Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Greece, EU and the Tower of Babel / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Submissions
Athanasios Laspopoulos writes: I remember when I was at school, many years ago, that a course was developed
for the Tower of Babel and a sketch showing a huge Tower building from thousands
of people. As I remember the Tower was building by many countries and different
peoples in order to reach heaven and God. This project because of the
multilingualism and misunderstanding was abandoned. This was the model on
which the EU was based on?? Because as I can see in pictures and the model
the EU is made of, are almost the same. And the funny thing is that in EU
there are multiple states, multiple languages and a relative disconnection
between the members just as it was happening at the Tower of Babel.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Tsipras Invites Schäuble To Fall Into His Own Sword / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Too many voices the past few days are all pointing the same way, and I’ve always thought that is never good. A guessing-based consensus, jumping to conclusions and all that. Look, it’s fine if you don’t have all the answers, no matter how nervous it makes you.
What I’m referring to in this instance is the overwhelming conviction that Greece and Tsipras have conceded, given in to the Troika, flown a white flag, you get the drift. But guys, the battle ain’t over yet.
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Sunday, July 12, 2015
Grexit: Montenegro, Ecuador or Bulgaria? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Could Greece adopt the dollar?
In truth, Bulgaria, not the greenback, is the better currency model after Grexit.
What if the eurozone shows Greece the door? There are claims that the creation of a new currency regime in Greece would be fraught with problems. While the practical, technical problems would be relatively small, the political problems could be daunting.
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Sunday, July 12, 2015
"Guerrilla Warfare Against a Hegemonic Power": The Challenge and Promise of Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ellen_Brown
Banks create money when they make loans. Greece could restore the liquidity desperately needed by its banks and its economy by nationalizing the banks and issuing digital loans backed by government guarantees to its ailing businesses. Greece could provide an inspiring model of sustainable prosperity for the world. But it is being strangled by a hegemonic power in a financial war that is being waged against us all.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Syriza Cruel Hoax on Greek People, Led Like Sheep to Economic Collapse Slaughter House / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Syriza presents bailout proposals worse than Greece rejected at the 5th July referendum. The Syriza game theory players 6 month long intensifying black mail of the euro-zone that culminated in the NO referendum to the previous bailout package from the 'evil Troika', who according to Syriza were financial terrorists hell bent on the destruction of Greece, to which end only Syriza were the Greek people's saviors who would prevail with no austerity over the evil Troika.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Greece Crisis - Someone Pull The Plug or This Will End in War / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I was going to write up on the uselessness of Angela Merkel, given that she said on this week that “giving in to Greece could ‘blow apart’ the euro”, and it’s the 180º other way around; it’s the consistent refusal to allow any leniency towards the Greeks that is blowing the currency union to smithereens.
Merkel’s been such an abject failure, the fullblown lack of leadership, the addiction to her right wing backbenchers, no opinion that seems to be remotely her own. But I don’t think the topic by itself makes much sense anymore for an article. It’s high time to take a step back and oversee the entire failing euro and EU system.
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Friday, July 10, 2015
Forget about Reaching a Deal with Greece, Europe Needs a deal with... Europe! / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Atlantic_Perspective
Mathematically speaking, Greece needs debt relief. There´s no other option. The country can´t pay back its debts. But there is a nasty “but” in this statement...
If Europe lets Greece off the hook, then all the other “emerging Greeces” of the UE will want the same. Far-left governments would start winning elections all over the place, starting with Portugal and Spain - just a few months away from electing a new government. And that would be the end of the European Union.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Greece Humanitarian Appeal - Automatic Earth Fund for Athens Makes First Donation / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Found myself talking to very lovely and very young Melanie from Ottawa, on a solo world tour, last evening in a bar in the Plaka district of Athens. And as I was telling her about what I do, and why, I noticed it was very hard to explain to her what exactly is happening to the Greek health care system.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Europe has a Financial Nuclear Option that Nullifies the Greek Blackmail / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Atlantic_Perspective
Since the Syriza government took power a few months ago, Alexis Tsipras backed (or controlled) by Varoufakis, assumed a defiant position based on the assumption that “We owe Europe so much money that we´ve got you on our hands. If you (Europe) want to see some of that money back, we determine the rules”.
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Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Budget 2015 - Child Tax Credits to Be CUT, Payments Limited to 2 Children / Politics / UK Tax & Budget
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The newly elected Conservative government is finally about to take grip of Labours benefits culture voter bribes Working and Child Tax Credits black hole that has grown far beyond its initial budget of £2 billion to today's annual monster of £30 billion, that also plays a large part in Britain's immigration crisis as being one of the primary reasons well over one hundred thousand families annually relocate from Eastern Europe to the UK to profit from low paid jobs coupled with generous in work benefits such as tax credits and housing benefit that results in doubling or even tripling of family incomes that typically approaches TEN times similar family incomes of right across Eastern Europe.
