Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Fiscal Cliff Deal and the U.S. Economy Swan Dive of 2013 / Politics / US Economy
By: BATR
Hold your breath, the race to the bottom is ready to escalate. The consequence of the corporate consumerism economy has reached the tipping point. The old rules that mainstream spending will dig the way back to prosperity are permanently dead. The one sure implication that is indisputable is that taxes are set to rise at unprecedented levels. With Obamacare revenue obligations coming into effect, the latest phase of centralized medical socialism spreads like a virus. Under such circumstances, how can the patient regain their health?
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Gerard Depardieu Escapes Envy-driven, Socialist French 75% Tax / Politics / Taxes
By: LewRockwell
When Socialist President Francois Hollande took office, he swiftly made good on his pledge to raise the top tax rate on Frenchmen who earn a million euros a year – to 75 percent.
The regime would now confiscate three of four dollars that the most successful Frenchmen earned. Paris also imposes a wealth tax on assets worth more than $1.7 million.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Limits to Economic Growth, Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Quote Of The Year. And The Next. I came upon this quote a few weeks ago in an interview that Der Spiegel had with Dennis Meadows, co-author of the Limits to Growth report published by the Club of Rome 40 years ago. Yes, the report that has been much maligned and later largely rehabilitated. But that's not my topic here, and neither is Meadows himself. It's the quote, and it pretty much hasn’t left me alone since I read it.
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Politicians - Egocentricism vs Social Conscience / Politics / Social Issues
By: Brian_Bloom
Most politicians will tell you the reason they entered politics was that they saw an opportunity to make a difference in the way their constituency was being run. The evidence suggests otherwise. In short, the evidence suggests that politicians are, by and large, egocentric, megalomaniacal and some may even be categorized as psychopaths (in the medical sense as opposed to the horror movie sense – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDIT55KeKc ).
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Tuesday, January 01, 2013
The Global Warming Circus, Not It's Called Global Weirding / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
ITS THE CLIMATE, STUPID
The art, not science of global warming has turned and twisted a lot since its early-2000's heydays during which the most outrageous charlatanism could bring big conference and meeting cash payoffs for stars of Climate Doom, such as Al Gore, James Lovelock, James Hansen and a gaggle of small-time hopefuls playing the same music, such as 'Whole Earth Catalog' inventor Stewart Brand. Oh yes, this was an epochal challenge for Humanity and we have to spend. Buy my latest book!
Monday, December 31, 2012
New Years ResolutionTo Restore the West / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ron_Holland
By any political, cultural or economic measure the nations of the West are in total decline. The historic virtues of hard work, free-market thinking and a common cultural integrity as well as religious and historical principles are gone. They have been subverted and replaced by an emphasis on rampant materialism and a consumer driven society that exceeds 70 percent of GNP in addition to private and public debt. Furthermore, a kind of parasitism has laid claim to Western culture by which sports stars, politicians, media darlings and financial scam artists get recognition and exorbitant incomes while real workers find their incomes falling and promised benefits curtailed.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Ron Paul's New Year's Resolutions for Congress / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
to consider. For the sake of liberty, peace, and prosperity I certainly hope more members of Congress consider the strict libertarian constitutional approach to government in 2013.
In just a few days, Congress will solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. They should reread Article 1 Section 8 and the Bill of Rights before taking such a serious oath. Most legislation violates key provisions of the Constitution in very basic ways, and if members can't bring themselves to say no in the face of pressure from special interests, they have broken trust with their constituents and violated their oaths. Congress does not exist to serve special interests, it exists to protect the rule of law.
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Another Genius Mortgage Idea From Washington That Is Going to Cost You / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
Now here's another good idea from the geniuses that ruin, I mean run, our country.
The Obamarama administration really wants to help homeowners whose homes aren't worth what they borrowed to buy them. In other words, they are "underwater."
A lot of the loans to homeowners that are underwater are owned outright or, at a minimum, insured (more often both) by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored (which means taxpayer saddled) enterprises that the government had to take over when in 2008 they lost on their trillion-dollar bets that home prices would go up forever. Geniuses!
