Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Schumer & Sanders Want One Thing: Your Money / Politics / US Politics
By: Rodney_Johnson
Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer have proposed legislation that would stop public companies from paying dividends or buying back their shares unless they first meet certain conditions.The senators aren’t worried about viability (companies are financially stable before they send cash back to their shareholders). Instead, they want to verify that companies have done enough to support employees before they give anything back to investors.
That’s not so subtle code for, “Make sure you redistribute wealth before giving anything back.”
The senators make their case by pointing to last year’s tax reform and how much of the corporate windfall was spent on stock buybacks (almost $1 trillion), even as companies refused to invest, closed locations, and fired employees.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Earth Overshoot Day Illustrates We are the Lemmings / Politics / Climate Change
By: Richard_Mills
What were you doing on August 1, 2018? Likely it was just like any other day, with your thoughts on work, your spouse, your kids, money, what to make for dinner, etc. What you should have been thinking about though, was the Earth.
August 1 was Earth Overshoot Day. What does that mean? Well, Earth Overshoot Day is the day of the year when humanity has used more resources from nature than can renew in that entire year. The date is moving closer to January, meaning every year we use up more natural resources, faster.
That’s a problem, because without a way to replace all the resources we consume - harvested food, fertilizers, energy, metals, etc. - we are gradually depleting nature’s bounty, at a rate that is unsustainable, long-term. If we keep going, and economies keep growing, we’re eventually going to run out. The problem is made worse by the global population increasing, along with the continuing wants of people in the developed world (“the West”) and in less-developed countries (who are demanding houses, cars, fridges, cell phones, etc.), putting more pressure on our finite resources.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Theresa May Running Down the BrExit Clock So MP's are FORCED to Vote for Her Deal / Politics / BrExit
By: N_Walayat
Here we stand with just 6 weeks to go until BrExit day and Theresa May is continuing to repeat like a broken record that she is going to go to Brussels to negotiate a change to her withdrawal agreement. Despite the EU consistently repeating that the withdrawal agreement cannot be renegotiated.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Socialist “Green New Deal” Points the Way to Hyperinflation / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MoneyMetals
Socialist Venezuela’s economic collapse and hyperinflationary spiral serves as a warning for American investors. It’s what can happen when a government spends perpetually beyond its means and refuses to face reality.
Despite a U.S. economy that appears relatively strong and stable on the surface, its foundation is beginning to crack under the pressure of a $22 trillion (and growing) debt load.
Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for that. But rising pro-socialist sentiment within the Democrat Party could turn our current debt danger into a clear and present disaster.
Friday, February 08, 2019
The Wealthy Should Prepare to Be Soaked / Politics / Taxes
By: Patrick_Watson
Taxes are a touchy subject. Nobody likes paying them, but (unless you’re an anarchist) we all realize at least some taxation is necessary. We just want it to be fair and reasonable. Exactly what that means is a never-ending debate.
A newly elected member of Congress stoked up the debate last month. She may have opened a box some folks would like to keep closed.
Friday, February 08, 2019
Science Says Protectionism Won’t Work / Politics / Protectionism
By: Patrick_Watson
The simmering trade war is still... well, simmering. Markets rise and fall with each new rumor.
That’s an important change. It took months for investors to realize this wasn’t just another Trump threat. In fact, trade policies he thinks unfair have long been one of his sore spots. Now he can do something about them, and he’s surrounded himself with hardline advisors.
Unfortunately, victory is not at hand. More like the opposite:
Friday, February 08, 2019
The Venezuela Myth Keeping Us From Transforming Our Economy / Politics / Venezuela
By: Ellen_Brown
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is getting significant media attention these days, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview that it should “be a larger part of our conversation” when it comes to funding the “Green New Deal.” According to MMT, the government can spend what it needs without worrying about deficits. MMT expert and Bernie Sanders adviser professor Stephanie Kelton says the government actually creates money when it spends. The real limit on spending is not an artificially imposed debt ceiling but a lack of labor and materials to do the work, leading to generalized price inflation. Only when that real ceiling is hit does the money need to be taxed back, but even then it’s not to fund government spending. Instead, it’s needed to shrink the money supply in an economy that has run out of resources to put the extra money to work.
