Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
President Obama Spoke in the Rose Garden / Politics / US Politics
By: George_Maniere
In a speech in the White House Rose Garden Monday morning, that I’m sure he hoped no one was watching, President Barack Obama said he would pay for his $447 billion jobs plan by ending a series of tax breaks for oil and gas companies, hedge-fund managers and people making more than $200,000. In total, this plan would end about $467 billion of tax breaks over 10 years.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
Stupid Politician Monkeys Another Reason to Buy Gold / Politics / US Politics
By: David_Galland
David Galland, Managing Director, Casey Research writes: The human ape has any number of qualities not often found in other species of mammalia, including opposable thumbs and the ability to fashion and use tools.
Continuing the list, I would add a tendency to form all manner of mental constructs and to then act in accordance with those constructs, even when those constructs have little or no connection to reality.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
German Court Opens Door to Uber-Empire and Uber-Collapse / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: John_Browne
In the early days of September, financial markets worldwide were nervous. Investors and governments were waiting for a crucial ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, a ruling that could have triggered the imminent collapse of the world's second currency, the euro. This past Wednesday, the court ruled that the German bailout of Greece did not violate the German Basic Law (i.e. constitution), and investors breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Monday, September 12, 2011
9/11 Go To Heaven / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Ceremonies in the USA and Europe, and in the few other regions and countries where 9/11 business is taken seriously have with time shifted focus. The annual show of gravitas and determination to fight and win the War on Terror, cranked up on the back of the New York and Washington attacks of September 2001 now has another target: deflecting, parrying and diluting the scary future.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Obama's Jobs Plan Will Barely Dent Unemployment / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
Even if passed intact, U.S. President Barack Obama's jobs plan, though ambitious, would at most nudge down unemployment by a single percentage point over the next year.
Furthermore, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives will surely object to several provisions in the American Jobs Act - particularly the total $447 billion price tag - further diluting its impact.
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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Obama Jobs Plan To Screw Future Generations / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
Friday morning the Schuykill Expressway was jammed again due to an overturned car at Belmont Avenue. My first thought was how anyone could turn their car over at the usual 25 mph speeds on the Schuykill Expressway. My second thought was that I was damned to having to take the route from 69th Street in Upper Darby down Chestnut Street (aka The 30 Blocks of Squalor) to work. I was still steamed by Obama's $450 billion "JOBS" plan. His new plan was touted as an infrastructure plan when it is nothing but a "screw future generations" plan. Do these politicians have no shame?
Sunday, September 11, 2011
The Economic Terror of 9/11 and What Really Happened / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Last month we marked the 40th anniversary of the Federal Reserve Note being a completely unbacked fiat currency. This month marks another major event in the demise of the US dollar, September the 11th.
While we've been on a one way road to monetary ruin since at least 1913 the response to the events of September 11, 2001 have greatly accelerated the process.
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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Can Government Debt Crisis Lies Calm the Financial Markets? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
The question of the day (for which everyone should know the answer) is Can Government Lies Calm the Markets?
In spite of the fact most of us realize lies will not help, and most often makes matters worse, governments repeatedly resort to lies, platitudes, and wishful thinking.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
War – The Fiscal Stimulus of Last Resort / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
“War! Good God, ya’ll. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”
So went the Bruce Springsteen pop hit of the 1980s, first produced as an anti-Vietnam War song in 1969. The song echoed popular sentiment. The Vietnam War ended. Then the Cold War ended. Yet military spending remains the government’s number one expenditure. When veterans’ benefits and other past military costs are factored in, half the government’s budget now goes to the military/industrial complex. Protesters have been trying to stop this juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011
Obama Jobs Plan is More of the Same / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Although it was labeled and hyped as a "jobs plan," the new $447 billion initiative announced last night by President Obama is merely another government stimulus program in disguise. But semantics are of supreme importance in American politics...some could argue that word choice is the only thing that matters. As a result, despite the fact that this plan bears no substantive difference from previous stimulus bills, the President never once mentioned the word "stimulus" in his hour-long speech.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Obama's Job Numbers Don't Add Up / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Elias
Nearly 32 months after taking the oath of office, President Obama implied his administration failed America during a speech to a joint session of Congress last night concerning jobs.
Despite his repeated claims as a candidate and president to focus on job growth as his number one priority, the president elected to wait until his next campaign to address this issue.
