Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Kyrgyzstan Today: The New Administration’s Pressing Problems / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, having toppled the corrupt regime of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in Bishkek on April 7-8, faces many daunting challenges, from the economy gutted by Bakiyev’s insiders to reestablishing security in the country. It is in the interest of the three major outside players there – Russia, U.S. and China, to assist Otumbayeva’s administration, but it seems problematic at this point whether they will be able to lay aside their traditional rivalry to do so. Such being the case, it would seem that Kyrgyzstan faces a long, hot summer.
Friday, May 07, 2010
How To Make A Million Dollars Using the Corporate Welfare Scheme / Politics / US Politics
By: Rudy_Avizius
There are people across the country making millions of dollars using the corporate welfare scheme described in this informative video. The reason you need to know how this is done is because YOU, the taxpayer are paying for this.
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Thursday, May 06, 2010
Restoring the U.S. Constitution / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
More and more, people say they are in favor or returning to the historic meaning of the United States Constitution, a small federal government limited in its powers to those directly granted by the text of the Constitution. Having gone so far away from this model of government, such a return seems an impossible dream.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
The Oil Slick Cover-up: BP's Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster / Politics / Corporate News
By: OilPrice_Com
We have been informed by sources in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Florida Department of Environmental Protection that the Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign -- more than John McCain or Hillary Clinton, are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP's liability for damage caused by what can be called a "mega-disaster."Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Let Goldman Sachs Interrogate the SEC / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Fred_Sheehan
Since April 16, 2010, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicted Goldman Sachs on fraud charges, the bank must approach each day wishing it could stay in bed. New charges and rumors of lawsuits swirl around the firm. Goldman will have its day (or, years) in court, but the government agency that rolled the snowball down the mountain should also sit in the dock.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
U.S. Congress Financial Regulation Reform Hypocrisy, Exempt Themselves From Insider Trading Laws / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Obama is pushing hard for financial reform except for where this crisis started, the Fed. Please consider Bank Bill Attracts Populist Amendments
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Economic and Social Crisis in Nigeria / Politics / Africa
By: Global_Research
Kola Ibrahim writes: As workers in Nigeria celebrate this year’s Workers’ Day, the political challenges before the working and poor people is more vital today more than ever before. That the capitalist political class has severally and collectively plunder the huge resources of the nation, while the poor people go hungry, is no more news. For the past almost eleven years of civil rule, workers have fought tooth and nail to gain better living but every demand of workers in this regard is met with stiff opposition from the capitalist ruling class at all levels.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Cutting Public Debt, Economic Science or Class War? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Global_Research
Hugo Radice writes: In The Bullet no.345, Ingo Schmidt showed how the credit rating agencies have sparked an assault by international bondholders on the sovereign debt of Greece, where workers are being made to pay heavily for the fiscal crisis of the state.
The following day, April 28th, the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies made a major intervention in the British election campaign, publishing a report which called on the three main parties to ‘come clean’ about their plans for dealing with Britain's very own fiscal crisis – a deficit in 2009-10 of £163-billion, or around 12% of GDP. This prompted me to ask the question: why are the three parties, and all the British media, accepting without question the need to cut the deficit?
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Who Judges the Judges: Reporters Without Borders seems to have a geopolitical agenda / Politics / Social Issues
By: F_William_Engdahl
An organization calling itself Reporters Without Borders (RWB; French: Reporters sans frontières, or RSF) has just named Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, China’s President Hu Jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to their list of Forty Worst Predators of Press Freedom for 2010. Most significant about their list of ‘bad guys’ is the geopolitical relation of those leaders and those countries to the current ‘enemies list’ of the US State Department. That is no accident, as becomes clear when we look more closely at who funds RWB.
