Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Spain, Debt and Sovereignty / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: STRATFOR
Eurozone countries on June 9 agreed to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to stabilize the Spanish banking system. Because the bailout dealt with Spain's financial sector directly rather than involving the country's sovereign debt, Madrid did not face the kind of demands for more onerous austerity measures in exchange for the loan that have led to political instability in countries such as Greece.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Ron Paul - Congressional Budget Office Sees the Economic Cliff Ahead / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its annual long-term budget outlook report, and the 2012 numbers are not promising. In fact, the CBO estimates that federal debt will rise to 70% of GDP by the end of the year-- the highest percentage since World War II. The report also paints a stark picture of entitlement spending, as retiring Baby Boomers will cause government spending on health care, Social Security, and Medicare to explode as a percentage of GDP in coming years.
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Monday, June 11, 2012
Papandreou's Final Humiliation? Says Greece Will Stay in Euro Zone / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou spoke with Bloomberg TV's Sara Eisen and said that Greece has "a few weeks" before its government runs out of money and that this is a "make or break" period.
Papandreou went on to say "I did all that I could do" and that the "personal costs" were "worth it" to serve his country.
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Monday, June 11, 2012
Krugman’s Tax-Enhanced Economic Recovery Fantasy / Politics / Economic Theory
By: William_Anderson
Paul Krugman apparently believes that he has struck the mother lode: He has declared that Ronald Reagan actually was more "Keynesian" than Barack Obama. Why? He writes:
O.K., by now many readers have probably figured out the trick here: Reagan, not Obama, was the big spender. While there was a brief burst of government spending early in the Obama administration – mainly for emergency aid programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps – that burst is long past. Indeed, at this point, government spending is falling fast, with real per capita spending falling over the past year at a rate not seen since the demobilization that followed the Korean War.
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Monday, June 11, 2012
Where Does All the Money Go? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Bill_Bonner
The 1%…the zombies…and the rest of us…
How about that Dow? Up 286 points yesterday. And gold up $17. Markets are counting on their hero, Mr. Benjamin S. Bernanke, to come to the rescue. They can practically hear the printing presses warming up…and smell the fresh $100 bills rolling off.
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Sunday, June 10, 2012
Conservatives Are the Enemy, They Love, Taxes, Tariffs and the Police State / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
This may sound odd. Conservatives don't love taxes. They want lower taxes. Right? They want lower taxes and smaller government.
I wish that were true. It isn't.
Alexander Hamilton was a crusader for higher taxes and a larger national government in the 1790s. He wanted higher taxes in order to raise money for a higher federal debt. He wanted higher federal debt because he wanted investors in government IOUs to commit to the survival of the United States. Free market economist Thomas DiLorenzo has summarized Hamilton's position, which he accurately identifies as crony capitalism.
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Saturday, June 09, 2012
America's Student Loan Racket / Politics / Student Finances
By: Stephen_Lendman
This writer's recent book titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War" includes a chapter on America's student loan racket. It discusses the issue in detail.
It explains a disturbing government/corporate partnership. Students are exploited for profit. Providers are enriched. For many, rising tuition and fees make higher education unaffordable. Others need large loans to attend. As a result, they become debt entrapped.
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Friday, June 08, 2012
Debt Crisis, Damn the Torpedoes / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2012
By: Peter_Schiff
Last week in an interview on CBS Network News, Economist Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's, unwittingly revealed a central error of the global economic establishment. Zandi has made a career out of finding the middle ground between republican and democrat economic talking points. As a result of this skill, he has been rewarded with large quantities of airtime from media outlets that want to appear non-partisan, despite the fact that his supposedly neutral analysis often leaves listeners frustrated.
Friday, June 08, 2012
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fiscal Cliff / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: Taking a header off the "fiscal cliff" might be the best thing that could happen to the United States.
It sounds crazy, given all the dire predictions economists are making about the "Taxmageddon" that will arrive on Jan. 1, 2013.
While true, no one is talking about what would happen to the economy after the fiscal cliff crisis of 2013.
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Friday, June 08, 2012
EU Implementing Border and Capital Controls to Stop People Fleeing With Their Money / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
The EU in its current form is finished. Done. Game Over. I’ve been saying this for months. But it’s a fact. Europe has literally run out of money. Indeed, the ECB’s interventions are now not only toxic for those participating in them (those banks taking money via the LTRO have been crushed in the credit market) but are losing their impact (LTRO bought only one month of market gains).
