Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, October 29, 2010
The Shifting Financial Sands of Wealth Distribution / Politics / Social Issues
By: Barry_Elias
1913, the Federal Reserve Bank was created and the 16th amendment to the constitution was passed. This amendment provided Congress with the legal authority to tax.
At that time, the share of income earned by the top 1 percent, 0.1 percent, and 0.01 percent were 18.5 percent, 10 percent, and 4.4 percent, respectively. In 1980, these figures were dramatically reduced to 9 percent, 1 percent, and 0.5 percent, but by 2007 they increased significantly to 23.5 percent, 8.5 percent, and 3.0 percent (at or above 1913 levels).
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
The West Panics as China Extends Rare Earth Metals Export Ban / Politics / Metals & Mining
By: Money_Morning
Jason Simpkins writes: China for months has blocked shipments of rare earth metals intended for Japan in retaliation for a regional dispute. Now, China appears to have expanded its rare earth embargo to include Western countries - a move that has U.S. and European authorities scrambling to formulate a backup plan.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
How to Fix the U.S. Budget Deficit and End the Bush-Tax-Cuts Debate / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Dear Mr. President and members of Congress:
In the months that follow Tuesday's midterm elections, and into the New Year, you all face three very significant challenges. You must:
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
Globalization Creates Unemployment, American Job Losses Are Permanent / Politics / Employment
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Now that a few Democrats and the remnants of the AFL-CIO are waking up to the destructive impact of jobs offshoring on the US economy and millions of American lives, globalism’s advocates have resurrected Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter’s discredited finding of several years ago that jobs offshoring by US corporations increases employment and wages in the US.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
U.S. Threatens Iran with 'Safe' Nuclear Weapons / Politics / Iran
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
Last weekend the Pentagon lost communication with 50 intercontinental nuclear warheads, it was made public after a former US Air Force officer tweeted the news.
This mistake happened as members of the Obama Administration have been preaching about the importance over safe and secure nuclear programs. Michel Chossudovsky the Director of the Center for Research on Globalization believes the worst case scenario is when politicians are threatening to use these weapons in conventional warfare.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
US Government Agency Faulted in Nuclear Power Abandonment / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Global_Intel_Report
If you are heading north on the Chesapeake Bay, just above where the Patuxent River enters it, and you will see the Cove Point liquefied natural gas terminal and gas processing plant."
Journey on, about three miles, and you will see a superbly landscaped industrial installation that, unlike the gas terminal, blends into the cliffs of Maryland. This is the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which has been making electricity quietly, efficiently and abundantly since 1975."
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Strangelets, Black Holes and the GOD Particle / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Tom_Termotto
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator that straddles the border of France and Switzerland, is quite busy lately playing with the most basic ingredients of the universe. Much of humanity is completely oblivious to what is taking place there, even though the elemental forces of creation are being manipulated as never before. Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at some of the more profound questions surrounding this type of scientific research. For the uninitiated, a more thorough description of the LHC with many informative links has been provided below.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Facebook, A Movie That Gets It Right / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeffrey_A_Tucker
Who are the capitalist folk heroes of our time? The Social Network is a film that celebrates one of the greats, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It might seem at first like an impossibly boring story that resists movie making: how Facebook came to be founded and grew, meeting trials along the way and becoming the giant that it is today.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Engineering a Global Depression to Create a Global Government, “Crisis is an Opportunity” / Politics / Global Economy
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The following is a sample from an forthcoming book by Andrew Gavin Marshall on 'Global Government', Global Research Publishers, Montreal. For more by this author on the issue of the economic crisis and global governance, see the recently-released book by the Centre for Research on Globalization, "The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century," co-edited with Michel Chossudovsky, in which the author contributed three chapters on the history of central banking, the rise of a global currency and global central bank, and the political economy of global government.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Economic Crisis and The Protest Movement: French Lessons for U.S. Workers / Politics / Social Issues
By: Shamus_Cooke
The world watches as France once again erupts in protests, demonstrations, and strikes. So much is at stake. If France's corporate-dominated government is able to increase the retirement age, other governments will be empowered to follow through with their plans to do the same.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
U.S. Midterm Elections, Obama and Iran / Politics / US Congressional Elections
By: STRATFOR
We are a week away from the 2010 U.S. midterm elections. The outcome is already locked in. Whether the Republicans take the House or the Senate is close to immaterial. It is almost certain that the dynamics of American domestic politics will change. The Democrats will lose their ability to impose cloture in the Senate and thereby shut off debate. Whether they lose the House or not, the Democrats will lose the ability to pass legislation at the will of the House Democratic leadership. The large majority held by the Democrats will be gone, and party discipline will not be strong enough (it never is) to prevent some defections.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Cutting the Welfare State, Paris Dithers While London Shows the Way / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: PARIS – Strikes, demonstrations, and blockages of fuel deliveries continue here in Paris, and across France. However, the protests and strikes this week are not as intense as the ones over past weeks. But are promised this month and until year end. More disruptions of ground, underground and air travel are threatened.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
United States Judgment Days / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
On November 2, the voters go to the polls. On November 3, the Federal Reserve goes to the mat.
