Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, November 16, 2009
Would the U.S. Start a War to Stimulate the Economy? / Politics / US Politics
I've written two essays attempting to disprove "military Keynesianism" - the idea that military spending is the best stimulus. See this and this.
In response, a reader challenged me to prove that anyone would advocate military spending or war as a fiscal stimulus.
Monday, November 16, 2009
United States Falls Down the Rabbit Hole / Politics / US Politics
Don Cooper weites: Will everyone please rise for the playing of the national anthem of the Unites States of America:
One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, and the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all. Go ask Alice, when she’s 10 feet tall…
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Barack Hoover Obama, The Audacity of Failure / Politics / US Politics
Barack Obama is on his way to becoming a one-term president. According to Politico: "President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year’s State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 – and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs programs, according to top aides involved in the planning.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
How the Financial Sector Servant Became a Predator / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
William K. Black writes: Financial Systems Five Fatal Flaws
What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector's current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Morality vs. Material Interests, Myths of Our Time / Politics / US Politics
It is conventional wisdom that it was the draft that ended the Vietnam war. According to this explanation, cowardly college students subject to the draft and their unpatriotic families, forced an end to the war. This is Karl Marx’s explanation. Material interests, not empty morality, are said to have brought the war to an end.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Murdoch Attempting to Buy the UK General Election for the Conservative Party / Politics / UK General Election
The Murdoch News International press is openly engaged in a campaign to bring about a Conservative Government in lieu of Tory promises for News International favourable government policies.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Bankrupt States Seeking to Boost Their Revenues By Any Means / Politics / US Debt
Slow Down… or Else
On a whim following our Denver Summit – and despite truly abysmal weather – Casey Research CEO Olivier Garret and I cabbed it down to a local public golf course for a quick nine holes. Afterwards we were returning to the hotel through a neighborhood best described as poor, but not disreputable. While our cab made its way down a side street, a radar gun-wielding policeman leaped out of the bushes down the block, pulled the trigger, and waved our immigrant cab driver to the curb. The offense, we soon learned, was going five miles an hour over the speed limit in a school zone… well after school was out and with no other children in sight.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Will the U.S. Lag on Alternative Energy Again? / Politics / Energy Resources
After being the world leader in nuclear power for many years, the U.S. dropped out and has been huddled in fear since the Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant incident in 1979.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Neil Barofsky's TARP Report on Bailout Losses Comment / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
My comments on the upcoming TARP report will echo my February 4, 2009 comments. TARP’s inspector general Neil Barofsky already anticipates losses. Unfortunately, the losses are right on schedule.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Ukraine WHO and the Geopolitics of Swine Flu Panic / Politics / Global Pandemic
Latest reports of what is being called a deadly Swine Flu outbreak in Ukraine according to on sight reports appear to be a political concoction by a threatened government to avoid election defeat and possibly declare martial law. The details indicate how convenient the current WHO “Swine Flu” H1N1 “pandemic” scare is for regimes in trouble.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
How the Fed Helped Fund World War I / Politics / Fiat Currency
Governments can pay their bills in three ways: taxes, debt, and inflation. The public usually recognizes the first two, for they are difficult to hide. But the third tends to go unnoticed by the public because it involves a slow and subtle reduction in the value of money, a policy usually unarticulated and complex in design.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Don't Fool Yourself: America Is Now a Communist Nation / Politics / US Politics
At last year's Alliance Conference, I urged folks to buy stocks – vehemently... It was the most bullish I've been in my entire life. But now I feel the opposite way. When the facts change, I change my mind. I never thought we'd see the government running $2 trillion deficits, taking over health care, owning all the banks...
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Triumph of Socialism / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Do you think ideas don't matter, that what people believe about themselves and their world has no real consequence? If so, the following will not bug you in the slightest.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Janet Tavakoli and Fox’s Liz MacDonald Discuss the Outlook for Future Financial Crisis Prosecutions / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
" Prosecutors are still licking their wounds today after the US losses criminal case against two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for their role in the financial crisis last year. Now a jury acquitted them of all six counts of securities fraud this was a shock it shocked Wall Street when the verdict -- in. That these guys are walking -- angry investors get their pound of flesh from anyone. Shouldn't but let's get a topical issues better president -- technically structured finance and author dear mr. Buffett Janet welcome. I was telling you I'm great -- that we use surprised that a verdict."
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Hasan Case Overt Clues and Tactical Security Challenges / Politics / Al-Qeeda
In last week’s global security and intelligence report, we discussed the recent call by the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasir al-Wahayshi, for jihadists to conduct simple attacks against a variety of targets in the Muslim world and the West. We also noted how it is relatively simple to conduct such attacks against soft targets using improvised explosive devices, guns or even knives and clubs.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Buyer Beware, Climate Change and the Ventura Case Study / Politics / Climate Change
A seemingly wholesome local event recently led to some disturbing discoveries about a global GHG matrix that will affect people everywhere in all countries. Students from The Bren School of Environmental Science and Management (University of California Santa Barbara) gave a presentation to city planners and citizens on their "Ventura Case Study." Bren is working on this project for their client, AECOM, to calculate Ventura's baseline greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in preparation for compliance with federal and state regulations.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
In a Time of Universal Deceit Telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act / Politics / US Politics
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down - Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tobin Tax, Making Wall Street Pay Its Fair Share / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Read full article... Read full article...“Regular people know that they got done in by excesses on Wall Street, and they see a Democratic administration shoveling trillions of dollars to the same Wall Street banks that caused the mess. . . . What is overdue is a little bit of populist retribution against the people who brought down the system — and will bring it down again if the hegemony of the traders is not constrained.” --Economist Robert Kuttner arguing for a “Tobin tax”
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Hedge Fund Perps Walk Free From Financial Crisis Criminal Trial / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Will Anyone Ever Go To Jail In Connection With Wall Street Crimes?
Danny Schechter Reports On How The Prosecutors Blew The First Big Case
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Who is to Blame for the Financial Crisis? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2008
David Kerans writes: “I have no interest in spending all of our time relitigating the policies of the last eight years.… laying blame…. can distract us from focusing our time, our efforts and our politics on the challenges of the future.” --Barack Obama, speech on national security, delivered at the National Archives, Washington, D.C., May 21st, 2009
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