Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
U.S. Trade Deficit Rains on the Jobs Parade / Politics / US Economy
By: Peter_Schiff
Earlier this month the Labor Department reported that 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy in February, marking the third consecutive month of positive jobs growth. Many observers took the news as evidence that the recovery has taken hold in earnest, helping send the S&P 500 index to the highest level in nearly five years. However the very same day the Commerce Department reported that, after surging for much of the last year, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $52.6 billion for January, the largest monthly trade gap since October 2008. This second data set should dampen enthusiasm for the first.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
European Central Bank Watch, Group of 30 not your dream team / Politics / Central Banks
By: ECB_Watch
In November 2011, a Brussels based lobby watchdog asked Mario Draghi to withdraw from the group of G30 because it conflicts with his duties as ECB President. In February 2012 they addressed a complaint to the ethics officer of the ECB claiming it had dodged their earlier criticism. This referral comes as it is uncovered that Draghi stated in writing that there were no relevant personal factors to be taken into account in considering his nomination in June 2011. It is misleading because it fails to disclose a conflict of interest, that is, his son working as an interest trader at Morgan Stanley (ECB-Watch). While the watchdog's criticism is purely based on principle, we point out a variety reasons why the Group of 30 does not inspire us very much. Among them, Mario Draghi is one of four members of the G30 who are connected to the Goldman-Greece (off-market currency swaps) affair.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Revolution, Its All About China, Weeks When Decades Can Happen / Politics / China
By: John_Mauldin
My friends at GaveKal are uniquely positioned to help us think about where we have been in the past decade and where we are going in the next one. Their perch in Hong Kong lets them keep their fingers on China’s pulse, but they also have profound roots in Europe – the Gave family is French – as well as a thorough grasp of the US economy and culture. (Louis Gave, the author of today’s Outside the Box, is a Duke grad.)
We can all second Louis when he notes “the discomfort and uncertainty we find in most meetings with clients” – we’re treading on uncertain turf here and moving into unexplored territory. We sense that the potential, in the next few years, for both creation and destruction (so yes, creative destruction) is greater than at any time in our lives – and greater perhaps than at any time in the history of the human race.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Afghanistan, the Long War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The war in Afghanistan has been under way for more than 10 years. It has not been the only war fought during this time; for seven of those years another, larger war was waged in Iraq, and smaller conflicts were under way in a number of other countries as well. But the Afghanistan War is still the longest large-scale, multi-divisional war fought in American history. An American soldier's killing of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, on March 11 represents only a moment in this long war, but it is an important moment.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
What The End Result of Fed’s Cancerous Policies Will Be / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Graham_Summers
Yesterday I noted that the “addict/ dealer” metaphor for the Fed’s intervention in the markets was in fact not accurate and that the Fed’s actions would be more appropriately described as permitted cancerous beliefs to spread throughout the financial system, thereby killing Democratic Capitalism which is the basis of the capital markets.
Today I’m going to explain what the “final outcome” for this process will be. The short version is what happens to a cancer patient who allows the disease to spread unchecked (death).
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Monday, March 19, 2012
The Greeks, the Fed, And Sovereignty / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2012
By: Andy_Sutton
The financial woes of Greece have been fairly well documented over the past year and a half that is for sure. The deduction many analysts, myself included, that the country would end up defaulting on the majority of its debt was a foregone conclusion. For the technocrats to pull a default, and then call it a bond swap, was an exercise in semantics that even Roget himself would have been proud of. The very idea of calling it a swap presents the idea that the bondholders got something other than an empty bag, when an empty bag is exactly what they got.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Ron Paul on Demolishing Due Process / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
It is ironic but perhaps sadly appropriate that Attorney General Eric Holder would choose a law school, Northwestern University, to deliver a speech earlier this month in which he demolished what was left of the rule of law in America.
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Monday, March 19, 2012
What Do Customers Really Think About Goldman Sachs? / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Janet_Tavakoli
Last week a Goldman Sachs former employee Greg Smith wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining why he was resigning from Goldman Sachs. He alleged Goldman's culture had recently deteriorated and that Goldman's "toxic and destructive" culture isn't doing right by its clients.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Mounting Political Dissent in the Land of the Sheeple / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
The long and sometime turbulent drama of political dissent in America is a continued theme in history of the country. Born out of a revolution and based on social principles of self-determination, the nation rustles with the internal conflict between individual liberty and the power of tyrannical elites. This struggle is the natural condition in any nation. How a society treats dissenters is a primary test for any government. Most states fail this assessment miserably. America's tolerance for peaceful dissent is in jeopardy, not solely from the current despotic regime in power, but from the flock of hungry government parasites that graze upon the public benefit programs that herd citizens into a crowd controlled environment.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Obama: U.S. Energy Future Depends on Rare Earth Metals / Politics / Metals & Mining
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
Will a near-monopoly in rare earth metals do for China what oil did for Saudi Arabia?