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
The Fed Must Be Audited, The Fraudulent Practices of the Federal Reserve / Politics / Central Banks
By: Washingtons_Blog
In March 2004, when Alan Greenspan was Fed chairman, he suppressed the opinions of those Fed officials who knew that there was a housing bubble.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Greece Poverty and Social Implosion in the Wake of the Financial Bailout / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Finian_Cunningham
“This is not our debt, but we are being made to pay for it,” said one angry Greek worker, explaining why he like thousands of other Greeks are taking to the streets in protest at their country’s bail-out plan.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Financial Fight Club: Ackman's Hedge Fund Vs. Wall Street's Ponzi Machine / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
When nobody seems to be losing money, nobody cares. If a corrupt scheme is "making money," everyone involved--from the culprits to the dupes--viciously attacks anyone who tries to expose it. Bill Ackman, manager of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., learned this lesson the hard way.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The Ulterior Motive Behind the Greek Bailout / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Sol_Palha
"A mere friend will agree with you, but a real friend will argue." ~ Russian Proverb
Before we discuss this issue lets focus on some facts. Many individuals claim that Greece has to be bailed out to maintain stability in the financial markets. This is a bogus argument, in the short term it might be true, but in the long term it just delays the day of reckoning and makes the situation infinitely worse. You do not help an alcoholic by chastising him and then allowing him free access to booze; it won't work.
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Tuesday, May 04, 2010
"Super Tax" Hits Australia; In US, Gold will be an Easy Target / Politics / Taxes
By: Mike_Shedlock
Congratulations (of sorts) go to Australia for enacting the highest taxes on mining profits in the world. Please consider BHP, Rio Shares Drop on Australian Mine ‘Super’ Tax
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Debt Crisis Triggers Global Crisis of Legitimacy / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: STRATFOR
Financial panics are an integral part of capitalism. So are economic recessions. The system generates them and it becomes stronger because of them. Like forest fires, they are painful when they occur, yet without them, the forest could not survive. They impose discipline, punishing the reckless, rewarding the cautious. They do so imperfectly, of course, as at times the reckless are rewarded and the cautious penalized. Political crises — as opposed to normal financial panics — emerge when the reckless appear to be the beneficiaries of the crisis they have caused, while the rest of society bears the burdens of their recklessness. At that point, the crisis ceases to be financial or economic. It becomes political.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
US Supported Economics Spurred Mexican Emigration / Politics / Mexico
By: Submissions
Dan La Botz is a prominent labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author in the United States. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United States and Mexico. His writing appears frequently in Against the Current, Counterpunch, Labor Notes, Monthly Review, New Labor Forum and Z Magazine. He is the editor of Mexican Labor News & Analysis.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
America At The Crossroads And The War On Gold / Politics / US Politics
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
Every so often a philosophical dilemma becomes real. So it is today. For two thousand years, the message of Christ Jesus influenced and informed the West, if not in deed, then in word. Today, that is no longer so. Today, godless capitalism is threatening to supplant the two millennia reign of Christ’s message of brotherly love—if not in word, then, certainly, in deed.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Hollywood and The Rigging of Financial Markets / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Ellen_Brown
Betting on the Gross Profits of Upcoming Movies - As if attacks from popparazzi and star-crazed fans weren’t enough, Hollywood stars may soon have a literal price put on their heads by investors in the Cantor Exchange, a real-money trading platform where people can bet on the gross profits of upcoming movies. Sales of The Dark Knight skyrocketed after Heath Ledger died unexpectedly, and so did sales after the deaths of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Will greed-driven investors now be laying in wait for the stars of movies they have sold short?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Will Anyone At Goldman Sachs Go To Jail? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
Will Goldman survive the assault? Will the threat of criminal charges being pursued against the world's leading investment bank spill over onto others on Wall Street? Is the criminalization of the crisis underway, or is all this just a maneuver?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Was There A Plan to Blow Up The U.S. Economy? / Politics / US Economy
By: Mike_Whitney
Many people now believe that the financial crisis was not an accident. They think that the Bush administration and the Fed knew what Wall Street was up to and provided their support. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds. As we will show, it's clear that Bush, Greenspan and many other high-ranking officials understood the problem with subprime mortgages and knew that a huge asset bubble was emerging that threatened the economy. But while the housing bubble was more than just an innocent mistake, it doesn't rise to the level of "conspiracy" which Webster defines as "a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act." It's actually worse than that, because bubblemaking is the dominant policy, and it's used to overcome the structural problems in capitalism itself, mainly stagnation.