Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Russia-Germany Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline Under Way / Politics / Natural Gas
By: Global_Intel_Report
SITUATION: Russia has succeeded in getting funding for the Nord Stream gas pipeline (formerly North European Gas Pipeline, NEGP), which will go under the Baltic Sea to Germany. It obtained environmental approvals from the littoral states concerned rather easily and earlier this year began to lay the pipes undersea.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, October 01, 2010
BMA, NHS GP Doctors Do Not Want Competition, Value for Money or Patient Choice / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The British Medical Association (BMA) representing NHS GP Doctors has belatedly gone on the offensive against the coalition government's plans for reforming the NHS by introducing a market for competing GP consortiums to manage most of the NHS £100 billion budget. NHS GP's do not want competition because it would mean a more commercial health service where patients are able to freely move to the better run GP surgeries which risks putting failing GP surgeries out of business and fellow GP's out of work.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Remedies for Our Ailing Healthcare Policies / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Elias
What is the importance of $148 and $7,285?
Answer: Both represent the U.S. healthcare expenditures per capita: the former in 1960, the latter in 2007.
In 2007, the United States spent more per capita on healthcare than any nation in the world, excluding Luxembourg, Monaco, and Norway, which spent slightly more. Yet, the mortality parameters suggest otherwise: our worldwide ranking for life expectancy and infant mortality are 50 and 45, respectively.
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Friday, October 01, 2010
House China Tariff Bill Will Take America Down the Wrong Road / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:
The U.S. House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly passed a bill that would enable the Obama administration to impose punitive tariffs on almost all Chinese imports into the United States - a controversial move that's intended to punish China for refusing to revalue its currency.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Obama's War Against Pakistanis / Politics / US Politics
By: Jack_D_Douglas
I watched an interview with Bob Woodward about his new book, Obama's War. It was mostly inside-dopsterish Woodward at his worst. But at the end a young anchor asked him what the U.S. attacks in Pakistan were going to produce in the near future. He smiled in his all-knowing and impish way, said he could not really say [of course], but "I think you should strap yourself in!" Translation: you ain't seen nothing yet, so hang on Sloopy and fasten your seatbelt for a wild ride ahead.
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Friday, October 01, 2010
Paul Krugman a Shill for the Corporate State / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: LewRockwell
Murray Sabrin writes: Paul Krugman wears many hats – Princeton University professor, New York Times columnist, Nobel Laureate in Economics (2008), prolific author of scholarly books and journal articles, and now president of the Eastern Economic Association. The EEA is a regional scholarly group which publishes a journal and holds an annual academic conference in New York City every other year. The EEA is housed in the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College, where I have taught Corporate Finance and Financial Markets and Institutions for the past 25 years.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Floating Alternative to Nabucco Natural Gas Pipeline Materializes, Stabilizing European Energy Supplies / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
The “floating alternative to the US-sponsored Nabucco” pipeline network to bring Central Asian gas supplies to Europe and the Mediterranean has begun to materialize, further transforming or limiting the prospects for the Nabucco project which has been emerging as an expensive option led by the US strategy to bring Turkey into the European mainstream.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Another Domino Falls: UK’s Leading Scientific Body Retreats on Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Submissions
Patrick Henningsen writes: The UK’s leading scientific body has decided to rewrite its own definitive guide on climate change, now admitting that it is “not known” how much warmer the planet will become.
The Royal Society has released a new guide which outlines its retreat from its former vanguard stance on the threat of climate change and man-made global warming. The decision to update their scientific guide came after 43 of its members complained that the previous versions failed to take into account the opinion of climate change sceptics.
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Thursday, September 30, 2010
When The Taliban Calls, Should We Answer? / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
There is a saying I may be twisting in the retelling to the effect of what you do unto others will be done onto you. In Karmic terms, it boils down to what goes around cones around. These thoughts come to mind as I wrestle with a dilemma that seems to be worming its way out of the soil of a country at war overseas and with itself.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
America’s China Currency Bashing, A Compendium of Junk Economics / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_Hudson
It is traditional for politicians to blame foreigners for problems that their own policies have caused. And in today’s zero-sum economies, it seems that if America is losing leadership position, other nations must be the beneficiaries. Inasmuch as China has avoided the financial overhead that has painted other economies into a corner, nationalistic U.S. politicians and journalists are blaming it for America’s declining economic power. I realize that balance-of-payments accounting and international trade theory are arcane topics, but I promise that by the time you finish this article, you will understand more than 99% of U.S. economists and diplomats striking this self-righteous pose.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
China Cuts off Supply of Rare Earth Metals Hits Pentagon Laser Guided Bombs / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Mike_Shedlock
Last Sunday in Prepare for Currency/Trade Wars; How Might China Respond to US Tariffs? I mentioned the possibility China might shut off exports of rare earth metals used in making glass for solar panels, motors that help propel hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius, and laser guided bombs.
