Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Will Merkel Commit Political Suicide or Bail on the Euro? / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Graham_Summers
As I’ve noted in previous articles, politics, not economics, rule Europe. What I mean by this is that most major decisions in Europe are determined by political agendas that ignore economic and financial realities.
This is at the core of the “welfare state” mentality that permeates Europe as a whole. The EU in general is comprised of an aging population that is more concerned about receiving the pensions/ health benefits/ social payouts that were promised to them by the system than anything else.
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Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Nightshade Nightmare / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
John Roth writes writes: I am a male over 60 and have [or had] a serious health problem that I tried to ignore for the last three years. I tried every holistic treatment, supplement, vitamin and herb under the sun.
During that period my gastrointestinal tract quit working three times. I had a lot of trouble breathing and although I had the urge nothing would come out of my body. You get the picture.
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Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Axis of Indifference In The Media World / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Danny_Schechter
Foreign correspondents have always been revered within journalism. That’s why covering Iraq or other wars are assignments so many reporters cultivate. Many see them as a ticket up the media pecking order.
Being “under fire” promise excitement, danger and—let’s face it, on TV —precious “face time.” Going overseas is often a route to more visibility and better jobs at home on the strength of your “bravery/” War reporting can be the macho oxygen of ambition.
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Saturday, May 12, 2012
The Hall Of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
Major central banks around the world are employing historically loose monetary policy to prop up the fundamentally flawed fractional reserve banking sector artificially. As cases in point, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank have each dropped bank funding interest rates to almost zero over the last few years.
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Friday, May 11, 2012
Germany's Mixed Euro Policy Signals / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: John_Browne
Last week's media headlines focused on how the election results in France and Greece reflected a wave of rising public resistance across Europe to the austerity programs being championed by Germany, the IMF, and the EU. Less notice has been given to Germany's internal revolt against Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative policies at home and abroad. Elections in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein just ended the dominance there of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDP/CDU) while emboldening the center-left Social Democrats (SDP), hard-left Greens, and libertarian Free Democrats (FDP). Those results are expected to be repeated at this Sunday's ballot in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's largest state.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Does the West Have a Future? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Living in America is becoming very difficult for anyone with a moral conscience, a sense of justice, or a lick of intelligence. Consider:
We have had a second fake underwear bomb plot, a much more fantastic one than the first hoax. The second underwear bomber was a CIA operative or informant allegedly recruited by al-Qaeda, an organization that US authorities have recently claimed to be defeated, in disarray, and no longer significant.
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Friday, May 11, 2012
European Elections Subtext / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Fred_Sheehan
Various interpretations of recent European elections have been put forward, one of which gets short shrift. The voters have, for the first time, been given the opportunity to approve or disapprove of the euro. They are voting nein. There is a parallel in the United States.
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Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ron Paul on Why Bankster Power Must be Eradicated / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Although it has taken nearly a century, it seems that the entire spectrum of the American political establishment has finally realized the destructive power of the Federal Reserve System. Whether left, right, or libertarian, politicians are lining up to attack Ben Bernanke and the Fed's destructive monetary policy. Where there is disagreement or lack of understanding, however, is on why the Fed's monetary policy is destructive, how it harms the economy, and what should be done about it. Today's hearing will examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. It is my hope that this hearing will spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed's problems, a discussion which will lead to concrete actions once and for all to rein in the Fed.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Earth Summit: The Future We Want / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
Unlike global warming, which is deservedly losing credibility and traction very fast, institutional and political inertia keeps the drive for sustainability in apparent high gear, but the definition of sustainability and how we achieve it is now heavily politicized and an open guess.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Francois Hollande's Freedom Fries / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Andrew_McKillop
Jumping the Atlantic, the shockwaves from Europe's rapidly changing political landscape are starting to wash up on American shores. French fries could or might go off the menu and revert to Freedom Fries - time will tell.
Already Hollande is on record for a total withdrawal of all French combat troops from Afghanistan by December 31st, is raising taxes on the rich, handing out more government cash to low income families and recruiting sixty thousand more teachers. He wants growth, and to him and most others that means Keynesian style priming the pump - with tax cuts for companies that recruit, and more cash for the poor using cash that doesn't exist. It has to be borrowed, but talking around that reality is called politics.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Bankruptcy Trends in the Post Meltdown Era / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: BATR
Economic dislocation is an inherent element in any financial system. One way to deal with balance sheet imbalances is to declare bankruptcy. The most common examples of liquidating default without payment are to petition the court to absolve debt obligations. Personal bankruptcy is tragic, but is common in a culture where immediate consumer gratification is the end all of a private excess society. Business bankruptcy is different because the underlying enterprise assumes all the risks of engaging in commerce. Even prudent expenditures and sound business activities can go sour that ultimately results in insolvency.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Do You Want To Trigger a Zombie Revolution? Then stick to phony austerity / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Bill_Bonner
The financial news yesterday was dominated by alarming reports from Europe.
