Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Rip-Off By The Federal Reserve / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Liberty writes: The Federal Reserve uses euphemistic smoke and mirrors to obscure their operations. With full knowledge the following is not the way the Fed/government describes the system, allow me to offer a different analysis of their mathematical operation.
Congress can pay for federal expenses with funds collected from taxes, but Congress is never satisfied with this amount. The desire to buy votes/campaign contributions from special interest groups induces congress-critters to spend more, and this is identified as deficit spending. To create this make-believe money requires the assistance of the Federal Reserve.
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Friday, September 03, 2010
Putting an End to Democrats, Liberals, & Progressives...once and for all!!! / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Robert Murchen spoke. "I don't speak about Democrats of your country because it is a waste of my time. I don't listen to them any more I do socialist and union leaders in the EU. I will plan for the day they are considered illegal aliens. They live in a fantasy world and are the single greatest obstacle to progress and wealth building." Going further, he believes that the future of America has been decided; it will be "absent the burden of the imbecilic conscience interfering with matters strictly of business."
Friday, September 03, 2010
For Labor Day Weekend, When Unemployment Happens To You / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
When your life and your work is as entwined as mine has been—fusing the personal and the political over all these years, it may be stretching things to consider yourself unemployed but that’s what I am as Labor Day approaches.
Most of the media focuses on the big companies that have slashed their work forces (even as they hoard cash.) But small companies are also suffering, cutting back, and closing. They don’t get the subsidies or bailouts or the attention.
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Militancy and the U.S. Drawdown in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq has served to shift attention toward Afghanistan, where the United States has been increasing its troop strength in hopes of forming conditions conducive to a political settlement. This is similar to the way it used the 2007 surge in Iraq to help reach a negotiated settlement with the Sunni insurgents that eventually set the stage for withdrawal there. As we’ve discussed elsewhere, the Taliban at this point do not feel the pressure required for them to capitulate or negotiate and therefore continue to follow their strategy of surviving and waiting for the coalition forces to depart so that they can again make a move to assume control over Afghanistan.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Obama’s Iraq Speech An Exercise in Cowardice and Deceit / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Bill Van Auken writes: President Barack Obama’s nationally televised speech from the White House Oval Office Tuesday night was an exercise in cowardice and deceit. It was deceitful to the people of the United States and the entire world in its characterization of the criminal war against Iraq. And it was cowardly in its groveling before the American military.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
The State's "Inception" Fails, Massive unemployment and failing industries are the reality. / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Two years ago, the economy was seriously dragged down amidst an amazing banking crisis that spread throughout the world. The illusion created by loose credit — that housing could go up in price forever and we could enjoy permanent prosperity due to monetary expansion — was shattered by events. Reality had dawned. We found ourselves in the midst of an economic depression.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
The GOP's Masterplan: Obstruct, Smear, Lie, Repeat / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Last Tuesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the estimated impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a.--Obama's $787 billion fiscal stimulus) The report provides conclusive evidence that the stimulus did exactly what it was designed to do and helped to avert another Great Depression. Here's a summary:
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Australia Politics: Greenies and Democracy or lack of it / Politics / Austrailia
By: Dan_Denning
We see in Australian politics the Greens and Labor have made a deal and that U.S. police have shot an armed man at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Maryland after he took people inside the building hostage. And we see that in some strange way, the events are not unrelated. Not causally, mind you, but philosophically.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Bernanke Out of Bullets, But Not Bombs / Politics / Central Banks
By: Michael_Pento
Word on the street is that the Fed is now "out of bullets." Many economists fear that in its efforts to spur recovery, the Fed may have already exhausted its array of monetary ammunition and that it has nothing left of significance to fire at the steadily advancing recession. They believe that since interest rates are already near zero and Fed policies have failed to inspire banks to expand commercial and consumer lending (despite ample bank reserves), the tools traditionally employed by the Fed have been rendered impotent.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
The Fourth Turning – Economic and Social Skies Over the United States Darkening / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
