Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Every Central Bank for Itself / Politics / Central Banks
By: John_Mauldin
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson
For the last 25 days I’ve been traveling in Argentina and South Africa, two countries whose economies can only be described as fragile, though for very different reasons. Emerging-market countries face a significantly different set of challenges than the developed world does. These challenges are compounded by the rather indifferent policies of developed-world central banks, which are (even if somewhat understandably) entirely self-centered. Argentina has brought its problems upon itself, but South Africa can somewhat justifiably express frustration at the developed world, which, as one emerging-market central bank leader suggests, is engaged in a covert currency war, one where the casualties are the result of unintended consequences. But the effects are nonetheless real if you’re an emerging-market country.
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Social Security, U.S. Treasury Stealing Every Last Penny From Americans / Politics / Taxes
By: Jeff_Berwick
All of a sudden the government lays claims to your savings. They can't prove you owe them a dime, but you're deprived due process. The legal bills become overwhelming, and so you let your money be stolen. You simply have no choice.
Sound outlandish? It's not. Not in the "Land of the Free" at least.
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Ukraine Falling to Economic Warfare and Its Own Missteps / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: OilPrice_Com
As protests in Ukraine's eastern region turned violent on Sunday leading to the death of a Ukrainian security officer in a shootout with pro-Russian militia, Kiev threatens military action while Moscow flexes its geo-economic warfare muscles. Pro-Russian militia groups have seized government buildings and police headquarters in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk and Slovyanks--where the shoot-out took place--and despite a Monday morning ultimatum by the Ukrainian government, these groups have shown no sign of giving in.
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Tuesday, April 15, 2014
France Wakes Up To The Multicultural Multi-Threat / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
Manuel Valls the Immigrant
With total predictability, new French prime minister Manuel Valls almost immediately waded into the ever-rising rejection of multiculturalism in France. He made sure to play the Good Immigrant himself, peppering his talk with references to his Spanish origins as a second-generation immigrant to France, working his way up the “social elevator” or greasy pole, by learning all the tics and foibles of French national identity, and copying them perfectly. But the day he moved into office, March 31, the government watchdog on human rights in France, the Commission nationale des Droits de l'Homme, produced another in a long series of reports, from organizations across the political spectrum, that underlines how racism, segregation, economic inequality and religious discrimination are now squarely part of French society. For Valls and the political elite, to be sure, this is just a “decline of tolerance” and more laws and repression, and more government propaganda will smother the glowing embers of riot and rebellion. But as in other European states, his predictable elite kneejerk is not working.
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Monday, April 14, 2014
Spanish Style Riots Coming to a Country Near You / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
James Guzman writes: Screams and sirens pierce the air as rocks, firecrackers, and sharp glass go flying in every direction. Police try to beat back the hordes of protesters by smashing indiscriminately into the crowd with their billy clubs.
This was the scene recently in Madrid, Spain, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets to fight against the budget cuts and tax increases put into place by Mariano Rajoy, the current Prime Minister of Spain. The protesters chanted “no more cuts” as they demolished storefronts and threw firecrackers at police.
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Monday, April 14, 2014
Another Phony U.S. Budget Debate / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Anyone watching last week's debate over the Republican budget resolution would have experienced déjà vu, as the debate bore a depressing similarity to those of previous years. Once again, the Republicans claimed their budget would cut spending in a responsible manner, while Democratic opponents claimed the plan's spending cuts would shred the safety net and leave vital programs unfunded. Of course, neither claim is true.
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Sunday, April 13, 2014
Four Horsemen - Top Economists Explain the Source of Our Economic Crisis - Video / Politics / Social Issues
By: Videos
FOUR HORSEMEN is an award winning independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.
As we will never return to 'business as usual' 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and explain how to establish a moral and just society.
