Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
The End of the Anglo-American Empire? / Politics / US Interest Rates
By: Richard_C_Cook
Much of the world's history over the last century has been dominated by the United States. But by the turn of the millennium in 2000-2001, the “American Century” had begun to descend into a chamber of horrors.
The years since then have been marked by the huge financial bubbles engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the virus of predatory global capitalism. We have the looming worldwide economic crisis with rising bankruptcies, credit disruptions, and soaring fuel and food prices. Alongside has been the thinly-disguised but continuing attempt by the U.S. to conquer the Middle East by force of arms under the heading of the “War on Terror.”
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Financial Markets Intelligence Report / Politics / Emerging Markets
By: John_Mauldin
This week I want to share with you one of the more important tools in my arsenal for keeping up with what is going on in the world. As I've told you before, George Friedman and his team at Stratfor are my go-to guys for geopolitical intelligence. Their insights into this facet of the world are simply without peer. Now I want you to see their Intelligence Guidance which they publish each Friday for the upcoming week; last week's edition is below. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 23, 2008
The United States of Fiat Money and the Federal Reserve System / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
Fiat money is an oxymoron. Traditionally, money has been both a storehouse of value and a medium of exchange. Fiat money exists by mimicking both; but when its ability to do so ends, fiat money exposed for what it is, reverts to what it is—government issued coupons with expiration dates printed in invisible ink .
Fiat money distorts the time value of money and in so doing destroys both money and the economies that use it. Real money like gold and silver has value over time, the greater its value and the longer it endures, the more likely it will be accepted as money.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
America's Military Machine Gearing Up for Total WAR / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
The news items this week point to a severe international crisis point ahead (maybe within months of now). Sweden has enabled new surveillance measures on the heels of Germany . The Treasury's man Paulson thinks procedures for future bank failures should be erected. The Bank of England is warning the British (like my friend Bev who wouldn't listen to anyone but his financial advisor, and my New Age friends Sharon and Jo who are busy "Ascending") that tough times are ahead and to downplay union strikes to protect against upward wage pressures.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
European Politicians Living in Ivory Towers Confuse Stagflation with Stability / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Axel_Merk
Just because we have been favoring the euro over the U.S. dollar in recent years doesn't mean we believe everything is perfect in Europe. The rejection of Irish voters of the latest attempt by the European Union (E.U.) to streamline its decision processes highlights a fundamental weakness: the inability of European politicians to communicate with its citizens. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
THE BILDERBERGERS Paper Money & Paper Tigers / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
The last shall be first and the first shall be last - Jesus of Nazareth
Nobel Laureate Buckminster Fuller's introduction to his Critical Path is titled, Twilight of the World's Power Structures . Published in 1981, Fuller's book predicted the end of the world's power structures during a process where humanity would undergo a crisis of unprecedented proportions .
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
What's the Cost of the Iraq War on US Economy? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
What is the importance of the war in Iraq relative to other current issues? This is a question I am often asked, especially as Americans continue to become increasingly aware that something is very wrong with the economy. The difficulty with the way the question is often asked relates to the perception that we are somehow able to divide such issues, or to isolate the cost of war into arbitrarily defined areas such as national security or international relations. War is an all-encompassing governmental activity.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 16, 2008
US Guaranteed Social Security Benefits: Make It So / Politics / US Politics
By: Steve_Selengut
The comically complicated PSA (Personal Savings Account) legislation bouncing around Congress will raise taxes, increase investment risk, and expand the size of government. Let's stop applying Band-Aids to spouting arteries. We are looking for a guaranteed retirement benefit program, and organizations capable of providing one. Additionally, we want the new program to reduce taxes, create jobs, boost the economy, cut prices, and increase salaries. Difficult? Not really.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 16, 2008
Barrack Obama's Economic Folly and Paul Krugman’s Hypocrisy / Politics / US Politics
By: Gerard_Jackson
Barrack Obama's economic policy is one of incredible stupidity. He plans to bludgeon the economy with massive tax increases while flooding it with astronomical spending. Is this bloke a genius or what. (The question, of course, is rhetorical). But how in heavens name does such economic idiocy become common currency, particularly in the politically corrupt media?Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Bush Administration Corruption- Trillions of Missing Dollars / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Information for this article comes from long-time business, finance and political writer and analyst Bob Chapman who publishes the bi-weekly International Forecaster. It's power-packed with key information and a valued source for this writer. He obtained voluminous material directly from its source. People need to know it. Read on. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Irish Say NO to European Super State / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
On Friday, Ireland delivered a knockout punch to European elites and corporatists and shattered their plan for an EU Superstate. The so-called Lisbon Treaty was nothing more than a repackaging of the European Constitution that was defeated by French and Dutch voters in 2005. The treaty was loaded with the typical "democratic" gobbledygook to conceal the vicious neoliberal policies at its heart. If it had passed, the treaty would have paved the way for greater privatization of public services, diminished workers rights, less state control over trade policies and civil liberties, and an aggressive plan to militarize Europe.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Irish "No Vote" Plunges EU Into Crisis / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Victoria_Marklew
The euro dipped Friday as news broke that Ireland's voters rejected the EU Lisbon Treaty in yesterday's national referendum. Although the Treaty's fate has no direct economic impact on the EU, the resulting uncertainty will add to market anxiety over more pressing issues like rising inflation, oil price protests, and looming recessions in Spain and even Ireland.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, June 13, 2008
Super Surgeries: GP's Accused of Lying to Patients! / Politics / NHS
By: N_Walayat
In an attempt to halt the governments programme for the implementation of Polyclinics or ‘Super Surgeries', the political arm of GP's the British Medical Association (BMA) delivered a petition of more than 1 million signatures to Downing Street against the implementation of 150 ‘Super Surgeries' and for existing GP Surgeries to be protected.
The Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw lashed out at the scare tactics accusing the BMA of "misleading and mendacious" behaviour in getting patients to sign up to the petition.
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Next Big Federal Spending Spree / Politics / US Economy
By: John_Browne
As the economic indicators turn down and election year politics heats up, the calls from politicians for more government intervention and enhanced economic stimulus are becoming more strident. Last week, with the onset of the general presidential campaign, and with increased attention on the economy shown by the Bush administration, I could not help but think that something big was in the air. And by big, I mean the kind of massive new Federal spending initiatives that we haven't seen since the Great Society of the 1960's. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 09, 2008
Rising Energy Prices and the Falling US Dollar / Politics / Money Supply
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Oil prices are on the minds of many Americans as gas hits $4 a gallon, and continues to surge. How high can prices go? How can we solve these problems? What, or who, is to blame?Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 09, 2008
Democrats and Recessions / Politics / US Economy
By: Gerard_Jackson
Now that Obama is the Democrats' contender for the presidency, they can resume their attacks on the US economy. These moral cretins have still got the effrontery to assert that the Bush economy is one of the worst in the country's history when that appellation should be awarded to the Roosevelt administration. (The second worst would be the Hoover administration).Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Personal Reflections on the Crisis in America- Darkness in America- Part3 / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
The first decade of the new millennium—the 2000s—produced a catastrophe for the U.S. when the Supreme Court designated my former Yale classmate George W. Bush as president in December 2000.
Democrat Albert Gore had won the popular vote in the November election but was behind in electoral votes. The controversy centered on Florida , where the official tally showed Bush the winner by a narrow margin, but where the Court decided a complete recount might leave the nation with an undecided election for too long. It later turned out that many eligible Florida voters had been improperly excluded from voting by partisan state election officials.
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Saturday, June 07, 2008
Personal Reflections on the Crisis in America- Reagon and Clinton- Part2 / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
“The Reagan Revolution” 
After Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, I worked for two years at the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, which was an extension of the White House consumer office. The president's special assistant for consumer affairs was now Virginia Knauer, who had held the same office under President Richard Nixon, and for whom I wrote speeches and reports. We were afraid that with the Reagan cuts of the federal civilian budget our office would be abolished, but that didn't happen. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, June 06, 2008
Personal Reflections on the Crisis in America- Carter White House and Monetary Reform - Part1 / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_C_Cook
I moved back to Williamsburg a year ago, after retiring from the federal government, in order to live write at the home of my elderly mother. She resides near the Restored Area, a half-mile from the reconstructed colonial Capitol. At this site on May 15, 1776 , the Second Virginia Convention voted 112-0 to instruct its delegates in Philadelphia to enter a motion for independence. If the U.S. was born in Philadelphia , it was conceived here. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Obama Victory and America's Two Party Dictatorship / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Each election cycle, hope springs eternal. Candidates promise change and voters buy it. Intelligent ones. People who know better or should. The current campaign highlights it. A surge is building for Obama, not for what he is. For what people think or hope he is - a populist, progressive, man of the people, a new course for America.After the final June 3 primaries and "rush of superdelegates," according to The New York Times, they're stuck with him. The Times reports that he crossed "over the threshold (to) the 2118 delegates needed to be nominated...." Obama marked the occasion as his chance to "bring a new and better day to America (as) the 'Democratic' nominee for president of the United States of America."
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