Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Trump's futile quest for a renminbi Plaza Accord / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recent US media reports claim China may depreciate its renminbi to cope with shrinking exports. Yet, economic realities are precisely the reverse. Worse, trade wars are about to hit American consumers. Recently, the White House lifted tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods, while targeting another $300 billion worth of Chinese imports for potential punitive tariffs.
As was to be expected, the renminbi depreciated from 6.7 to more than 6.9 against the US dollar, mainly on renewed trade tensions.
China retaliated by imposing duties on $60 billion of US goods, starting June 1. China could have retaliated hard, but opted for a mild response that highlights the importance of talks.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
The Coming Pension Crisis Is So Big That It’s a Problem for Everyone / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
A decade ago I pointed out that public pension funds were $2 trillion underfunded and getting worse. More than one person told me that couldn’t be right.
They were correct: It was actually much worse. It has gotten to $2 trillion and much worse in just a few years.
Note that we are talking here about a specific kind of pension: defined benefit plans. They are usually sponsored by state and local governments, labor unions, and a number of private businesses.
Many sponsors haven’t set aside the assets needed to pay the benefits they’ve promised to current and future retirees. They can delay the inevitable for a long time but not forever. And “forever” is just around the corner.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
The Deep State vs Donald Trump - US vs Them Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part I of this article I discussed why the “Us versus Them” mindset permeates society and how Trump has become a lightning rod for hate. Now I will assess his progress in fighting the Deep State and try to peer into a murky future.
In addition to not being Hillary, the main reasons I voted for Trump was he promised to build the wall, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, he promised to end our foreign military interventions, he said he would bring fiscal sanity to the budget, he said the Federal Reserve had blown an immense stock market bubble, he questioned the fake economic data spouted by government drones, and he called out the fake news bullshit media. When I regularly assess his progress on these issues, the standard response from Trump acolytes is “Would you rather have Hillary?”. No, I would not. But that doesn’t get Trump off the hook for his failures in my book.
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Monday, May 20, 2019
WAR - Us versus Them Narrative / Politics / US Military
By: James_Quinn
“I’ll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. “I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.” “I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.” “Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding out both puppets!”” – Bill Hicks
Anyone who frequents Twitter, Facebook, political blogs, economic blogs, or fakes news mainstream media channels knows our world is driven by the “Us versus Them” narrative. It’s almost as if “they” are forcing us to choose sides and believe the other side is evil. Bill Hicks died in 1994, but his above quote is truer today then it was then. As the American Empire continues its long-term decline, the proles are manipulated through Bernaysian propaganda techniques, honed over the course of decades by the ruling oligarchs, to root for their assigned puppets.
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Monday, May 20, 2019
US - Iran War Safe-haven Reasons to Own Gold / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Richard_Mills
“It’s the tail that wags the dog” is defined by Urban Dictionary as a way of persuading a large group of people. The phrase is usually employed in a situation wherein a cause that expects to elicit a certain effect, is in fact reversed.
The 1997 film ‘Wag the Dog’ is about a powerful political strategist who tries to get a fictional president on board with a PR campaign involving the US invasion of Albania, a tiny country in eastern Europe, in order to divert attention from a scandal at home just two weeks before an election.
Of course, you don’t need to watch a movie to know this. There are plenty of real-life examples of presidents who used foreign invasions, coups, wars, etc. to demonstrate strong leadership and thereby shore up faltering popularity at home.
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Sunday, May 19, 2019
Tory Leadership Contest - Will Michael Gove Stab Boris Johnson in the Back Again? / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The days of Britian's worst Prime Minister in history, Theresa Mays are numbered, so there is going to be another Tory leadership contest near 3 years on from the last when David Cameron quit after losing the EU Referendum, and Boris Johnson has been quick off the mark to throw his hat into the ring. Though I hope he has learned his lesson NOT to trust fellow tories such as the likes of Michael Gove who like a character out of Game of Thrones (Little Finger) stabbed Boris in the back on the day he was supposed to announce his candidature with Gove at the helm of his campaign, instead Gove announced a few hours earlier that he, himself would be standing for Tory leader!
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Monday, May 13, 2019
Why Rising Living Standard in China Offers Global Hope / Politics / China Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
China’s 70-Year Anniversary As living standard rises in China, its global contribution continues to increase. And that means potential for growth, poverty reduction and prosperity in emerging and developing world - new hope.
When Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949, the Chinese people could finally begin to leave behind a century of colonial humiliation and start building a new life.
What remains so poorly understood is how dire were the conditions on that extraordinary day, seven decades ago. While China had sustained its triumph, Chinese living standard was barely 5 percent relative to the United States.
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Sunday, May 12, 2019
US Will Increase Pressure on Hong Kong In An Attempt to Cripple China's Growing Tech Influence / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Alasdair_Macleod
Behind the Huawei story, we must not forget there is a wider financial war being waged by America against China and Russia. Stories about China’s banks being short of dollars are incorrect: the shortage is of inward capital flows to support the US Government’s budget deficit. By attracting those global portfolio flows instead, China’s Belt and Road Initiative threatens US Government finances, so the financial war and associated disinformation can be expected to escalate. Hong Kong is likely to be in the firing line, due to its role in providing China with access to international finance.
