Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Towards New Global Currency, New Financial World Order / Politics / Global Financial System
Following the 2009 G20 summit, plans were announced for implementing the creation of a new global currency to replace the US dollar's role as the world reserve currency. Point 19 of the communiqué released by the G20 at the end of the Summit stated, “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity.” SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, are “a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund.” As the Telegraph reported, “the G20 leaders have activated the IMF's power to create money and begin global "quantitative easing". In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body. Conspiracy theorists will love it.”[1]Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Bernanke's Financial Rescue Plan: America's Glide-path to Destitution / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Fed chief Ben Bernanke has embarked on the most radical and ruinous financial rescue plan in history. According to Bloomberg News, the Fed has already lent or committed $12.8 trillion trying to stabilize the financial system after the the bursting of Wall Street's speculative mega-bubble. Now Bernanke wants to dig an even bigger hole, by creating programs that will provide up to $2 trillion of credit to financial institutions that purchase toxic assets from banks or securities backed by consumer loans. The Fed's generous terms are expected to generate a flurry of speculation which will help strengthen the banking system while leaving the taxpayer to bear the losses. It is impossible to know what the long-term effects of Bernanke's excessive spending will be, but his plan has the potential to trigger hyperinflation or spark a run on the dollar.
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Obama Evades Government's Role in the Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Alex Epstein writes: What must be done to recover from this financial crisis? Barack Obama rightly stresses that we first must understand how today’s problems emerged. It is “only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament."Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Financial Crisis Blaming the Culture of Greed? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
The Wall Street Journal recently suggested that a ‘culture of greed' may be to blame for today's crisis. Billionaire investor Stephen Jarislowsky has said that he thinks ‘extreme' greed was to blame. And nestled within the mob of protestors ahead of last week's G20 meeting was a little girl, no more than 5 or 6-years of age, holding a sign saying ‘You Greedy BosTards'. Let us simply say, while acknowledging the views of the Wall Street Journal and Mr. Jarislowsky, that the protesting little girl may have been misled.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Obama's Geopolitical Strategy and the Summits / Politics / GeoPolitics
The weeklong extravaganza of G-20, NATO, EU, U.S. and Turkey meetings has almost ended. The spin emerging from the meetings, echoed in most of the media, sought to portray the meetings as a success and as reflecting a re-emergence of trans-Atlantic unity.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Fighting Recklessness Bank Lending with Bailout Recklessness / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
This week we visit some very thoughtful analysis by an old friend of Outside the Box, Dr. John Hussman of the Hussman Funds ( http://www.hussmanfunds.com/index.html ). Is the new PPIP program and related activities likely to help or hurt the situation? Will this help keep banks for bankruptcy or will it push the FDIC into insolvency requiring massive tax payer cash. This week's Outside the Box is brief, but poignant.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
U.S. Budget Expands Size of Government as Economy Contracts / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Last week the House passed another budget that increases federal power, raises taxes, and increases the national debt. I voted against it, and was pleased to see that not a single Republican representative voted for it. Legislators often see bipartisanship as constructive, but I disagree especially where the destruction of our economy or our liberty is concerned. There has been too much bipartisan consensus on expanding government far beyond the bounds of the Constitution which we all swore to defend and uphold. Because of this, I have never been able to vote for a budget. However, it was good to see Republicans come together on this important vote, even if their alternative budget was almost as bad.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 06, 2009
Obama's Auto Industry Bailout as an Implementation of Fascism / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Vin Suprynowicz writes: The typical American automobile in the early 1920s was easy to describe. It was boxy and black, offered a manual transmission only, and sported a straight-up four-cylinder engine. Creature comforts were few. On the bright side, if your car tipped over on a sharp turn – as the top-heavy contraptions were wont to do – two strong men could usually set the thing upright, little the worse for wear.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 06, 2009
