Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, May 02, 2014
How the SEC Profits from High-Frequency Trading / Politics / HFT
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: "The markets are not rigged."
That's what U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White told a House of Representatives panel on Tuesday.
She went on to say, "The U.S. markets are the strongest and most reliable in the world."
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Friday, May 02, 2014
Why is Putin in Washington’s Crosshairs? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Mike_Whitney
US provocations in Ukraine cannot be understood apart from Washington’s “Pivot to Asia”, which is the broader strategic plan to shift attention from the Middle East to Asia. The so called “re-balancing” is actually a blueprint for controlling China’s growth in a way that is compatible with US hegemonic ambitions. There are different schools of thought about how this can be achieved, but loosely speaking they fall into two categories, “dragon slayers” and “panda huggers”. Dragon slayers favor a strategy of containment while panda huggers favor engagement. As yet, the final shape of the policy has not been decided, but it’s clear from hostilities in the South China Sea and the Senkaku Islands, that the plan will depend heavily on military force.
Thursday, May 01, 2014
The Truth About May Day / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
As I write this police are using tear gas on protestors in Istanbul. It appears as if it is going to be another rowdy May 1.
Today is International Worker's Day, which is a celebration of labor and the working classes. May 1 is a national public holiday in more than 80 countries, though in some countries it is called Labor Day or something similar. Almost every year capitals across the world erupt in protest.
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Thursday, May 01, 2014
It How America Grows Its Way Into Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It was strange to see two Bloomberg articles side by side yesterday that didn’t look as if they were written in the same universe. Not Bloomberg’s fault, I think, they simply reported on an FOMC statement and incoming US economy numbers. But it was strange nonetheless. First, here’s the FOMC’s reasoning behind its decision to taper more:
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Retirement Guard Duty 101 / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Don_Miller
I was just a kid—barely wet behind the ears. At two minutes before midnight, the sergeant of the guard and I marched onto the runway tarmac. Following protocol, I formally relieved the previous guard of his post.
This was mid-July at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona. For the next four hours, dressed in combat fatigues, I carried an (unloaded) M-1 rifle.
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Thursday, May 01, 2014
Putin - Accusations of Fascism are Flying High and Low / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Pointing The Finger
Tablet magazine, which describes itself 'A New Read On Jewish Life' said in its April 4 issue that Putin for obvious reasons is falsely claiming the Kiev Flash Mob government's rise to power was ..”not a popular movement for democracy, European integration, and honest government”. Tablet says Putin pretends that the Kiev Flash Mob rose to power in “a coup executed by nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes, and anti-semites”. Tablet magazine writer James Kirchick then said that Jewish leaders in Ukraine have taken out full-page advertisements in the 'New York Times', Canada's 'National Post', and Israel's 'Ha’aretz' to face down Putin’s allegations of creeping fascism in their homeland. These ads told Putin: “Your certainty of the growth of anti-semitism in the Ukraine does not correspond to the actual facts. It seems you have confused Ukraine with Russia.”
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Karl Marx Makes a Comeback — And That’s Okay / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Rubino
A perfect sign of the times is the unexpected success of a 700-page economics text called Capital in the 21st Century by French college professor Thomas Piketty. As of April 30, it is the best-selling book in the world and is generating the kind of controversy that one would expect for what is reportedly an updating of Marxist theory for the Internet age.
I haven’t read it, so can’t comment on the book itself. But the subject is a good springboard for a look at the actual tragedy of Karl Marx, which is that his ideas got tried out in the real world.
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Thursday, May 01, 2014
UK Economy Accelerating General Election Boom, Real Secret of Financial Success and Will Scotland Commit Suicide? / Politics / UK Economy
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Academic economists have once more been caught on the hop as the UK economy led by the services sector accelerates to its best year on year growth rate in 6 years of 3.1% by adding preliminary GDP of 0.8% for 2014 Q1 that annualises to an near economic boom rate of 3.2%, with the economy now looking set to have recouped all of the last Labour governments catastrophic collapse of 2008-2009 by the end of June this year.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Technology and the Future of Jobs / Politics / Employment
By: BATR
Quite a stir occurred with the academic presentation, How Technology Is Destroying Jobs, by Brynjolfsson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and his collaborator and coauthor Andrew McAfee. Both "have been arguing for the last year and a half that impressive advances in computer technology—from improved industrial robotics to automated translation services—are largely behind the sluggish employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even more ominous for workers, the MIT academics foresee dismal prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful new technologies are increasingly adopted not only in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in professions such as law, financial services, education, and medicine."
