Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ageing Baby Boomers, the One Mega Trend NO ONE is Talking About / Politics / Social Issues
Thus far, analysis the financial collapse has been framed almost entirely in terms of money. All the research I’ve seen has delved into lending standards, securitization, inflation, interest rates, housing and the like.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Strategic Calculus and the Afghan War / Politics / Afghanistan
U.S. and allied forces began their first major offensive in Afghanistan under the command of U.S. Gen David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal this July. Inevitably, coalition casualties have begun to mount. Fifteen British soldiers have died within the past 10 days — eight of whom were killed within a 24-hour period — in Helmand province, where the operation is taking place. On July 6, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks across Afghanistan within a single day, and on July 12 another four U.S. soldiers were reported killed in Helmand.
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Monday, July 13, 2009
Fed Independence or Fed Secrecy? / Politics / Central Banks
Last week I was very pleased that hearings were held on the independence of the Federal Reserve system. My bill HR 1207, known as the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, was discussed at length, as well as the general question of whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate independently.
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Monday, July 13, 2009
Military Escalation From Afghanistan To the Caspian Sea and Central Asia Largest Since Vietnam War / Politics / Afghanistan
Rick Rozoff writes: The Pentagon and its NATO allies have launched the largest combat offensive to date in their nearly eight-year war in South Asia - Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) with 4,000 US Marines, attack helicopters and tanks and Operation Panchai Palang (Panther's Claw) with several hundred British engaged in airborne assaults - in the Afghan province of Helmand.
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
New NATO as Germany Returns To World Military Stage / Politics / New World Order
Rick Rozoff writes: When the post-World War II German states the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, West and East Germany, respectively, were united in 1990, it was for many in Europe and the world as a whole a heady time, fraught with hopes of a continent at peace and perhaps disarmed.
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
HR 2749: A Stealth Agribusiness Empowering Act / Politics / Agricultural Commodities
America is the truest example of what George Bernard Shaw meant when he said "Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt few." Obama is upholding the tradition and then some.
In fact, in less than six months, he's done the impossible. With congressional Democrats, he's compiled a worse record than even his fiercest critics feared, worse than George Bush, straight across the board on both domestic and foreign policies that include:
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Debt and Financial Scam's- Six Syllables to a Savage Truth / Politics / US Debt
On December 9, 2008, $65 billion of investor money was at peace. On the fear / greed seesaw that is said to characterize investor emotion, fear was down on the ground, while greed was high in the sky, having all the fun. Greed was earning a steady 1% per month, making fear look like an over-cautious fool.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Minimum Wage is Maximum Economic Stupidity / Politics / Economic Theory
In a free market, demand is always a function of price: the higher the price, the lower the demand. What may surprise most politicians is that these rules apply equally to both prices and wages. When employers evaluate their labor and capital needs, cost is a primary factor. When the cost of hiring low-skilled workers moves higher, jobs are lost. Despite this, minimum wage hikes, like the one set to take effect later this month, are always seen as an act of governmental benevolence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Government Bets on Positive Spin to Save Bankrupt Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Shah Gilani writes: Just when you thought the U.S. banking system had regained its footing, the reality is that a carefully woven federal-government PR campaign may actually be masking the next phase of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Indeed, it’s what’s just out of sight that has some analysts and economists scared to death.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Is Washington Playing a Deeper Game with China? / Politics / GeoPolitics
July 12 —After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government’s ”independent“ NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Governmental Organization, the NED, is massively intervening into the internal politics of China.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Credit Crisis Bailouts, Whose Line (of Credit) Is It Anyway? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
“Permit me to issue and control the money of the nation and I care not who makes its laws.” - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild family international banking dynasty
“And I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” - Thomas Jefferson
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Friday, July 10, 2009
G8 Summit Proves to be Outdated and Useless / Politics / GeoPolitics
The G8 summit opened in Italy, although one may not refer to the event as the meeting of eight leading countries in the world. The leaders of Russia, Italy, the USA, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, as well as the head of the European Committee, and the prime minister of EU’s chairing state, Sweden, gathered in the morning of July 8 for breakfast.
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
Warning: Cap and Trade Bubble Ahead / Politics / Renewable Energy
Obama's Cap and Trade Carbon Emissions Bill - A Stealth Scheme to License Pollution and Fraud - On May 15, HR 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA) was introduced in the House purportedly "To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy."
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
Full Spectrum Dominance, Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order / Politics / GeoPolitics
Video interview, William Engdahl on his book Full Spectrum Dominance:
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Why have we Abandoned Free Markets? / Politics / Market Manipulation
It astonishes me to see how quickly this country has embraced a socialist mentality and how readily it has accepted the belief that the source of our problems was an unfettered free market. Perhaps it is because those in power do not understand what the term free market truly means. If they indeed understood what a free market entails, then it would be impossible for them to lay blame upon it.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Another Victim of America’s Ponzi Scheme Economy (Part 1) / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
As of yesterday, Lear Corp., an auto parts supplier for the "Little 3" joined the list of others who have been victimized by the collapse of America’s Ponzi scheme economy.
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Another Victim of America’s Ponzi Scheme Economy (Part 2) / Politics / US Economy
Today, America’s “New Economy” is based exclusively on services - primarily financial and technology-based services, with a whole slew of attorneys and consultants to support transactions and legal agreements.
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Trend Following or Market Trend Manipulation? / Politics / Market Manipulation
Trend following commodity futures trading as well as stock traders were villified last year as speculators. Even George Soros came out with the statement that the rampant rise of crude oil was due to speculators. Trend following commodity trading advisors are speculators but they do not manipulate trends. On of the main principles of trend following is that there is a trend to follow. Commodity traders surely can not start trends. Commodity traders are accused of throwing markets in disorder. As an example in Bloomberg news yesterday it was reported that The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ( CFTC) will announce plans to introduce curbs on speculation of commodities including energy.
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The U.S. Russian Summit Turns Routine / Politics / GeoPolitics
The Moscow summit between U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ended. As is almost always the case, the atmospherics were good, with the proper things said on all sides and statements and gestures of deep sincerity made. And as with all summits, those atmospherics are like the air: insubstantial and ultimately invisible. While there were indications of substantial movement, you would have needed a microscope to see them.
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
CFTC: Corrupt Foxes Tending Chickens / Politics / Market Manipulation
All the hyperbole in the mainstream media announcing imminent changes by the CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission) amounts only to so much spin and P.R. There aren’t too many thinking adults involved even peripherally in the global poker game known as the Futures market who still believe the house always wins by dint of natural statistical preference.
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