Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Forty-four Million Americans Living in Poverty, Failure of Capitalism? / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: The number of people living in poverty in America rose to 43.6 million in 2009, the US Census Bureau reported Thursday. This is the largest number since the agency began making such estimates 50 years ago and represents an increase of 3.8 million compared to 2008.
As of last year, one in every seven Americans was poor, according to the government’s definition of poverty. The official poverty rate of 14.3 percent is the highest since 1994.
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Friday, September 17, 2010
China's Next Generation of Leaders, Looking to 2012 / Politics / China
By: STRATFOR
In 2012, the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) leaders will retire and a new generation — the so-called fifth generation — will take the helm. The transition will affect the CPC’s most powerful decision-making organs, determining the makeup of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee, and most important, the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee that is the core of political power in China.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Government Jobs, It's Not about Personnel; It's about Power / Politics / Government Spending
By: Robert_Murphy
Market analysts have been trying to predict President Obama's pick to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Earlier this week Obama and other administration officials hinted that the spot would be filled by Elizabeth Warren, a hero to progressive activists but anathema to the banking industry. (As of Wednesday evening, Warren had been confirmed as a "special adviser" though her ultimate status still remained up in the air.) The whole episode underscores the profound difference between adversarial government operations and peaceful, win-win market activities.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Glenn Beck the Socialist / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Dr. Phil Maymin writes: Glenn Beck is a polarizing person among libertarians. Some laud him for being one of the few voices on television to criticize both Democrats and Republicans as being equally complicit in growing the size of government and pointing out that there is no significant difference between them. Others view him as a phony usurper of the freedom movement.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
U.S. Economy and Economic Stimulus, Why Can’t Politicians Understand What is Really Happening? / Politics / US Politics
By: Toby_Connor
Every time I hear a politician or economist call for more stimuli to create jobs I just shake my head and wonder, do these people really not understand what is happening in the jobs market? Do they really not understand that government can't legislate prosperity? All governments can do is steal from...errr I mean tax its citizens and then throw their funds away on nonproductive ‘make work’ jobs.
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
Washington Turf Wars / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: OilPrice_Com
Washington’s bureaucratic turf wars are a dismal reality of politics in Beltwayistan, but are now threatening national policy, as competing agendas threaten policies extending far beyond the continental U.S.
In two of the most notable recent examples, the Kazakh “Giffengate” corruption case and attempts to extradite notorious “Lord of War” Viktor Bout to the United States, eager federal officials in both cases are running up against other government elements content to let both cases lie fallow, notably the CIA and Pentagon.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Central Banking's "Grotesque" War on Your Money / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Adrian_Ash
Nobody wins this war of attrition, however much money they print up and shell into the market...
DURING the Second World War, Nazi Germany hatched a plot to flood Britain with fake bank notes.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
How Corporations Own the US Congress / Politics / US Politics
By: Shamus_Cooke
With the November elections quickly approaching, the majority of Americans will be thinking one thing: "Who cares?” This apathy isn't due to ignorance, as some accuse. Rather, working people's disinterest in the two party system implies intelligence: millions of people understand that both the Democrats and Republicans will not represent their interests in Congress.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Obama's $50 Billion "Infrastructure" Gift to the Wall Street Banks / Politics / Government Spending
By: Michael_Hudson
I can smell the newest giveaway looming a mile off. The Wall Street bailout, health-insurance giveaway and support of real estate prices rather than mortgage-debt write-downs were bad enough, not to mention the Oil War¹s Afghan extension. But now comes a topper: the $50 billion transportation infrastructure plan that Obama proposed in Milwaukee cynically enough, on Labor Day. It looks like the Thatcherite Public-Private Partnership, Britain¹s notorious giveaway to the City of London underwriters. The financial giveaway had the effect of increasing prices for basic infrastructure services by building in heavy financial fees guaranteed for the banks, who lent the money that banks and property owners used to pay in taxes in more progressive times.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
One in Seven Americans Now Living in Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: Census figures for 2009, to be released Thursday, are expected to show that the poverty rate soared last year to nearly 15 percent. One out of every seven Americans is now living below the official poverty level, the highest proportion since the 1960s. One in five American children is living in poverty.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Nuclear Renaissance or The End of Nations ? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Internet is a vast rumour mill and Internet-thinking can lead to paranoia and selfdelusion.