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Department Of (In)Justice Goes After Guns In Further Capital Controls / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
The US government is attempting every possible angle to ensure Americans don't have access to guns. The latest is a new twist on capital controls being instituted by the Department of (In)Justice.
The DoJ is why financial institutions are refusing services to companies as diverse as gun shops, bitcoin businesses, marijuana dispensaries and even the porn industry.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The U.S. Opts for Ineffective Sanctions on Russia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
The United States announced new sanctions on seven Russian government officials April 28. A long-used tactic, sanctions can yield unpredictable effects or have no effect at all, depending upon how they are crafted. It is commonly assumed that sanctions are applied when a target country's actions are deemed unacceptable. The sanctioning nation presumably chooses sanctions to avoid war when war would be too costly or could result in defeat.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Political Future Of Dumbing Down / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Once Was New Thing
About 10 years ago in what are called the “mature western democracies” dumbing down had just been discovered, or invented. Journalists peppered their prose with the term, educationists wondered if it was the reason school kids and college students seemed to be so flaky about learning. Political pundits lambasted politicians for being dumbed down, books appeared in the bookstores talking about it. It was a conversational thing for ordinary people, too.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Ron Paul - Obama's Drone Wars Undermine American Values / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Earlier this month, CIA-operated drones killed as many as 55 people in Yemen in several separate strikes. Although it was claimed that those killed were "militants," according to press reports at least three civilians were killed and at least five others wounded. That makes at least 92 US drone attacks against Yemen during the Obama administration, which have killed nearly 1,000 people including many civilians.
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Monday, April 28, 2014
Putin’s Ukraine Dilemma / Politics / Russia
By: Mike_Whitney
“The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs. For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as the world’s paramount power.” (p. xiii)
“Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia — and America’s global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained.” (p.30)
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Sunday, April 27, 2014
Stalin, Hitler And The 5-Year Plans Of Banksters / Politics / Banksters
By: Andrew_McKillop
The 2008-2013 Plan
Stalin's infamous five-year plans started with a “trial version” in late 1928. By “trial version” this meant his plans already included show trials of political enemies with frequent death sentences. Designed and executed for Hitler, the German banker Hjalmar Schacht's five-year plan of 1934-1938 directly applied Keynesian “remedies” for the economy and public finances. Schacht's plan was called a “groundbreaking fiscal stimulus program”, creating work by rebuilding the nation’s worn infrastructures, jettisoning the gold standard, imposing capital controls, and increasing State debt, after “diluting” the State's previous debt.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
US Government Can Kill US Citizens, But Not Strip Their Citizenship / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
While Daniel Swalm researched his family's genealogy, he learned about a particular episode in which his grandmother, born and raised in Minnesota, was stripped of her US citizenship after marrying an immigrant from Sweden.
Under the obscure 1907 law called the Expatriation Act, a US born woman who married a foreigner was required to "take the nationality of her husband."
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Sunday, April 27, 2014
Mainstream Financial Press - All The News That's Fit To Print in 2014 / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Fred_Sheehan
The most astounding rubbish is spoken every day by central bankers and other commentators who hold a monopoly on what the public at large knows. Most of the New York Times column (below) in 1929 fits today and is worth more refection than the next hundred speeches by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Wall Street Greed: Not Too Big for a California Jury / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
United States Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks are too big to prosecute. But an outraged California jury might have different ideas. As noted in the California legal newspaper The Daily Journal:
Read full article... Read full article...California juries are not bashful - they have been known to render massive punitive damages awards that dwarf the award of compensatory (actual) damages. For example, in one securities fraud case jurors awarded $5.7 million in compensatory damages and $165 million in punitive damages. . . . And in a tobacco case with $5.5 million in compensatory damages, the jury awarded $3 billion in punitive damages . . . .
Friday, April 25, 2014
Is America Preparing For The Wrong War? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, PM in name only of certain parts of what was once Ukraine, today solemnly declared that Russia wants to start World War III. I am not kidding you. He said it this way: “The world has not yet forgotten World War II, but Russia already wants to start World War III.” An estimated 28 million Russians died in World War II, which might be more than in all other nations combined, so if there’s one country that has not forgotten it, it’s Russia. Yatsenyuk’s remark needs to be seen in that light, because he knows very well how it will be received in Russia. That’s why he says it. It’s such a dark sort of provocation that one might suspect it’s meant to start a war. It’s not that different from accusing a group of Jewish people of wanting to start a holocaust.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Putin is Losing Eastern European Energy Gamble / Politics / Energy Resources
By: OilPrice_Com
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't think the European community can do without the natural gas it gets from energy monopoly Gazprom. With a Russian economy starting to decline, however, it may be Gazprom that's too strongly interconnected to the European market to break free.Read full article... Read full article...