Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, April 03, 2015
More Unofficial U.S. Capital Controls: PFIC Rules / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno
It ranks at the very top of potential tax nightmares, especially if you invest internationally.
This nightmare could become a reality if you happen to invest in what the IRS deems a Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC), which are taxed at exorbitant rates and have highly complex reporting rules. Most foreign mutual funds are PFICs, as are certain foreign stocks.
Friday, April 03, 2015
Warren Buffett is Everything That’s Wrong With America / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I think I’ve never understood the American – and international – fascination with money, with gathering wealth as the no. 1 priority in one’s life. What looks even stranger to me is the idolization of people who have a lot of money. Like these people are per definition smarter or better than others. It seems obvious that most of them are probably just more ruthless, that they have less scruples, and that their conscience is less likely to get in the way of their money and power goals.
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Chicago Shockingly Bad Fiscal Health and the Financial Engineering Used to Hide the Facts / Politics / US Debt
By: Mike_Shedlock
Chicago finances are even worse than I thought which is saying quite a bit because I have written about the sorry state of Chicago finances on numerous occasions.
Kristi Culpepper, a bond guru, has gone over Chicago's annual financial report, bond documents, investor presentations, and CAFRs. She has uncovered things the City of Chicago does not want anyone to understand.
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Thursday, April 02, 2015
Iran Nuclear Talks, Does a Missed Deadline Matter? / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
By: STRATFOR
The Obama administration has slipped past self-imposed deadlines and minced words over red lines before. Although certainly an embarrassment for the White House, another missed deadline in the seemingly never-ending Iran nuclear negotiations — which stretched beyond the latest deadline of March 31 — may not matter much in the end.
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Wednesday, April 01, 2015
America Clueless In The Middle East / Politics / Middle East
By: John_Rubino
Starting with the CIA’s overthrow (and some would say murder) of Iran’s democratically-elected president in the 1950s and continuing through our serial invasions of Iraq and our arming of Al Qaeda and ISIS, American policy in the Middle East has been a textbook case of a superpower with more money than brains, making things vastly worse with every move and counter-move.
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
How the West Invented Individualism / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Roger McKinney writes: Inventing the Individual, by Larry Siedentop, Belknap Press, 2014
I lived in Morocco a few decades ago and needed some furniture for our apartment. A college student I had befriended, Hamid, offered to take my cash and negotiate with the dealer for me while I drank coffee in a nearby qahwa because, as he said, the price of the furniture would triple if the merchant glimpsed an American within a block of his store.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2015
U.S. Isolated in Opposition to Chinese Bank / Politics / Global Financial System
By: John_Browne
Over the past few decades while the economic power of the Chinese has grown exponentially, many observers have been surprised by the relative willingness of China to operate within the financial and economic framework established by the dominant Western order. But it should now be blatantly clear that Beijing prefers to act slowly, deliberately and quietly to advance its agenda. This is the case with the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a Chinese-led lending institution which could emerge as an international rival to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Such an institution could support Beijing's political interests by controlling the flow of infrastructure financing that is vital for developing economies. As we all know, money can often buy loyalty.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Middle East Balance of Power Matures / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: Last week, a coalition of predominantly Sunni Arab countries, primarily from the Arabian Peninsula and organized by Saudi Arabia, launched airstrikes in Yemen that have continued into this week. The airstrikes target Yemeni al-Houthis, a Shiite sect supported by Iran, and their Sunni partners, which include the majority of military forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. What made the strikes particularly interesting was what was lacking: U.S. aircraft. Although the United States provided intelligence and other support, it was a coalition of Arab states that launched the extended air campaign against the al-Houthis.
Monday, March 30, 2015
A Middle East Nuclear Holocaust / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Foundations and corporations do not support truth-tellers. American foundations underwrite war and US imperialism. Foundations support subversion of countries that are not Washington’s puppet states. Your website has no foundation support, no corporate support; it only has your support.
I have been around for a long time and have experienced more than most. The current situation in my experience is the most dangerous time of all for humanity.
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Monday, March 30, 2015
Why Is the Fed Punishing My Parents? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MISES
Shawn Ritenour writes: In September 1993, President Bill Clinton reassured his radio audience that “if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for your children.” Picking up that theme over eighteen years later, President Barack Obama affirmed that “Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same.” The trouble is neither the government nor the financial system backed by the Federal Reserve rewards people like my parents, who have worked hard and played by the rules their entire lives, only to have their savings wither away.
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Monday, March 30, 2015
With Yemen Burning, Arab Spring II Is Underway / Politics / Middle East
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: The worsening crisis in Yemen has provided a stark reminder of the immediate impact geopolitical events can have on oil prices.