Government Fuels Mass Hysteria Against AIG Employees on Bonuses / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Peter Schwartz writes: In dealing with AIG, why are people pussyfooting around? They believe that the bonus money was stolen from the public and must be retrieved by any means possible. So why not bypass the niceties and just send in some well-armed “enforcers” to confiscate the bonus recipients’ cars and houses and bank accounts?Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 06, 2009
The Crisis of Creativity in America / Politics / Social Issues
Cage Innoye writes: There is a great crisis of creativity in our age. Critical problems are mounting up and very little is being done. It is because we do not understand, teach or promote creativity that we are in the great mess of today. We live in world of advancing complexity and evolving situations and contradictions; there is no way a species can manage all this without being creative. The more developed a culture and society, the more developed must be its creativity. But look at our nation, our creativity is either inadequate or simply non-existent.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 06, 2009
Artists Rendition of the State of the U.S. Economy / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
I received a unique email from Scott Moore about the State of the Economy.Scott writes:
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Sunday, April 05, 2009
America's Financial Oligarchy Is Still in Control / Politics / Market Manipulation
“The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States . One of the most alarming is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government”, says Simon Johnson, a chief economist with the International Monetary Fund in 2007 and 2008. In an article entitled “The Quiet Coup” in the May, 2009 issue of the Atlantic magazine he (with James Kwak) goes on to say that “if the IMF's staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform and if we are to prevent a true depression, we're running out of time”.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, April 05, 2009
PPIP is RIP - What a dead cat can't see a dead cat don't know / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Here is a tip if you are thinking of buying bank stocks, (1) get hold of a photo of the CEO (2) show it to your dog (3) if the dog wags his tail then you can be sure the guy has a "trusting face", and (4) that's as a good a reason as any to buy a bank stock.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, April 04, 2009
How Wall Street Robs the Banks that it Owns / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Bill Moyers writes: The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailoutRead full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 03, 2009
Let's Play Pretend at Toxic Asset Valuations / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
When elementary school kids want to escape the confines of their circumstances they pretend to be pirates, princesses, and Jedi knights. Now, with the relaxation of "mark to market" valuation rules announced yesterday by the accounting trade's self-regulatory body, our bankrupt financial institutions can escape their own reality by pretending to be solvent. The unraveling of our fairytale economy over the last few months has not yet convinced us that the time has come to put away childish things. The applause that greeted the news yesterday on Wall Street is a clear sign that we still have some growing up to do.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 03, 2009
U.S. Treasury Bad Asset Programs May be a Stable Foundation for Economic Recovery / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Shah Gilani writes: The U.S. Treasury's much-maligned Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) and its new “prequel,” the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) have been viewed by the markets and skeptical prospective participants as merely a price discovery mechanism which, with a lot of luck, might create a floor under toxic security prices.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 03, 2009
Social Security: There Is No Trust; There Is No Fund / Politics / US Debt
Social Security is back in the limelight where once again its problems will no doubt be ignored.
Friday, April 03, 2009
G20 Outcome - An Unmitigated Disaster for Humanity / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Attached is a video of Gordon Brown making his summary wind-up speech.
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=311333
This speech contains everything I had feared would be the outcome, because:
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Friday, April 03, 2009
Mark to Market Madness … Geithner Plan Shenanigans … Economy in Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Mike Larson writes: I've had a lot on my mind this week, and so has the market. Mark to market accounting … the Geithner plan … and the latest economic data have all been capturing the attention of investors. So I want to share my latest thoughts on all of these market drivers, and explain where we're likely headed next …Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 03, 2009
G20 Summit Members Agree to Waste $5 Trillion / Politics / Economic Stimulus
A compromise, the American style, became the main result of the G20 summit in London. The world's leading countries decided to boost the world economy with the help of grand investments, which goes along the US model of the anti-crisis struggle. Such an approach may result in the loss of control over the situation, economists say. The United States and Great Britain solve their own problems first and foremost.Read full article... Read full article...