Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, April 12, 2013
North Korean Nuclear Threat Always Imminent / Politics / Propaganda
By: Andrew_McKillop
NUCLEAR ROULETTE
North Korea’s young president-for-life may be creating a crisis atmosphere, in a strategy to force the US and other Security Council "declared nuclear" nations to recognize his nation as a nuclear weapons power. Alternate reasons for the belligerant North Korean stance are not in short supply - and notably include internal or domestic political issues, ironically due to slowly growing, but nevertheless real economic improvement in this totally isolated country.
Friday, April 12, 2013
The Ugly Truth About Bank Bail-ins, Magic Wands and Con Men / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Last week, I was emailed a link to Barry Ritholtz's "The Big Picture" site.
That's where David R. Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Cumberland Advisors, posted a piece on the "bail-in" of Cypriot banks, versus the bailout fixes that we're used to seeing.
As it was an email, a lot of people were copied on it. And a lot of them hit "Reply All," and forwarded their reactions and comments.
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Friday, April 12, 2013
Why Paul Krugman is Wrong About Margaret Thatcher / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Money_Morning
As the top Keynesian gadfly, Paul Krugman's recent attack on Margaret Thatcher wasn't very surprising.
In a blog post on the very day she passed, he questioned whether or not Margaret Thatcher had actually made any difference to the performance of the British economy.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Why Government Control over Financial Markets has to Grow! / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
Growth of control by banks and government
Quietly, but thoroughly, governments and the banking system have taken an ever increasing role in every aspect of the economy and individual's lives. Where in the distant past cash was the only means of exchange, cash is now controlled by the banking system and cash transactions reduced to a miniscule role in all our lives. Even in Cyprus after the 'confiscation' of deposits, cash is rationed and transactions within the banking system are allowed up to €200,000 before a 'bank committee' has to approve them. The banking system is answerable only to government. Government is grateful to the banking system because government has a means of visible monitoring and controlling its citizen's financial affairs. Through the banking system, government is able to control our financial lives as never before. Cyprus demonstrates how that control will be increased even in crises caused by themselves.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Alarming Growth in Americans "on Disability" Could Bankrupt Social Security / Politics / Government Spending
By: Money_Morning
Ben Gersten writes:Since the start of the recession in December 2007, one in four workers who stopped looking for employment and dropped out of the U.S. labor force found another source of money: collecting disability from Social Security.
And in that same time span, the number of Americans receiving benefits from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program has grown by more than 25%.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Obama's New Budget is a Stealthy Assault on the Middle Class / Politics / US Economy
By: Money_Morning
With a little sleight of hand in how the government calculates inflation, the Obama budget 2014 released today (Wednesday) proposes to both raise taxes on the middle class and reduce future payments to Social Security recipients.
That's quite a reversal coming from a Democratic president who had promised to protect the American middle class.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Missing Lynchpin Of Japan's Great Experiment - Trust / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: Andrew_McKillop
JAPAN'S GREAT EXPERIMENT
Describing the antics of the Japanese government and its central bank (BOJ) as "not just running the largest monetary experiment in their history, but also the largest social engineering experiment", Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity in a recent ZeroHedge post concludes: "Were I a Japanese citizen, I would immediately convert my Yen holdings to something, anything, else. Swiss francs, gold, dollars – anything (!) would be preferable......Once your central bank declares war on its own currency, this is just the prudent thing to do".
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Cyprus Paved the Way For an FDIC-Approved Money Grab / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
By: Graham_Summers
As Cyprus has now shown us, when systemic collapse hits, it hits FAST and FURIOUS.
The quick timeline for Cyprus is as follows:
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Tuesday, April 09, 2013
What Is Or Was The European "Superstate"? / Politics / European Union
By: Andrew_McKillop
OLD, NEW, BORROWED AND BLUE
The absolutely basic problem for answering this question is that no European politician, nor European technocrat, civil servant or 'functionary' will admit there is any kind of plan to create a Superstate. They will quickly shift to talking about "convergence and integration", which basically mean the same thing. Once again the European cult of lying makes it impossible to have any rational discussion or analysis of what a "Superstate" might mean http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article39568.html
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Margaret Thatcher's 10 Best Quotes / Politics / UK Politics
By: Money_Morning
Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to serve as Britain's prime minister, passed away Monday, but her wisdom and achievements will live forever in the hearts and minds of fans.
Thatcher earned the nickname "Iron Lady," thanks to her uncompromising politics and leadership style. She served as prime minister for 11 years.
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Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Here's Another Troubling Sign America is Circling the Drain / Politics / US Economy
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Don't blame yourself if you missed this tidbit last week...
On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hit the nation's four largest mortgage insurers with a total of $15.4 million in fines for "allegedly" paying kickbacks to lenders to steer business their way.
