Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
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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Friday, October 18, 2013
The Government Is Broke and They’re Coming For Your Cash - Video / Politics / US Debt
By: Chris_Kitze
The Government is agreeing on the debt ceiling. This does not fix the problem its a temporary fix. The Government is pushing the banks outside of the country to report the money in foreign accounts. Chase is no longer allowing wire transfers out of the country. The housing market is still declining and mortgage companies are laying off thousands of people. The next event will bring the world to its knees.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Temporary U.S. Government Shutdown is Over, But Permanent Closure Would Not be So Bad / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
By Doug Casey, Chairman
(Interviewed by Louis James, Casey Research)
The government shutdown is over, and many Americans are breathing a sigh of relief. But there's no reason to take a shutdown seriously in the first place, said famous resource speculator and libertarian freethinker Doug Casey in a recent interview—it was just a paid holiday for useless public employees anyway…
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
What is a Dictator? / Politics / Social Issues
By: STRATFOR
Robert D. Kaplan writes: What is a dictator, or an authoritarian? I'll bet you think you know. But perhaps you don't. Sure, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong were dictators. So were Saddam Hussein and both Hafez and Bashar al Assad. But in many cases the situation is not that simple and stark. In many cases the reality -- and the morality -- of the situation is far more complex.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Obamacare's Creeping Terror on the Middle Class / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Garrett Baldwin writes: Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle delivered a stunning message that discourages and demotivates American workers from earning more income and promotes greater government dependency.
It's all thanks to sloppy incentives created by the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The Chronicle reported that Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said last week that workers in California should consider reducing their 2014 income and work hours in order to qualify for Obamacare subsidies.
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
U.S. Debt Ponzi Scheme Ceiling Crisis Deal - Smoke and Mirrors for America's Debt Slaves / Politics / US Debt
By: Nadeem_Walayat
U.S. politicians of the Donkey and Elephant parties during the past few weeks have been busy pounding their chests on the propaganda air-waves to give the illusion of much self worth and power in the faces of the american people when the reality was assured long before the current round of debt crisis play acting ever began in the mainstream media that the debt ceiling WOULD be raised as it ALWAYS has been (about 100 times since it was introduced in 1939)! Meanwhile the mainstream press will continue to pump the story at length on how close the U.S. came towards a debt default and continue to do so in the run up to when the U.S. is next due to hit its revised debt ceiling by early Feb 2014.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Who Controls Libyan Oil? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
LIBYA'S BEEFEATER LEAGUE DEFENDS THE OIL
In August, Reuters reported from Tripoli: “Libya will use all means, including military force if necessary, to prevent striking security guards at the country’s main ports from selling its crude oil independently, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said”. Zeidan called the security guards a critical challenge to the government, because strikes at Libya’s two largest ports have pushed production and exports to their lowest levels since the civil war that ousted 42-year veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Janet Yellen to the Rescue? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Axel_Merk
While Democrats and Republicans fight with water pistols, the President may be readying a bazooka by nominating Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as Fed Chair. You may want to hold on to your wallet; let me explain.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Brazil To Block The NSA Spying / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Jeff_Berwick
General Keith Alexander has admitted that Edward J. Snowden's revelations have caused “significant and irreversible damage” to the US's national security, and that national governments and terrorist organizations now know how to get around US spying.
He seems to underestimate the real damage: The NSA revelations are but another smear against brand USA in the global psyche, having done potentially as much damage as the Middle East wars started under President George W. Bush.
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny / Politics / US Politics
By: David_DeGraw
“All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary.” – Strobe Talbott
How much longer are we going to protest and post online reports, rants, videos and launch campaigns that will hopefully raise awareness on issue after issue, problem after problem, as the situation gets worse? How much longer are we going to just keep crying about the need for change and pleading with puppet politicians in hopes that they will care about anything other than what their top campaign contributors think? At what point are we going to start acting like free and responsible citizens and stop acting like disgruntled servants waiting for our masters to save us and do the right thing?
