Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Crime of Big Government / Politics / Government Intervention
David M. Woods writes: The following is a fictitious, but predictable conversation:
Read full article... Read full article...Me: I have a problem.
Other guy: Well, I have a solution!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Baby Bush, the Worst President in History? / Politics / US Politics
Doug Casey writes: I recognize that I’ve antagonized many subscribers over the years with "Bush Bashing." In January, just after OBAMA!’s election, I said I wouldn’t mention Bush again, his departure having made him irrelevant. I only feel bad that he and his minions will apparently get away scot-free with their crimes; better they had all been brought up before a tribunal and tried for crimes against humanity in general and the U.S. Constitution in particular. But that is objectively true of almost all presidents since at least Lincoln.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Free Market as Regulator / Politics / Market Regulation
Since the bailouts last fall, lawmakers have been behaving as quasi-owners of the bailed-out banks and businesses, leading to calls for increased regulation of executive compensation and other wasteful expenditures. We have heard much about bonuses and executive pay packages that sound more like lottery winnings than an honest salary.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Health Care Reform or Welfare Program, Who Pays the Bill? / Politics / US Politics
The White House has released another of its health care reform clarification emails--- there will be more. It seems strange to me that the focus is on insurance coverage rather than on the spiraling costs of health care itself.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Global Economic Depression and Regional Wars - Part II / Politics / Great Depression II
Part II continues Petras' analysis of the global depression (Part 1 Here), regional wars, and the decline of America's empire.
Obama's Latin American Policy
At all times under all administrations, policy, not rhetoric, defines priorities, and it's no different for Obama. With regards to Latin America and its people, he's been hostile and dismissive by:
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Russia and Georgia and the Caucasian Calculus / Politics / GeoPolitics
Eric Walberg writes: Georgia is to Russia as Colombia is to Venezuela, and Kaidanow spells trouble
War clouds refuse to disperse a year after Georgia waged war against Russia. On the anniversary of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's ill-fated invasion of South Ossetia 8 August, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warned: "Georgia does not stop threatening to restore its 'territorial integrity' by force. Armed forces are concentrated at the borders near Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and provocations are committed," including renewed Georgian shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Health Care in America: The Masquerade is Over, The Public Option is Dead! / Politics / US Politics
Rep. Dennis Kucinich writes: The masquerade is over! The "public option" is ... dead.
Health care reform is now a private option: WHICH FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANY DO YOU WANT?
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
U.S. To Seize Venezuelan Oil Fields / Politics / Crude Oil
On August 11, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez declared the readiness of the South American countries to discuss with US President Barrack Obama the location of US army bases in Colombia.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wikipedia and Google Will Bring Down Establishments All Over the World / Politics / GeoPolitics
Back in the early 1990's, I was told about a German economist with an American name: Paul C. Martin. He had written a book titled Paymaster Germany. Its thesis: Germany cannot send home its Turkish and other immigrants. They would break the German economy by pulling their money out of the country. Anyway, that's what my German contacts told me about the book. It has never been translated
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Great American Bank Robbery, Banking Crisis Video / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
William K. Black, the former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board who investigated the Savings and Loan disaster of the 1980s, discusses the latest scandal in which a single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than was lost during the entire Savings and Loan crisis.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Health Care War! / Politics / Healthcare Sector
Martin Weiss writes: What you’re witnessing in the U.S. today is not a health care debate. It’s a health care WAR.
But it’s too soon to take sides: Neither has defined its territory; both are escalating the battle with weapons of mass disgrace.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Why Iceland and Latvia Won’t Re-Pay the E.U. Credit Crisis Debts / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Prof. Michael Hudson writes: Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population?
The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Britain Losing the Plot in Afghanistan as Losses Mount / Politics / Afghanistan
Lesley Docksey writes: So far, the cost to the British taxpayer of our current ‘Great Game’ in Afghanistan is £12 billion(1). If only our eight years there had cost nothing but money. Leaving aside the horrendous cost to the Afghan people and their land, Britain’s forces have suffered loss, not least, because of the muddle, ignorance and incompetence of those who sent them to war, a loss of face.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Conservative Government to Privatise the NHS and Save the Economy from Bankruptcy / Politics / NHS
The heated healthcare debate across the atlantic last week that targeted the NHS as a bureaucratic nightmare when it comes to actual delivery of prompt and efficient healthcare has started to reveal cracks in the Tory party public position on the NHS as Tory MEP's and MP's are rebuked by David Cameron for breaking with Tory front bench policy of continuing expansion of funding for the NHS regardless of the state of the country's finances so as to maximise votes amongst the 1-2 million voters that are either directly or indirectly employed by the NHS.
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Sunday, August 16, 2009
The Great Government Swine Flu Conspiracy / Politics / Global Pandemic
More than 230,000 cases of the Swine Flu have been confirmed world wide. About 2,100 persons have died. As much as one-fourth of America's workforce may be infected by Swine Flu when it peaks in Winter, according to studies conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Why No One Won a Pulitzer for Financial Crisis Reporting (Part 1) / Politics / Mainstream Media
Amidst the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression (if not ever) and the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, (the real estate-banking Ponzi scheme) not one of the 65 Pulitzer Prizes was awarded for coverage of the events surrounding the “financial crisis.” Ironically, the media has yet to identify this crisis as the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, confirming their incompetence.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Less Government or Lower Wages? You Decide / Politics / Economic Stimulus
The nationwide revelry surrounding our apparent economic recovery was disrupted this week by the release of lower-than-expected retail sales data. However, rather than sending a chill up the spines of those hoping for a quick end to the downturn, the numbers should be welcomed. Though this may come as a surprise to most observers, lower retail sales are precisely what our economy needs.
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Friday, August 14, 2009
America Attacked During Obama Health Care Debate by British NHS Army / Politics / NHS
The onslaught of Brit's running to the defence of the NHS against US attacks during the Obama healthcare reform debate must leave american's wondering what the hells going on, perhaps the NHS is far better than they were led to believe?. However what is missing from the equation is the fact that over 1 million people in Britain ride the NHS gravy train and hence have a vested interest in the continuance of this sacred cow funding black hole that continues to exert a sizeable political force that political parties have little choice but to pander towards to ensure electoral success.
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Friday, August 14, 2009
The Four Step Healthcare Solution / Politics / US Politics
Hans-Hermann Hoppe writes: It's true that the US health-care system is a mess, but this demonstrates not market but government failure. To cure the problem requires not different or more government regulations and bureaucracies, as self-serving politicians want us to believe, but the elimination of all existing government controls.
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Friday, August 14, 2009
The Forging of a New World Order Under a One World Government / Politics / New World Order
The Global Economic Crisis in Context
The current global economic crisis has its roots not in the Bush administration, which is linear and diluted thinking at best, but in the systematic nature of the global capitalist system. Crisis is not separate from capital; crisis is capitalist expansion. In addressing the foundations of the economic crisis, neo-Marxist theory can help explain much of the actions and functions that led to the crisis.
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