On November 2, the voters will get to judge the United States Congress. On November 3, the Federal Reserve gets to judge the Federal Reserve.
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Monday, October 25, 2010
Wikileaks, U.S. Iraq War Genocide Civilian Deaths Could Top 1million / Politics / Iraq War
By: Global_Research
Nicolas Davies writes: The documents on the U.S. War in Iraq published by Wikileaks contained data on 15,000 Iraqis killed in incidents that were previously unreported in the Western media or by the Iraqi Health Ministry, and therefore not counted in compilations of reported Iraqi war deaths by Iraqbodycount.org. The Western media are dutifully adding these 15,000 deaths to their so-called "estimates" of the total numbers of Iraqis killed in the war. This is deceptive. What the unreported deaths really demonstrate is that the passive methodology of these body counts is a woefully inadequate way to try and estimate the number of deaths in a war zone. These 15,000 deaths are only the tip of an iceberg of hundreds of thousands of unreported Iraqi deaths that have already been detected by more serious and scientific epidemiological studies, but the U.S. and British governments have successfully suppressed these studies by confusing the media and the public about their methods and accuracy.
Monday, October 25, 2010
The Secret War Between Wikileaks and the Pentagon / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
It happened on a Friday, the anniversary of the first US casualties of the Vietnam War way back in l957. It was also the anniversary, in l964, of French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre’s announcement that he was turning down the Nobel Prize. He later sat as a judge on Bertrand Russell’s Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, which indicted that conflict’s carnage and lies.
Monday, October 25, 2010
French Students Instead of Rioting Should Celebrate Pension Reform / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: MISES
François Melese writes: Images of angry French students burning vehicles and demonstrating in the streets fill the world's TV screens. Sadly, several young demonstrators have been seriously injured. French youth may be gathering in the streets, and yet the fight is not over education or job-training policies but about a pension reform that postpones retirement.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Coalition Government Huge NHS No Spending Cuts Blunder Continues to Bankrupt Britain / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The coalition government announcement of spending cuts was crippled from the outset as a consequence of ring fencing the biggest spending departments whilst the mainstream media obsessed over 30% cuts to far smaller departments, the consequences of which are that total UK government spending will NOT fall for ANY year.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wikileaks Nukes Pentagon's Lies and Deceit on Iraq and Afghanistan Wars / Politics / Iraq War
By: Pravda
Wikileaks may cause irreparable damage to the United States as it continues to declassify the information about the activities of US and allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. On October 19th, the Pentagon urged mass media not to distribute the information which appears on Wikileaks not to make the controversial website obtain the reputation of a reliable source of information.
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
Russian State's Strangehold Over Economy Needs to be Cut / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
The Russian economic model must change to ensure stable economic growth to the country. Nearly all developing economies of the world have retrieved the growth which they had prior to the economic crisis. Russia is expected to achieve the same by 2011. The Russian economy mostly depends on oil and gas, and the state shows two much presence in the economy - these are two biggest problems of the Russian economy, according to Newsweek magazine.
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Haves, The Have Nots and the Dreamless Dead / Politics / Social Issues
By: Trader_Mark
A very nice piece via Reuters (quite lengthy - good for weekend reading to cheer you up) touching on themes we've been very early on. In fact I am starting to see a lot of things in terms of income inequality, wealth concentration, loss of job security, fear of children living worse than their parents, failure of of creating "the American dream" for the masses, and such starting to pop up.