“Backlash,” said The Financial Times…referring to an “anti-austerity wave” that washed over Europe in weekend voting.
If the FT doesn’t mind mixing metaphors, we don’t either. But our metaphors are a bit different. What has happened is not a backlash but a wake-up call. It comes as voters realize that the placebo medicine – phony, half-hearted austerity measures peddled by the Euro elite – don’t work. They want an elixir with more of a kick to it. That’s why the leftists are gaining so much ground.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012
The Great Myth of the Welfare State Disintegrates / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Jack D. Douglas writes: he Great Myth of the Welfare State and all of the lesser myths and lies on which it was built are now being totally confounded by the harsh realities of human nature and finance and economic life and politics built on human nature. Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, Mixed Economies, Democratic Fascism, and all the other brands of this Great Myth of the Welfare State are rapidly imploding. The utopian ideologists of all stripes of this insane and fierce certitude of impending heaven on earth are completely confused and in a state of total denial and are trying every wild-eyed scheme they can to revive the dying Great Myth.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012
The Majority Is Always Wrong, Except by Accident / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Al Lowi writes: Sifting the historical record for cases affirming that the majority was on the right side of an issue fails to turn up a single "decision" where this was the result. So where is it written that the majority should rule? In the absence of affirmative evidence, a clever wag once offered the following argument:
Read full article... Read full article...The majority is infallible. Because no matter how stupid the propositions decided or the ones elected, the majority was always the stupider for having done so.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
France and Greece Voters Reject Austerity for Money Printing Inflation Stealth Debt Default / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2012
By: Nadeem_Walayat
For the duration of the financial crisis a battle of economic ideas has been waged between governments implementing economic austerity in an attempt to shrink budget deficits as experienced by much of the Euro-zone and that of money printing inflation as experienced by the U.S. and UK. That battle is now coming to an end as the voters of first France and then Greece have rejected severe economic austerity that has seen economic depression in Greece and at best stagnation in France for the alternative solution of money printing inflation.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Governing Elite Fraud and Theft Will Continue Until Morale Improves / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
The BEA reported the latest figures for personal income, personal consumption expenditures and the savings rate last week. The government mouthpieces in the mainstream media obediently reported that personal income and expenditures reached an all-time high in March. The chart below shows the ever increasing level of expenditures by consumers since this supposed economic recovery began in the 4th quarter of 2009. All good Keynesian economists know that consumer spending is always good for America, no matter how it is achieved. We must be in a recovery if income and spending are reaching new highs, right? That is the fraudulent storyline being propagandized to the non-questioning lapdog public. A false storyline and data that has been massaged harder than a Secret Service agent by a Columbian hooker will not lead to a happy ending. Some critical thinking, a calculator, and some common sense reveal the depth of the fraud and expose the theft being committed by the avaricious governing elite at the expense of the prudent working middle class.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Number ONE Enemy of the State / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
There is immense confusion about the nature of the State. There is even more bewilderment about what constitutes a patriot. Any discussion in the civic realm begins with a cultural viewpoint. An attitude toward the proper role of the individual’s relationship with government based upon one’s value system and interpretation of civil order is natural. One man’s patriot is another man’s traitor. Where do you stand on the sentiments behind the penning of the below ideas? Quiz yourself and see if you can figure out the name of the author.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Economic Lessons from the Ron Paul vs. Krugman Debate / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
Vedran Vuk, Senior Analyst, Casey Research writes: A few days ago, Bloomberg held the debate many readers have been wanting for a long time: Paul Krugman vs. Ron Paul. To be fair, Ron Paul didn't have a slam-dunk debate moment – but neither did Krugman. Still, the fact that a medical doctor from Texas armed with a little Austrian economics and a lot of common sense can stand up to a Nobel-Prize-winning economist is impressive. If the roles were reversed and the conversation was on medicine, Krugman would have likely sounded like a village idiot in the discussion. In case you haven't already seen it, click on the frame below for the video.
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Monday, May 07, 2012
War Is Unholy, But we're supposed to think that God is on our side? / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Gary D. Barnett writes: The drums of war now beat continuously in the land of the "free" and the home of the "brave." The sound of those drums is deafening to those few who understand the real nature of war, but silent to most of the rest of American society, a society consumed by the practice of false patriotism.
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Monday, May 07, 2012
European Politics: France Changes Trains / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Andrew_McKillop
Hollande's victory in France, like the major voter gains for the extreme-left Syriza party in Greek elections, and constant erosion of Merkel's two supporting parties in German elections, all held the same weekend, confirm the emerging and massive left - right split in European politics.