Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, November 25, 2011
End Of The Road For Kyoto / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Kyoto Treaty is threatened by an ever rising groundswell of outright rejection. Limits on CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions may lapse before end-2012. This will above signal the end to the easy money for emission permit traders, brokers and investment bankers playing a small but profitable market in a huge range of complex "carbon related and derived products". Estimated at around $142 billion a year, the market designed to cap CO2 and other GHG emissions, linked to burning fossil fuels, producing cement, deforestation, urbanization and other land use changing activities is still defended by some, as able to "mitigate global warming".
Friday, November 25, 2011
Could Climate Change Be The Next Catastrophic Tail-Risk-Penny To Drop? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_Butter
As the Durban Climate Change conference wheezes into obscurity with memories of a bunch of what the neo-cons call “balding ex-hippies” on one side; and a stack full of conveniently newly-leaked e-mails on the other…and America conspicuously absent, I am reminded of previous catastrophes.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Low Carbon Sustainable Means a Post Industrial Future / Politics / Global Economy
By: Andrew_McKillop
The chances of the long-term future being truly postindustrial is high: as Albert Einstein said on the subject of war, industrial civilization makes it certain the third world war will be nuclear - but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones. By a lot less people.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Australia deprives tobacco giants of their brands / Politics / Austrailia
By: Pravda
Australia is introducing a single design model for cigarette packs of all the brands sold in the country. The respective law has been adopted by the country's parliament, and after approval by the Governor-General it may come into force. Tobacco corporations have already sent their representatives to courts, and a number of countries are observing the attempt to null the cigarette brands.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Goldman Sachs Trojan Horse Digs into Euro-zone / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Pravda
The German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chaired by Angela Merkel urged to introduce changed in the Lisbon Treaty and other European agreements stipulating an opportunity for European countries to pull out from the eurozone. The countries would preserve their EU membership in such a move.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Roads To War And Economic Collapse / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The day before the Thanksgiving holiday brought three extraordinary news items. One was the report on the Republican presidential campaign debate. One was the Russian President’s statement about his country’s response to Washington’s missile bases surrounding his country. And one was the failure of a German government bond auction.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Be Thankful If You Were Not Born in the United States / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Being born in America at anytime between 1623 and 1970 would have been quite a stroke of luck. You would have lived in one of the freest, most productive, and because of that, most prosperous regions on Earth. Luckily, America got its heavy socialism out of the way right from the get-go.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
U.S. and European Fiscal Ticking Time Bombs, Whose Fuse is Shorter? / Politics / Government Spending
By: Peter_Schiff
With fiscal time bombs ticking in both Europe and the United States, the pertinent question for now seems to be which will explode first. For much of the past few months it looked as if Europe was set to blow. But Angela Merkel's refusal to support a Federal Reserve style bailout of European sovereigns and her recent statement the she had no Hank Paulson style fiscal bazooka in her handbag, has lowered the heat. In contrast, the utter failure of the Congressional Super Committee in the United States to come up with any shred of success in addressing America's fiscal problems has sparked a renewed realization that America's fuse is dangerously short.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
We Are All Keynesians Now - Except Me / Politics / US Debt
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
If you want federal debt reduction, you are going to get it Super-Committee "failure" or not. The recent debt-ceiling legislation calls for $1.0 trillion less-than-otherwise federal spending over the next 10 years. The "trigger" calls for $1.2 trillion less-than-otherwise federal spending over the next 10 years. And, with the return to the Clinton-era personal tax rates for all household income groups on January 1, 2013, revenues will increase by $3.5 trillion more-than-otherwise over the next 10 years. So, that is $5.7 trillion of less federal debt issuance than otherwise over the next 10 years. Now, that's what I would call a grand bargain. And don't forget, unless Congress acts before yearend 2011, an extra $168 billion of federal debt that otherwise would have been issued won't be because of an expiring FICA tax "holiday" (just in time for the holidays?) and the expiration of extended unemployment insurance benefits. The U.S. as the next Greece? I beg your pardon. Try Canada, eh?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Horrible Bosses, Pitchforks & Torches / Politics / Social Issues
By: D_Sherman_Okst
If you haven’t seen the movie “Horrible Bosses” I’d recommend that you do. Please see it. Go enjoy yourself. As bad as things are getting it is incredible to realize that we can still laugh.
