Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Climate Change Non-Science and The Texas Black Swan / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_Butter
The drama continues, but the recent filing by the Texas Attorney General to challenge the IPCC findings on Climate Change was no big surprise.
Particularly since George Bush’s home state relies a lot on oil and beef although, given the past record of the Bush dynasty one can’t help wondering how much of the costs of the action will be paid by the good citizens of Texas, and how much will be paid by the Saudi’s? But then that’s just one more conspiracy theory in a long line.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wall Street’s War Against Main Street America / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_Hudson
Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, (Feb. 16)[1] outlining how to put the U.S. economy on rations. Not in those words, of course. Just the opposite: If the government hadn’t bailed out Wall Street’s bad loans, he claims, “unemployment could have exceeded the 25 percent level of the Great Depression.” Without wealth at the top, there would be nothing to trickle down.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Real, Uglier American Unemployment / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Joel_S_Hirschhorn
Great Recession is shown by an official unemployment rate of about 10 percent, think again.
Economic inequality and the myth of Reagan trickle down logic are shown by new data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston . The report noted: “What has been missing from the public debate over the labor market crisis is an honest and detailed analysis of which American workers have been most adversely affected by the deep deterioration in labor markets.” The researchers found a correlation between household income and unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2009: Look carefully at these numbers and see how unemployment rises as income drops:
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Capitalism Cut Adrift / Politics / Social Issues
By: William_Bowles
Have we really been brainwashed?
There has been much talk expended over the years on the degree to which the media—and hence culture—is central to maintaining the capitalist system. Leading the charge have been Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, so much so that they now more resemble sainted objects than social/political analysts, but then this is nothing new for the left, who unfortunately for the most part are happy to let others do the thinking for them.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Consequences of Economic Terrorism are Poverty and Mass Unemployment / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Global_Research
David DeGraw writes: “The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight.” — Michael Lind, To Have and to Have Not
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
America A Country of Serfs Ruled By Oligarchs / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The media has headlined good economic news: fourth quarter GDP growth of 5.7 percent ("the recession is over"), Jan. retail sales up, productivity up in 4th quarter, the dollar is gaining strength. Is any of it true? What does it mean?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Europe's PIGS Gorging on Free Euros as ECB Bankrolls the Incontinent Subcontinent / Politics / Euro
By: Gary_North
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth (Psalm 37:21).
The question arises: How wise is it to lend to wicked people? Not very. What about lending to national governments, whose representatives were elected in order to show mercy to certain voting blocs with taxpayers' money? Not very. Yet this is what has been done on a massive scale.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How the Demise of Glass-Steagall Helped Spawn the Credit Crisis / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
By Shah Gilani
Question: Please address why the removal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 caused the financial meltdown of 2007 and why its reinstatement is the only way to stop the financially risky behavior allowed after it's removal. Address why we will very likely have another meltdown (probably in 2010) unless reinstated.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Vladimir Lisin, Russia's New Richest Man / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
Finance magazine published the annual list of Russian billionaires. The list includes the names of 500 individuals, whose fortune is evaluated at not less than 3.3 billion rubles. There are 77 dollar billionaires in Russia today, which marked a considerable increase in comparison with the beginning of 2009, when the economic crisis caused financial damage to many Russian billionaires.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Are US Taxpayers Bailing Out Greece? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week we were reminded that ours is not the only country suffering from severe economic turmoil. The Greek government is the latest to come close to default on their massive public debt. Greece has insufficient funds in their treasury to make even the minimum payments that are now coming due.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Global Financial Dominance and Control, All Roads Lead to Goldman Sachs / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Rob_Kirby
Once upon a time, Goldman Sachs shunned publicity. During the period from 1930 to 1969, Sydney Weinberg ran Goldman Sachs where he developed a staunch corporate cultural aversion to publicity. During the 1970s, a tandem of John Weinberg and John Whitehead assumed the reigns of leadership at Goldman Sachs. Whitehead left the company in 1984 to enter public life. John Weinberg carried on in the same vein as his father Sydney – shunning publicity – to the point where he hired a man to keep his name and his firm's out of the press.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Myth of Financial Deregulation, Volcker Cannot Prevent Boom-Bust Cycles / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Frank_Shostak
Does It Make Sense to Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act?
At the end of January, President Barack Obama announced that he is planning to introduce new regulations for the banking industry, to prevent excessive speculation. According to the president, no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in, or sponsor a hedge fund or private equity fund, or have proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Global Warming The Anthropocentric Crisis / Politics / Climate Change
By: Arnold_Bock
The global climate warming fuss is not principally an environmental issue but, rather, it is a manufactured crisis supported by copious amounts of manipulated science, reinforced by opinion leaders and promulgated by the cheerleading of the mass media. Global warming has become the mother of all politically correct issues.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Governments Controlling the Ability of People and Organizations to Access the Internet / Politics / Social Issues
By: Bob_Chapman
Under the guise of “protecting Americans” and choosing itself in so-called “national security,” the current Obama administration wants to be able to control the ability of people and organizations to access the Internet.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Why Should WE Make Sacrifices to Offset Global Warming? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Arnold_Bock
The world’s 6.7 billion people have been swamped in recent years by a virtual tsunami of non-stop publicity conveying the universal theme of imminent environmental disaster. We have been told almost daily that calamity can be averted only if we immediately demonstrate our good sense by doing whatever is necessary to halt the rise of man-made greenhouse gases. Cited as the primary villain is a naturally occurring substance known to all as carbon dioxide which is also created by burning fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
U.S. and Canada are Global Warming Scapegoats / Politics / Climate Change
By: Arnold_Bock
Given universal awareness and belief that greenhouse gases are placing our world on the brink of imminent disaster, we should obligate ourselves to examine the origins of the climate change issue. For many people awareness and concern has emerged as if by stealth. Our children arrive home from school all wide-eyed and anxious about the imminent extinction of polar bears, melting polar ice caps and glaciers. Frequently, too, we see programs on television which portray what seems to be a world hell-bent on its own destruction and predicting an imminent environmental Armageddon.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
AIG-Gate, The World's Greatest Insurance Heist / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Ellen_Brown
Rumor has it that Timothy Geithner is on his way out as Treasury Secretary, due to his involvement in the AIG scandal that is now unraveling in hearings before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Bob Chapman writes in The International Forecaster:
Each day brings more revelations of efforts of the NY Fed and Goldman Sachs to hide the details of the criminal conspiracy of the AIG bailout. . . . This is a real crisis on the scale of Watergate. Corruption at its finest.
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker's Grecian Bluff / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
Eurozone's Grecian charade continues this weekend with still more "moral support". One has to start wondering when the market is going to go "all in" in response to what is clearly nothing more than an obvious bluff by various European officials.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Refuse to Pay Odious Government Debt Incurred to Finance Illegal Wars / Politics / US Debt
By: Washingtons_Blog
It Is the Personal Debt of Those Who Ordered It
There is an established legal principle that people should not have to repay their government's debt to the extent that it is incurred to launch aggressive wars or to oppress the people.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Making an Immortal Body of Truth / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_C_Cook
As the world slides closer daily to what the Shivapuri Baba described as a 6,000-year societal catastrophe, it is certainly curious to observe how those who fancy themselves the rulers of mankind continue to attempt to gather all power, authority, and wealth into their hands.
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