leading capitalists. In pursuit of profit, Dutch capital flowed to the British stock market, and thus the Dutch funded the rise of Britain, who subsequently eclipsed Holland both economically and geopolitically.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Wall Street's Credit Crisis Bailout Hustle / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Matt Taibbi writes: Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash
On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs. Fast becoming America's pre-eminent Marvel Comics supervillain, the CEO used the call to deploy his secret weapon: a pair of giant, nuclear-powered testicles. In his message, Blankfein addressed his plan to pay out gigantic year-end bonuses amid widespread controversy over Goldman's role in precipitating the global financial crisis.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
Did The Fed Pay “Face” For $187.53 Billion Chinese Owned Toxic Assets? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Two pieces of disturbing news on the wires this week:
1: The Chinese are NOT buying US debt anymore.
2: The Chinese ARE buying US debt (except they are buying it through intermediaries).
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