I was asked to provide my analysis on CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Thursday afternoon, and to discuss the impact the crisis will have on oil prices.
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Monday, March 30, 2015
Economic Recovery, Geopolitics and Detergents / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Increasingly over the past year or so, when people ask me what I do, and that happens a lot on a trip like the one I’m currently on in the world of down under, I find myself not just stating the usual ‘I write about finance and energy’, but adding: ‘it seems to become more and more about geopolitics too’. And it’s by no means just me: a large part of the ‘alternative finance blogosphere’, or whatever you wish to call it, is shifting towards that same orientation.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Can The Eurozone Survive? Not in Its Current Form Says PIMCO / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
Echoing statements I have made many times, PIMCO says the single currency area must become a "United States of Europe" in order to secure its future.
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Saturday, March 28, 2015
Greece Prepares To Leave Euro-zone / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Speculation and expert comments are thrown around once more – or still – like candy on Halloween. Let me therefore retrace what I’ve said before. Because I think it’s really awfully simple, once you got the underlying factors in place.
But first, if one thing has become obvious after Syriza was elected to form a Greek government on January 25, it’s that the party is not ‘radical’ or ‘extremist’. Those monikers can now be swept off all editorial desks across the world, and whoever keeps using them risks looking like an awful fool.
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Thursday, March 26, 2015
Why Yemen Is The Next Saudi-Iranian Battleground / Politics / Saudi Arabia
By: STRATFOR
While the al-Houthi movement struggles to manage multiple regional challenges to its north, its rise to power in Yemen is a setback for Saudi Arabia on its southern flank. After the fall of the Yemeni government, Riyadh will have to capitalize on the al-Houthis' need for political and financial support to re-establish its influence in the country. But because Iran is trying to fill that support gap, too, Yemen has become another battleground where the two sectarian rivals will struggle against one another.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
China's Fragile Evolution / Politics / China
By: STRATFOR
Rodger Baker and John Minnich write: Last week, China's anti-corruption campaign took a significant turn, though a largely overlooked one. The Supreme People's Court released a statement accusing former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, the highest-ranked official thus far implicated in China's ongoing anti-corruption campaign, of having "trampled the law, damaged unity within the Communist Party, and conducted non-organizational political activities." In Chinese bureaucratic speak, this was only a few steps shy of confirming earlier rumors that Zhou and his former political ally and one-time rising star from Chongqing, Bo Xilai, had plotted a coup to pre-empt or repeal the ascension of Chinese President and Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. Thus, the court's statement marks a radical departure from the hitherto depoliticized official language of the anti-corruption campaign.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
City of London's Ownership of American Colonies / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
The misplaced reverence to the ill formulated U.S Constitution and hidden subjugation back to the City of London is one aspect of history that is not taught in government schools or discussed in institutes of higher education. This subject is probably new to most observers of the legacy from the Founding Father’s biggest mistake. Regular readers of BREAKING ALL THE RULES are familiar with the arguments made in the essays, In the beginning: Let there be the Articles of Confederation and Articles of Confederation was Preferable. Now the case for the betrayal of the purpose of the American Revolution needs to be explored.
Monday, March 23, 2015
War: What is it Good For? / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
War delivers us from this state of limbo, toward the rebirth of sound money and economics. Sadly, war may be the ultimate distraction that finally breaks the political landscape wide open and shatters these broken institutions and power centers once and for all.
It isn’t right but it’s almost inevitable. War will be the final political justification for the financial elite to go full-retard in trying to save their system.
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Monday, March 23, 2015
The Real Reason The American Dream is Unraveling / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
Marketwatch posted an article this week titled Why the American Dream is Unraveling, in 4 charts. As usual, the MSM journalist and the liberal Harvard academic can create charts that reveal a huge problem, but they completely misdiagnose the causes and offer the typical wrong solution of taking more money from producers and handing it to the poor, with no strings attached. This has been the standard operating procedure since LBJ began his War on Poverty 50 years ago. Do these control freaks ever step back and assess how that war is going?
Monday, March 23, 2015
Ron Paul on America's Twelve Year Mistake in Iraq / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Twelve years ago last week, the US launched its invasion of Iraq, an act the late General William Odom predicted would turn out to be "the greatest strategic disaster in US history."
Before the attack I was accused of exaggerating the potential costs of the war when I warned that it could end up costing as much as $100 billion. One trillion dollars later, with not one but two "mission accomplished" moments, we are still not done intervening in Iraq.
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