Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Friday, May 22, 2009
Employment Tribunal Awards New Court Enforcement Help for Claims / Politics / Employment
Tough new measures to improve the payment of employment tribunal awards and reduce the costs of enforcing unpaid ones were announced today by Justice Secretary Jack Straw.
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Bail Out Your Self!, Time for a Tax and Mortgage Strike / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Ted Rall writes: The calamari salad was world-class. Still, my friend the CPA's face screwed up. "You know what still has me pissed off? The bailouts. All wasted on CEO bonuses. But nobody cares!"
I told him I thought people cared, but they didn't know what they could do about it.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Frauds R' Us: The Scams and Crimes of Wall Street / Politics / Market Manipulation
Danny Schechter writes: So many of us know in detail about all the false warnings and exaggerated claims that were used to justify the war in Iraq. By now, six years later, and after many books, reports, news stories and films (hopefully including my two books and film, Weapons of Mass Deception), we see the pattern of lies and deception. We realize that a fraud was committed against the American people and see what its consequences have been for the people of this country, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Watching Barack Obama Morph Into Dick Cheney / Politics / US Politics
America has lost her soul, and so has her president.
A despairing country elected a president who promised change. Americans arrived from every state to witness in bitter cold Obama’s swearing in ceremony. The mall was packed in a way that it has never been for any other president.
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Banksters Remain Firmly in Charge of the "New" Wall Street / Politics / Market Manipulation
Wall Street wants to regain your trust. Mutual fund managers, stockbrokers, Wall Street executives, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) want Americans to keep the faith that buying and holding stocks, for the long term, is a key to building personal wealth. This is a tough sell considering Americans have watched their 401(k)s become 201(k)s. Not to worry says the laughable SEC, they’ve got your back covered.
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
SEC Shame / Politics / Market Regulation
Many of you who have followed me and read my most recent books (The Wall Street Investment Bible/2009 and America’s Financial Apocalypse/2006 & 2007) know that I feel the SEC is beyond useless. In my opinion, the agency works for Wall Street. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Rumblings about the Impossibility of Closing Guantanamo / Politics / US Politics
Eric Walberg writes: Pornography, feminisation of the enemy? Confused over what Obama’s view on Guantanamo and the backlog of torture images from Abu Ghraib? Join the club.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
U.S. Social Security Trust Fund Running Out Faster than Expected / Politics / US Politics
Nilus Mattive writes: We got lots of disturbing news from Washington last week. But the latest updates on Social Security and Medicare really got my blood boiling.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Who Will TARP Bailout America? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Last week the nation’s number one trucking company, YRC Worldwide Inc., announced that it will seek $1 billion in TARP assistance to bailout the company’s pension plan. Never mind the fact that the request is light years away from the original intention and approval given by congress to purchase toxic assets from banks’ balance sheets. The point is that the troubled company’s request of the government to cover its pension obligations should remind us of the bigger issue; who will bailout our country’s pension plan and can the USA TARP itself?
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System / Politics / Global Financial System
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part VI - This is the sixth and final article on Ellen Brown's superb 2007 book titled "Web of Debt," now updated in a December 2008 third edition. It tells "the shocking truth about our money system, (how it) trapped us in debt, and how we can break free." This article focuses on establishing a people-oriented banking system. It's high time we had one and reclaimed what's rightfully ours.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Audit the Fed, Then End It! / Politics / Central Banks
I have been very pleased with the progress of my legislation, HR 1207, which calls for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and removes many significant barriers towards transparency of our monetary system. This bill now has nearly 170 cosponsors, with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a companion bill in the Senate S604, which will hopefully begin to gain momentum as well. I am very encouraged to see so many of my colleagues in Congress stand with me for greater transparency in government.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Obama's Road to Economic Ruin and Higher Taxes / Politics / Economic Stimulus
The inimitable Adam Smith once quipped that "there is a great deal of ruination in a country". But then Mr Smith had never met President Obama whose idea of financial responsibility would make the feckless and cynical Louis XIV look like a nineteenth British treasurer. This ideologue has set the United States on a spending and borrowing binge that is unprecedented in its history and which is impossible to sustain.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Obama is Disastrous for the U.S. Economy, Recession Worst is Yet to Come / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates has an interesting take on the economy that I happen to agree with.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
MP's Blame Greedy NHS GP's for Expense Claims Abuse / Politics / UK Politics
Humiliated MP's across all parties that have been drowned out by the public chorus of outrage and indignation of the abuse of the MP expenses system have repeatedly stated how MP pay has failed to keep pace with that of NHS GP's which is one of the key reasons as to why they have resorted to what amounts to legalised theft from the electorate.
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Sunday, May 17, 2009
American's Did Not Vote For This Obama / Politics / US Politics
Anyone who has ever wasted good money on a clunker only to drop the transmission 15 minutes after leaving the car-lot, knows the feeling. It's like a swift-kick in the groin followed by weeks of fist-pounding rage. It's called buyer's remorse; "Gawd, I wish I hadn't bought that piece of dogshite!"
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Bubble Blower Greenspan Continues to Denie Responsbility for U.S. Housing Bust / Politics / US Housing
When, during the invasion of Iraq, the United States Government issued its famous deck of playing cards with the 52 arch villains of the Iraqi police state, Saddam Hussein's face adorned the Ace of Spades. If the Obama Administration wanted to engage in a similar public relations campaign for the real estate crisis, the top card should be reserved for Alan Greenspan.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
The Bank Bailout Bubble – The Bubble to End All Bubbles / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Gerald Celente writes: The biggest financial bubble in history is being inflated in plain sight. This is the Mother of All Bubbles, and when it explodes, it will signal the end to the boom/bust cycle that has characterized economic activity throughout the developed world. Either unwilling or unable to call the bubble by its proper name, the media, Washington, and Wall Street describe the stupendous government expenditures on rescue packages, stimulus plans, buyouts, and takeovers as emergency measures needed to salvage the severely damaged economy.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik Sets Expenses Scandal Claim Record / Politics / UK Politics
The Justice Minister, Shahid Malik, became the latest MP to be named in the ever expanding expenses scandal in the Daily Telegraph which states that Mr Malik claimed the maximum allowed for the second homes allowance amounting to £66, 827 over 3 years for his London home with an original purchase price of £85,000 (2001), whilst at the same time nominating a rental property as his main residence in his Dewsbury constituency for less than £100 per week.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mealy Mouthed MP's Blasted Over Expenses Abuse on Historic BBC Question Time / Politics / US Politics
If MP's were in any doubt as to the outrage amongst the British public then last nights BBC Question Time programme should bring home the serious situation which threatens literal rebellion amongst the British voters away from the three main parties in favour of the fringe parties such as the Greens, UKIP and the BNP.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Countries Should Use their Central Bank Reserves to Tame the Speculators / Politics / Global Financial System
Michael Hudson writes: Yevgeny Primakov explains where Russia’s Neoliberal Model Went Wrong - Last week Izvestiya published an interview with former Premier Yevgeny Primakov, now president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (Johnson’s Russia List published a translation on May 8). The discussion centered on a universal problem – what China and other Asian countries, as well as OPEC and Europe should do with the export surpluses and proceeds mounting up in their central banks from mortgaging or selling off their real estate and industry. Or to put matters in retrospect, what should they have done to avoid the neoliberal monetarist ideology that governments should do nothing at all with these surpluses, not even use them to fuel economic growth.
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