Not if the U.S. government has anything to say about it.
President Barack Obama made that clear last week when he joined the European Union and the Japanese government in filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) about China's manipulation of the global market in rare earth metals.
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Goldman's God Problem on Executive Pay / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: EconMatters
In addition to suffering a one-day $2 billion loss in market value on March 12 bestowed upon by the Goldman Letter at New York Times on March 12 , Goldman also has to deal with God problem regarding executive compensation packages as well.
According to Reuters, in the past two years, a group of religious institutions that hold Goldman shares, including the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, has been successful in getting its proposal requiring Goldman to conduct an independent examination of whether Goldman's executive pay levels were appropriate taken into regular shareholders' meetings.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Fall of the Law Writers / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough." - Frédéric Bastiat, French Legislator
“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.” – US House Speaker Thomas B. Reed
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
Obama Executive Order Blueprint for Peacetime Martial Law! / Politics / US Politics
By: Chris_Kitze
This Executive Order was posted on the WhiteHouse.gov web site on Friday, March 16, 2012, under the name National Defense Resources Preparedness. In a nutshell, it's the blueprint for Peacetime Martial Law and it gives the president the power to take just about anything deemed necessary for "National Defense", whatever they decide that is. It's peacetime, because as the title of the order says, it's for "Preparedness". A copy of the entire order follows the end of this story.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Mainstream Media Coverup of the U.S. Military Afghanistan Massacre / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
In all US war theaters, troops commit unspeakable atrocities. Trained to dehumanize enemies, their mission involves killing, destruction, and much more.
Local treasures are looted. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Children are indiscriminately harmed like adults. Prisoners are tortured. Mutilations are common. Crimes of war and against humanity are institutionalized.
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
How To Bring Down the System, Any System, Non-violently / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
Four words: "Follow the rules exactly."
That's it? That's it.
Any system? Any system.
There are reasons for this. These reasons are universal.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
UK Coalition Government to Scrap 50% Tax Rate to Spark Economic Growth / Politics / Taxes
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Conservative party media spin machine has gone into over drive by spreading the word that George Osbourne will cut the top rate of income tax from 50% to 40% in next weeks budget in an attempt at reversing some of the damage done by the last Labour government that all but destroyed large swathes of the private sector in favour of pumping resources into the Labour voter friendly unproductive public sector.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
A Nations Metallurgical Achilles Heel, Critical Materials Should be on Investors Radar / Politics / Metals & Mining
By: Richard_Mills
The following have all combined to limit control of foreign minerals by US companies:
- In 2011, Resource nationalism became the number one risk for mining companies
- Nationalization
- Expropriation
- Increased taxation
- Constraints on the degree of foreign ownership
- A trend in the less developed countries toward processing their own ores
- Increased completion from large eastern based mega mining companies
- Increasing competition from sovereign wealth funds and end users wishing to vertically integrate
Friday, March 16, 2012
Agent-Based Modeling and the Occupy Wall Street Movement / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
Here at TAE, we like to apply the insights of systems theory to our global economic, financial, energy and environmental systems and think in big picture terms about how these systems evolve and interact. That is why, for example, we don't look at the S&P500 breaching 1400 as a sign that every major economic issue has been resolved and it is all smooth sailing from here. Indeed, the big picture perspective tells us it's only a matter of time, most likely weeks, before old issues in new disguises crop up and fear grips the collective once again.
Friday, March 16, 2012
NorthCom Military Occupation of North America / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
Have you ever heard of the Northern Command, also known as Norcom? Probably not.
Have you heard of moves to integrate the United States, Canada, and Mexico into one judicial authority? Probably.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Arab Spring Hits Israel's Natural Gas Supply / Politics / Middle East
By: OilPrice_Com
As last year's Arab spring has slowly roiled eastwards from Tunisia to the eastern Mediterranean, the two most concerned governments are the U.S. and Israel, that are watching their carefully constructed defense alignments crumble to the populist forces unleashed.
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