This has infected the so-called "Nuclear debate" just like the Climate debate, the
Peak oil debate, the Environment debate and other mix-and-muddle mass readership
themes generated by political and corporate elites, put through the rumour mill, and
sterilized.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Bizarre Background of the ‘911’ New York Mosque / Politics / US Politics
By: F_William_Engdahl
For days the headline in US and even world news has been whether or not a fanatic Christian preacher from a tiny Florida church will or will not burn the Moslem Koran in protest to the announced plans to build a mosque 400 meters from the site of the World Trade Twin Towers. Conveniently, the drama was focused on the 9th anniversary of the collapse of three (not two as widely believed) towers on September 11, 2001. Now details about the real estate group that is allegedly ready to invest $100 million in the mosque construction suggest that the entire drama is being deliberately orchestrated. The question is by whom to what ends?
Monday, September 13, 2010
The New U.S. Ghost Towns / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jennifer_Barry
When you think of ghost towns, you probably imagine a mining settlement abandoned once the resource was depleted, like Bannock, Montana or Kolmanskop, Namibia. You may think of tumbleweeds blowing down vacant streets, or sand dunes covering vacant shops.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Patriotism as a Threat to Capitalism / Politics / Social Issues
By: Kel_Kelly
[From The Case for Legalizing Capitalism] - Having learned that the government acts in ways detrimental to its citizens economically, and by causing wars, we should ask exactly why we support our politicians, why we support most of our military operations, and why we support our very national identity. In short, we should ask ourselves why we are patriotic.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Politicians Get Away with Systematic Theft by Fostering Fiscal Euphemisms / Politics / Taxes
By: Robert_Murphy
One of the ways politicians get away with systematic theft is by fostering euphemisms to describe their activities. Murray Rothbard pointed out some of the typical tricks. More recently, even the supposedly "right-of-center" economists Greg Mankiw and Martin Feldstein do their part to muddy the terminological waters, making it harder for the public to understand just how much they're getting ripped off.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Health Care Industry is all About Maximising Profit / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Pravda
Once upon a time in America, people became doctors and nurses because they wanted to help people, building hospitals was a labor of love, lawyers didn't chase ambulances, health insurance companies did not openly abuse their customers and greedy pharmaceutical companies did not dominate the entire health care industry. But today all of that has changed. Why do most people choose a career in the health care industry today? It is because they want to make a lot of money and live a comfortable lifestyle.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Huge U.S. Debt Could Lead to Military Impotence, Default or Revolution / Politics / US Debt
By: Washingtons_Blog
As I have repeatedly pointed out, the American military and intelligence leaders say that debt is the main national security threat to the U.S.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Save the Banks and Kill the Economy / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Prof_Rodrigue_Trembl
"The problems we face today cannot be solved by the minds that created them."Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
"I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained."U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, April 20 2007
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Sunday, September 12, 2010
America Was Founded as a Protectionist Nation / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
Contemporary American politics is conducted in the shadow of historical myths that inform our present-day choices. Unfortunately, these myths sometimes lead us terribly astray. Case in point is the popular idea that America’s economic tradition has been economic liberty, laissez faire, and wide-open cowboy capitalism. This notion sounds obvious, and it fits the image of this country held by both the Right, which celebrates this tradition, and the Left, which bemoans it. And it seems to imply, among other things, that free trade is the American Way. Don’t Tread On Me or my right to import.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Obama Is Clueless on the Economy / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dian_L_Chu
On Labor Day, President Obama announced a new $50-billion infrastructure plan next year as a way of a second stimulus for job creations as well as for the faltering economic recovery. However, the plan is expected to be met with strong opposition in the midst of a mid-term election, while many economists are skeptical as to any swift effect it could have on America's $14.3 trillion economy, as well as the troubling labor market.