Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
What an 81% Increase in Food Stamp Use Really Means for the U.S. Economy / Politics / US Economy
By: DailyGainsLetter
Mohammad Zulfiqar writes: Each day, there’s growing evidence that suggests the American economy isn’t experiencing any economic growth. Unequal job creation is just one of the main topics discussed in the mainstream, but sadly, there are many other facts and figures that show a gruesome image of the U.S. economy as well.
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Thursday, October 24, 2013
Mexico's Zetas Are Not Finished Yet / Politics / Mexico
By: STRATFOR
Scott Stewart and Tristan Reed write: During the question-and-answer portion of our quarterly Mexico Security Monitor webinar, we were asked a question pertaining to the current status of Los Zetas. The question was something to the effect of: "Some Mexican media outlets and analysts claim that Los Zetas have been dismantled as an organization and are now little more than a 'ragtag operation.' Why do you disagree with that assessment?"
This question apparently came in response to our quarterly cartel report (an abbreviated version is available here), in which we wrote that despite the leadership losses suffered by Los Zetas, including the arrest of their leader, Miguel "Z-40" Trevino Morales, there were no signs that other leaders were challenging the current leader and Miguel's brother, Omar Trevino Morales. We also wrote that we believed Los Zetas have maintained their operational capabilities in terms of drug smuggling and other criminal activity, and that they have retained the ability to defend their operations and to continue conducting offensive operations deep in their rivals' territory.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Greenspan - No Apologies, I'm Not Superman! / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Bloomberg
In an interview with Bloomberg Television's Sara Eisen, Alan Greenspan defends his actions on monetary policy, offering no apologies for missing economic forecasts.
Greenspan said: "I am in the business where, Harry Truman once said, 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen'... I apologize for something I did wrong, and I do apologize. I don't apologize...I was doing the best I can. The arguments, some of which are quite accurate is I missed certain forecasts, you don't apologize for that. Do you? I don't. We are not omniscient. I am a human being. I cannot see beyond the horizon any more than anyone else can. Now to apologize for not being Superman, I just refuse to do that because that never entered my mind."
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Europe's Very Distressed Energy Transition / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
DISTRESSED ASSETS
Excepting Europe's stalled and shrunken, and totally uneconomic biofuels programme, and its more successful energy saving, the continent's energy transition is almost entirely focused on the power sector, aiming to “back out” fossil fuels for power generation by nearly-100% within 35 years.
Not so long ago, in 2008, Europe's top-20 market traded electric power companies bundled into European utility indices like Stoxx Europe 600 Utilities, the Bloomberg European Utilities Index and the MSCI European Utilities Index had a combined market value of more than 1000 billion euros.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Transfers Excluded, JP Morgan Chase is Wired / Politics / Banksters
By: BATR
The rumblings of capital and currency controls are causing a stir among perceptive financial observers. You do not have to be a business-banking customer to fear the consequences of restricting the transfer of money. Both domestic and international wires are no longer available to be sent from a business savings account, may seem unimportant to the average Chase customer. Many do not have enough money on deposit to pay the wire fee. However, the kicker is that you can still receive wire transfers.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
ObamaCare: What If It Were Fire Insurance? / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
What if ObamaCare were fire insurance? It would be very special. You could buy a policy after a smoke detector in your home started blaring.
When you hear “pre-existing condition,” think “blaring smoke detector.”
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Fed Flying Blind - Fixing the Economy as Easy as 1-2-3 / Politics / US Interest Rates
By: Axel_Merk
With the economy stuck in first gear, a couple of common sense steps that wouldn't cost taxpayers an arm and a leg could help the economy shift into a higher gear.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
U.S. Foreign Policy from the Founders' Perspective / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
Last week I discussed how the Founding Fathers might view the American debt crisis and the government shutdown. This week I thought it would be useful to consider how the founders might view foreign policy. I argued that on domestic policy they had clear principles, but unlike their ideology, those principles were never mechanistic or inflexible. For them, principles dictated that a gentleman pays his debts and does not casually increase his debts, the constitutional provision that debt is sometimes necessary notwithstanding. They feared excessive debt and abhorred nonpayment, but their principles were never completely rigid.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Selfish Gene, Social Darwinism, and Human Cooperation / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Toby Baxendale writes: It took me until my 43rd year to read The Selfish Gene, written in 1976 by Richard Dawkins. In many respects, it is a testament to its success that I felt no compelling desire to read it. What I perceived to be its central message had been absorbed into the very fabric of our culture. I thought the message was simply put. To summarize: we are driven to survive by our genes and via competitive and selfish natural selection; we follow our own self-interest in order to survive and procreate; genes that adapt more quickly and better to the competitive world survive at the expense of the others, and so forth. The state of nature is a Hobbesian nightmare of there being “no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” It is survival of the fittest for most, but armed with this knowledge, we could overcome some of these rough edges of life.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Peter Schiff Warns Collapse Of The U.S. Dollar Is Unavoidable / Politics / US Dollar
By: GoldSilver
In a Q&A with GoldSilverWorlds, Peter Schiff, CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, explained why the mother of all collapses is still in front of us and shared his top tips on how to protect financially.
