Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Ungovernability / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Over the summer I introduced a two-fold assertion: 1) global economic growth is over (and has been for years and won’t come back for many more years) and 2) the end of growth marks the end of all centralization, including globalization. You can read all about these themes in “Globalization Is Dead, But The Idea Is Not” and “Why There is Trump” There are also extensive quotes of the second essay in wicked former UK MI6 spymaster Alastair Crooke’s “‘End of Growth’ Sparks Wide Discontent”.
When I say ‘the end of growth’, I don’t mean that in a Limits to Growth kind of way, or peak oil or things like that. Not because I seek to invalidate such things, but because I mean economics, finance only. Our economies simply ceased growing, and quite a few years ago. The only reason that is not, and very widely, recognized is the $21 trillion and change that central banks have conjured up ostensibly to kickstart a recovery that always remains just around the corner.
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Monday, October 17, 2016
Iceland Today, the US Tomorrow? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
During the 2008 economic crisis, Iceland's government froze offshore accounts held by foreign investors in that country's currency, the krona. Recently, the government of Iceland announced it would unfreeze the accounts if the account holders paid a voluntary "departure tax," which could be as high as 58 percent. Investors who choose not to pay the departure tax would have their investment "segregated" into special funds that only invest in CDs issued by Iceland's central bank. These CDs are expected to only provide a rate of return of at most 0.5 percent a year. So investors in offshore accounts can thus choose between having their money directly seized via the departure tax or indirectly seized via the inflation tax.
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Monday, October 17, 2016
From Piety to Pride to Pity, America's Racial Divide / Politics / Social Issues
By: Stephen_Merrill
As a boy growing up in northern Iowa in the early 60’s, I truly sympathized with the plight of Negro people in the United States. As an altar boy, I knew from Catholic teachings that all men are created equal.
The violence of white racism in other parts of the nation was plain for Americans to see on their home television screens. The injustice of Jim Crow laws was disturbing and outrageous. The brave nonviolent marches of the time seeking racial justice were inspiring to me. I was appalled and angered by the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and then by the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Seek Your Independence: Anything Else Will Destroy You / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Many people think The Dollar Vigilante is a fear mongering, pessimistic blog.
If you only read our headlines, then I can see how you would feel that way. But things are getting so bad that all we are doing is acknowledging the current state of affairs. The truth hurts.
After we began to analyze Shemitah and then Jubilee timelines, we became even more pessimistic because it was clear that even the deepest economic and military disasters were planned in advance.
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Friday, October 14, 2016
World War III On The Brink: War Will Continue Until It Triggers Economic Collapse / Politics / Economic Collapse
By: Jeff_Berwick
One of the main Shemitah Trends of late 2016 is the emerging war in the Middle East. It has every indication of turning into a conflict resembling World War III and day-by-day is becoming more dangerous and extreme.
This could be the war that finally triggers the great economic collapse being planned. Certainly, the storm clouds of war are gathering, as we’ve been covering.
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Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Hillary: Deceit, Debt, Delusions (Part Two) / Politics / US Debt
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I addressed the deceit of Hillary Clinton and politicians of all stripes as they promise goodies they can never pay for, in order to buy votes and expand their power and control over our lives.
I created the chart below for an article I wrote in 2011 when the national debt stood at $14.8 trillion, with my projection of its growth over the next eight years. I predicted the national debt would reach $20 trillion in 2016 and was ridiculed by arrogant Keynesians who guaranteed their “stimulus” (aka pork) would supercharge the economy and result in huge tax inflows and drastically reduced deficits. As of today, the national debt stands at $19.7 trillion and is poised to reach $20 trillion by the time “The Hope & Change Savior” leaves office on January 20, 2017. I guess I wasn’t really a crazed pessimist after all. I guarantee the debt will reach $25 trillion by the end of the next presidential term, unless the Ponzi scheme collapses into financial depression and World War 3 (a strong probability).
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Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Trump Support Crashes to New Low of 6.4 on Betfair Odds Betting Market / Politics / US Presidential Election 2016
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Trump's 2nd debate bounce that had seen Trump rally on Betfair's betting market from a low of 6.2 just prior to the debate to a post debate high of 4.8 has already apparently evaporated with Trump support literally crashing to a new low of 6.4 (current 6.2) as punters pile into placing bets on Hillary Clinton to win who now stands at a Betfair market price of just 1.21, her highest standing ever, which translates into just a £21 potential profit on every £100 bet, against Trump where every £100 converts into a potential £520 profit!
Monday, October 10, 2016
Fifteen Years Into the Afghan War, Do Americans Know the Truth? / Politics / War on Terror
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week marked the fifteenth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the longest war in US history. There weren't any victory parades or photo-ops with Afghanistan's post-liberation leaders. That is because the war is ongoing. In fact, 15 years after launching a war against Afghanistan's Taliban government in retaliation for an attack by Saudi-backed al-Qaeda, the US-backed forces are steadily losing territory back to the Taliban.
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Sunday, October 09, 2016
Pentagon Begins Low-Intensity Stealth War in Syria / Politics / Syria
By: Mike_Whitney
“Last Wednesday, at a Deputies Committee meeting at the White House, officials from the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed limited military strikes against the (Assad) regime … One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment.” – Washington Post
Call it stealth warfare, call it poking the bear, call it whatever you’d like. The fact is, the Syrian war has entered a new and more dangerous phase increasing the chances of a catastrophic confrontation between the US and Russia.
