Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Why Paying Your Mortgage May Be Financially Irresponsible / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Karen_De_Coster
Roger Lowenstein has written one of the best articles I have read on the topic: walking away from your house. The prominent author and journalist published a January 7, 2010 article in the New York Times with the headline, "Walk Away From Your Mortgage!" Lowenstein acknowledges that it may be financially careless for homeowners who are upside down on their mortgage to keep paying it in order to hang onto a fantasy of ownership and avoid the shame of default. In this article, Lowenstein’s subject is the borrower who can afford to pay the mortgage but considers opting out for reasons of financial benefit and survival. This is referred to as a strategic default.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tim Geithner Must Go As Unemployment Festers A New Economic Strategy Team Is Needed / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
When a pitcher gets tired, starts throwing walks or being hit, most attentive managers take him out of the game. When policies fail, as in the case of the security system that didn’t work to spot the alleged Christmas bomber, the President starts acting tough with bluster about the buck stopping here and orders to straighten out a failed system.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Airline Bomb Plots, Is Anyone Telling Us The Truth? / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
What are we to make of the failed Underwear Bomber plot, the Toothpaste, Shampoo, and Bottled Water Bomber plot, and the Shoe Bomber plot? These blundering and implausible plots to bring down an airliner seem far removed from al-Qaida’s expertise in pulling off 9/11.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
America’s Healthcare Fraud, Confessions of a Drug Rep / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Stathis
If America ever expects to fix its broken healthcare system, all of the problems must first be identified. Only then can a solution be engineered.
Friday, January 08, 2010
The American Elite / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
William Blum writes:
Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96. He had graduated summa ***** laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin America. He joined the Harvard faculty at 23.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Timothy Geithner, I Call Your Bluff / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
The Treasury responded to reports that the New York Fed asked AIG to suppress and delay facts about the bailout. Meg Reilly, a Treasury spokesperson claimed: “In the transaction at the heart of this dispute…the FRBNY [Federal Reserve Bank of New York] made a loan of $25 billion which is on track to be paid back in full with interest.” She claims the loan is currently “above water.”
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Friday, January 08, 2010
Pennsylvania Borough Gives Homeless the 'Cold Shoulder' / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Walter_Brasch
SUGAR NOTCH, Pa.--A regional advocate for the rights of the homeless says actions by Sugar Notch officials to deny shelter to homeless men may be based upon fear and a lack of knowledge.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
Time To Indict Geithner For Securities Fraud / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
The web of known parties guilty of fraud, coercion, or securities manipulation keeps getting bigger. Please consider N.Y. Fed Told A.I.G. Not to Disclose Swap Details.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
Bernanke and Greenspan, Financial Crisis Not Our Fault / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Peter_Schiff
It seems that the primary qualification needed by any chairman of the Federal Reserve is the ability to never admit error, no matter how damning the evidence. During his tenure on the job, Alan Greenspan set the standard for implausible deniability. But in a speech last weekend in Atlanta, current chairman Ben Bernanke did the Maestro one better.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Geithner's New York Federal Reserve Pressured AIG to Delay Disclosures / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Trader_Mark
I wrote a few times in 2008 and early 2009 that as historic and mind bending the times we were living through then were, that when all the details of what was happening behind the scenes leaked out in the coming years ... that's where the truly fascinating information would be found. How short are memories are - all the furor over the direct handout to investment (and other) banks the world over, led by our friends at Goldman Sachs (GS) via AIG swap agreements - is but a distant memory.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Moving Your Money from Wall Street to Local Community Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Ellen_Brown
The recent proposal to vote with our feet by shifting our deposits from Wall Street to community banks is a great start. However, community banks are not suffering from a lack of deposits so much as from a lack of the capital they need to make new loans, and investment capital today is scarce. There is a way out of this dilemma, demonstrated for over 90 years by the innovative state of North Dakota -- a partnership in which community banks are backed by the deep pockets of a state-owned bank.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Bernanke's Hubris, Inability to Admit Mistakes, and Blaming Everyone For His Mistakes / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Bernanke's hubris, inability to admit mistakes, and his blaming everyone but himself for his mistakes is increasingly starting to touch on nerves.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Did Iceland Run a Giant Ponzi Scheme to Scam British Savers? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Iceland is refusing to repay the £2.3 billion that British Tax payers put up to temporarily bailout Icelandic banks operating in the UK following the 2008 Financial Crisis.
The President of Iceland played the victim card by stating that he would refuse to sign a bill passed by the Iceland's Parliament that authorised repayment of £2.3 billion owed as a consequence of the bailout of British savers in Icesave. Instead President Grimsson stated that he would instead hold a referendum on the bill which has ZERO chance of being passed hence there will no repayment.
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Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Iceland's President Tells UK Go To Hell, Hooray For Iceland / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Shedlock
Congratulations to Iceland for figuring out that it is better to suffer a credit rating downgrade than to torture its citizens for a decade or longer. Please consider Iceland president vetoes collapsed Icesave Bank's bill to UK
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Are We Solving the ROOT CAUSE of our Economic Problems? / Politics / US Politics
By: Rudy_Avizius
Picture yourself in the following scenario: you are visiting your doctor complaining of abdominal pains, the doctor gives you a prescription for a strong pain killer. Certainly the pain medicine will help you feel better, but does it really solve the problem that caused the pains in the first place? Could this be the result of appendicitis or some other serious condition? You would rightly question the doctor’s judgment. The doctor is treating the SYMPTOM of the problem, not the ROOT CAUSE.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
How to lower Healthcare cost AND create millions of good decent, permanent jobs: / Politics / Economic Stimulus
By: Submissions
Cindy Merrill writes: 1. Expand Meals On Wheels to all rural communitiesRead full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
On The Road To Copenhagen and A Global Food Crisis / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Robert_Palmer
Does the following analysis sound familiar?
“A weakening U.S. dollar is putting upward pressure on oil prices. The shock produced chaos in the West. In the United States, the retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose 50%, consumption dropped by 6.1% from September to February. Underscoring the interdependence of the world societies and economies, oil-importing nations in the noncommunist industrial world saw sudden inflation and economic recession. The energy crisis led to greater interest in renewable energy and spurred research in solar power and wind power as well as increased interest in mass transit.”
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Yemen, Behind Al-Qaeda Scenarios, a Geopolitical Oil Chokepoint to Eurasia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: F_William_Engdahl
On December 25 US authorities arrested a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on charges of having tried to blow up the plane with smuggled explosives. Since then reports have been broadcast from CNN, the New York Times and other sources that he was “suspected” of having been trained in Yemen for his terror mission. What the world has been subjected to since is the emergence of a new target for the US ‘War on Terror,’ namely a desolate state on the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen. A closer look at the background suggests the Pentagon and US intelligence have a hidden agenda in Yemen.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Bernanke Blames Congress for Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Shedlock
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is back at it again, pointing the crisis finger at everyone but himself. To be sure there are plenty of congressional clowns deserving of a Babe Ruth style "big point", but the biggest point belongs straight at himself.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Demise of The United States of America, An American Tragedy / Politics / US Politics
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
The demise of a nation is often at the hands of others; and, whereas the usual suspects are its enemies, allies and friends cannot be ruled out.
The 20th century will be remembered as the century when America became a world power. World Wars I and II would decimate the then great powers of the world, e.g. England, Germany, Russia, France, Japan, etc., leaving the US as the last nation standing—the world’s sole superpower.