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Friday, September 09, 2011
Dissecting Obama's Jobs Stimulus Lies / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Obama's rumored $300 stimulus program ballooned to $447 billion upon unveiling. For a full text of the speech, please see President Obama's jobs address
Amusingly, the plan is overweight tax cuts in an attempt to get Republican buy-ins.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Europe Runs Out of Time, Impossible to Untangle, Breakup Inevitable / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
One of the many interesting aspects of the Eurozone crisis is how many key political and central bank leaders fail see (or at least admit) that Europe is out of time.
Even more peculiar are statements by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet who finally does realize time is of the essence, yet Trichet "solution" is a set of measures that must be passed by all 17 nations when those nations cannot agree on EFSF funding, on Eurobonds, on collateral for Greece, or even on whether a fiscal union or transfer union must take place.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
A Raging Case of Bailout Fatigue / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Doug_Horning
Doug Hornig, Casey Research writes: I’ve used the term outrage fatigue on numerous occasions in this forum as a way of trying to explain why there has been such a muted outcry from the general population as the tally of financial atrocities committed against American citizens has exploded.
August 22 was just another average day with another average headline that could easily have been ripped from some radical economic watchdog website (liberal or conservative, either one): Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion from Fed.
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Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Eurozone Deathwatch / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Whitney
There's no way to overstate the calamity that's unfolding across the Atlantic. The eurozone is imploding. The smart money has already fled EU banks for safe quarters in the US while political leaders frantically look for a way to prevent a seemingly-unavoidable meltdown. Here's an excerpt from a post at The Streetlight blog that explains what's going on:
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Obama May Soon Join America's Unemployed / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
It may not be long before U.S. President Barack Obama joins the swollen ranks of America's unemployed.
A government report released Friday showed no job growth in August.
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Monday, September 05, 2011
Central Banks, BIS and Goldman Sachs Coercion / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: BATR
Did you ever wonder why countries allow private central banks to issue their money? Somehow, missing in the self-governing status of governments is the courage to deny the seduction or the threats of the global banking cabal, over the control of a nation’s currency. How did this obvious usurpation of independence become an unquestioned acceptance by the very governments who proclaim to be sovereign nations? The answer reveals that the right of autonomous government is now dependent upon the approval of the banking cartel. The myth that a historic country can exert their populist will and financial self-determination, when it conflicts or opposes the interest and objectives of the moneychangers, is outright fantasy.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Don't Blame Bush: This is Obama's Economic Depression / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
This is Barack Obama's economy now. George Bush can no longer be blamed. And if the economy dips back into recession--as it most certainly will--then that will be Obama's fault, too. Because it's Obama's fiscal policies that are driving the economy back into the ditch. This is no small matter, because Obama's failure will likely result in political change that will deliver the White House to the GOP in 2012. Then the deficit hawks will control both houses of congress and the White House, and they will slash spending and push the economy into another Great Depression. This is not speculation. This WILL happen. Obama has made sure it will happen by shrugging off the warnings of every competent economist in the country, all of whom have said repeatedly that we needed more stimulus to lower employment, to reduce the output gap, to increase GDP, and to put the economy back on track.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Where’s Our Oil Price Collapse? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: James_Quinn
Make no mistake about it, without plentiful, cheap, and easy to access oil, the United States of America would descend into chaos and collapse. The fantasies painted by "green" energy dreamers only serve to divert the attention of the non critical thinking masses from the fact our sprawling suburban hyper technological society would come to a grinding halt in a matter of days without the 18 to 19 million barrels per day needed to run this ridiculous reality show. Delusional Americans think the steaks, hot dogs and pomegranates in their grocery stores magically appear on the shelves, the thirty electronic gadgets that rule their lives are created out of thin air by elves and the gasoline they pump into their mammoth SUVs is their God given right. The situation was already critical in 2005 when the Hirsch Report concluded:
Monday, September 05, 2011
US Government versus World's Big Banks, Cascading Risks Multiply / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: DK_Matai
Make no mistake about it, history was made on September 2nd, 2011, after the financial markets closed in New York. As Churchill said in 1942, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." What are the unintended consequences of the massive multi-billion-dollar lawsuit in which an independent US Government regulator is suing 17 big banks from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and France? As we approach the 3rd anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15th September, 2008, as a result of cascading risks, markets may yet demonstrate extreme volatility once again with fundamentally destabilising consequences.