Peter Schiff has an outspoken libertarian view on the world and economics. It is no coincidence he will be one of the keynote speakers at the first Liberty Forum Conference 2013 on December 4 to 8. His libertarian view was mainly influenced by his father, more so than any of the books he has read. From a young age, he discussed with his father topics related to government, economics, the Constitution, and history of the US. His personal view and the free market oriented perspective were a perfect fit even if these ideas were in contrast with the majority of economic experts and governments. According to Schiff “many people just buy the establishment; they accept a lot of nonsense.”
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Monday, October 21, 2013
U.S. Debt De-Crowning the Dollar / Politics / US Debt
By: Michael_Pento
The gradual erosion of the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency has been greatly hastened of late. This is due not only to the perpetual gridlock in D.C., but also our government’s inability to articulate a strategy to deal with the $126 trillion of unfunded liabilities.
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Monday, October 21, 2013
Zero Population Growth – A Forgotten Fear / Politics / Demographics
By: Andrew_McKillop
EXIT THE HYSTERICS
Government-friendly environment and development aid NGOs avoid this one like the plague: they never say the world is massively overpopulated and left that role for a few privileged hard line speakers - like Obama's chief science adviser John P. Holdren, guru ecologist Paul Ehrlich, the Club of Rome and its WorldShift Network, and a few others. Occasionally, reputed organizations like Britain's Royal Society joined in with arguments for ZPG, calling for a “radical rebalancing" of global consumption, to go hand-in-hand with linked and stronger attempts to curb the rapid rise of global population.
Monday, October 21, 2013
What the U.S. Debt Ceiling Deal Did Not Fix / Politics / US Debt
By: Money_Morning
Garrett Baldwin writes: While everyone in Washington right now is patting themselves on the back in the wake of Wednesday's debt ceiling deal, the reality is that it does little to address the nation's deepest budget issues.
True, the Band-Aid agreement will fund the U.S. government through Jan. 15 and lift the debt limit through Feb. 7.
But all it means is that Congress has just 90 days to take meaningful action on the problems that led to the government shutdown and debt ceiling fight in the first place.
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Monday, October 21, 2013
The First Thing Yellen Should Do to Save America / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: How do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume? It isn't easy, but I'll try...
- Lulu, To Sir, With Love (1967)
There is so much to say about the United States government not defaulting.
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Monday, October 21, 2013
U.S. Debt Ceiling Deal: DC Wins, Americans Lose / Politics / US Debt
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Washington, DC, Wall Street, and central bankers around the world rejoiced this week as Congress came to an agreement to end the government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling. The latest spending-and-debt deal was negotiated by Congressional leaders behind closed doors, and was rushed through Congress before most members had time to read it. Now that the bill is passed, we can see that it is a victory for the political class and special interests, but a defeat for the American people.
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Monday, October 21, 2013
Exorbitant Privilege, Deficit and Debt Damaging the US Brand / Politics / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
There is no doubt that the image – what I will refer to in this letter as the "brand" – of the United States has been damaged in the past month. But what are the actual costs? And what does it matter to the average citizen? Can the US recover its tarnished image and go on about business as usual? Is the recent dysfunction in Washington DC now behind us, or is it destined to become part of a bleaker landscape? In this week's letter we try to answer those questions and more, as I step firmly into politically incorrect territory and offer a little advice to my junior senator from Texas. If nothing else, we will look at the problems we face in a different light.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
US Happily Digs its Own and Dollar's Grave / Politics / US Debt
By: Pravda
Yet another budget crisis in the U.S. has made many people around the world, even those, who consider themselves indifferent to the vicissitudes of political controversy and global economic problems, wonder what is going to happen to the American dollar.
The shutdown in the US - the controlled suspension of most public institutions due to the inability of the federal authorities to finance them - raised concerns not only with financial, economic elites and politicians all over the world, but with mere mortals as well. In Russia, many started talking about the looming collapse of the US financial system, the collapse of the dollar and the collapse of the entire global financial system. Some even said that the United States may switch to the new currency - amero - to get rid of the incredible national debt, which has exceeded the level of 17 trillion dollars.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Saudi Arabia's Threats To Its Own Survival / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
PRINCELY SULKING
Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of the family enterprise called the Wahabite Kingdom did not make his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly, this year. The Kingdom wanted to score a diplomatic snub against the UN Security Council's five permanent members.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Federal Reserve Mounting Policy Failures / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Casey_Research
By Lacy H. Hunt, Ph.D., Economist
The Fed's capabilities to engineer changes in economic growth and inflation are asymmetric. It has been historically documented that central bank tools are well suited to fight excess demand and rampant inflation; the Fed showed great resolve in containing the fast price increases in the aftermath of World Wars I and II and the Korean War. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, rampant inflation was again brought under control by a determined and persistent Federal Reserve.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Winter In America Gets Colder : Why We Choose Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Broadly speaking, if we look at what has happened to the world's rich economies from 1945 to today, we can say that in the first 30 years, 1945-1975, real wealth - as expressed in standard of living - across the board, for the vast majority of people, increased.
Over the next 30 years, 1975-2005, the standard of living still seemed to rise, but if we look behind the numbers and between the lines, we see that much of the wealth increase over that period is illusional, because it was increasingly based on credit, i.e. it was borrowed from the future, while at the same time, the costs of "really big ticket" items such as education and health care were moved away from governments and towards citizens, where they began an unstoppable ascent (and we paid for them with credit).
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