Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Deficit, The Economic Consequences of a Political Decision / Politics / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
We are often told that the current election is the most important in recent history. I think I have heard that in about ten presidential cycles, ever since I first voted, for McGovern, as a young man. And looking back, only about one of those elections actually qualified on that score. I think this election does have the potential to be one of those rare times, at least in terms of economic outcomes. In Thoughts from the Frontline we cover economics and investments, money and finance. We only rarely stray into the political world, and then only glancingly. Today, we cross that gray line, but at a somewhat different angle, as we look at the economic consequences of the political decision that will come with the choices we make in November in the US.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Short, Miserable Life of American Prosperity / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Kozy
To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.”— Friedrich Nietzsche
History is not always progressive; there have been many instances of extensive regression. Immoral institutions can more easily become worse than better. When the Capitalists have accumulated all the wealth there is and have the means to take away any that is subsequently created, what will the mass of mankind have become? Dignified people enjoying the good life? Wherein does mankind’s fate lie?
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Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Chicago Mob Called Teachers / Politics / Education
By: Gary_North
In my previous report, "How to Break the Chicago Teachers Strike in Seven Days," I discussed the economics of the teachers union. You can read the report here.
The American Federation of Teachers is a paper tiger. The organization bases its bargaining ability on what is now a legislated restraint, namely, the shortage of teachers. There is no shortage of teachers at the wage scale that is imposed by the American Federation of Teachers on local school boards.
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
Youtube "Innocence of Muslims", "Broadcast Act of Terror" Recruiting Video for Al-Qeeda / Politics / Propaganda
By: N_Walayat
Under the guise of freedom of speech Youtube continues to broadcast a highly blasphemous video for muslims that to all intents and purposes is acting as a recruiting video for Al-Qeeda on par with the Abu Graib, and civilian Kill video own goals committed by the US Military in Iraq.
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
Why Did Ben Bernanke Cross the Road? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Paul_Tustain
A play in one (very) short act...
"Uncle Ben, what's that over there?"
"Shush, my child."
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
The Innocence of Muslims, Is "The Innocence of the Virgin Mary" Next? / Politics / Religion
By: Submissions
Elohim writes: A 15 minute video on youtube has sparked much outrage amongst muslims in predominately the arab world with attacks on embassies of many western nations including the US, UK and Germany resulting in an escalating number of deaths.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Today's Journalism / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Casey_Research
Louis: Hola Doug. What's on your mind this week?
Doug: The color yellow. As in "yellow journalism" – which seems almost the only kind we have these days. Of course, to be fair, inflammatory, shamelessly dishonest "man bites dog" journalism has always been the dominant kind, simply because it sells papers. But we'll see more than the usual amount in the next couple of months, simply because elections lend themselves to it; politics seems to stimulate the reptilian part of the brain, the most primitive part. Both politics and the reptilian brain relate well to the yellow press.
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Thursday, September 13, 2012
Israel on the Offensive In Bid To Press President Obama To Attack Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York: It feels like Iran Week in the USA.
Using an exaggerated if fictive Iranian threat to create nuclear weapons as their pretext, Israeli politicians are blatantly and publicly inserting themselves in America’s Presidential elections, demanding that President Obama do their bidding by articulating so-called “red lines” to further threaten Tehran.
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Thursday, September 13, 2012
Wisdom Renaissance: How to Embrace the Conceptual Age? Unite the Left Brain with the Right! / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Aesthetic design... Story-telling... Harmony-in-concert... Cultivation-of-empathy... Team-playing... Finding-meaning... This is where the future is being conceived right now and it no longer automatically belongs to people and organisations that have been successful in the past. Moving forwards, it belongs to different kinds of personalities with different kinds of mind-sets. Today -- amid the uncertainties of national economies that have gone from boom to bust to near flat-lining or negative GDP growth -- there's a metaphor that explains what is going on and its right inside our heads. The triumphant London Olympics and Paralympics have shown not just the population of the United Kingdom but billions around the world what can be achieved through the combination of left-brain and right-brain activity including the amplification of the grand narrative via aesthetic design, story-telling, harmony-in-concert, cultivation-of-empathy, team-playing and finding meaning and purpose in our ordinary lives rendered extraordinary by coming together as one.
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Thursday, September 13, 2012
NHS Hospitals Collapse, Doctors Playing Pass the Parcel With Patients Due to Alleged £300 Billion Fraud / Politics / NHS
By: N_Walayat
The Royal College of Physicians reports that NHS Hospitals are in a state of collapse and patients are suffering as doctors play pass the parcel with patients between wards due to lack of operational beds despite a record amount of over £130 billion extorted from tax payers annually to fund the NHS black hole.
