Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, November 04, 2017
Preparing For EU Collapse / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
If there is one thing the Spain vs Catalonia conflict reminds us of, it has got to be Turkey. And that is a much bigger problem for the EU than it realizes. First of all, Brussels can no longer insist that this is an internal, domestic, Spanish issue, since Catalan president Puidgemont is in…Brussels. So are 4 members of his government.
That moves decisions to be made about his situation from the Spanish legal system to its Belgian counterpart. And the two are not identical twins. Even if both countries are EU members. This may expose a very large European problem: the lack of equality among justice systems. Citizens of EU member countries are free to move and work across the Union, but they are subject to different laws and constitutions.
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Friday, November 03, 2017
Here’s Why Catalonia Has Put The EU In Danger / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY JACOB L. SHAPIRO : Catalonia is vying to become Europe’s newest nation-state, but this is a battle Catalonia ultimately can’t win.
Only 51.8% of members in the Catalan parliament supported the independence declaration. That means even Catalans themselves are divided over whether Catalonia should secede from Spain.
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Friday, November 03, 2017
Charts Showing Extreme Social Fragmentation in the US / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
I’m going to show you three graphs that sum up the study discerning political polarization that has been conducted since 1994.
These three charts look at the years 1994, 2004, and 2017. Even as late as 2004, notice the broad crossover between the median Democrat and median Republican. And then notice how wide the divide is today.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Regulation Is Killing Community Banks - Public Banks Can Revive Them / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Ellen_Brown
At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said, "regulation is killing community banks." If the process is not reversed, he warned, we could "end up in a world where we have four big banks in this country." That would be bad for both jobs and the economy. "I think that we all appreciate the engine of growth is with small and medium-sized businesses," said Mnuchin. "We're losing the ability for small and medium-sized banks to make good loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the community, where they understand those credit risks better than anybody else."
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
500 Years of a Protestant Reformation / Politics / Religion
By: BATR
The evolution of the Christendom since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been marked with contention and disputes among different factions of believers. From the offset, the banning of the agnostic gospels from accepted church tenets to the East–West Schism of 1054 and the wars of religion that overwhelmed Europe following the Protestant Reformation, illustrates that a heated conflict has always existed among Christians. No doubt disputes over doctrine motivated many to break with their brothers and sisters in Christ. However, the underlying catalyst for a clash in congregations stems from an objection to the authority structure that surrounds the Vatican and the Holy Sea. Church jurisdiction and the demand that the dominion of the Church of Rome, which rests upon Pontiff Supremacy, has been at the core of many differences throughout history.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Fragmenting Countries, Part 1: Catalonia Is Just The Beginning / Politics / European Union
By: John_Rubino
Picture a life where you do most of your shopping through Amazon.com and the local farmers’ market, most of your communicating through Facebook and Instagram, much of your travel via Uber, and much of your saving and transacting with bitcoin, gold and silver.
Do you really need an immense, distant, and rapacious central government? Maybe not. Perhaps your region or ethnic group would be better off forming its own independent country.
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Saturday, October 28, 2017
CIA and FBI Prevent Trump Releasing JFK Assassination Smoking Gun Files / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Despite much fanfare and great expectations, President Trump barely released 10% of the files that were supposed to have been released on the JFK assassination after the FBI and CIA arm twisted Trump into withholding the full release of some 28,000 files under the excuse of impacting on National Security, protecting long dead sources, despite the fact that by law ALL of the files should have been released.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Volatility on Steroids / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It’s been a while since we last heard from longtime friend of the Automatic Earth Dr. Nelson Lebo III, New Englander living in Wanganui, New Zealand. Nelson has written a fine collection of articles on this site through the years.
Of course I thought, when I first saw this piece in my mailbox, that he would have written about New Zealand’s new prime minister, Labour’s 37-year-young Jacinda Ardern, whose first action in her new job will be to prevent foreigners from buying existing homes in her country. It’ll be interesting to see how she intends to do so while remaining inside the Trans Pacific Partnership -TPP- agreement.
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Friday, October 27, 2017
Catalonia Declares Independence, Commits Suicide, New Spanish Civil War Imminent / Politics / Spain
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Calm Before the Storm -The Spain / Catalonia crisis has continued to worsen with each passing day with growing bitterness as each side has sought to up the anti with the Catalans threatening to declare Independence whilst the Madrid regime threatening direct rule and imprisonment of subversives has today come to a head following the Catalan Parliament voting to unilaterally declare Independence from Spain. This prompted the Spanish parliament in Madrid to vote for direct rule over Catalonia, taking control over the regions police, financial institutions and broadcast media that sows the seeds for new Spanish civil war.
Friday, October 27, 2017
China’s 2017-22 Leaders, Grand Strategy and Policies / Politics / China
By: Dan_Steinbock
After the 19th Congress, Xi’s China is preparing for a new roadmap domestically and internationally. This is Dr. Dan Steinbock’s in-depth analysis of China’s critical changes that will shape the world economy until 2022 - and beyond.As the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) opened in Beijing, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a report about “building a moderately prosperous society” for a new era. In his speech, Xi offered a blueprint for China’s development for the next 5-15 years.