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Thursday, February 07, 2019
Eat Less Meat and Save the Planet / Politics / Climate Change
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It’s been quite a while since we last heard from Dr. D. He was probably busy growing stuff. But he’s back now, and with something dear to my heart: the craziness of our food production systems. Answers to which are not always what most people think, to put it mildly.
Dr. D:
Eat less meat to save the planet – report (1)
The new diet that could save the planet (2)
What to eat to save the planet: Report urges ‘radical changes’ to world’s diet – less meat, more veggies (3)
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
Global Debt: This Time Will Be Different / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2019
By: John_Mauldin
For almost 40 years, we’ve lived in an era of low rates and easy money. It let governments and businesses worldwide run up piles of debt.
Global debt could easily reach $500 trillion in a few years. And yet everyone acts like that is normal and can continue.
Just like subprime mortgage debt triggered the last recession, corporate debt will trigger the next one. This will start a liquidity crisis and create havoc in all sorts of “unrelated” markets.
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
A Cold War with China Spells Trouble for Stocks / Politics / China US Conflict
By: John_Mauldin
Last week, George Soros said that we are in a cold war with China that could turn into a hot war. While Soros and I don’t often agree on politics, I did find my head nodding at times in his latest CNBC interview.Then Luke Gromen of Forest for the Trees wrote about change in the geopolitical climate, which is not his usual beat.
Gromen argues that US national security may be more important than risk asset performance for the first time in decades.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2019
Donald Tusk States " There is a Special Place in Hell for Brexit Campaigners" FULL Video / Politics / BrExit
By: N_Walayat
In a shocking statement, European Commission President Donald Tusk today in a press conference effectively stated that "there was a special place in hell for Brexit campaigners" as the following video of the FULL statement illustrates. The EU effectively declaring war on the people of Northern Ireland (Ulster), as it is now to be known as the Island of Ireland with no distinction between Northern Ireland and Eire.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2019
NewsGuard Filter Starts the Next Fake News Trend / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: BATR
Any search engine that filters content is engaged in censorship. When the tech giants were starting out they used traffic stats as a basis for popular ranking of results. Yahoo and Google provided reasonable and mostly reliable information retrieval. Those days are long gone and the fallout of banishing information or banning entire sites to a black memory hole has only one conclusion. The artificial intelligence revolution leads to the heterodoxy of the culture. Couple such algorithms with the underlying social and political bias of the technocratic snobs, who want to control a false reality, and you end up with a planet that is unable to decipher the truth.
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Monday, February 04, 2019
Venezuela Trying to Sell Gold to Stay Afloat / Politics / Venezuela
By: Richard_Mills
Venezuela is reaching for its last card as the deck collapses on President Nicolas Maduro’s failed regime.
The country is selling its gold in order to provide liquidity for imports of basic goods.
You know your regime’s days are numbered when you start eyeing your bullion. Indeed gold’s status as store of value, as money, the only currency available when yours is worthless, has come into play with respect to the crisis that has been unfolding in Venezuela over the last couple of years and appears to be reaching its peak.
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Saturday, February 02, 2019
Without A Currency Board, Venezuela's Opposition Will Fail / Politics / Venezuela
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar, has tanked. Just take a look at the ugly chart below.
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Thursday, January 31, 2019
Flash-Balls, Pitchforks And A Backstop / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It’s educational and even somewhat entertaining to observe the role of the western press in the ongoing erosion and demise of democracy in Europe. But while it’s entertaining, it also means their readers and viewers don’t get informed on what is actually happening. The media paints a picture that pleases the political world. And it it doesn’t please politicians to lift a veil here and there, too bad for the public.
