Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Sunday, June 19, 2011
U.S. Federal Debt on the Elevator to Hell / Politics / US Debt
If you think the Federal debt ceiling is anything but an elevator, I've got news for you.
Maybe you saw the story about the Air Force airlift of $12 billion in unmarked bills that landed in Iraq sometime between 2003 and 2004 – no one seems sure just when. The story was written by a Los Angeles Times reporter and published on January 13.
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
NATO Global War Template At Work in Libya / Politics / New World Order
As the West’s war against Libya has entered its fourth month and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has flown more than 11,000 missions, including 4,300 strike sorties, over the small nation, the world’s only military bloc is already integrating lessons learned from the conflict into its international model of military intervention based on earlier wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
Atomic Annie Bites The Uranium Dust / Politics / Nuclear Power
Anne Lauvergeon, nicknamed 'Atomic Annie' and CEO of France's murky Areva nuclear corporation with activities ranging from uranium mining ventures - and adventures in Africa - to building the world's slowest and most expensive reactor, a French EPR in Finland, was officially ousted by Nicolas Sarkozy on June 16 and will quit Areva by June 29. The decision was in fact long-expected by nuclear business watchers, but the final trigger was her handling of the blow-back in France from the Japanese Fukushima disaster, adding to Areva's near-bankruptcy, its badly handled operations in Africa, USA, France, Japan and Germany, and intense wrangling inside France's ultra-secretive nuclear business with Areva always on the losing side.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Elite Know Something Big Is Coming, But What Exactly Is It? / Politics / Social Issues
Barracuda writes: There are so many theories on what the Earth and Humanity will or could be facing between now and through the next few years to 2025. Depending on who you talk with or what website you look at may say that we are about to experience some kind of cosmic shift of density and consciousness or they may lean towards the whole Doomsday theory based on such ancient predictions from civilizations like the Mayans, Egyptians and Sumerians as well as ancient text like the I Ching.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Solution to Greece’s Sovereign Debt Crisis / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
In the very first issue of the Intelligent Investor (June 2009), I discussed problems in Europe that became a reality several months later.
“It is likely that America will end up on the hook for the majority of the bailout funds needed for Eastern Europe via the IMF…In the end, I feel the long-term fate of the European Union (EU) will be threatened; not so much for economic reasons as for the continued destruction of each nation’s sovereignty.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Spains Tarir Square: A Revolution Struggles To Be Born / Politics / Spain
Spain is justly proud of the Paella, a distinctive dish that mixes diverse vegetables or seafood into a tasty fusion of delectability.
They have now created a political version in the form of Tarir Square type encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol where a diverse mix of activists---old, young, male-female, disabled, immigrant, activists from Western Sahara, have created a beachhead for what many say is the closest this country has come to a popular and distinctive revolutionary movement since the 1930’s.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Why Libertarians are Wrong on Trade / Politics / US Politics
I recently gave a podcast interview to Vox Day, a prominent Christian libertarian, explaining why free trade is bad for America. He followed it up with an article making many of the same points.Finally, a libertarian gets it.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Social Security and Medicare Cuts, Hard to Take a Bone from a Dog / Politics / Government Spending
Most people, provided they have a minimum of experience, know that taking a bone from a dog is a risky proposition. In terms of political power, few dogs are bigger than the American voting public. Taking away, or even threatening to take away, the major entitlements to which they have become accustomed could expose politicians to a mauling at election time. As the American leadership begins to grapple with very large issues of entitlement reform in "sacred" programs such as Medicare and Social Security, many may recoil from the task once the fangs begin flashing.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Mainstream Media's Arteries Clogged Up with Theorists / Politics / Mainstream Media
It was not difficult for an observer to understand Armageddon beckoned by 2006, as long as the observer listened to practitioners rather than theorists. The theorists: government bureaucrats and their sycophants, clog the media's arteries. Those who listened to practitioners were prepared in 2007.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
U.S. Military Responsible for the Biggest Heist in History / Politics / US Politics
Jason Simpkins writes: For nearly a decade, U.S. military operations in the Middle East - Iraq in particular - have been criticized as a cumbersome and costly burden on the American taxpayer.