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Sunday, April 13, 2014
Peak Oil And Global Warming – A Question Of Culture / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
In The Beginning Was the Word
Certainly for the last 20 years these two themes have tunneled into political consciousness, but there are huge differences. Peak Oil was never “official”, but Global Warming or at least anthropogenic global warming quickly became official, in the UN system, EU28 countries, the US, Japan, Canada and Australia, and some other developed countries. Today, in the cases of Japan, Canada and Australia the political commitment has already gone, and the downstream financial spinoff from the global warming theme, which enabled market operators to concoct and play with climate credit default swaps and a host of other all-new paper assets, has seriously ebbed. Outside of these countries, in the G20 and Russia, global warming always had a much tougher ride. Yet another stark Russia-versus-the West split occurred on this issue. Russia has a long and tortuous politically-charged obsession with a coming Ice Age – not the swamping of all coastal cities by global warming melting the planet's ice caps.
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Sunday, April 13, 2014
The Global Banking Game Is Rigged, and the FDIC Is Suing / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
Taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for a swindle pulled off by the world’s biggest banks, using a form of derivative called interest-rate swaps; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has now joined a chorus of litigants suing over it. According to an SEIU report:
Read full article... Read full article...Derivatives . . . have turned into a windfall for banks and a nightmare for taxpayers. . . . While banks are still collecting fixed rates of 3 to 6 percent, they are now regularly paying public entities as little as a tenth of one percent on the outstanding bonds, with rates expected to remain low in the future. Over the life of the deals, banks are now projected to collect billions more than they pay state and local governments – an outcome which amounts to a second bailout for banks, this one paid directly out of state and local budgets.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Matt Drudge on Information Overload! / Politics / Technology
By: MISES
Jeff Deist writes: Opening comments presented at the Mises Institute’s High School & College Seminar: “Inflation: Causes, Consequences, and Cure,” April 11, 2014.
Good morning and welcome!
My name is Jeff Deist; I’m president of the Mises Institute.
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Sunday, April 13, 2014
College Degree Earnings Propaganda / Politics / Education
By: MISES
Andrew Syrios writes: It is becoming substantially less difficult these days to convince people that college is not a sure fire way to the good life. Even Paul Krugman has conceded that “it’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job.” You can say that again:53 percent of recent graduatesare either jobless or underemployed. Unfortunately, myths die hard. Many people still believe as Hillary Clinton once said, “Graduates from four-year colleges earn nearly an estimated one million dollars more [than high school graduates].” This may sound convincing, but this figure — based on a Census Bureau report — is about as true as it is relevant.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Ukraine Crisis – Military Flash Drive Thinking / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Infinite Caution or Disk Drive Memory Lapse?
US media including all major newspapers reported that American military planners considered using US Air Force planes, possibly under Nato insignia to drop “non lethal supplies”, including food rations to outnumbered and under-equipped Ukrainian troops facing superior Russian forces across the eastern border. But Pentagon chiefs settled instead for a less-conspicuous operation: They chose road haulage from Germany of meals-ready-to-eat, or MREs, and other “non lethal supplies” in commercial trucks with no military insignia. US defense officials disclosed that non-food items included night-vision goggles, fuel, tyres and body armor, adding that Kiev's government has asked the US for small arms and ammunition, including 5,000 5.56mm M16 assault rifles.
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Friday, April 11, 2014
Limits to Employment Participation, and Societal Change / Politics / Employment
By: Submissions
Raymond Matison writes: Ever since the calamitous financial meltdown in 2008, economists, market analysts, and media pundits persistently have envisioned an economic recovery, with an attendant increase in employment. However, critics maintain that such a recovery has never really occurred – prompting the pundit response that ours is a jobless recovery. Recently, President Obama promoted raising the minimum wage, and increasing payment for overtime work, as a means to help provide a higher wage for workers. This effort is good politics, but is not really a sound bureaucratic practice. The direction and future of unemployment is easy to see, as is the future employment participation rate, and the resulting direction of national income. Globally embedded, strategic economic trends are more powerful than presidential edict and the Federal Reserve Bank, and so economics will trump central planning. This article discusses a possible outcome of these trends.
