Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
The Cost of a Trump Presidency / Politics / US Politics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
Last Thursday’s wanton attack on a Syrian air field by the US and its bellicose actions toward North Korea have brought to the forefront the real cost of candidate Trump’s landslide victory last November.
Unlike most laymen, accountants, and financial analysts, economists look at cost differently. For economists, cost or more specifically, “opportunity cost,” means “a benefit that a person could have received, but gave up, to take another course of action. Stated differently, opportunity cost represents an alternative given up when a decision is made.”
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Solutions For Surviving US Healthcare Collapse In 2018 / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : My weekly letter, Connecting the Dots, has two goals: to be informative and to be thought-provoking (subscribe here for free). Last week, it accomplished both—but not the way I expected.
Many people call the Affordable Care Act a great success that only needs minor adjustments. So when I picked the title of last week’s issue, How to Survive the Obamacare Collapse, I thought some people would be upset that I questioned its viability.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Politicians Say Social Security Is Sustainable, but Numbers Show Otherwise / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
We may be the envy of the world in some ways, but the US also has no shortage of stress. Today, we’ll look at some data on growing financial anxiety that is plaguing an increasingly large part of the nation.
Last week, I ran across a survey from NerdWallet on this very issue. They asked 2,000 Americans of all ages about their biggest financial concerns. It turns out the biggest worries are healthcare expenses, lack of emergency savings, and lack of retirement savings.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
The Trump-Xi Summit Paves the Way to New Realism in US-Chinese Trade / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
Despite preliminary pessimism, the Trump-Xi Summit showed greater trade pragmatism than initially expected, even though it was overshadowed by a raw display of US military power.President Donald Trump says he developed a "friendship" with President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. However, U.S. missile attacks against Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria overshadowed the meeting. Apparently, the White House hoped to kill two birds with one stone: to show to al-Assad who was in control and to Xi what might happen to North Korea if China would not intervene more decisively.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Trumpism is the First Casualty of the War Party / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Are you starting to feel that you have been here previously and have gone through this same drill before? Wagging the kosher tail in front of the controlled media is a rerun that the gullible public never gets tired of. Those who question the orthodox narrative are condemned as disloyal or agents of a foreign power. However, for those who are "stuck on stupid", that alien country is never allowed to identify the Zionist cabal as the real force behind the imposition of the war party's continuous conflict in avoidable bloodshed. The Pavlovian trained domestic wieners that contest any suggestion of a false flag formula, refuse to face facts. The drum beat for Armageddon always works to divert from the true defiler that operates as a fifth column against the genuine national interests of America.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Trump's Biggest Enemy is the Fed / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
Right on the heels of Donald Trump's stunning election victory, Democrats began to diligently work on undermining his presidency. That should surprise no one. It's just par for the course in partisan D.C.
However, what appears to be downright striking is that the Keynesian elites may have found a new ally in their plan to derail the new President...the U.S. Federal Reserve.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
After Trump's Syria Attack, What Comes Next? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Thursday's US missile attack on Syria must represent the quickest foreign policy U-turn in history. Less than a week after the White House gave Assad permission to stay on as president of his own country, President Trump decided that the US had to attack Syria and demand Assad's ouster after a chemical attack earlier in the week. Trump blamed Assad for the attack, stated that "something's going to happen" in retaliation, and less than two days later he launched a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles (at a cost of $1.5 million each) onto a military airfield near where the chemical attack took place.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
A Brave New World for the Kremlin / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
Every country faces generational change. Evolutions in technology, culture, social mores and global affairs can leave a gulf between young and old that neither can easily bridge. In Russia, that gulf is especially vast. As of this year, 27 percent of Russians were born after the fall of the Soviet Union, and that number will jump to nearly 40 percent within the next decade. The rising generation was never Sovietized. Most of them, moreover, are too young to remember the tumultuous 1990s, a decade of war, financial crisis and political disarray. Unlike the older generations, they don't recall President Vladimir Putin's promises to save Russia or the measures he took to stabilize the country after its post-Soviet tailspin. In fact, they've never really known life without him. For Putin, the situation poses an unfamiliar challenge.
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Russia and Iran Threaten Retaliation Against Further US Syria Aggression / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Russia and Iran accused Washington of crossing unacceptable red lines in attacking Syria - jointly saying they’ll respond to further US aggression, according to Reuters.
A joint statement published by the Ilam al Harbi media outlet said “(w)hat America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines.”
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Trump is the New Hillary - Attacking Syria Could Start World War III / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Donald Trump Warns That Attacking Syria Could Start World War III
Yes, you read the headline right. Donald Trump has warned that attacking Syria could lead the US into World War III!
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Friday, April 07, 2017
3 Graphics That Explain US-China Relations / Politics / China US Conflict
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting now at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Most meetings between world leaders are relatively unimportant.
This meeting is an exception, not because of whatever agreements or statements will emerge, but because of what it reveals about the current needs of the political administration of the world’s two largest economies.