Hong Kong in Trouble?
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published an article claiming China’s banks are running out of dollars. Clearly, this is untrue. China’s banks can acquire dollars any time they want, either by selling other foreign currencies in the market, or by selling renminbi to the People’s bank. They have their dollar position because they choose to have it, and furthermore all commercial banks use derivatives, which are effectively off-balance sheet exposure. Furthermore, with the US running a substantial trade deficit with China, dollars are flooding in all the time.
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Saturday, May 11, 2019
Who Has More To Lose In A No Deal Brexit? / Politics / BrExit
By: Submissions
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Thursday, May 09, 2019
The Global Consequences of U.S. Executive Power / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
(Or How Carl Schmitt Took Over the 21st Century White House) Since the Nixon era, the lure of executive power has increased in the White House. After decades of global integration, misguided policy decisions, legitimized in the name of ‘national security,’ can derail economic prospects in America and worldwide. The doctrines share a dark history.
The first administration to make explicit reference to the "Unitary Executive" was the Reagan administration. Typically, the practice has evolved since the 1970s, when President Nixon decoupled U.S. dollar from the Bretton Woods gold standard and trade deficits began to rise.
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Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Mueller Never Wanted The Truth / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Zero Hedge ran an article about omissions from the Mueller report and/or investigation. It’s instructive, but there is more. First, some bits from that article:
Major Mueller Report Omissions Suggest Incompetence Or A Coverup
Read full article... Read full article...Robert Mueller’s 448-page “Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” contains at least two major omissions which suggest that the special counsel and his entire team of world-class Democrat attorneys are either utterly incompetent, or purposefully concealing major crimes committed against the Trump campaign and the American people.
First, according to The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland (a former law clerk of nearly 25 years and instructor at the college of business at the University of Notre Dame) – the Mueller report fails to consider whether the dossier authored by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele was Russian disinformation, and Steele was not charged with lying to the FBI.
“The Steele dossier, which consisted of a series of memorandum authored by the former MI6 spy, detailed intel purportedly provided by a variety of Vladimir Putin-connected sources. For instance, Steele identified Source A as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” who “confided that the Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Will Katie Hopkins Stand for BrExit Party in Elections After Helping Destroy UKIP? / Politics / UK Politics
By: N_Walayat
Katie Hopkins darling of the far right latest tweets are alluding to her preparing to make the leap from UKIP to the Brexit Party. After all UKIP effectively died in the local elections, so a case of mission accomplished for the Trojan Horse that are Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson, who successfully turned what should have been a UKIP local elections victory in the wake of Westminster Brexit chaos into an even worse performance than that of the Tories, by losing more than 80% of their councilors to end the night down 145 councilors with just 31 left. A TOTAL DISASTER!
Which should not come as much surprise to those who follow my analysis as I forewarned what to expect in electoral terms of the impact of Trojan Horse right win fanatics for the fundamental fact is that elections are won at the margins and not by preaching extreme messages to die hard supporters as they would have voted for UKIP regardless.
29 Mar 2019 - UK INDEPENDENCE DAY CANCELLED! As Westminster SUBVERTS BREXIT!
Brexit Master Nigel Farage understands this which is why he will storm the European elections by winning at least 25 seats! Literally going from nothing to 25+ seats all within a couple of months of the launch of his Brexit Party! A true electoral genius, who unlike the idiot in charge of UKIP understands that the likes of Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson are toxic to political parties.
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Monday, May 06, 2019
Earth vs. The Human Amoeba / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
A few days ago, I received a video of an April 22 (Earth Day) lecture by my longtime friend Nate Hagens. Nate and I both owe a lot concerning our view and understanding of the world to Jay Hanson, who tragically died about a month ago on a diving trip in Indonesia. Many people have written and thought about issues of energy, or economics, or ecology; Jay brought it all together and, crucially, added the human brain and genetic properties to the mix.
Teaching at the University of Minnesota, Nate has greatly expanded on this big picture, and produces -among other things- a lot of video material for his students. Lucky them: a view with so much breadth and depth at the same time is exceedingly rare. What most people don’t get is that you can say: we can do so-and-so, but it’s mostly just in theory. In practice, our brains make us react much different from the theory. Because it’s not our “rational brain” that drives us, it’s our amoeba brain.
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Monday, May 06, 2019
America’s Iran Plans Suffer from a Double-Bind / Politics / Iran
By: Dan_Steinbock
The Triangle Drama of the United States, Iran, and China
Starting in May, the White House hopes to extinguish Iran’s oil exports. However, any destabilization may prove counter-productive and cause long-term damage to the United States, the region and global prospects.
For three years, the nuclear accord (JCPOA) offered Iran relief from the multilateral sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors.