Friday, April 11, 2014
US Moves To Restrict Travelers Taking International Flights / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
The US government is using the Malaysian Airlines flight 370 to tackle the "widespread lack of passport screening in all countries." The US is stepping up their processes. Already each passport of incoming visitors to the US is screened through multiple databases. After flight 370 disappeared, the US has started this process for all outgoing passengers.
"Coupled with this information and the new abilities to act on that information definitely makes air travel a lot safer," according to one government official.
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Thursday, April 10, 2014
Ronald Reagan's Fear Of Energy Dependence On The Evil Empire / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
Destroy the Evil Empire
As a Hollywood B-movie actor Ronald Reagan never made it, but as a New Age politician preaching New Age economics he was so popular that in 1984 Reagan was triumphantly re-elected to a second and last term as US president. From at latest 1982, his first administration beat the drum on Europe's dangerous energy dependence on the Evil Empire (which was also known as the USSR).
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Wednesday, April 09, 2014
France’s Delusional Valls Is No Bill Clinton / Politics / France
By: Steve_H_Hanke
President Francois Hollande has put in place a new French government led by Prime Minister Manuel Valls. This maneuver has all the hallmarks of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. Yes, one has the chilling feeling that accidents are waiting to happen.
President Hollande’s new lineup is loaded with contradictions. That’s not a good sign.
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Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Central Banker Liars, New Currency, Fatal Errors, Psycho War / Politics / Banksters
By: Jim_Willie_CB
A global clash of nations is underway in full gear. The storm is picking up speed, power, intensity, and damaging force. Many are the swirls of the current situation. A hodgepodge of topics have been caught and trapped, best to discharge on paper, the effect like a wondrous enema. The banker lies grow thicker, as they are unable to so easily deceive anymore. The potential currency fix appears more imminent, as the solution seen as an assault on American interests (military angle). Any nation getting off the US Wagon Train is a rogue nation, the theme having become tired and ineffective. The fatal errors committed by the US economists and banker elite have finally resulted in clear signs of systemic failure.
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
The Great Unwashed American Energy Independence / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The eurocrisis is over, the US Navy makes fuel from seawater, and America will be energy independent by 2037, according to the EIA. Boy, where do we begin? We’re getting flooded with an increasing amount of sheer nonsense wrapped in sheep’s clothing, and it’s hard to keep up. We not only live in a pretend economy, by now most of what we think we see isn’t really there at all. Indeed, there’s not even a there there anymore. Look, if you believe that the Navy can power its fleet with fuel made from seawater, you should probably know there’s a lot of gold in the oceans as well. Which means that you are potentially very wealthy. All you have to do is dig it out.
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Peter Schiff Goes to Puerto Rico / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
It’s been a little over a year since I sat down with Peter Schiff at his house in Connecticut to discuss the importance of international diversification. Since then, the options available to take protective measures have declined in many ways, especially as the destructive FATCA law comes into force.
While some doors have closed, others have opened. And perhaps one of the most significant new opportunities in the world today is the tax incentives in Puerto Rico.
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Wednesday, April 09, 2014
CORPORATOCRACY / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Record US corporate profits are the beneficiary of easy money, near zero interest rates and monopolist aided government tax policies. The upward surge in earnings since the depths of the financial collapse proves one incontrovertible fact; namely, tax regulations, implemented to aid favorite companies, is the operational model of the corporatist economy. Americans for tax fairness for 2013 report on 10 Companies and Their Tax Loopholes. Included in this examination on Bank of America, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell, Merck, Microsoft, Pfizer and Verizon, indicated "corporations have stepped into the fray with some of the most aggressive lobbying we’ve seen in years – calling for cuts to corporate tax rates, a widening of offshore tax loopholes."