Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
NHS GP Doctors Putting Profit Before Patient Care, Channel 4 News Investigation / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
"Your doctor making a profit out of your health care, your GP Sending you to a clinic that he or she owns shares in, we are seeing the biggest shake up of the NHS in its history, Channel 4 news can reveal tonight that there is nothing on the legislation currently before parliament to prevent the outcome no one wants, doctors putting profit before the care of patients, in our special report tonight we show how the new arrangements will create fundamental conflicts of interest potentially harming the trust at the very heart of the doctor patient relationship". Channel 4 News
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Yellen and Gadhafi - Studies in Paranoia / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
The continued existence of the Federal Reserve System is both the greatest threat to national solvency and an insult to the American people.
On February 25, 2011, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen explored new depths of dishonor. (For an earlier depth, see: Liquidate the Fed.) At a University of Chicago Business School forum, the life-long academic claimed: "I'll highlight the role of central bank communications in bolstering the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy." [All Yellen statements are in italics.] The title of Yellen's speech was: "Unconventional Monetary Policy and Central Bank Communications." It was dishonest from beginning to end.
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Wednesday, March 02, 2011
The New Math and the New Geometry Bringing Down the State / Politics / US Politics
By: Butler_Shaffer
They [feminist groups in Iraq] are very strong. Their approach is unique because they have no leaders. They do not have a head or branch offices. . . . This movement is made even stronger by not having leaders. If one or two people lead it, the organization would weaken if these leaders were arrested. Because there is no leader, it is very strong and not stoppable. ~ Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
NATO Re-surfaced Map of the New Middle East / Politics / Middle East
By: Chris_Kitze
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya writes: A relatively unknown map of the Middle East, NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan, and Pakistan has been circulating around strategic, governmental, NATO, policy and military circles since mid-2006. It has been causally allowed to surface in public, maybe in an attempt to build consensus and to slowly prepare the general public for possible, maybe even cataclysmic, changes in the Middle East. This is a map of a redrawn and restructured Middle East identified as the “New Middle East.”
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
How American's Lost Control of Economy, Constitution and Civil Liberties / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
This essay is about three recent books that explain how we lost our economy, the Constitution and our civil liberties, and how peace lost out to war.
Matt Taibbi is the best--certainly the most entertaining--financial/political reporter in the country. There is no better book than Griftopia (2010) to which to turn to understand how stupidity, greed, and criminality, spread evenly among policymakers and Wall Street, created the financial crisis that has left Americans overburdened with both private and public debt. Taibbi walks the reader through the fraudulent financial instruments that littered the American, British, and European financial communities with toxic waste. He has figured it all out, and what in other hands might be an arcane account for MBAs is in Taibbi’s hands a highly readable and entertaining story.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Ron Paul, Congress Must Reject the Welfare/Warfare State / Politics / Government Spending
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
During the past few weeks, Congress has been locked in a battle to pass a continuing resolution to fund government operations through September. Both supporters and opponents of the bill, HR 1, claim it is a serious attempt to reduce federal spending. However, an examination of the details of the bill call that claim into question.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
We Can’t Just Compensate Free Trade’s Losers / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
It is sometimes argued that although free trade has some victims, its benefits exceed its costs, so it is possible for its winners to compensate its losers out of their gains, everyone thereby coming out ahead in the end.This is, in fact, the usual fallback position of mainstream economists once they admit that free trade has drawbacks. (They don't usually admit to civilians there are drawbacks, but press them even moderately hard and they'll usually 'fess up.)
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Extraordinary Events in the Middle East and the Coming Global Tsunami / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Global_Intel_Report
The extraordinary events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are the initial high tides of an eventual tsunami that will impact the world that globalists have so fervently promoted for decades, in ways not necessarily to their liking. The first wave has struck and is now retreating from the shore, but will shortly return with redoubled force, and what and who will be swept away and what will be left standing is anyone's guess.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
U.S. Defense Secretary Gates is Wrong, Never Fight a Land War in Asia / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking at West Point, said last week that “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.” In saying this, Gates was repeating a dictum laid down by Douglas MacArthur after the Korean War, who urged the United States to avoid land wars in Asia.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Population Reduction Through Designed Economic Collapse / Politics / Demographics
By: Chris_Kitze
John Galt writes: In case you haven’t noticed, the great culling of humanity is taking place right now. Unfortunately, preparation needs to begin for two gloomy scenarios: slow economic collapse, or catastrophic demolition.
According to the elite's own admission, Corporation Earth is bankrupt and bloated and must be downsized. In other words, that which mathematically cannot continue, will not continue; and it's time to cut the fat.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Environmental Disaster Preparedness, Five Things Every American Should Do, But Won’t / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Chris_Kitze
Dennis Evers writes: We’ve all seen him on the news. The guy buying plywood, beer, chips and other survival essentials as the approaching hurricane can be seen over his shoulder in the distance.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans aren’t much better when it comes to being prepared for emergencies. However, recent disasters have proven that the sheer magnitude of an event can overwhelm relief efforts, coupled with cutbacks in personnel, budgets and equipment, place the onus squarely on our shoulders.