The RCP blames the crisis on a drop in the number of beds whilst demand has risen, this despite the fact that the NHS budget has more than tripled over the past 15 years as my earlier analysis illustrated .
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Hamburgers to Exterminate Mankind / Politics / Social Issues
By: Pravda
Hunger and malnutrition may kill millions of people in 20 years. The global tragedy is likely to be caused by three interrelated factors: fluctuations of food prices, extreme weather conditions and climate instabilities. The contradiction between the growing human needs and objective limits of resource become more and more serious.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Evil of the Welfare State, Depending on Dependency / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Thomas Sowell writes: The theme that most seemed to rouse the enthusiasm of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte was that we are all responsible for one another – and that Republicans don't want to help the poor, the sick and the helpless.
All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Jackals of Jekyll Island - Federal Reserve Audit / Politics / Central Banks
By: BATR
The supreme illicit fraud of central banking embodied in the Federal Reserve, acts as a private piggybank for favored cartel thieves. The liquidity of unlimited credit transfers to banksters, especially at zero interest, financed by unimaginable new Treasury Bonds, indebting the American public; is a crime committed by outlaws. The significance of the evidence for the extent of the crony financial manipulations, that the controllers of international capital use to maintain their power strangle hold on humanity, needs to be fully exposed. Only when the beleaguered and downtrodden become sufficiently indignant to usury incarceration, will heads start to roll.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Governments Raising Taxes: 73% of Nothing is Nothing / Politics / Taxes
By: Colin_Twiggs
President Francois Hollande recently increased the top income tax rate in France to 75 percent — for incomes in excess of €1 million. This is part of a wider trend with President Obama targeting the wealthy in his election campaign, promising to raise taxes on incomes in excess of $1 million. Shifting the tax burden onto the wealthy might be clever politics, but does it make economic sense? To gauge the effectiveness of this strategy we need to study tax rates and their effect on incomes in the 1920s and 1930s.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
How Doom & Gloom Disappeared with the Protoevangelium / Politics / Religion
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
Anyone who is familiar with my writing at The Automatic Earth will know that I am no stranger to uber-doom and uber-gloom. The crises we humans face as a species are unprecedented in history, and, no, that is not an over-statement. History is full of natural disasters, slavery, bloody conflict, mindless terrorism, civil wars, international wars, genocides and the general human depravity that accounts for many hours in many days of our lives.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
EU Bites the Hand That Powers It: Gazprom Will Bite Back / Politics / Natural Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
Gazprom has Europe's natural gas market in a stranglehold and Europe is attempting to fight back, first with a raid last year on the Russian giant's offices and then with a probe launched earlier this week against its allegedly illicit efforts to control the EU's natural gas supplies.
The bottom line is that the same natural gas revolution in the US, which was enabled by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), is now threatening to loosen Gazprom's noose on the EU, and Gazprom simply won't have it.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Ron Paul - U.S. is a Republic, Not a Democracy / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week marked the conclusion of the grand taxpayer funded spectacles known as the national party conventions. It is perhaps very telling that while $18 million in tax dollars was granted to each party for these lavish ordeals, an additional $50 million each was needed for security in anticipation of the inevitable protests at each event. This amounts to a total of $136 million in taxpayer funds for strictly partisan activities - a drop in the bucket relative to our disastrous fiscal situation, but disgraceful nonetheless. Parties should fund their own parties, not the taxpayer.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Grade Inflation has Made GCSE's, Most State Education Certificates Worthless to Employers / Politics / Education
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Governments don't just like to print money and debt with inflationary consequences but virtually every aspect of government action via the bloated socialist public sector is to inflate towards infinity that ultimately diminishes value towards zero be it pieces of paper called currency or pieces of paper called GCSE certificates.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Obama’s Post-Bubble Job-Surge Still on Track: But Will it Get Teachers Back to Work? / Politics / Employment
By: Andrew_Butter
The idea is that an economy can be over-stimulated by what Mises called mal-investment, and investment and the bounce in spending, whether that was stupid or not, creates jobs…until the bubble pops. Then you have to grind through what Mises called…the slow process of recovery.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
War and Bluff: Iran, Israel and the United States / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
For the past several months, the Israelis have been threatening to attack Iranian nuclear sites as the United States has pursued a complex policy of avoiding complete opposition to such strikes while making clear it doesn't feel such strikes are necessary. At the same time, the United States has carried out maneuvers meant to demonstrate its ability to prevent the Iranian counter to an attack -- namely blocking the Strait of Hormuz. While these maneuvers were under way, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said no "redline" exists that once crossed by Iran would compel an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. The Israeli government has long contended that Tehran eventually will reach the point where it will be too costly for outsiders to stop the Iranian nuclear program.