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013
IMF Proposal to Tax Bank Deposits / Politics / Banksters
By: BATR
A report by Agence France-Presse, the International Monetary Fund strongly suggests countries tax the rich to fix deficit, is a caveat for a bigger risk. "The IMF has set off shockwaves this week in Washington by suggesting countries fight budget deficits by raising taxes. In its Fiscal Monitor report, subtitled "Taxing Times", the Fund advanced the idea of taxing the highest-income people and their assets to reinforce the legitimacy of spending cuts and fight against growing income inequalities."
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Life-Extending Biotechnologies - Creating and Solving Our Economic Problems / Politics / BioTech
By: John_Mauldin
You know I've always been a dreamer (spent my life running 'round) And it's so hard to change (Can't seem to settle down) But the dreams I've seen lately Keep on turning out and burning out And turning out the same So put me on a highway And show me a sign And take it to the limit one more time -The Eagles, 1975
Straightforward solutions to complex problems: they're nice in theory, but they're rare. Think of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, for instance. It tries to address the complex problems of expanding access to healthcare while simultaneously controlling its skyrocketing costs. But, sadly, there is no simple solution, and certainly not one that is not contentious in the extreme.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Columbus Day - How Banking Invaded America / Politics / Banksters
By: Adrian_Ash
Miguel Perez-Santalla writes: Think the banking crisis can't be repeated...?
Columbus Day is typically a happy and joyous celebration for Americans wherever they are, not just in the United States, but on all continents.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Robert Shiller’s Egalitarian, Regulated, and Subsidized “Good Society” / Politics / Economic Theory
By: David_Howden
What defines a “good society” and how can we use finance to achieve it? Robert Shiller takes the former question as settled, and dedicates his 2012 book Finance and the Good Society to the latter: what is wrong with modern finance, and how should it be restructured to reach this ideal?
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Ron Paul Warns the State’s Education Monopoly Increases Prices and Destroys Choice / Politics / Education
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The free-market principle of open entry is challenged by governmental restrictions on access to consumer markets. There are many official justifications for these restrictions, but the main one is this: “Customers do not know what is good for them.” They do not know what products to buy, what prices to pay, or what arrangements to negotiate with respect to return and replacement. Customers are in fact woefully ignorant of what they really need, so the state enters the marketplace to restrict what customers are legally allowed to purchase. The idea here is that state officials know what customers really need as distinguished from what customers are willing to pay for.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The U.S. Debt Crisis from the Founders' Perspective / Politics / US Debt
By: STRATFOR
The U.S. government is paralyzed, and we now face the possibility that the United States will default on its debt. Congress is unable to resolve the issue, and President Obama is as obstinate as the legislators who oppose him. To some extent, our political system is functioning as intended -- the Founding Fathers meant for it to be cumbersome. But as they set out to form a more perfect union, they probably did not anticipate the extent to which we have been able to cripple ourselves.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
U.S. Government Shutdown Synopsis And Which Payment Are Due When / Politics / US Politics
By: Sahil_Hafeez
Shutdown synopsis - Here's a summary of where things stand:
October 1 - Day 1 of the administration shuts down. The news shows veterans who can't visit the WWII Memorial, and cancer patients who can't advantage treatment trials at the National Institute of Health.
October 2 - House Republicans send a bill to the Senate that finances national parks, and veterans' programs.
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Monday, October 14, 2013
Central Planning, Lying Career Politicians, and the US Ponzi Debt Scheme / Politics / US Debt
By: Graham_Summers
The political class in Washington has failed to reach a deal. They are effectively playing a game of chicken with the markets to see who blinks first. As usual, there are plenty of lies and spin swirling around this situation.
The US Treasury has stated it will run out of cash on October 17.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Ron Paul and the Price of Freedom / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
The Gold Report: Doug, we are at your conference in Tucson, Arizona, the day after former Congressman and presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul gave the keynote speech to a sold-out crowd. How did you two first meet?
Doug Casey: It was about 30 years ago. Ron used to attend my Eris Society—named after the Greek goddess of discord—meetings in Aspen, Colorado. Everyone from Sonny Barger of the Hells Angels motorcycle club to Burt Rutan, inventor of SpaceShipOne, would meet to discuss ideas.
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