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Monday, February 28, 2011
India On The Verge Of A Revolution For Corruptions / Politics / India
By: Submissions
Raju M. Mathew writes: Land of the billionaires and the Very Poor - In India, the benefit of liberalization, globalization, privatization of public enterprises, the infrastructure development with public money and the overall economic growth have been hijacked by a dozen families and their corporate houses. During the last fifteen years, they could virtually grab between 60 to 70 per cent of the natural, industrial, air and technological wealth of India, keeping over 80 of the population under poverty line. Now India has some of the richest billionaires on earth.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Ten Reasons The Banksters Get Away With It / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Danny_Schechter
The Wall Street Crime Syndrome Goes Deeper Than We Think: Q. Why No Jailings? A: It’s The System, Not Just The Prosecutors
Hats off to writer Matt Taibbi for staying on the Wall Street crime beat, asking in his most recent report in Rolling Stone: “Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?”
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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Middle East Protests Continue for People's Unmet Demands / Politics / Middle East
By: Stephen_Lendman
So far, weeks of regional protests achieved nothing. Despite ousting Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali, their regimes remain in place, offering nothing but unfulfilled promises.
On February 26, Egyptians again protested in Tahrir Square. This time, however, military forces confronted them, Reuters headlining, "Egypt military angers protesters with show of force," saying:
"Soldiers used force on Saturday to break up a protest demanding more political reform in Egypt, demonstrators said, in the toughest move yet against opposition activists who accused the country's military rulers of 'betraying the people.' "
Sunday, February 27, 2011
America's Total Surveillance Society / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
In 2003, an ACLU report warned that "Big Brother" no longer is fiction, America having advanced to where total surveillance is now possible. Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program said:"Given the capabilities of today's technology, the only thing protecting us from a full-fledged surveillance society are the legal and political institutions we have inherited as Americans. Unfortunately, the September 11 attacks have led some to embrace the fallacy that weakening the Constitution will strengthen America."
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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Bankers Using Divide and Conquer Strategies in America to Deflect Blame / Politics / US Politics
By: David_DeGraw
The global bankers, who caused our economic crisis, are attempting to deflect blame and divide the American public by escalating attacks on public-sector workers. The battle in Wisconsin, which is spreading across the entire nation, should be viewed in a global economic context. Do not let the obsolete Republican vs. Democrat charade confuse you. Even if you believe Unions have been corrupted, in this case you have to go with the strategy: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Pension Lies Lead to Riots / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Barry_M_Ferguson
In truth, almost all pensions are a lie.
The pension that comes to mind for most of us in the US is Social Security. A tax is deducted from our paychecks to fund the pension. By law, when the program takes in more than it pays out (as it did from 1982 thru 2009), it has to loan the excess to the federal government. The federal government is obligated to pay this amount back with interest when the program faces a shortfall. In 2010, it faced a shortfall. It is expected to face a shortfall in 2011. In addition to all its other debt, the federal Government now owes the Social Security Trust Fund (the account to which surpluses are loaned) some $2.5 trillion dollars. Surpluses are projected to return for the next few years but then from 2015 on, the program is expected to face deficits.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Arab Revolt And The Failed Nuclear Subprime Rout / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
MAD – MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
Top and bottom or truth and beauty quarks interest nuclear physicists, but the mutually assured
destruction of both the top and bottom, North and South parts of the global economy came very close,
and was even programmed until end December 2010. Using the lever of nuclear power and financial
assets generated around them, the intended mechanism featured a massive finance bubble driven by a
construction spree of new, industry standard, Chernobyl-sized (900 MW and over) reactors right across
the Southern emerging and developing countries, through 2010-2020.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Uncertainty in the Arab Street and Rising Food Costs / Politics / Middle East
By: HRA_Advisory
Events in Arabia have been sending flutters through the market. Egypt, by far the largest Arab state, has shifted into a virtuous economic growth cycle confirming it as an important emerging market regional centre. That said, it continues to have a high population growth and economic expansion has to be high to maintain current wealth levels. As street demonstrations go, these haven't been all that chaotic given they lack a pro rallying point. It is hard to say just what a growing Arab middle class will want beyond a say in its own governance. It was that middle class that first called for political change, but the poor who are trying to cope with rising food costs have also joined in. Both deserve some consideration.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Egypt Kiss Revolution Good Bye, Bankers Begin Quietly Carving Up North Africa / Politics / Middle East
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Richard Eastman writes: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to lend one billion EUROS a year to Egypt for reconstruction and “free-market reform”- even as Egypt’s Minister of Finance Samir Radwan has gone begging to the City of London bankers and the British Ministry of Trade and Investment for relief on debt payments that are about to throw Egypt into bankruptcy.