Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Libya Regime Change, Panic After The Picnic / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
REGIME CHANGE :
Presented by mainstream media as a kind of high-tech "turkey shoot", the military intervention in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi regime threatens serious blowback. Through a fatal combination of analytic and judgemental errors, the Libyan regime-change experiment will deliver unwanted results, and a possible long delay before oil export supply recovers pre-war levels. Other unwanted effects could include added confidence and determination for what is loosely called "Political Islam", but in fact is an ethnic, religious and community-based Arab and Muslim identity quest that is basically hostile to and replaces the nation state concept, as well as western democracy the way it is preached and practised.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Disintegrate the Eurozone to Solve the European Sovereign Debt Crisis / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
It's often difficult to comprehend - much less internalize - the risks posed by the European sovereign debt crisis.
But understand this: If Europe's problems aren't resolved in an orderly fashion, the stock market drops we saw last month will be small potatoes compared to the steep declines that lie ahead.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011
Libya's Slippery Oil Prize / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Andrew_McKillop
Muammar Qaddafi’s exactly 42 year-old regime is now firmly on its way into the dustbin of history, sealing the fate of his quixotic and brutal administration that many outsiders found more comic rather than dangerous - but above all supplied high quality light sweet crude.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Why the European Union Could be Dead Within a Week / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
The clock may be ticking on the future of the European Union (EU).
After being shaken to its core by the sovereign debt crisis, the entire Eurozone now runs the risk of blowing up within a week.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Cutting Government Spending Will Increase the Budget Deficit / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Mike_Whitney
The US consumer's decade-long spending spree has ended, but there's still an ocean of red ink left to mop up. And with housing prices falling and unemployment tipping 9 percent, it will take longer to clear the family balance sheet than many had anticipated.
Traditionally, the government has helped to ease the pain of deleveraging by providing fiscal stimulus to boost economic activity and lower the real cost of debt. But Capital Hill is now in the grips of deficit hawks who frown on such Keynesian remedies, so households and consumers will have to fend for themselves and pay-down debts as best as they can or default when repayment is no longer possible . That's bad news for the economy that depends on consumers for 71 percent of GDP. Without a healthy consumer, the economy will face years of sluggishness and stagnation.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
U.S. Presidential Election 2012 and Sound Money / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
Walter Williams has been a professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia since 1980. He is the author of many books, hundreds of articles and a weekly syndicated column. You may have caught some of his many radio and television appearances - a champion of free-market economics speaking out against socialism and intrusive government. He has described laissez-faire capitalism as "the most moral and most productive system man has ever devised."
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Russia and China's Energy Dispute and the Struggle for Eurasian Dominance / Politics / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
China's voracious appetite for energy from anywhere has led most oil-producing nations to attempt to feed the dragon, including Russia.
But a curious situation has developed as regards Russian oil exports to the Celestial Kingdom, underlining that the two nations, which fought for global supremacy over the Communist movement for four decades, remain at best, "frenemies."
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Can we Trust Government Statistics on the Economy? / Politics / Economic Statistics
By: Gary_Dorsch
Whenever speaking before a Congressional committee, former Fed chief, “Easy” Al Greenspan was fond of saying, “I guess I should warn you. If I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I’ve said.” His protégé, Fed chief Ben “Bubbles” Bernanke borrowed the script from his mentor, and speaking in the shadow of the majestic Grand Teton mountains, before a symposium of G-20 central bankers, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on August 26th, - left most his audience wondering what he meant.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Libya Premature Victory Celebration / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
The war in Libya is over. More precisely, governments and media have decided that the war is over, despite the fact that fighting continues. The unfulfilled expectation of this war has consistently been that Moammar Gadhafi would capitulate when faced with the forces arrayed against him, and that his own forces would abandon him as soon as they saw that the war was lost. What was being celebrated last week, with presidents, prime ministers and the media proclaiming the defeat of Gadhafi, will likely be true in due course. The fact that it is not yet true does not detract from the self-congratulations.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Mission Accomplished in Libya? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Even as a major hurricane hit America's eastern seaboard, the administration is determined to expand the war in Libya while threatening the regime in Syria. Is there any limit to government's appetite to create more problems for our nation and economy?