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Preppers, Patriots and Pirates / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Now that the prospects of a second Obama administration are hitting home, the pace of a rapid deterioration are confronting all thinking Americans. The radical transformation that is centrally planned for the economy and authoritarianism administrated by the statists that are part of the most tyrannical regime in memory, is taking place before our eyes. Falling off the cliff is more like descending into the abyss of martial law contrived to eliminate the last remnants of independent citizens. Advocating for civil liberties is treated as a criminal act and the gun culture is looked upon as the preview of a terrorist cell.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
No More Left-Right Politics / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
TRASH POLITICS - THE DEFAULT CHOICE
The morph of old-style politics in almost all Western countries brings daily proof of how far the rot has gone. The end result is NAP-No Alternative Politics, an amorphous New Left-New Right mess hiding the basic refusal to govern: for this, voters and taxpayers are supposed to be thankful.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Empires of Illusion and the Credibility Trap / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
I came across a nice, compact interview with Chris Hedges which illuminates his thesis of the decline of the American Empire and the illusory thinking that accompanies it. Can the shock and meltdown of Karl Rove on election night be any better contemporary illustration of the power of selective thinking to delude a group of seemingly rational people to their own downfall?
Sunday, December 30, 2012
At Years End: Look Back At The News of 2012 / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York: The TV Networks are hard at work in this last week of the year recapping their best footage to remind us where we’ve been. Researchers are combing the archives to find the best images for their annual greatest hits “package” which usually ends with a photo-montage driven by music of the politicians, entertainers and personalities who died in 2012.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
2013: Why Does Advanced Science Suggest Peaceful Co-Existence In A Multi-Polar World? / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc^2 shows us that everything is made up of energy. Science demonstrates that energy is the building block of all matter. Energy exchanges take place within, without and at the interface of everything at all times in a most complex dynamic. Everything in this universe is ultimately made up of that same energy flow. It is just present in different forms and different shapes and keeps on transforming and recycling perpetually. The energy that composes our bodies is indeed the same one that composes the building materials of our homes and the animals and the trees found outside. It is all just the same and ever exchanging!
Friday, December 28, 2012
I love guns. God bless America / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
I want Americans to be armed to the teeth. In addition to practical and constitutional reasons for wanting an armed citizenry, I admit to having an emotional attachment to America’s gun culture. I’ll just come out and I say it: I love guns.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Fiscal Cliff Chicken / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
Talk show hosts and other bloviators have spent hours giving their versions of the fiscal cliff. In fewer than 750 words, I’ll explain the truth. Taxes and the deficit are intertwined. If Congress can’t come up with a plan to solve those problems, the U.S. will jump into the abyss of a deeper recession than existed under the latter years of the Bush–Cheney administration.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Why TIPS Won't Protect You from Inflation...and Other Government Lies / Politics / Inflation
By: Casey_Research
If the "World Snake Oil Salesperson Society" had a hall of fame, good old Uncle Sam would be a charter member. When it comes to smooth-talking folks into buying debt instruments, he's the slickest around.
And Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) are one of his slickest gimmicks.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Japan's Patriotic War Agenda / Politics / Japan Economy
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE SICKLY GIANT
Japan has the the world's third-biggest economy and was only recently pushed into this third place by China - but it remains world No 1, and by far, as measured by its sovereign debt-to-GNP ratio. Its new Liberal Democratic Party-LDP government, no different from LDP governments which have almost exclusively ruled since 1955, is setting out with a proud (in fact desperate) task: to end deflation by pushing down the world value of the JPY (yen) to a theoretical point where "inflation of 2% or 3% a year" will be possible.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Superstitious Russians spent 30 billion on Preparing for Apocalypse / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
The Russians, who shared the horror of impending apocalypse with the rest of the world, spent 30 billion rubles on the eve of December 21st. The calculations were made by FBK analysts, who examined the data on the structure of trade turnover and services purchased in December. The end of the world did not come, but many people have to deal with its consequences now - the shortage of money.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monetary Malpractice: Deceptions, Distortions & Delusions / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gordon_T_Long
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath taken by physicians swearing to practice medicine ethically, honestly and above all, to do no harm to the patient. Unelected central bankers do not take such an oath. They do however swear allegiance to the Constitution.
On February 6, 2006, Ben Bernanke took an oath to the Constitution at his swearing-in ceremony as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The significance of this is that as a federal officer, despite being the front man for a privately owned, quasi government bank, he can be prosecuted for any violations of the Constitution that he swore to uphold.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Doug Casey on the Morality of Money / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Casey_Research
Editor's note: Doug Casey is known around the world for many very good reasons. Among investors, he's well known for being a very successful speculator and author. More broadly, his unwavering support of human liberty and his criticism of institutions based on coercion as well as those who support them have made Doug a hero to many... and perhaps public enemy number one to some of those whom he criticizes.
Whether one agrees with him or not, Doug almost always has a singular take on issues and ideas, making his essays and talks highly stimulating. As we approach the end of the year – a time when people often reflect on their progress or lack thereof over the past year across all areas of life – this February 2011 interview of Doug Casey by Louis James on the morality of money seems especially trenchant. We hope it helps you reflect on your relationship with money and investing, and brings a renewed sense of clarity and purpose to your financial activities in 2013.
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