Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Wall Street Banks Looting Main Street / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Global_Research
Matt Taibbi writes: How the nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece
If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama. Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt — meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff's precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid.
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Monday, April 12, 2010
China Russia on Treadmill to Economic Growth Crushing Chanos Bubble Bets / Politics / China Economy
By: Dian_L_Chu
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the biggest nuclear arms pact in a generation last week. The so-called New START is hailed by Obama as a major step to show the world that the U.S. and Russia have mended their troubled relationship.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Full Spectrum Internet Media Censorship, UK Bill Heralds Death of the Internet / Politics / UK Politics
By: Global_Research
Steve Watson writes: A draconian Internet censorship bill that has been long looming on the horizon finally passed the house of commons in the UK yesterday, legislating for government powers to restrict and filter any website that is deemed to be undesirable for public consumption.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Realities of the Neo-Cons’ Multi Trillion Dollar War / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Stathis
You may have heard about the turkey shoots by U.S. military and mercenary groups (Blackwater) in Iraq. The problem is, a good deal of the “turkeys” are innocent Iraqi civilians, some of which are women and children.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
It's Time To Give the Republicans Hell / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
"If you are in the hip pocket of any political party, prepare to be sat on." ~ Gary North
Getting your political agenda enacted into law, enforced by the Executive branch, and upheld by the courts.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Greenspan Oscar Winning Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Testimony / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Whitney
Alan Greenspan's performance before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was a real Oscar winner. At no time, was the ex-Fed chairman in trouble, and he was able to showcase the full repertoire of fake emotions for which he is renowned. He was alternately condescending, professorial, combative, engaging, and acerbic. It was vintage Greenspan from start to finish; the tedious jabber, the crusty rejoinders, the endless excuse-making. At 80, Maestro still hasn't lost his touch. No one laid a glove on him, which is precisely the problem.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
U.S. Russian Economic Relations Near Failure / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Pravda
President Dmitry Medvedev hopes to boost the development of the bilateral economic cooperation between Russia and the USA during his forthcoming visit to the United States in summer.
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Thursday, April 08, 2010
Life, Euro Beyond Greece - Crystal Clear / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Axel_Merk
Focus at today's European Central Bank (ECB) press conference was on the continued tremors rattling Greece. A couple of key points:
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Thursday, April 08, 2010
Greenspan Came Not to Save Consumers but to Bury Them / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan defended the central bank's record on consumer protection in the years before the financial crisis.... "The Federal Reserve, often in partnership with the other federal banking agencies, was quite active in pursuing consumer protections for mortgage borrowers," Greenspan said in testimony for a hearing today of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Congress's FCIC Nearly Nailed Former Citigroup Executives to the Wall -- Then Blew It / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, had Robert Rubin, former senior advisor Citigroup (also former Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, and former Co-Chair of Goldman Sachs), and Chuck Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, in the palm of his hand today. He asked them why they weren't alarmed for Citigroup in May of 2007, when the Bear Stearns hedge funds ran into trouble. He recalled they imploded in June 2007 and joked that it happened around the time of his birthday. Rubin and Prince shrugged it off, and Rubin that he didn't know about Citigroup's CDO troubles until the fall of 2007.
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Thursday, April 08, 2010
Mexico in Crisis, The Struggle for Balance / Politics / Mexico
By: STRATFOR
This week’s Geopolitical Intelligence Report provided a high-level assessment of the economic forces that affect how the Mexican people and the Mexican government view the flow of narcotics through that country. Certainly at that macro level, there is a lot of money flowing into Mexico and a lot of people, from bankers and businessmen to political parties and politicians, are benefiting from the massive influx of cash. The lure of this lucre shapes how many Mexicans (particularly many of the Mexican elite) view narcotics trafficking. It is, frankly, a good time to be a banker, a real estate developer or a Rolex dealer in Mexico.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
A Floating Alternative to Nabucco Undercuts Potential Disruptions to EU Energy Supplies / Politics / Natural Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
In late February 2010, Romania, Azerbaijan, and Georgia finalized an agreement on the direct export of Azerbaijani natural gas to Romania. This has profound ramifications for halting Turkey’s ability to hold the EU hostage to energy supplies via Turkey, and offers far more rapid easing of European energy pressures. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia, Russia and China At Geopolitical Crossroads / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Rick_Rozoff
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed five years after and in the same manner as he came to power, in a bloody uprising.
Elected president two months after the so-called Tulip Revolution of 2005 he helped engineer, he was since then head of state of the main transit nation for the U.S. and NATO war in Afghanistan.
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Thursday, April 08, 2010
What Happens When We Don't See the Tipping Points / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Bernard Weiner writes: Often in our busy daily lives, we miss the significance of a piece of news. Sometimes it's not until years later that we realize how very important that news event was in shifting the paradigm.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Congress Is a Criminal Syndicate / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
The director of Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente, comments on Congress taking a 2-week break while 200,000 American people may lose their unemployment benefits.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Understanding the Fed, Not Just the Myths / Politics / Central Banks
By: EWI
If you would like to understand more about how the U.S. Federal Reserve works, you can spend some time on its website -- or you can get the real story. Elliott Wave International has collected eight of Robert Prechter's most trenchant articles about what the Fed actually does. He takes on the misleading myths about the Fed and explains what's really going on as he writes about these topics.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Wall Street Bank Bailout Tally Shows Billions of Dollars of Stolen / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Global_Research
Methodology: In calculating the bailout totals, CMD’s focus has been on direct and indirect support to financial institutions that had a role in causing the financial crisis. We tally programs across five federal agencies (Federal Reserve, Treasury, Federal Housing Administration, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the FDIC) and include direct support, loans, and guarantees.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Going After the Banksters, Then and Now / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
A Tale of Then and Now, FDR vs Obama: A Story of Shame, Co-optaton, Partisan Bickering and Industry Lobbying To Undermine Financial Reform
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Goldman Sachs Spinning Gold / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
Goldman Sachs claims great risk management skills, while it shirks responsibility for its role in the near collapse of the U.S. economy. The former is a myth, and the latter is a dodge. [1] As taxpayer wealth was destroyed, Goldman exploited the financial crisis it helped cause, while the U.S. was (and remains) at war.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
This is Part 3 of the series, "When Empire Hits Home."
Part 1: War, Racism and the Empire of Poverty
Part 2: Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis: The Impoverishment of the Middle Class
As nations of the world are thrown into a debt crisis, the likes of which have never been seen before, harsh fiscal ‘austerity’ measures will be undertaken in a flawed attempt to service the debts. The result will be the elimination of the middle class. When the middle class is absorbed into the labour class – the lower class – and lose their social, political, and economic foundations, they will riot, rebel, and revolt.
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