William Strauss and Neil Howe published The Fourth Turning in 1997. This was before the internet bubble, before the housing bubble, before 9/11, before the two wars in the Middle East, and before the financial collapse of 2008. They made a strong case for their generational theory of history. Everything that has happened since 1997 supports their theory. We are currently in the early stages of the Fourth Turning.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
U.S. Taxes Set to Sky Rocket, Protect Your Wealth by Going Global / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
Chris Wood, Editor, Casey Research write: Here at Casey Research, we really don't enjoy being a buzz-kill. It's just that we think it's more important for investors to be well informed about the reality in which we find ourselves today than it is to be happy-go-lucky all the time.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Bankrupt Finnish Welfare State / Politics / Government Spending
By: MISES
Kaj Grüssner writes: Progressives in America are often keen on promoting the European welfare state as an argument for big government, not least in the healthcare debate. They point to European countries, often the social-democratic Nordic countries, as role models, with their universal healthcare, public school system, generous social-safety net, and all the happy people who live there.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
More Money Printing, More Problems / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: MISES
CJ Maloney writes: The recent decision by the Federal Reserve to keep its balance sheet stuffed to bursting with whatever the Wall Street banks decide to throw onto it came as no surprise and crushed any hope that the Fed would tone down its policy of quantitative easing (QE) — or credit easing (CE), as Mr. Bernanke prefers to call it. With the US economy stalled despite the trillions of "stimulus" funds larded out to the politically connected, the people who helm the Federal Reserve likely felt they had no other choice. This was too easy to predict; for the past few decades the response of US monetary authorities to any crisis has been the same — print more money.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Food Crisis Doomsday Scenario as Prices to Shoot Through the Roof / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Pravda
The worst weather on record coupled with the practice of speculation in the commodities markets are set to send food prices skyrocketing, bringing misery and starvation to large swathes of the world’s population. Are we set to see food riots this winter?
In the USA, Walmart has already announced a price hike of 5.8% on average for a 31-item basic basket for this Autumn. The long-term rise, however, is far more frightening, with the UNO predicting an increase of 60 per cent by 2030.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
A Culture of Fear Basis for American Foreign and Domestic Policy / Politics / US Politics
By: J_M_Finegold_Catalan
Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet foreign spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov warned the United States, "We have done the most terrible thing to you that we could possibly have done. We have deprived you of an enemy."
For nearly half a century, the elusive threat posed by the Soviet Union formed the basis of American foreign and domestic policy. Much of the United States' political and economic development was in fact a product of the government's exploitation of a supposed Soviet menace. Gerasimov recognized that the fall of communist Russia denied the American government the ability to exploit the fear of Marxism to its own benefit. It was as if the American government had lost its reason for being.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Iraq War End or Escalation? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed "combat" troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration's operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Rumors of the China Central Bank Chief's Defection on U.S. Treasury Bond Losses / Politics / Central Banks
By: STRATFOR
Rumors have circulated in China that People’s Bank of China (PBC) Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan may have left the country. The rumors appear to have started following reports on Aug. 28 which cited Ming Pao, a Hong Kong-based news agency, saying that because of an approximately $430 billion loss on U.S. Treasury bonds, the Chinese government may punish some individuals within PBC, including Zhou.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
An Unofficial Translation of Bernanke's Jackson Hole Speech, Part 2 / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
Here we get to where the rubber meets the road.
In the remainder of my remarks I will discuss the policies the Federal Reserve is currently using to support economic recovery and price stability. I will also discuss some additional policy options that we could consider, especially if the economic outlook were to deteriorate further.
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Monday, August 30, 2010
The Poor Have No Chance of Joining the Rich, the Game is Rigged / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
THE AGE OF MAMMON
"Financiers - like bank robbers - do not create wealth. They merely distribute it. While the mob may idolize holdup men in good times, in the bad times it lynches them. What they will do to the new money men when their blood is up, we wait eagerly to find out." - Mobs, Messiahs and Markets
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Monday, August 30, 2010
Mainstream Media Complicity in Financial Crimes / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Danny_Schechter
Q: Why are media outlets doing such a bad job covering Wall Street?
A: Could it be, because they are owned by Wall Street?
When you connect the dots in your writing or look for deeper explanations behind the decisions of policymakers, market makers and media-makers, it’s easy to be dismissed as a conspiracy nut.
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