Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
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.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
U.S. Economic Recovery? What Recovery? / Politics / Economic Recovery
By: Stephen_Lendman
There is none, and it's getting worse under a president and his predecessor's policies - engineering and sustaining economic decline, not recovery, Obama's latest announced job creation program as bogus as his April 2009 $787 billion stimulus. At the time, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, besides bailing out Wall Street, it would create millions of jobs and get credit flowing again.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Obama Walking in Reagan's Shoes / Politics / US Economy
By: Mike_Whitney
The Fed's Beige Book, which was released on Wednesday, provides a sobering look at an economy that is sputtering-along on empty. Nearly all the districts reported slower activity amid "widespread signs of deceleration". The stimulus-fueled rebound, which powered GDP above 5% two quarters earlier, has progressively dissipated slashing growth to an anemic 1.6%. As underemployment has soared to 16.5% and deflation has continued to tighten its grip, all talk of a "recovery" has ceased and policymakers have grown more tentative, unwilling to do anything that might cost them votes in the upcoming midterm elections.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
America Is Not a Normal Country / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Anthony Gregory writes: In a normal country, war is front-page news. It is a big deal to invade and bomb another nation. Most of the world’s people can probably name all the foreign governments their own government is at war with. If any other industrialized nation were bombing Pakistan, for example, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, the average taxpayer would be aware. It would be the biggest news story. If you are a typical person living in a normal country, and your government threatens to invade, say, Eritrea, you would probably hear something about it. And you would probably even want to know where Eritrea is on a map.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9/11 – A Fourth Turning Perspective / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
The four turnings comprise a quaternal social cycle of growth, maturation, entropy, and death (and rebirth). In a spring like High, a society fortifies and builds and converges in an era of promise. In a summer like Awakening, it dreams and plays and exults in an era of euphoria. In an autumnal Unraveling, it harvests and consumes and diverges in an era of anxiety. In a hibernal Crisis, it focuses and struggles and sacrifices in an era of survival. When the saeculum is in motion, therefore, no long human lifetime can go by without a society confronting its deepest spiritual and worldly needs. - The Fourth Turning
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Gods of Money, Wall Street and the Death of the American Century / Politics / Resources & Reviews
By: Reg_Little
William Engdahl’s latest book is another awesome exploration and explanation of the boldness and failings of Anglo-American global strategy over most of the past century and a half. Engdahl recalls in his introduction a statement from the 1970’s attributed to then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a protégé of the powerful Rockefeller circles, in which he declared, “If you control the oil, you control entire nations; if you control the food, you control the people; if you control the money, you control the entire world.”
Friday, September 10, 2010
Global Warming, Must We Do Something, Anything? / Politics / Climate Change
By: MISES
Robert Blumen writes: A friend of mine sent me a link to a video labeled "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See." According to YouTube, this video has been viewed over 3.5 million times. Narrator Greg Craven, a high-school science teacher, presents an application of the precautionary principle to the debate over anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Craven claims to have found an argument that does not depend on the resolution of the scientific controversy — a "silver bullet argument," an argument that leads to an "inescapable conclusion," one "that even the most hardened skeptic and the most panicked activist can agree on."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Happy Anniversary to the Northern Wreck of the Rock / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Adrian_Ash
How saving the savers is costing the savers so dear...
On the MORNING of Weds 12 Sept. 2007, Northern Rock – the UK's fifth-largest mortgage bank – ran a banner advertisement across the lower front-page of Britain's best-selling broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph.
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Hamid Karzai And Hillary Clinton Engineering The Afghan War For Democracy / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Danny_Schechter
Oh, Hamid, Oh Hillary: How your worlds converge and diverge.
The Secretary of State was shuttling between Washington where peace in the Middle East remains elusive to New York to where the poobahs and her protégés at the Council on Foreign Relations welcomed her as the second coming.
