Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Year After TARP, $700 Billion Flushed Down the Drain / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, is a year old now. On September 19, 2008, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the need for a $700 billion program to purchase toxic assets held by banks to prevent a financial meltdown, and after some modification Congress rapidly approved TARP on October 3. Looking back after a year, was TARP necessary? Did it work?
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Geopolitics Behind the Phoney U.S. War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Mervyn King Attacks Fellow Bankers, But Talk is Cheap / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Mervyn King one of the key people behind the failure to regulate the out of control banking sector, the bailout of which risks bankrupting Britain Iceland style as the budget deficit continues to mushroom higher towards £200 billion for the current the fiscal year the consequences of which will trigger a double dip depression for Britain, uttered more words against his fellow bankster's, but as we have seen talk is cheap or rather worthless if not backed up by any real action to hold the bankster's to account.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Dollar Will Not Crash / Politics / US Dollar
The dollar is not going to crash. There may be grumblings in foreign capitals and "secret meetings" between finance ministers but, for now, the dollar appears to be safe.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Russia and Iran Officially Talking about Dumping the U.S. Dollar For Crude Oil and Gas Trade / Politics / US Dollar
After the Independent reported that Middle Eastern oil producers, plus China, Japan and France have all agreed to start trading oil using a basket of currencies - instead of the dollar - starting in 9 years, spokesmen for those governments denied it.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Why They Really Want More Troops in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
We can all look back at the wonderful decision that was made to send more troops to Korea. If we had not, we could have been bogged down in a quagmire there that would have required 50 plus years of American lives, involvement and money. What a wonderful decision it was to send more troops to Vietnam.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
How To Create A Fairer Tax Environment / Politics / US Politics
Can lawmakers who don't have the courage or intelligence to outlaw texting while driving really be expected to create a saner tax structure? Hmmm.
Developing a fairer tax environment is much less an economics problem than it is a political dilemma and, as many of you observed, it is unlikely that anything "tax" will be improved upon until there is some serious facial (and cultural) change in Washington.
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Monday, October 19, 2009
Geo-Strategic Chessboard Pushing India Towards War With China / Politics / India
Since 1947, India has not fully pledged itself to any camp or global pole during the Cold War and as a result was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (N.A.M.). Since the post-Cold War era that position has eroded. New Delhi has been gradually moving away from its traditional position, relationships, and policies in the international arena for over a decade.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Challenging Big Bank Profits / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
As the big banks post record profits and pay out obscene bonuses, what should we the people do: stand up or roll over?
On February 1, 1960, four students sat down at a lunch counter at
the former Woolworth’s store in Greensboro North Carolina.
4 students! Just four!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Barack Obama becomes U.S. Mikhail Gorbachev / Politics / US Politics
History may repeat itself two or three times or even reach the point, which Francis Fukuyama described as the end of history. The US historian of Japanese origin introduced the notion during the time when there were two dominating superpowers in the world – the United States and the Soviet Union.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
U.S. Tax Payer Dollars Funding Sweatshops Globally / Politics / Global Economy
In July 2008, SweatFree Communities (SFC) released a report titled, "Subsidizing Sweatshops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do" in which it studied 12 factories in nine countries that produce employee uniforms for nine major companies.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Barney Frank, the Banksters Inside Man? / Politics / US Politics
Ralph Nader writes: What planet is Congressman Barney Frank on, anyway? It is the planet of the banks and other financial firms that keep his campaign coffers humming, as their chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
On his extraterrestrial perch, camouflaged by his witty and irreverent observations, he sees the agony of gouged, debt-ridden consumers and homeowners, but his actions do not measure up.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Rich Have Stolen the Economy / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Bloomberg reports that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's closest aides earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Street firms. Bloomberg reports that none of these aides faced Senate confirmation. Yet, they are overseeing the handout of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to their former employers.
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Friday, October 16, 2009
Russia and India Developing Supersonic Missile to Counter U.S. Missile Defence / Politics / GeoPolitics
Russia and India will start the development of a new supersonic missile nearly invincible to interception. No army in the world has anything similar to it. The sum of the investment has not been defined yet, but it can be expected to reach billions of dollars.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Truth Behind the Financial Crisis May Lead to Another Crash / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
William K. Black - professor of economics and the senior regulator during the S & L crisis - says that that the government's entire strategy now - as during the S&L crisis - is to cover up how bad things are ("the entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts").
Indeed, as I have previously documented, 7 out of the 8 giant, money center banks went bankrupt in the 1980's during the "Latin American Crisis", and the government's response was to cover up their insolvency.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Systemic Risk of Financial Collapse Resulting in Fuzzy Regulatory Oversight / Politics / Market Regulation
"Systemic risk" is the new financial term du jour. I suppose that's good news for all of us in the finance biz. The previous term du jour, "moral hazard," had months ago been talked, debated, lectured, explained, and milked to death. I suspect that a few months hence, systemic risk — the risk of total financial system or market collapse — will have suffered a similar fate.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
How To Create A Fairer Tax Environment / Politics / Taxes
Can lawmakers who don't have the courage or intelligence to outlaw texting while driving really be expected to create a saner tax structure? Hmmm.
Developing a fairer tax environment is much less an economics problem than it is a political dilemma and, as many of you observed, it is unlikely that anything "tax" will be improved upon until there is some serious facial (and cultural) change in Washington.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Imperial New World Order Strategy the Origins of World War III / Politics / New World Order
In the face of total global economic collapse, the prospects of a massive international war are increasing. Historically, periods of imperial decline and economic crisis are marked by increased international violence and war. The decline of the great European empires was marked by World War I and World War II, with the Great Depression taking place in the intermediary period.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Saving Face in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
This past week there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the continuing war in Afghanistan. Lasting twice as long as World War II and with no end in sight, the war in Afghanistan has been one of the longest conflicts in which our country has ever been involved. The situation has only gotten worse with recent escalations.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The MicroCredit Just Another Scam / Politics / Debt & Loans
The hysteria about the glories of microcredit must have been another illusion created by the economic boom, but somehow, there for a while, it was hard to talk sense into anyone on this issue. Somehow, all the world came to believe that the key to lifting people out of poverty was to grant everyone loans that they then had to service out of some income stream that they didn't have.
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