Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
The World Misery Index: 108 Countries / Politics / Social Issues
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 108 countries based on “misery.”
Below the jump are the index scores for 2014. Countries not included in the table did not report satisfactory data for 2014.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Red Alert: Is Russia Preparing a New Offensive in Ukraine? / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: STRATFOR
Reports of heavy rocket artillery firing on the eastern parts of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, as well as a statement made by a separatist leader, indicate the potential preparation of an offensive on the city. While this would be a significant escalation and an indicator of Russian intent to push further into Ukraine, potentially forming a much-rumored land connection to the northern border of Crimea, there are also several indicators required for such an offensive that are currently still missing.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Divesting America of Ozone-Destroying Energy Sources / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Walter_Brasch
Walter Brasch writes: Long before the price of gas and oil began to plummet, socially conscious churches, universities, non-profit organizations, and local governments began to divest themselves of fossil fuel stock and shock the fossil fuel industry to understand the environmental and public health concerns.
The World Council of Churches, which represents about 590 million Christians in 520,000 congregations, decided in July that to continue to hold fossil fuel stock would compromise its ethics, and recommended that the 349 member denominations consider divesting oil and gas stock.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Russia's Plans for Arctic Supremacy / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
Although the crisis in Ukraine continues to focus attention on Russia's western border, Moscow is seeking to exploit a more lucrative prize along its vast northern frontage: the Arctic Circle. Melting ice has opened up new transit routes and revealed previously inaccessible oil and mineral deposits. Facing a year of harsh economic constraints, securing exploitable energy reserves remains a top priority for Moscow. The planned militarization of the Arctic is already underway, and funding is secured through 2015 (the Ministry of Defense was the only Kremlin ministry not to be curtailed in the most recent budget.) With Russia aiming to consolidate its strength by the end of the year, surrounding countries are already reassessing their positions in the face of an overwhelming regional force.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
U.S. State of the Union - We’ve Let The Clowns Come Way Too Far / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
In yesterday’s State of the Union, Obama said The ‘Shadow Of Crisis Has Passed’, and the one and the only thing I thought was: ‘Good, so now we can tackle the crisis itself?!’. If speeches like the SOTU last night, and the reactions to it, make anything clear, it’s that the PR guys won the fight against critical thinking. Sure, there are people for whom that shadow has passed, but a president is supposed to be there for all Americans, not just for those who finance his campaigns and those of his successors.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
The Cult of Central Banking / Politics / Central Banks
By: John_Mauldin
In today’s Outside the Box, good friend Ben Hunt informs us that we have entered the cult phase of the Golden Age of the Central Banker:
We pray for extraordinary monetary policy accommodation as a sign of our Central Bankers’ love, not because we think the policy will do much of anything to solve our real-world economic problems, but because their favor gives us confidence to stay in the market. I mean, does anyone really think that the problem with the Italian economy is that interest rates aren’t low enough? Gosh, if only ECB intervention could get the Italian 10-yr bond down to 1.75% from the current 1.85%, why then we’d be off to the races! Really? But God forbid that Mario Draghi doesn’t (finally) put his money where his mouth is and announce a trillion euro sovereign debt purchase plan. That would be a disaster, says Mr. Market. Why? Not because the absence of a debt purchase plan would be terrible for the real economy. That’s not a big deal one way or another. It would be a disaster because it would mean that the Central Bank gods are no longer responding to our prayers.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Payless Growth And Debt Disaster For The UK / Politics / UK Debt
By: Andrew_McKillop
The UK Economic Miracle
Only a few key figures are needed to understand how the"fastest growing economy in Europe" has
effectively performed before and after the key date of 2008, whether under a pale pnk-hued New
Labour government operating the Extend-and-Pretend mantra of borrow and spend, or the present
pale blue Tory and Liberal Democrat governing coalition doing the same thing. The political and parliamentary numbers game is at least as important as the economic numbers for mapping the UK's economic future. The present two-party system, in fact, could be the last truly UK-wide bicameral Westminster-dominated system and process that the UK has had, for the last several hundred years.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
The Only Road Out Of Davos / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
After 6+ (BIG +) years of deepening poverty and rising stock markets, of creative accounting, of QE and ultralow interest rates, of extend and pretend and outright propaganda and of what have you, all of which have led us to where we are today, facing yet more rounds of stumbling from crisis into multiple crises, it would seem clear that the model, if not the mold, is broken. In order to fix it, let alone replace it altogether, we need to understand to what extent it is broken. And to do that, we first need to know what exactly the model is.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The European Union, Nationalism and the Crisis of Europe / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
Last week, I wrote about the crisis of Islamic radicalism and the problem of European nationalism. This week's events give me the opportunity to address the question of European nationalism again, this time from the standpoint of the European Union and the European Central Bank, using a term that only an economist could invent: "quantitative easing."
European media has been flooded for the past week with leaks about the European Central Bank's forthcoming plan to stimulate the faltering European economy by implementing quantitative easing. First carried by Der Spiegel and then picked up by other media, the story has not been denied by anyone at the bank nor any senior European official. We can therefore call this an official leak, because it lets everyone know what is coming before an official announcement is made later in the week.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 19, 2015
People Have More Money? Let’s Tax It! / Politics / Taxes
By: MISES
John P. Cochran writes: As highlighted by David Henderson and Peter Boettke, markets and competition are like weeds, not delicate flowers. Economies recover even from severe boom-bust episodes and despite growth-retarding regime uncertainty. Even burdensome regulation, per Pierre Lemieux, causes a “slow-motion collapse” or stagnation, not a crash. But one thing can be counted on, as innovation or recovery begin to deliver additional spending power to the productive class of the economy, the “unmet needs” crowd will just as quickly be out clamoring for a heightened government share of the ‘bounty’ for some imagined greater public good.