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Thursday, October 06, 2016
The West Is Playing a Zero-Sum Game with ISIS / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: John_Mauldin
ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism are a threat to the Western world. And so far, we have not really developed any serious defense mechanisms to deal with it. Rather, we are mostly just reacting to seemingly random events.
My friend Dr. Woody Brock is one of the most brilliant game theory specialists that I know. He regularly applies game theory to economics and investing. Here, he analyzes the conflict between the West and ISIS. He says that because of our very values, we end up playing the “game” in a way that leads us to continual frustration.
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Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Internet Censorship as UN Intervenes into American Society / Politics / Internet
By: BATR
By now you have heard that the control of ICANN has been ceded to the globalists. The Wall Street Journal acknowledges that An Internet Giveaway to the U.N. is the result of this transfer. A last ditch attempt to forestall this treachery was dashed by the Court rejects Arizona lawsuit suit over US control of internet group. This ruling comes as no surprise. The pattern of systematic international integration is the hallmark of efforts to stamp out national sovereignty and independent countries. The United Nations from the very beginning of its inception has been a fraud of incalculable proportions and a nemesis on humanity.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
It’s Not Just Obamacare–Healthcare Systems Are Failing Everywhere / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK COX : I’ve talked to many Canadian tourists who tell me that they’re having some medical procedure done while in the States. This is because the wait can be so long back home. As an uncouth American with borderline Tourette’s, I like to point out that their government health care doesn’t seem like such a utopian system after all. This typically provokes a defense of the Canada Health Act of 1984.
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Monday, September 26, 2016
Martial Law Rolls Out Across the US As Jubilee Nears / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
As we enter into the last week before the end of the Jubilee Year, the National Guard has been deployed in Charlotte, North Carolina and massive military convoys have been deployed in the streets of New York City.
This is a continuation of last summer’s Jade Helm seven-state military exercise that many in the area saw as a prelude to military occupation. After Jade Helm came the US Army Special Operations Command’s Unconventional Warfare Exercise 16 (UWEX 16) that ran in Texas through June.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Black NFL Atheletes - Why Stand for a Country That Can Gun You Down in Cold Blood? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
If black athletes in the NFL honestly think that African Americans who live under Old Glory are as ‘equally protected ‘as whites, then they should stand up during the national anthem and sing-along. But if they know that blacks aren’t getting a square deal, and that blacks can be gunned down at any time by trigger-happy cops who never face the consequences, then they owe it to themselves and their country to demand change by remaining seated.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Brad, Angelina, and the News Media / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Walter_Brasch
The New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch tabloid publication that isn’t likely to win a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, splashed a full page picture of a smiling Jennifer Anniston on its Sept. 21 front cover. In the upper left-hand space it placed all-capitals text: “BRANGELINA 2004–2016.” Inside the Post were four full consecutive pages, and a half page and part of a column deeper in the newspaper, all devoted to one of the most critical social issues facing the country—Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting a divorce.
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Saturday, September 24, 2016
MI6 to Recruit 1/3rd More Redundant Intelligence Agents Destined to Lose AI Cyber Wars / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Britain's secret service, MI6 is about to see their number of intelligence agents boosted by 1/3rd in attempt to fight and counter future digital cyber terror attacks and wars. This is in addition to the expansion of other arms of Britain's secret police such as GCHQ and MI5.
However, the government is making the SAME mistake it always tends to make when it engages in such job creation exercises for bureaucratic institutions in that they are ALWAYS looking in the rear view mirror of what happened in the past and thus how they could have averted for instance 9/11 or 7/7 if they had x,y,z number of personnel in place and then go ahead and implement such capacity expansion a decade after the fact, whilst failing to realise that the nature of the threat has moved on.
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Friday, September 23, 2016
Here’s Why Eastern Europe Is Doomed / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: John_Mauldin
BY LILI BAYER : The EU is falling apart. Europe’s exporters face a crisis. Its southern economies are troubled. Germany has economic challenges of its own. But as Europe’s crises deepen, something else will become more important.
The erosion of the Schengen zone could hurt Eastern members’ ties with the West. Their economic and social stability depend on access to the EU. This includes funding, investments, trade, and labor markets. So the East is sensitive to economic changes in Western Europe and the continued fracturing of the bloc.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
Germany Has No Power to Solve the European Crisis / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
BY LILI BAYER : Germany faces a growing number of crises, both at home and abroad. But it has limited power to address them. The country needs stability in Ukraine. It wants to influence Russia. And Germany needs to deal with the influx of refugees from Turkey. This requires an agreement with that country.
Recently, the German leadership met with officials in Europe and abroad to address these crises. On Sept. 15, the foreign ministers of Germany and France toured Ukraine's war-torn east. In August, the German foreign minister went to Moscow to discuss the problems in Ukraine and Syria.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
The Last Time We Saw This Was Before World War II / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Europe and Asia, taken together, are the heart of humanity. That’s where 5 billion out of the 7 billion people in the world live. When instability comes to this part of the world, it shakes humanity.
That’s why the geopolitical pattern developing in Eurasia is so ominous. It is like a hurricane—absorbing huge amounts of energy from the ocean, using that energy to build a vast, integrated structure, and then destroying whatever it touches.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
France and Germany Call to TTIP End Trade Talks with the US / Politics / Global Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY ANTONIA COLIBASANU : The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have failed. The TTIP is the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States. German Economic Affairs Minister Sigmar Gabriel and French Foreign Trade Minister Matthias Fekl have both called for an end to talks.
This failure confirms our prediction that the EU's power is decaying. Moreover, this turn of events accents the division between Western and Eastern Europe.
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