The Shakespearian comedy that was performed last night in the UK House of Commons is a lovely case in point. Basically, MPs voted whether or not to allow PM Theresa May to change the Brexit deal she had told them about a hundred times couldn’t possibly be changed. Brexit has turned full-blown Groucho by now: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
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Wednesday, January 23, 2019
BrExit War: Why REMAIN Would Win a 2nd EU Referrendum / Politics / BrExit
By: N_Walayat
Last week Britain's inept Prime Minister Theresa May who has stubbornly refused to do the right thing by resigning further lost what little power she had left by means of two House of Common Votes, first on her EU Exit deal on which Parliament delivered a humiliating defeat on Tuesday, losing by 230 votes (432 to 202) the largest defeat of a Government in Parliamentary history which was then followed with Wednesday's vote of confidence in her Government that only just managed to survive with the aid of 10 DUP MP's resulting in 325 to 306.
It should not come as much surprise that Parliament rejected May's deal which was nothing other than complete GARBAGE, one that gives the EU £39 billion for NOTHING in return! And then there is the 'backstop' or more accurately the 'backstab', a means by which to ensure that the UK can NEVER LEAVE the EU without the EU's permission!
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019
A Government of Socialists / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Brace for the most bizarre government that Congress has ever seen in your lifetime. The Democrats installed a band of untested novices bent on adopting a socialist utopia. The House of Representatives has become a chamber of horrors that only libtard groupies could embrace and the Senate reflects the bluest of blue from metropolis and the coastal cultures. The gangland underworld families that make up the Deep State and are controlled by the Shadow Government elites have shifted tactics for electing the next generation of Federal legislators.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Britain's Manchurian Prime Minister Scraps Residency Fees for 5 Million Economic Migrants / Politics / BrExit
By: N_Walayat
Britain's inept Prime Minister, Theresa May has decided to scrap residency settlement fees of £65 due to kick in today for as many as 5 million EU economic migrants, with the costs for processing applications now to be born wholly by British tax payers. This is a further example of the nightmare that a pro European REMAIN supporting Prime Minister and 75% Remain Parliament has put Britain into. A nightmare of a Parliament determined to subvert BrExit, which cannot even sign itself upto Theresa May's "Back Stab" deal that was so feeble that effectively ensured that Britain would be unable to LEAVE the EU without the EU's permission!
Britain is suffering the consequences of not only having a Manchurian Prime Minister but also a majority Manchurian Parliament that is acting in the best interests of the European Union rather than the British people, which is determined to water down Brexit to being only Brexit in name and not in practice, turning Britain into a global Dads army laughing stock!
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Monday, January 21, 2019
REMAIN Parliament to Subvert BrExit with Peoples Vote FIXED 2nd EU Referendum / Politics / BrExit
By: Nadeem_Walayat
This week Britain's inept Prime Minister Theresa May who has stubbornly refused to do the right thing by resigning thus further lost what little power she had left by means of two House of Common Votes, first on her EU Exit deal on which Parliament delivered a humiliating defeat on Tuesday, losing by 230 votes (432 to 202) the largest defeat of a Government in Parliamentary history which was then followed with Wednesday's vote of confidence in her Government that only just managed to survive with the aid of 10 DUP MP's resulting in 325 to 306.
It should not come as much surprise that Parliament rejected May's deal which was nothing other than complete GARBAGE, one that gives the EU £39 billion for NOTHING in return! And then there is the 'backstop' or more accurately the 'backstab', a means by which to ensure that the UK can NEVER LEAVE the EU without the EU's permission!
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Sunday, January 20, 2019
The News About Fake News Is Fake / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Raul_I_Meijer
In the last few days I was looking around for stories that could illustrate what fake news actually is, and I had a nice collection, but then last night Robert Mueller of all people clarified what exactly fake news is better than I could have. At first the BuzzFeed crew that was caught staring straight into the headlights has a feeble response (what exactly was untrue in our article?), but was silenced by the WaPo of all publications: Mueller’s team said every bit of the article was false.
And still I wonder if people now understand better what fake news is. Which I think has a lot to do whit the fact that the term was monopolized by a section of US media as meaning things that had to do with Trump, more or less exclusively. That way, when Trump accused these same media of publishing fake news, they knew their loyal readers wouldn’t believe him.
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