The shift in the U.S. policy began in late 2016, when the Congress extended the Iran Sanctions Act for a decade. That emboldened Trump's unipolar stance.
But what are the immediate economic and strategic implications?
Monday, May 06, 2019
Is Trump Foreign Policy Designed Backwards to Disrupt the Empire? / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
According to US conservatives, Donald Trump’s MAGA has served to sharpen the bristles of US foreign policy reigning in the competing global powers with sanctions and far reaching power-plays in trade and weaponry, way beyond Obama and even Clinton.Even the death zombie Dems have to applaud Trump at times, when he bombs Syria on fake news or sanctions Russia even more or tries to overthrow the Venezuelan government with gangster tactics. The billionaires’ media finally finds its President then.
So, the self-serving assessment in Washington is that Trump the Terrible has been successfully compromised into fully supporting Empire games of endless war and chaos, just like his recent predecessors. The conclusion becomes there is simply is no resisting the US intelligence agencies that are the spearpoint for Congress’ faithful alliance with the Merchants of Death, 1tr a year and vastly growing.
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Thursday, May 02, 2019
Stop Feeding the Chinese Empire - ‘Belt and Road’ Trojan Horse / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Richard_Mills
“Whoever has an army has power.” - Mao Zedong
In March Italy broke ranks with its EU partners in joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative, known also as One Belt, One Road or the New Silk Road.
Students of history know the original “Silk Road” refers to the ancient network of trading routes between China and Europe, which served as both a conduit for the movement of goods, and an exchange of ideas, for centuries.
The “New Silk Road” is the term for an ambitious trade corridor first proposed by the Chinese regime under its current president, Xi Jinping, in 2013. The grand design also known, confusingly, as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is a “belt” of overland corridors and a “road” of shipping lanes.
It consists of a vast network of railways, pipelines, highways and ports that would extend west through the mountainous former Soviet republics and south to Pakistan, India and southeast Asia.
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Wednesday, May 01, 2019
America’s Gradual Slide, Experience and Withdrawal From Vietnam - Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
By: Raymond_Matison
Continuation from Part1 - Vietnam, Part I: Colonialism and National Liberation
The Kennedy Years
Before he became President, a tour of Vietnam convinced John Kennedy that the US must align herself with the emerging nations, and that Communism could never be defeated by relying solely of force of arms. His Indochina experience led him to that conclusion, as did a dinner conversation in New Delhi with Jawaharlal Nehru, who called the French as an example of doomed colonialism and said Communism offered the masses “something to die for” whereas the West promised only the status quo. War would not stop Communism, Nehru warned him; it would only enhance it, “for the devastation of war breeds only more poverty and more want.” In 1957 JFK declared in a Senate speech “The most powerful single force in the world today, is neither communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile – it is man’s eternal desire to be free and independent.”
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Monday, April 29, 2019
Climate Gains in the West, Exported Pollution in the Rest / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, President Duterte slammed Canada for sending waste to the Philippines. Yet, the challenge is huge. Exported pollution from advanced economies penalizes the rest of the world and distorts climate gains.President Duterte’s statement ensued after environmental groups’ renewed call for Canada to take back waste sent to the Philippines in the Aquino era, some six years ago.
According to the Pacific Center for Environmental Law and Litigation (PCELL), Ontario-based Chronic Inc. shipped 40-foot containers to the country in 2013, which is considered “illegal traffic” under Article 9 of the Basel Convention. More than 100 shipping containers arrived in Philippine ports around 2013-14.
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Monday, April 29, 2019
The World's Saddest And Happiest Countries - Hanke's Annual Misery Index 2018 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Steve_H_Hanke
The human condition inhabits a vast continuum between "miserable" and "happy." In the sphere of economics, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs and unemployment. The most surefire way to mitigate that misery is economic growth. All else equal, happiness tends to blossom when growth is strong, inflation and interest rates are low, and jobs are plentiful.
Many countries measure and report these economic metrics on a regular basis. Comparing them, nation by nation, can tell us a lot about where in the world people are sad or happy.
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Sunday, April 28, 2019
Joe Biden Works for Donald Trump / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Joe Biden is working for Donald Trump, right? I haven’t heard either of them say it outright, but it’s the only reason I can see that would explain why Biden is running for president. And if Biden works for Trump, that means he works for Putin, because Trump is Putin’s puppet, no matter how often Robert Mueller denies it.
Then again, if we would suggest, purely hypothetically and for entertainment purposes only, that Biden is neither Putin’s nor Trump’s puppet, what on earth drives him to declare his candidacy as the oldest ever presidential candidate in US history? Biden will be Trump’s punching bag. There is so much wrong with and about the man, Trump’s not even laughing, just saying: “oh yes, please, bring it.”
Biden has the Anita Hill boondoggle to his name, there’s a huge nascent story concerning Ukraine, where he interfered, while vice-president, to benefit his son, and there are tons of women who will come with groping tales. This will be a very long list, as long as his career in Washington. Biden bumbles and stumbles for a living. Someone’s going to write a book about that someday.
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