Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
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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Thursday, March 19, 2015
UK Solar Eclipse - End Time Sign, Judgement Day, Doomsday! / Politics / Religion
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The biggest astronomical event of this century will take place across Britain tomorrow as the UK will see its first solar eclipse in 16 years at around 9.30am in the morning. Increasingly, the mainstream press (BBC) has been busy building the UK population up into eclipse fever of when, how and where in the UK the eclipse will manifest itself from about 85% in the South to a 98% at Britain's northern most tip for a jaw dropping and fear inducing near total eclipse where our tiny Moon in totality blocks out the Sun and plunges the earth into cold darkness.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Russia Targets NATO With New Military Exercises / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
Russian military exercises, the latest in a series across the country, have taken on a threatening posture. While the most recent installment is not the largest exercise Russia has conducted, the areas involved and the forces included seem to have been deliberately chosen to send a warning to NATO; the exercise itself seems to simulate a full-scale confrontation with NATO through the forward deployment of nuclear armed submarines, theater ballistic missiles and strategic bomber aircraft. Strategic weapon systems, including assets that are part of Russia's nuclear capabilities, have also been deployed to locations near NATO's borders.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Fear of IRS Tax Audits Diminish / Politics / Taxes
By: BATR
The announcement that Federal government’s tax-take hits all-time high as the federal government collected a record amount of taxes in fiscal year 2014, topping $3 trillion in revenue for the first time in its history, has the tax man taking a bigger bite than ever. Yet, the take that the collection bureau seems un-phased from all their scandals to put the taxpayer through their third degree audits are easing up. Why? The answer may surprise when the ledger is tallied up.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
The Truth Behind Central Banks' Machinations / Politics / Central Banks
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Central bankers aren't stalwart free-market shepherds, although that's how they cloak themselves.
The truth is they're more like wolves… communist wolves in sheep's clothing. Today I'm going to show you what their game really is.
Then I'm going to show you how we'll fight back…
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Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Can Putin Survive? / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: There is a general view that Vladimir Putin governs the Russian Federation as a dictator, that he has defeated and intimidated his opponents and that he has marshaled a powerful threat to surrounding countries. This is a reasonable view, but perhaps it should be re-evaluated in the context of recent events.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
"To Be or Not To Be" Part of the Establishment / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
The immortal words uttered by Prince Hamlet as he contemplates death and suicide, applies for an entire society. The enormous gravity that permeates William Shakespeare’s tragic hero represents the same fate confronting the normal mortals, who make up the ranks of Americans. The rapid decline in intelligence and moral character has approached epidemic levels. The ROT which has seeped into the popular culture has become a metamorphosis Reign of Terror. The transformers from a heritage of principle, courage and honor have sunk to a level of Slouching Towards Gomorrah. Such a fate was feared by our Founding Fathers.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Euro Crisis - It’s Time for Angela Merkel to Stand Up / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I need to start of off the bat with an update to this piece, which I started writing yesterday, since I now know that Angela Merkel actually did invite Alexis Tsipras on Monday. It only took her two months…. But that doesn’t take away anything from my point that Merkel has been sorely lacking and missing, it just goes to prove that point.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Margin Call from Hell - Why Strong Dollar Leads to Deflation, Recession and Crisis / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Mike_Whitney
The crisis that began seven years ago with easy lending and subprime mortgages, has entered its final phase, a currency war between the world’s leading economies each employing the same accommodative monetary policies that have intensified market volatility, increased deflationary pressures, and set the stage for another tumultuous crack-up. The rising dollar, which has soared to a twelve year high against the euro, has sent US stock indices plunging as investors expect leaner corporate earnings, tighter credit, and weaker exports in the year ahead. The stronger buck is also wreaking havoc on emerging markets that are on the hook for $5.7 trillion in dollar-backed liabilities. While most of this debt is held by the private sector in the form of corporate bonds, the stronger dollar means that debt servicing will increase, defaults will spike, and capital flight will accelerate. Author’s Michele Brand and Remy Herrera summed it up in a recent article on Counterpunch titled “Dollar Imperialism, 2015 edition”. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Monday, March 16, 2015
The Greek Debt Tragedy Continues / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Andy_Sutton
A few years ago, Poland made the first such move to ‘nationalize’ a portion of its pension system. Nationalize probably isn’t the right word though: steal is more appropriate. Given the fact that most Americans probably can’t even point out Poland on a map, the news was given little attention. If something doesn’t happen right in our own backyard, it might as well happen on Mars.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Green Light for the American Empire / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The American Empire has been long in the making. A green light was given in 1990 to finalize that goal. Dramatic events occurred that year that allowed the promoters of the American Empire to cheer. It also ushered in the current 25-year war to solidify the power necessary to manage a world empire. Most people in the world now recognize this fact and assume that the empire is here to stay for a long time. That remains to be seen.
Empires come and go. Some pop up quickly and disappear in the same manner. Others take many years to develop and sometimes many years to totally disintegrate. The old empires, like the Greek, Roman, Spanish and many others took many years to build and many years to disappear. The Soviet Empire was one that came rather quickly and dissipated swiftly after a relatively short period of time. The communist ideology took many decades to foment the agitation necessary for the people to tolerate that system.
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Sunday, March 15, 2015
How Italy’s Government Enables the Mafia / Politics / Italy
By: MISES
Emilio Parodi writes: Beyond nice wines, warm beaches, and sultry women, Italy is well-known for something less savory — the mafia. It is interesting to understand how such a powerful “machine” managed to enter society in such a strong and meaningful way, but more importantly to grasp its role alongside the central government of Italy. On the one hand, it is easy to state that the mafia and the corrupt economic system it functions within are wrong and unproductive for the country. On the other hand its presence may be of help to a country’s economy, something that is especially true in the case of Italy.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: GoldCore
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January 6th post here.) It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on the threat.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Russia's Military Options in Ukraine -: Gaming a Russian Offensive / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: STRATFOR
Editor's Note: As part of our analytical methodology, Stratfor periodically conducts internal military simulations. This series, examining the scenarios under which Russian and Western forces might come into direct conflict in Ukraine, reflects such an exercise. It thus differs from our regular analyses in several ways and is not intended as a forecast. This series reflects the results of meticulous examination of the military capabilities of both Russia and NATO and the constraints on those forces. It is intended as a means to measure the intersection of political intent and political will as constrained by actual military capability. This study is not a definitive exercise; instead it is a review of potential decision-making by military planners. We hope readers will gain from this series a better understanding of military options in the Ukraine crisis and how the realities surrounding use of force could evolve if efforts to implement a cease-fire fail and the crisis escalates.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Eurozone Crisis - There Is No Better Way Than to Pay for Greece / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Investment_U
Martin Stephan writes: The Oxford Club’s deep international roots are invaluable... A few weeks back, we published a piece titled “How Germany Can Save Greece and the EU.” Since then, the German parliament voted to extend financial aid to Greece by four months - a mere Band-Aid (and a small one at that). In order to right the EU economy, a permanent solution must be found. For an insider perspective on this situation, we asked our colleague Martin Stephan from The Oxford Club’s German office to give his thoughts. We hope you enjoy his unique viewpoint.