Indeed, it was the shutoff of rare earth metals to Japan that caused Japan to "cry uncle" and release a Chinese boat captain detained by the Japanese in disputed waters.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
U.S. Social Inequality Income Gap Hits Record High / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
David Walsh writes: Figures released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau reveal sharply worsening conditions for tens of millions of Americans under the impact of the economic crisis and the accumulation of vast wealth by a relative handful.
Some of the figures, for particular states and regions, are simply staggering. Michigan residents experienced a 6.2 percent decrease in median income in the course of one year, from 2008 to 2009, while Illinois has suffered a 24 percent increase in poverty in the past decade. More than 36 percent of Detroit’s population officially lives in poverty.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Financial Fraud and the Global Derivatives Casino, Mechanisms of the Scam / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Matthias_Chang
Basel Accords III is another crude endeavour by BIS and Global Too Big To Fail Banks to cover up their scams and shore up the global derivative casino.
Part 1 - The Mechanics of the Derivative Scam
The fact that common folks in the US and other developed countries have not come out in arms to lynch the central bankers and their accomplices in Wall Street and other banking centres is an indication how effective the financial elites have been able to hoodwink and confuse the masses.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Funky Town Finance Meets The Nuclear Renaissance / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
Like a Marlene Dietrich show in a remake of 1945 Berlin, surrounded by Soviet troop hordes, the nuclear sales show has to go on. The vaunted “Nuclear Renaissance” which is being proclaimed by the industry could see more than 200 new reactors built during the 2010-2020 decade, rivalling the industry’s previous high-water mark of 1975-1985 when one new reactor came on line, on average, every 17 days. The image of cheap, clean, safe and low carbon energy which is also secure – despite the uranium being mostly imported – has seduced political deciders and the corporate elite, worldwide. But the reality behind this romantic green image of a nuclear panacea to future energy needs is something altogether different.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Western Civilization Lies Dying / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Kozy
The Western commercial system exists to extract more from consumers than it supplies in products and services. Its goal is profit and has never been to improve the human condition but to exploit it. When governments institutionalize this system, they place their nations on suicidal paths, because as Jefferson recognized, "Merchants have no country." It is not terrorism that threatens the security of the Western World, it is the Western World's commercial system.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Can Politicians Help Us? / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Kel_Kelly
The word "politician" usually comes with a negative connotation. It often brings to mind thieving, lying, corruption, and malfeasance. Nonetheless, most people seem to look to politicians to manage their world for them, to protect them, and to make their lives better. In every instance of local or national elections, citizens are deeply focused on choosing the politician they think will do the best for their community or nation. They seek politicians with experience, knowledge, insights, and ideas. They seek a leader.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Free National Health Services, Time is Price / Politics / NHS
By: MISES
Predrag Rajsic writes: Canadian emergency rooms are infamous for their long wait times.[1] A recent study has shown that in most of them the average wait time exceeds 6 hours and sometimes reaches up to 23 hours. While some call for action in reducing these extremely high figures by increasing the supply of healthcare services, others try to present the situation as, in principle, an unavoidable fact of life.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
U.S.-China Trade Tensions Evident in Futile House Currency Bill / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Jason Simpkins writes:
The U.S. House of Representatives today (Wednesday) will vote on legislation that would let the U.S. government take punitive actions against countries that undervalue their currencies.
The bill isn't likely to have any tangible impact on U.S. policy, but it's yet another manifestation of the growing friction between the world's two greatest economic powers.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The US Does Not Own Or Control Its Money System / Politics / Central Banks
By: Graham_Summers
What is money?
Most of our adult lives are devoted to making this stuff. Next to food, water, and sleep it’s the #1 concern for most human beings in the US. Nearly 80% of divorced couples cite financial difficulties as a reason for the divorce. And the American Psychological Association reports that 73% of Americans cite money as a source of significant stress.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Don’t Fear a Trade War With China / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
The House Ways and Means Committee has just approved a bill that would attempt, albeit modestly, to crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit. The Ryan-Murphy currency bill (HR 2378) would allow the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy for the purpose of calculating countervailing duties intended as retaliation. This bill has to be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the Senate before becoming effective, but already the prophets of doom are squealing about the dangers of starting a trade war with China. They are wrong.Read full article... Read full article...