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Friday, April 07, 2017
US Syria Missile Attack and Symbols of Strength / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I don’t know anything more than anyone else does, outside of the decision makers’ circle, about the reasoning behind the Tomahawk missile attack on a Syrian airport. Have the US neocon warmongers won over Trump and the White House, as I see suggested? Have the Goldmanites? Is that the same group of people? If Trump has conceded to the warmongers, will Putin be next in line? Should Russia have pushed through when it had the upper hand in Syria, and ‘finished’ the job?
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Friday, April 07, 2017
US War Of Terror Continues On With Syrian False Flag Attack / Politics / War on Terror
By: Jeff_Berwick
Everything you have been taught by the US government has been a lie.
The US is not the land of the free. It is, in fact, one of the least free places in the world with the largest concentration camp population, per capita, by a large margin and the biggest extortion racket in the world, extorting Americans via the IRS for more than $2 trillion per year.
The US is not the home of the brave. If it were, the American people would not allow the US government to constantly scare them into giving up what freedoms they have left.
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Friday, April 07, 2017
What Makes Millennials Disturbingly Different? / Politics / Demographics
By: Gordon_T_Long
In Stealth Fashion Millennials Are Rapidly Transforming Society
Something had mysteriously changed during the 2016 US Presidential primaries when an unlikely democratic candidate burst on the national scene with an unquestionable allure for the Millennial generation. How was it that a 'left wing' Bernie Sanders, who was of an age that he would be considered as a very old grandfather by this young generation, could draw such rousing support? What was it about this grey haired unknown senator from Vermont who so clearly represented the expectations, aspirations and frustrations of this new 'coming of age' generation?
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Friday, April 07, 2017
Trump to Fire 50 US Cruise Missiles To Erase Syrian Chemical Attack Air Base, China Next? / Politics / US Military
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It appears President Trump is to authorise the imminent launch of air strikes on Syria towards helping break the narrative that he is an 'Manchurian candidate' working for Putin who played a significant hand in getting Trump elected last year. Perhaps Putin failed to properly calculate whether it really is be better for Russia to have an erratic 70 year old toddler in the White House than a rational continuation of the Obama regime in Hillary Clinton.
Thursday, April 06, 2017
4 Maps That Show Why Europe Is Destined for Extinction / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN: The European Peninsula runs from Portugal and Britain in the west, to St. Petersburg in the east, and the city of Rostov-on-Don in the southeast. It goes from the Mediterranean and Black seas to the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
Access to rivers, the Mediterranean, and the North Atlantic has let the European Peninsula build trade routes and flourish economically.
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Thursday, April 06, 2017
EU-UK Trade Will Continue Because Germany Needs It To / Politics / BrExit
By: John_Mauldin
BY JACOB SHAPIRO : British Prime Minister Theresa May has signed a letter officially invoking Article 50. That starts the process of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
Almost a year has passed since 52% of British voters opted to leave the EU. But the process for separation has now been initiated. The next issue is how to understand what will happen during the two years of UK-EU negotiations that lie ahead.
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Thursday, April 06, 2017
The BrExit War, Game Theory Strategy for What UK Should Do to Win / Politics / BrExit
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The BrExit Story - BrExit is the latest big story for the people of Britain to believe in, a story that has split the population in half between the Remainer's and the Leavers. The BrExit vote was a reaction to the slow dissolution of what was once the world’s most powerful nation into just another bolt on to the European Union Superstate. For Leavers BrExit is seen as a last ditched effort for Britain to resurrect its golden age. So whilst you read part 2 of my comprehensive BrExit analysis, remember that BrExit is just the latest story built on past stories of glory and it won't be too long before we all move onto the next big story, as that is what humans do best, tell stories and believe them to be true, be they religious, political, social, personal, ethnic or economic stories. But today's story is BrExit.
Thursday, April 06, 2017
The Syria ‘Chemical Attack’ / Politics / Syria
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Reading up on the Syria ‘chemical attack’ issue (is that the right term to use?). The headlines are entirely predictable, and by now that probably won’t surprise anyone, no matter where they are or what views they adhere to. We know there’s been an attack and that some kind of chemical was used. The media talk about sarin.
They also, almost unanimously, blame the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad for it. But that’s the same government that just this week saw both US Foreign Secretary Rex Tillerson and US UN enjoy Nikki Haley point to a significant shift in American policy, towards a view that removing Assad is no longer a priority in US Middle-East policy.
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Wednesday, April 05, 2017
2 Charts Show Just How Close We Are to US Healthcare Collapse / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : Like it or not, Obamacare lives. The question is, for how long?
President Trump is right when he says the Affordable Care Act will collapse on its own. Its condition is terminal, and Congress declined treatment.
Maybe that’s no big deal to you. Maybe you’re on Medicare, or get group health coverage from your employer, or are independently wealthy, or you’re in good health and confident you will remain so.
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