Monday, January 19, 2015
If The Fed Has Nothing to Hide, It Has Nothing to Fear / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the dollar has lost over 97 percent of its purchasing power, the US economy has been subjected to a series of painful Federal Reserve-created recessions and depressions, and government has grown to dangerous levels thanks to the Fed's policy of monetizing the debt. Yet the Federal Reserve still operates under a congressionally-created shroud of secrecy.
No wonder almost 75 percent of the American public supports legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 18, 2015
More Global Warming Hot Air, As Climate Fundamentalists Continue Inflating a False Reality / Politics / Climate Change
By: Patrick_Henningsen
We’re told this week that Washington’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center (NOAA) had finally crunched its numbers for 2014, and Al Gore is a very happy man, as are the armies of amateur climate experts who take government scientific announcements as gospel.
Not surprisingly, NPR was very excited about this latest government proclamation, running the headline, “It’s Official: 2014 Was The Hottest Year On Record, NOAA Says”.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Lady Fortune Spinning Her Wheels / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas A Edison
I'm writing this after spending a few days with my son and a couple of friends. My wife and I are both health professionals by day. Our life and schedule often leaves one of us "in charge" on the weekends -- usually me. Now, at the advanced age of five years old, these fellows are just learning how to get along. They are learning how to work out differences, negotiate possessions, and deal with all of the emotions contained and expressed therein...
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 16, 2015
Islamic Fundamentalism - The Problem of Confusing Muslims with Islam / Politics / Religion
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The whole world over, people, are people are people and most people are moderate. In the wake of the Paris terror attack there has been an outbreak of muslim phobia that carries the label of Islamophobia, which in my opinion cannot exist because Islam is not a race or people but an ideology. Just as Christianity and Judaism are ideologies and not a race or people i.e. you can change your ideology but you cannot change the colour of your skin (see Israel's Dark DNA Secret Revealed ).
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Paris - Setting Aside Emotion and Seeking Reason, A War Between Two Worlds / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
The terrorist attacks in Paris have fixated the world’s attention on the contrast between competing worldviews and what constitutes acceptable behavior in modern society. What are the principles by which society should be organized and run? Who gets to set those rules, and to what standards should others who do not believe in them be held?
While at their core these are philosophical questions, the way we answer those questions can have profound economic consequences. They are especially important to understand in the context of Europe. For today’s Outside the Box reading, I think we should look at two essays by old friends to OTB, Charles Gave and George Friedman.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Oil Price Crash and SNP Independent Scotland Economic Collapse Bankruptcy / Politics / Scotland
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Whilst most ordinary people across the UK are reaping the benefits of the oil price crash to below $50 that has resulted in energy bills being cut by 10% and the price at the petrol pumps nudging to below £1 a litre not seen since 2009. However, there is one part of the UK where its largest industry is in a state of collapse and along with it the regional economy and that is Scotland and its North Sea Oil industry which has been thrown into turmoil.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Europe Rediscovers Nationalism / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
In his latest novel, French writer Michel Houellebecq presents a controversial situation: The year is 2022, and France has become an Islamicized country where universities have to teach the Koran, women have to wear the veil and polygamy is legal. The book, which created a stir in France, went on sale Jan. 7. That day, a group of terrorists killed 12 people at the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Also on Jan. 7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met British Prime Minister David Cameron in London. Although the formal reason for the meeting was to discuss the upcoming G-7 summit, the two leaders also discussed Cameron's proposals to limit migration in Europe. Finally, a much less publicized event took place in Germany that day: A group of politicians from the Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany party met with members of Pegida, the anti-Islam protest group that has staged large protests in Dresden and minor protests in other German cities.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Netanyahu Gatecrashes Paris / Politics / France
By: Stephen_Lendman
He finds ways of giving chutzpah new meaning. Gate crashing his latest offense. Showing up where not wanted.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Islamic World Transition From the 'Age of Religion' to the 'Age of Reason' / Politics / Religion
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Whilst the worlds focus today is on the Islamic threat as a consequence of the terror attacks on Paris resulting in 17 innocents being killed that has prompted the world wide 'Je Suis Charlie' marches amongst many hash tags of solidarity of which I favoured the "I am not charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so". #JesuisAhmed
The mainstream press as usual have run off at an tangent by trying to analyse why the three french muslims committed the atrocities by looking at their backgrounds, their lack of opportunity in France etc. However, the very simple answer is that these individuals perceived their actions as playing a part in the fulfillment of prophecy and that they expected that their real lives would only begin AFTER they completed this TEST in this world which is how all devout muslims perceive this world to be, as a test for worthiness to enter paradise for eternity at End Time.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 12, 2015
Ron Paul on the Lessons from Paris Attacks / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
After the tragic shooting at a provocative magazine in Paris last week, I pointed out that given the foreign policy positions of France we must consider blowback as a factor. Those who do not understand blowback made the ridiculous claim that I was excusing the attack or even blaming the victims. Not at all, as I abhor the initiation of force. The police blaming victims when they search for the motive of a criminal.
Read full article... Read full article...