That accusation gained new credence this week when the Pentagon finally acknowledged that nearly $7 billion of Iraqi oil money might have been stolen.
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Friday, June 17, 2011
U.S. Life Expectancy Falling in Many Areas / Politics / Social Issues
Patrick Martin writes: Average life expectancy is falling in many parts of the United States and for many demographic groups, most notably women, according to a study being published Wednesday in the journal Population Health Metrics, and conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Germany Fires Debt Shot at U.S. / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
In what will likely be the first of many European debt downgrades for the United States, Germany’s own Feri credit rating agency took down the United States’ debt rating from AAA to AA. The difference is marginal in many ways (after all, few countries ever get to become AAA rated), but for the United States, which has always been AAA, this confirms that the downside is here.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Young Americans: Forget Your Student Loans And Move To Gonzo Town / Politics / Student Finances
Stone Pinkerton writes: Getting ahead? Going to college? Whether they know it or not, millions of young Americans are joining the ranks of the over-qualified and under paid and unemployed. But heck, you can still give it the “old college try” anyway, but be informed of the pro’s and cons of your decision.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Greece Debt Crisis Risks Bringing Government Down / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
The crisis in Greece took another step forward today as opposition leader have asked Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to step down.
In response, Papandreou offered to resign. Unfortunately, Papandreou placed strings on the offer.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
9 TRILLION Dollars Missing from Federal Reserve, Fed Inspector General Can't Explain / Politics / Central Banks
Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman responds that the IG does not know and is not tracking where this money is.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Vietnam Confronts China Over South China Sea Energy Riches / Politics / Energy Resources
An increasingly fractious maritime confrontation is developing in the South China Sea, with enormous implications for international companies interested in developing East Asia's offshore hydrocarbon resources. Far from the radars of city of London and Wall Street investors, the clash has seen Vietnam emerge as spear carrier for its fellow ASEAN members on the dispute.
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Monday, June 13, 2011
How Bankers use the Debt Crisis to Roll Back the Progressive Era / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
Financial strategists do not intend to let today’s debt crisis go to waste. Foreclosure time has arrived. That means revolution – or more accurately, a counter-revolution to roll back the 20th century’s gains made by social democracy: pensions and social security, public health care and other infrastructure providing essential services at subsidized prices or for free. The basic model follows the former Soviet Union’s post-1991 neoliberal reforms: privatization of public enterprises, a high flat tax on labor but only nominal taxes on real estate and finance, and deregulation of the economy’s prices, working conditions and credit terms.
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Monday, June 13, 2011
How the Mainstream Media Covers Bilderberg Meetings / Politics / Mainstream Media
The mainstream media blackout of the annual Bilderberg meeting is finally crumbling. Yet the prevarication machine continues to reinforce the delusional official line from on high. For decades, the sinister world cabal operated in the shadows of secrecy and disinformation. The timely analogy is the initial way the disgraced Anthony Weiner responded to his self-inflicted indiscretion. Ignore any rogue inquiry about the nature of their agenda or plots on forthcoming plans. High-handedness is the hallmark of their demeanor, just as arrogance is the basic character component of this pit-bull Congressional egomaniac.
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Sunday, June 12, 2011
A Beginners Guide to Shadow Banking, Financial Crisis and Repo / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
What if I told you that the financial crisis could be explained in just two words? Would you believe me?It's true, and oddly enough, neither of the words is "subprime".
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Sunday, June 12, 2011
America's Next War is with Iran / Politics / US Politics
Richard Becker writes: U.S. policy towards Iran is not based on 'intelligence,' faulty or otherwise; it is based on the desire to dominate a geo-strategic region.
"There is a large body of evidence including some of America’s most highly classified intelligence assessments, suggesting that the United States could be in danger of repeating a mistake similar to the one made with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq eight years ago–allowing anxieties about the policies of a tyrannical regime to distort our estimations of the state’s military capacities and intentions."
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