Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Washington to Start Taxing Securities Transactions? / Politics / US Politics
By: Tony_Sagami
Our budget deficit is skyrocketing, and it is only going to get bigger.
The Obama administration is ready to unleash another zillion-dollar stimulus plan. Oh, they won’t call it a stimulus plan, but make no mistake … a whole lot of taxpayer money is going to get spent (and borrowed).
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Downsizing, Government Officials and Media Turning Against the Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Danny_Schechter
Even as calls for an UPRISING against the practices of the big banks are being made, something else has begun to happen: a DOWNRISING has begun with members of the industry, prominent financial media outlets, and government officials beginning to turn against the banks they have been supporting.
Call it an EVOLUTION from above as opposed to an uprising or activism from below.
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
UK Postal Strike Heralds Battle Between Working Class and the Establishment / Politics / UK Politics
By: Submissions
John Pilger writes: The postal workers’ struggle is as vital for democracy as any national event in recent years. The campaign against them is part of a historic shift from the last vestiges of political democracy in Britain to a corporate world of insecurity and war. If the privateers running the Post Office are allowed to win, the regression that now touches all lives bar the wealthy will quicken its pace. A third of British children now live in low-income or impoverished families. One in five young people is denied hope of a decent job or education.
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
U.S. Joins Ranks Of Failed States / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The US has every characteristic of a failed state.
The US government’s current operating budget is dependent on foreign financing and money creation.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Lost History Of Helmand Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Submissions
Adam Curtis writes: When you look at footage of the fighting in Helmand today everyone assumes it is being played out against an ancient background of villages and fields built over the centuries.
This is not true. If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the distance, what you are really seeing are the ruins of one of the biggest technological projects the United States has ever undertaken. Its aim was to use science to try and change the course of history and produce a modern utopia in Afghanistan. The city of Lashkar Gah was built by the Americans as a model planned city, and the hundreds of miles of canals that the Taliban now hide in were constructed by the same company that built the San Francisco Bay Bridge and Cape Canaveral.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Obama's Feud with Right Wing Fox News / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: John_Browne
In a small bit of Washington irony, a government panel convened this week under the guise of ensuring 'expressive freedom' on the Internet, while at the same time the Obama Administration put Fox News on notice that ideological rectitude would be a prerequisite for White House engagement.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Exploding U.S. National Debt Means Bye Bye Miss American Pie / Politics / US Debt
By: James_Quinn
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Year After TARP, $700 Billion Flushed Down the Drain / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Randall_G_Holcombe
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?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Geopolitics Behind the Phoney U.S. War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
By: F_William_Engdahl
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.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Mervyn King Attacks Fellow Bankers, But Talk is Cheap / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Nadeem_Walayat
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.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The U.S. Dollar Will Not Crash / Politics / US Dollar
By: Mike_Whitney
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
By: Washingtons_Blog
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
By: Michael_Gaddy
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.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
How To Create A Fairer Tax Environment / Politics / US Politics
By: Steve_Selengut
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
By: Mahdi_D_Nazemroaya
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.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Challenging Big Bank Profits / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Danny_Schechter
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
By: Pravda
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
By: Stephen_Lendman
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.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Barney Frank, the Banksters Inside Man? / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
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
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
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.