And trust me, you’ll laugh hard at this movie.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Super-Committee is Dead, Long Live the Debt! / Politics / US Debt
By: PhilStockWorld
In case you are voting in the next election – here are 12 people to get rid of. Much as I may blame one party over another for this failure, they all deserve what’s coming to them for A) Pretending they were going to accomplish something and B) For not now getting up and making very strong statements denouncing the corruption in politics that make it impossible for Congress to do the Nation’s business anymore.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Financial Crisis and an Interimly Limited Nationalism / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Submissions
Mark Blair writes: Again, readers, I’m writing about a Big Picture Issue; but again, there is immediate sub-issue relevance. Again, I beg your pardon for my ignorance of your field.
There’s an old Arab proverb that goes: ‘My brother and me against my cousin; my cousin and me against the stranger.’ The proverb provides sharp insight into human relations, particularly what anthropologists call ‘reciprocity,’ which concerns the relation between kinship, trust (contracts, if you will), and the apportionment of resource.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Syria, Iran and the Balance of Power in the Middle East / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
U.S. troops are in the process of completing their withdrawal from Iraq by the end-of-2011 deadline. We are now moving toward a reckoning with the consequences. The reckoning concerns the potential for a massive shift in the balance of power in the region, with Iran moving from a fairly marginal power to potentially a dominant power. As the process unfolds, the United States and Israel are making countermoves. We have discussed all of this extensively. Questions remain whether these countermoves will stabilize the region and whether or how far Iran will go in its response.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Why America Hates Congress / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
Everybody knows that screwing up a critical assignment at work will almost surely get you fired.
That is, unless you work as a member of the U.S. Congress.
After more than two months of bickering, the six Republicans and six Democrats on the "super committee" tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion debt reduction savings over the next decade have thrown in the towel.
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Russia Ups Ante with Caspian Neighbors by Moving Offshore / Politics / Russia
By: OilPrice_Com
On 16 November in Astrakhan Lukoil president, Vagit Alekperov told journalists that his company will spend over $16 billion over the next decade to develop the country's Caspian offshore Korchagin and Filanovskii oil and natural gas fields in the Caspian, at the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Astrakhan Region.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Ron Paul on the Congressional Super Committee on Federal Budget Spending Cuts / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week marks the deadline for the so-called congressional Super Committee to meet its goal of cutting a laughably small amount of federal spending over the next decade. In fact the Committee merely needs to cut about $120 billion annually from the federal budget over the next 10 years to meet its modest goals, but even this paltry amount has produced hand-wringing and hysteria on Capitol Hill. This is only cutting proposed increases. It has nothing to do with actually cutting anything. This shows how unserious politicians are about our very serious debt problems.
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Monday, November 21, 2011
World Government, Currency and the Bilderberg Group / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
By: Sam_Chee_Kong
“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had man’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlock, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” By President Woodrow Wilson on The New Freedom
Monday, November 21, 2011
Baby Boomer Blindness, Forget Retirement / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Gary_North
"MarketWatch" ran an article on the attitudes of retired Americans ages 55 to 75. The title is accurate: "Retirees are confident, but workers can't retire." But the subtitle points to the problem facing these people: "Retirees' finances recover, but one-in-four workers plan to work until 80."
The article reports on two surveys. The first is a survey of over 1,500 retirees in 2008 and 2011. These people had $100,000 or more of investable assets in 2008. Age range: 55 to 75. Think about this. Some of these people had retired at age 55. This is surely not a normal segment of the population. Second, they had at least $100,000 to invest. Is this sample representative of retired Americans?
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Obama’s Trans-Pacific Free Trade Partnership Disaster / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ian_Fletcher
Will America ever learn?
No, I guess not.
After the failed promises of NAFTA, a job-destroying trade deficit that has burgeoned despite a long series of free-trade agreements, and ever-more-aggressive foreign mercantilism, we’re plowing ahead with even more of these agreements.
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Monday, November 21, 2011
What are the Consequences of a Eurozone Break-up? / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: DK_Matai
"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." That was Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster in London on November 12, 1936, as clouds darkened over Europe, three years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Dark clouds are now hovering once again over Europe in regard to the single currency, eurozone sovereign defaults and an interlinked banking crisis. This is not going to take three years.