Americans may be tempted to celebrate the apparent victory of US and NATO backed rebels in Libya, since it seems the Gaddafi regime is overthrown. But I believe any enthusiasm for our Libyan misadventure is premature.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
U.S. Avoid Trade War? We're Already In One! / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ian_Fletcher
Whenever protectionists like myself demand that the U.S. government do something to stand up for America in global trade, we are shouted down with the stern admonition, "You'll start a trade war."
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The West Wants to take Control of Libya's Oil Wealth / Politics / Middle East
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
While Libyan revolutionaries have not yet won the war in the oil-rich country, Western powers are already discussing the post-Gaddafi period on such issues as how the interim government there needs to honor its oil contracts.
In case of internal fighting in Libyan crisis, will the US and its coalition NATO allies deploy boots on the ground to protect their oil interests?
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Trade With China and India Will Not Collapse America's Economy / Politics / US Economy
By: Gary_North
For over half a century, I have read warnings that free trade is a threat to America. The freer it gets, the more we are told that slave labor in Asia is threatening the workers of America.
We hear calls for fair trade. Who is to decide what is fair trade? Congress. Ah, yes: Congress. The source of fairness if ever there was one. No special interests there, putting their PAC-filled fingers on the balance scale of justice.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Behind Closed Doors at the Fed: Ten Years of Research into America's Central Bank / Politics / Central Banks
By: EWI
During the past few years, The Federal Reserve has engaged in a "deliberate inflating policy."
This policy earned disfavor, both at home and abroad.
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Why Congress Blocking the Debt Ceiling Increase Will Launch an Economic Boom / Politics / US Debt
By: Submissions
Pieter Schoonheim Samara writes: The general population hasn’t been taught the economics of the private sector free enterprise Capitalism as it relates to Freedom (audio link) in many decades, nor that private sector capitalism is the opposite side of the same coin of Liberty upon which the Constitution is based.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Western Mainstream Media Complicit in NATO War Crimes in Libya / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Finian_Cunningham
Libya represents a new low in Western government war crimes – which is something of a disturbing record given the decades of war criminality by these governments.
In Libya, not only is there the criminal military assault on a sovereign country, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the murder of women and children, and all the violation of international law that that entails – we now have the complete lobotomisation of language and normal meaning of words.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
German Court Wields Huge Economic Power / Politics / Financial Markets 2011
By: John_Browne
With investors now emerging from a state of panic after the harrowing losses of late July and August, stock markets are now rising and gold is finally falling after a record run that pushed its price north of $1,900 per ounce. The buoyant mood is largely undergirded by the hope that on this Friday, August 26th, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce another round of stimulus to stop the U.S. economy from slipping back into another recession.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Libya After Gadhafi: Transitioning from Rebellion to Rule / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
Scott Stewart writes: With the end of the Gadhafi regime seemingly in sight, it is an opportune time to step back and revisit one of the themes we discussed at the beginning of the crisis: What comes after the Gadhafi regime?
As the experiences of recent years in Iraq and Afghanistan have vividly illustrated, it is far easier to depose a regime than it is to govern a country. It has also proved to be very difficult to build a stable government from the remnants of a long-established dictatorial regime. History is replete with examples of coalition fronts that united to overthrow an oppressive regime but then splintered and fell into internal fighting once the regime they fought against was toppled. In some cases, the power struggle resulted in a civil war more brutal than the one that brought down the regime. In other cases, this factional strife resulted in anarchy that lasted for years as the iron fist that kept ethnic and sectarian tensions in check was suddenly removed, allowing those issues to re-emerge.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Media Campaign to Undermine Ron Paul's Presidential Candidacy Begins Again / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Picking up where they left off in 2008, the media is in the midst of a campaign to ignore and undermine the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul (they gave me even rougher treatment during my 2010 Senate run). Political pundits just do not know what to do with a candidate who fails to fit into the blue and red boxes that form the simple narrative of American politics. They are perturbed by the grass roots nature of the campaign, by the strange honesty and earnestness of the candidate and his supporters, and the odd mixture of conservative values and liberty-minded policies. And like most adolescents, they reject what they don't understand.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Libya's Post Gadhaffi Future - Who gets the Oil? / Politics / Oil Companies
By: OilPrice_Com
Muammar Gadhaffi's 42 year-old regime is in its death rattle - maybe today, maybe tomorrow, his administration that has ruled Libya with a quixotic and brutal hand is about to pass, in Trotsky's piquant phrase, "into the dustbin of history," prompting the question "what next?"