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Thursday, October 26, 2017
Trump’s Indecision about North Korea May Cost Him Allies in Asia Pacific / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : China’s 19th National Congress of the Communist Party is getting a lot of attention right now. In the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping heralded the beginning of a new era in China. Surprisingly, he was also very honest about the inadequacy of his first term.
Although the congress will continue into this week, most of the major events have already taken place.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2017
CIA Funding of Tech Companies / Politics / AI
By: BATR
Government funding of companies provides a steady stream of support for tech developing innovations. One vehicle for facilitating this relationship can be found in an entity called, In-Q-Tel. IQT describes their function as: “In-Q-Tel is the independent, not-for-profit organization created to bridge the gap between the technology needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and emerging commercial innovation. We invest in venture-backed startups developing technologies that provide ready-soon innovation (within 36 months) vital to the IC mission. These technology startups are traditionally outside the reach of the IC; in fact, more than 70 percent of our portfolio companies have never before done business with the government.”
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Xi Decade: New Thought for the New Era / Politics / China
By: Dan_Steinbock
In the Xi decade, Chinese transition to the post-industrial society will accelerate, despite the new normal in the world economy.As the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened in Beijing, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a report about “building a moderately prosperous society” for a new era.
In his speech, Xi delivered a blueprint for China’s development for the next 5-15 years. In the process, he defined new thought for a new era.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017
ISIS Is Now Aiming at Africa / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: John_Mauldin
As Islamist militant groups attempt to expand their operations into new areas, some have looked to the Sahel region in western and central Africa and seen opportunity.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Surge in UK Race Hate Crimes, Micro-Racism, Sheffield, Millhouses Park, Black on Asian / Politics / Social Issues
By: N_Walayat
The latest police statistics reveal a huge surge in hate crime in the year to March 2017, up 29% to 80,393 which is the largest annual rise since records began that comes in the wake of last years Brexit vote and a string of terror attacks with most of the hate crimes being racially motivated. However the statistics represent the extreme end of the spectrum of reported race crimes for the vast majority lower level hate crimes tend to go unreported. Also the statistics do not cover the further spike in hate crime in the wake of the most recent terror attacks of the past 6 months.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Globalization is Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Central bankers have never done more damage to the world economy than in the past 10 years. One may argue this is because they never had the power to do that. If their predecessors had had that power, who knows? Still, the global economy has never been more interconnected than it is today, due mostly to the advance of globalism, neoliberalism and perhaps even more, technology.
Ironically, all three of these factors are unremittingly praised as forces for good. But living standards for many millions of people in the west have come down and/or are laden with uncertainty, while millions of Chinese now have higher living standards. People in the west have been told to see this as a positive development; after all, it allows them to buy products cheaper than if they had been made in domestic industries.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017
China Has a Bargaining Chip Against the US in the North Korea Crisis / Politics / China US Conflict
By: John_Mauldin
By Jacob L. Shapiro : Of all the parties involved in the Korean missile crisis, the most difficult to read is China.
China’s talks about the need for a peaceful resolution do little to reveal what China’s real interests and objectives are. And what they are is multiple and conflicting.
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Friday, October 13, 2017
The Struggle for Bolivia Is About to Begin / Politics / Emerging Markets
By: Dan_Steinbock
While middle class Bolivians are demonstrating against the incumbent president’s bid to extend term limits, the country is thriving after a decade of progress under Evo Morales. Recently, thousands of Bolivians took part in protests in San Francisco square in La Paz demonstrating against President Evo Morales’ bid to extend term limits.
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Your Pension Is a Lie: There’s $210 Trillion of Liabilities Our Government Can’t Fulfill / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
In the US, we have two national programs to care for the elderly. Social Security provides a small pension, and Medicare covers medical expenses. All workers pay taxes that supposedly fund the benefits we may someday receive.
The problem is that's not actually true. Neither of these programs is comprehensive.
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Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Turning Point Nations On The Stage / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Many are the turning points with individual nations, once firmly in the Western alliance camp, but no longer. They are flipping eastward or in the case of China cutting the major cords. The Shanghai developments are by far the most important in the financial setting. The Petro-Dollar is seeing its last months after a 43-year reign as defacto standard. Its retirement will begin in the East, then spread to the decaying loyal Western nations. The entire geopolitical chessboard is becoming more aligned with the Eurasian Trade Zone, one nation after another. Its cornerstones are Russia, China, and increasingly Iran. It has gathered some Eastern European countries like Turkey, and will gather more. It has pursued the Middle East oil monarchies, and will succeed in lassoing them into the zone corral. Whether they deploy financial connections, or trade ties, or security links, these nations no longer see the United States and British (who walk the American dog with a monetary leash) as the leading global players any longer. The leaders are China with its financial and industrial might and Russia with its energy and commodity strength.