Friday, June 08, 2012
Samaris Of Sypris Winning The World’s Dumbest Politician Contest / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: HRA_Advisory
A country that represents less than 2% of the Euro block and a tiny fraction of the world economy continues to be the tail that wags the dog. We'll all have to wait until June 17th to see whether Greeks vote with their emotions or with their heads. Currently it looks like it could be the former, which would not bode well for markets.
The US and Germany have both released decent economic readings but that won't be enough to overcome fears of yet another debt meltdown unless the Greek vote goes the right way. Negative news out of Europe pummels the Euro and the correlation between the value of the Euro and commodities is currently very high. Metals prices aren't going anywhere until the issue is resolved.
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Friday, June 08, 2012
Socialist Utopia / Politics / Social Issues
By: Phill_Tomlinson
Another generation, another group of people who believe they can take us all to the promised land. A recent article written by Owen Jones, a left wing activist and author, titled "If socialists really did run the show, working people would benefit" displays the usual naivety and/or arrogance that has persisted with each successive generation of state planners who believe they can change the world for the good. Excepts taken from the article, accompanied with my commentary can be read below.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Has Merkel Just "Blinked" and Saved the Euro Project? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Christopher_Quigley
A picture tells a thousand words. The chart above shows just how grave the situation in Spain is. Europe is in crisis and the euro is in danger of falling apart.
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Thursday, June 07, 2012
The fight against the tax-exempt foundations needs to continue / Politics / US Politics
By: Mario_Innecco
In 1982 G. Edward Griffin interviewed Norman Dodd who was the chief investigator for the Reece Committee. This was a U.S. House select committee created to investigate tax-exempt foundations. In this almost hour- long interview Mr Dodd reveals some very interesting information regarding the objectives and the means by which these tax-exempt foundations influence public policy in the United States of America and the world.
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Thursday, June 07, 2012
Uncleared Derivatives Market To Be Regulated? / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Ian_R_Campbell
Why Read: Because this report may prove to be of great significance over the next few months.
Featured Article: An article this morning reports that the Financial Stability Board ('FSB) plans to issue proposals on rules encouraging banks to put derivatives trades through a central clearing house as part of a regulations aimed at reducing risk in what is described in the article as the $700 trillion derivatives industry. The article goes on to say:
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Wednesday, June 06, 2012
George Soros Warns European Union is Going Down in 3 Months / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Gary_North
George Soros has laid it on the line. The eurozone will begin to break up, followed by the break-up of the European Union, within three months if the politicians do not come to an agreement to re-write the treaties and centralize power. No other figure has been this apocalyptic and this specific as to the timetable.
He sees this outcome as a catastrophe. I keep thinking: "Free at last! Free at last!"
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Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Is Greece European? / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: STRATFOR
Greece is where the West both begins and ends. The West -- as a humanist ideal -- began in ancient Athens where compassion for the individual began to replace the crushing brutality of the nearby civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The war that Herodotus chronicles between Greece and Persia in the 5th century B.C. established a contrast between West and East that has persisted for millennia. Greece is Christian, but it is also Eastern Orthodox, as spiritually close to Russia as it is to the West, and geographically equidistant between Brussels and Moscow. Greece may have invented the West with the democratic innovations of the Age of Pericles, but for more than a thousand years it was a child of Byzantine and Turkish despotism. And while Greece was the northwestern bastion of the anciently civilized Near East, ever since history moved north into colder climates following the collapse of Rome, the inhabitants of Peninsular Greece have found themselves at the poor, southeastern extremity of Europe.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Advantages of Chinese Trade Policy / Politics / Protectionism
By: BATR
"The Chinese may take risks far more than average Americans do, thanks to advice from traditional proverbs."
Read full article... Read full article...The saying "At a good bargain, think twice" is pretty risk-averse. On the other hand, a typical Chinese proverb such as "Seize an opportunity and make good use of it" shows how risk-taking is ingrained in Chinese culture.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Stiglitz and Conrad Battle Over U.S. Income Inequality Stagflation or Prosperity / Politics / Social Issues
By: Bloomberg
Today on Bloomberg TV: Top private equity investor (and former Bain Capital managing director) Edward Conard debates Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about income inequality and whether Americans are better or worse off due to innovation in the economy.
Have we just experienced a half-century of stagflation, or have financial risk-takers kept us ahead of Europe and Japan? What does the data show about how much income inequality has helped - or hurt - the average American?
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Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Are You Ready for Taxmageddon? / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
A slow moving train wreck known as "Taxmageddon" is creeping toward U.S. taxpayers.
You see, if Congress doesn't act by year's end, numerous tax breaks will expire -- and hit every American taxpayer squarely in the wallet.
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