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Tuesday, July 07, 2015
The Greek Vote and the EU Miscalculation / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: STRATFOR
By George Friedman : In a result that should surprise no one, the Greeks voted to reject European demands for additional austerity measures as the price for providing funds to allow Greek banks to operate. There are three reasons this should have been no surprise. First, the ruling Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza party, is ruling because it has an understanding of the Greek mood. Second, the constant scorn and contempt that the European leadership heaped on the prime minister and finance minister convinced the Greeks not only that the scorn was meant for them as well but also that anyone so despised by the European leadership wasn't all bad. Finally, and most important, the European leadership put the Greek voters in a position in which they had nothing to lose. The Greeks were left to choose between two forms of devastation — one that was immediate but possible to recover from, and one that was a longer-term strangulation with no exit.
Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Is Saudi Arabia Leaving The U.S. Behind For Russia? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
The news from the recent St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which took place from June 18 to 20, inspired a torrent of speculation on the future direction of energy prices.
But the real buzz at the conference was the unexpected but much publicized visit of the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, as an emissary of the King. The Prince, who is also his country's Defense Minister, carried the royal message of a direct invitation to President Putin to visit the King, which was immediately accepted and reciprocated, with the Prince accepting on behalf of his father.
Monday, July 06, 2015
Why the Greek “No” Vote Was a Good Thing / Politics / Social Issues
By: Investment_U
Alexander Green writes: Well, the Greeks voted “No,” yet markets didn’t crash and the world didn’t end. What should we worry about next?
I don’t mean to make light of the situation. But Greece’s vote to reject the bailout terms of the European and International Monetary Union - and potentially abandon the euro - is actually a plus for world equity markets.
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Monday, July 06, 2015
Greece and Puerto Rico: Previews of Coming Attractions / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Michael_Pento
Governor Alejandro García Padilla of Puerto Rico said this week he does not think the Commonwealth will be able to pay back the $73 billion in debt owed to bondholders. I find this rare bit of honesty totally refreshing. For the past three years some had speculated about the possibility of a Puerto Rican default, but most believed it to be a farfetched notion. Now the question of solvency is no longer in doubt: Puerto Rico is officially broke and is unable to pay all of its debt obligations.
Monday, July 06, 2015
With Yanis Gone, Now Troika Heads Must Roll / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Now that Yanis Varoufakis has resigned, in the kind of unique fashion and timing that shows us who the real men are, it’s time to clear the other side of the table as well. The new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, should not have to face the same faces that led to Europe’s painful defeat in yesterday’s Greek referendum.
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Monday, July 06, 2015
The Greek Mouse That Roared "OXI". What is the lesson? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
It is the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 that came to mind when I watched the results of the Greece referendum July 5. I vividly recalled the so-called pro-democracy movement in Cairo to oust corrupt dictator President Hosni Mubarak; the steaming multitude huddled in Tahrir Square stoically waiting for his resignation; the subtle reminder to Mubarak by President Obama "to leave". The "Arab Spring" was hailed by all Western media at the time, and that alone was reason to question it.
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Monday, July 06, 2015
For Normal Relations With Cuba, End US Interventionism / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week we saw an encouraging sign that the 50 year cold war between the US and Cuba was finally coming to an end. President Obama announced on Wednesday that the US and Cuba would restore full diplomatic relations and that embassies could be re-opened in each country by the end of the month.
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Monday, July 06, 2015
Delusional Greeks Commit Mass Hara-Kiri / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Atlantic_Perspective
Pride and ignorance won over logics and basic common sense. With the banks already closed and food quickly running out in supermarkets, Greece is now just a few days away from plunging into total chaos. Delusional Greeks, led by their delusional government, believe they have the upper hand. A small bankrupt country, dependent on foreign imports, decides to bite the hand that feeds it. The reason: “Ah, this will show Europe! Now they know who they are dealing with”!Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 05, 2015
A Revolutionary Pope Calls for Rethinking the Outdated Criteria That Rule the World / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Ellen_Brown
Pope Francis has been called “the revolutionary Pope.” Before he became Pope Francis, he was a Jesuit Cardinal in Argentina named Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the son of a rail worker. Moments after his election, he made history by taking on the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the leader of a rival order known to have shunned wealth to live in poverty.
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Forget 'Haircut', Instead Syriza Plans Beheading of Greek Bank Depositors, Theft of Deposits / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Greeks voting YES or NO won't make any difference to what I see as a near certainty of the Greek banks NOT reopening Tuesday, and it is not just because the banks won't have the euro bank notes in their vaults, it's because they are ALL insolvent and have been so for the past 5 years where the only thing that had prevented a collapse of the Greek banking system was generous and I mean GENEROUS support from the Euro-zone's ECB central bank that has literally financed every withdrawal from the Greek banks for the past 5 years, right up until Syriza announced its baldrick-esk cunning plan for a Referendum. That's over Euro 120 billion Euro-zone tax payers funds paid into the Greek banks to finance ALL withdrawals that amounts to 50% of the original total Greek bank deposits.