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Monday, April 08, 2013
Cypriot Chaos Assists E.U. Centralization / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
Remarks by members of the European Union's elite suggesting that banking deposit seizures may become standard practice appear to have heightened the risk of a European bank run and perhaps even a catastrophic collapse of the euro. Any threat to the euro is a threat to the European public's conception of the Union's manifest destiny. As such, I believe members of the EU elite may be purposefully leveraging the crisis to push for a centralized European banking system to cement the political framework of an EU superstate.
Monday, April 08, 2013
The North Korea Paper Tiger / Politics / North Korea
By: BATR
If you listen to the alarm coming out of the imperium empire media, you would think that missiles would be flying at any moment. That medieval torture regime noted for starving their population is boasting that a bellicose attack is imminent. Of course, their propagandists are pointing the finger at the Yankee bully that is the perennial bogyman posed to snuff out the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Such an earthly paradise is billed as a “genuine workers' state in which all the people are completely liberated from exploitation and oppression. The workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals are the true masters of their destiny and are in a unique position to defend their interests.”
Monday, April 08, 2013
US Government To Decide How Much Is Enough For Your Retirement / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Jeff_Berwick
Welcome to the new US. Socialism always has the same predictable process. Once the government collectivizes a sector then the politicos and bureaucrats get to work on "improving the system". In a private enterprise, that'd mean offering more to your customers for a cheaper price. In government, it is always the opposite, finding ways to reduce benefits for their "customers".
Monday, April 08, 2013
Ron Paul - Homeschooling is The Future of Liberty / Politics / Educating Children
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
A common feature of authoritarian regimes is the criminalization of alternatives to government-controlled education. Dictators recognize the danger that free thought poses to their rule, and few things promote the thinking of "unapproved" thoughts like an education controlled by parents instead of the state. That is why the National Socialist (Nazi) government of Germany outlawed homeschooling in 1938.
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Sunday, April 07, 2013
Queen Merkel Still Loves Green Power / Politics / Renewable Energy
By: Andrew_McKillop
SHE MIGHT NOT LOOK ECOLOGICAL
Angela Merkel has stayed faithful to alternate, renewable and energy-saving green themes and dreams since 2011, which is a long time in politics. One major reason (we know its paradoxical) is that Germany has been radically increasing its coal-burn, this winter, which itself is delaying large increases of power prices to consumers. Other reasons are also to be found there, in the power sector.
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Stockman Takes Down Krugman / Politics / US Economy
By: William_Anderson
In 1981, David A. Stockman, a former Michigan congressman turned budget director for President Ronald Reagan, gave a series of interviews to socialist William Greider who subsequently published an article in Rolling Stone entitled, "The Education of David Stockman." The article portrayed someone who had come into the administration hopeful that the free-spending ways of the 1960s and 70s would be ended and that the U.S. Government would embrace fiscal sanity, but had become disillusioned by the whole process.
Sunday, April 07, 2013
North Korea Nuclear Threat Beyond the Cold War Theatrics / Politics / North Korea
By: Patrick_Henningsen
The recent show of force by the United States marks one of the lowest points in modern diplomacy, but beyond the geopolitical threatrics it turns out that very little is actually known about the North Korean threat.
North Korea’s recent series of weekly verbal provocations towards Seoul and their ally the US – should be taken seriously in diplomatic terms, but is Pyongyang’s bark worse than its bite?
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Friday, April 05, 2013
French Can-Can Use Fracking - Only For Geothermal Heat / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
AND THEY CAN DO THE TWIST
In a major policy twist on the subject of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), France's Ecology minister Delphine Batho has announced that fracking is now politically-correct, clean, safe and approved by all right-thinking (we mean left-thinking) ecologists. Her party machine, the EELV, or Europe Ecologie Les Verts only exists, today, thanks to Francois Hollande's choice of including "greenies" in his vastly unpopular government. EELV is now all-but collapsed as a vote-winner. In 2012, it gained a minuscule 2.5% of votes in the presidential elections with its candidate the retired anti-corruption magistrate Eva Joly, who is Norwegian origin and despite working in France for decades still has problems talking French. Supposedly that made her even more 'chic et choc' when she led the battle against fracking, with high-rank EELV party faithfuls like Jose Bove, who among other things struggles against GM foods and the McDonald burger threat "a mortal attack on French culture".
Friday, April 05, 2013
Euro-crisis Grinds On - And On - But Not Forever / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
CYPRUS - EURO - TECHNOCRAT TYRANNY
Week after week, month after month Europe's "Techno Tyrants" bulldoze forward, towards what they only know. Being elite deciders, the best brains that money can buy, their gameplan is obviously highly detailed and very well known - to them, but the Common People are not in the loop. They are only servile chaff, only good for another tax hike and idiot speech from the Me Too band of Euro-deciders pumped out round-the-clock on State owned media, and crony capitalist news outlets.