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Thursday, September 09, 2010
Socialism as a Reaction to State Corruption / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Anders Mikkelsen writes: Ambrose Bierce defined politics as a "strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." In the past many famous thinkers have noticed contemporary and historical examples of state corruption matching this definition, and these examples in turn were the inspiration for many a socialist thought.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
The Path to 9-11, CIA Builds a Credible Enemy For America / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
This article summarizes earlier writings by the author on 9/11 and the role of Al Qaeda in US foreign policy. For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005
"The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings....The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books,..", (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Obama Stimulus More About Politics Than Jobs / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday (Wednesday) finished unveiling of a $350 billion stimulus package that the White House hopes will assuage the fears of troubled homeowners and create jobs. But with midterm elections looming and Congressional Democrats expected to sustain heavy losses, it's unlikely the plan will even get passed - much less generate any meaningful economic growth.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Genetically Engineered Forests, Altering the Chemistry of the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere / Politics / Climate Change
By: Global_Research
Rady Ananda writes: Imagine our declining pollinators – bees, moths, butterflies and bats – coming upon thousands of acres of toxic trees, genetically engineered so that every cell in the tree exudes pesticide, from crown to root. Imagine a world without pollinators. Without seed dispersers. Without soil microbes.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
9/11, Al-Qeada and the 9-Year War / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: STRATFOR
It has now been nine years since al Qaeda attacked the United States. It has been nine years in which the primary focus of the United States has been on the Islamic world. In addition to a massive investment in homeland security, the United States has engaged in two multi-year, multi-divisional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, inserted forces in other countries in smaller operations and conducted a global covert campaign against al Qaeda and other radical jihadist groups.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Al-Qaeda and the Anglo-American Terror Network / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The End of the Cold War and Strategy for the New World Order
With the end of the Cold War a new strategy had to be determined to manage the global system. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, declarations of a “New World Order” sprang forward, focusing on the United States as the single world superpower. This presented a great many challenges as well as opportunities for the worlds most powerful hegemon.
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Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Eurozone Banks Are Still Wobbly / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Whitney
The EU banking system is in big trouble. That's why European Central Bank (ECB) head Jean-Claude Trichet continues to purchase government bonds and provide "unlimited funds" for underwater banks. It's an effort to prevent a financial system meltdown that could plunge the eurozone back into recession.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Successful Government Economic Policies? For Whom? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, in the wake of another uptick in the official unemployment rate, the administration continued to claim that their economic policies were working, just not fast enough. This administration inherited an unemployment rate of 7.7% and promised a peak of no higher than 8% if their policies were followed. Not only does the administration have a funny way of ending a war, but now they claim their economic policies are successful. For whom, I wonder?
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Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Sustainable Tax Policy: Expensing Investments / Politics / Taxes
By: Axel_Merk
In what the Wall Street Journal hails as “one of his most dramatic gestures to business,” President Obama is proposing companies be allowed to write off 100% of their new investment in plant and equipment through 2011. Democrats are lukewarm to the idea as it doesn’t “stimulate demand”; Republicans are shooting down the idea, too. Few seem to realize is that allowing businesses to expense their investments may be the single most effective policy tool available to promote sustainable economic growth.
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Tuesday, September 07, 2010
The Poor and Socialism vs Capitalism / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Kel Kelly writes: Socialists commonly cite the existence of the poor as a reason for socialism, and they claim that their concern for the poor shows compassion and morality. Since the topic of poverty is a key battleground in the war of socialism versus capitalism, it is relevant to examine what poverty is, how much of it exists in the United States, and how we can truly eliminate it.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Israel Prepares to Attack Iran With WMD's, Could Trigger World War III / Politics / Middle East
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
The stockpiling and deployment of advanced weapons systems directed against Iran started in the immediate wake of the 2003 bombing and invasion of Iraq. From the outset, these war plans were led by the US, in liaison with NATO and Israel. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration identified Iran and Syria as the next stage of “the road map to war”. US military sources intimated that an aerial attack on Iran could involve a large scale deployment comparable to the US "shock and awe" bombing raids on Iraq in March 2003: