Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
U.S. Government Funding Corruption and Waste in Afghanistan / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know - that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Government Strategy Towards NHS Privatisation Via GP Doctors New Spending Powers / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
NHS GP's are salivating at the prospects of getting their hands on a £70 billion annual pot of gold. The governments announced intentions are for the GP's to be able to manage most of the NHS existing budget to buy patient care from the NHS hospitals and clinics.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
In a Free market, An Unemployed Man Has Always Chosen Unemployment Over Working / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
If a job seeker cannot obtain the position he prefers, he must look for another kind of job. If he cannot find an employer ready to pay him as much as he would like to earn, he must abate his pretensions. If he refuses, he will not get any job. He remains unemployed.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Gusher: Methane, Climate & Dead Zones / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: DK_Matai
DK Matai writes: Gas and Methane Levels At Record
As much as one million times the normal level of methane is showing up near the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, enough potentially to create dead zones in the water. "These are higher levels than we have ever seen at any other location in the ocean itself," according to sources cited by Reuters. The "flow team" of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas, which primarily contains methane, is being released into the Gulf waters with every barrel of oil.
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Saturday, July 10, 2010
Tame Financial Speculators By Regulating Speculative Capital Flows / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Global_Research
Kavaljit Singh writes: Just days before the G20 summit in Toronto, South Korea and Indonesia announced several policy measures to regulate potentially destabilising capital flows which could pose a threat to their economies and financial systems.
The policy measures announced by South Korea and Indonesia assume greater significance because both countries are members of the G20. In 2010, South Korea chairs the G20.
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Saturday, July 10, 2010
The E.U. Banking System Stress Test Fraud / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Whitney
The EU banking system is in big trouble. Many of the Union's largest banks are sitting on hundreds of billions of euros in dodgy sovereign bonds and non performing real estate loans. But writing down their losses will deplete their capital and force them to restructure their debt. So the banks are concealing their losses through accounting sleight-of-hand and by borrowing money from the European Central Bank. This has helped to hide the rot at the heart of the system.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
How to Fight Conspiracies and Win / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
By: Gary_North
When someone at last discovers that some conspiracy has taken over this or that institution, he gets into a mentality that sees conspiracies everywhere. Anyone who finally accepts the fact that one or more conspiracies have been operating for one or more centuries to control the affairs of his nation, or even the whole world, has a tendency to see everything in terms of conspiracies. He begins to attribute to this or that conspiracy the ability to forecast the future almost perfectly, to control the future almost perfectly, and to thwart all attempts of critics to deflect the conspiracy from its agenda.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Banks Fairy Tale Stress Tests / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Larson
Of all the questionable bailout and backstop programs the government rolled out in the wake of the credit crisis, the whole “stress test” episode for the banks stands out the most.
The idea was that the Fed and Treasury would evaluate whether 19 major U.S. banks could survive a recession without a catastrophic erosion of their capital.
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Friday, July 09, 2010
Russian Spies Get Quick “Justice” While Wall Street Criminals Remain At Large / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Danny_Schechter
1500 Bankers went to Jail After the S&L Crisis. Almost None Today
We just witnessed justice on steroids. Ten Russian “spies”—even if we still don’t know what they were spying on or why—were brought to court, copped a plea, and were on their way out of the country by midnight.
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Friday, July 09, 2010
BP Relief Wells Are Ahead of Schedule … But Will They Work? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Washingtons_Blog
By all reports, BP is ahead of schedule in drilling the relief wells. In fact, BP will likely complete the first relief well this month.
The team leader for BP’s relief wells – Boots and Coots – is 40 for 40 in successfully stopping oil spills using relief wells (around 6:10 into video).
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Friday, July 09, 2010
Russia Natural Gas Politics vs Germany, Geopolitical Importance of Lubmin / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: F_William_Engdahl
In the postwar history of the Federal Republic, German Chancellors tend to disappear once they pursue political goals that deviate from the Washington global agenda too much. In the case of Gerhard Schroeder, it involved two unforgiveable “sins.” The first was his open opposition to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The second, far more serious strategically, was his negotiations with Russia’s Putin to bring a major new natural gas pipeline directly from Russia, bypassing then-hostile Poland, to Germany. Today the first section of that Nord Stream gas pipeline has reached the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern coastal town of Lubmin on the Baltic Sea, making Lubmin into a geopolitical pivot for Europe and Russia.
Friday, July 09, 2010
ConLib Government to Give NHS GP's £80 Billion Blank Cheque / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The ConLib government appears hell bent on repeating Labours 2003 GP Contracts mistake by effectively giving GP's a blank cheque that is expected to result in huge pay rises as GP's take money meant for improving patient healthcare to reward themselves for working less hours.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Big U.S. Banks Laundered Money From Drug Trafficking / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Pravda
Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, American Express and Western Union have profited over the years with laundering money from drug trafficking and only pay minimal fines, with no executive jailed when authorities were able to detect illicit transactions. These U.S. banks have admitted failing to comply with federal regulations and laws to control money laundering, participating in the transfer of billions of dollars in illicit funds from drug smuggling in Mexico.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Ron Paul - More Power for the Fed / Politics / Central Banks
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week I was pleased to see my Republican colleagues take up the cause to fully and completely audit the Federal Reserve by including my language from the Federal Reserve Transparency Act in a Motion to Recommit the financial regulation reform bill. Although this effort was defeated by the Democrat majority, there were many good reasons to support it.
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Wednesday, July 07, 2010
BP Hard Cap Installation And Relief Wells Wellbore Problems / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Dr_Stephen_Rinehart
Background -
In December 2005 (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090804090942.html), scientists aboard IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) Expedition 312 approached mantle depths while drilling to investigate superfast seafloor spreading rates. The research expedition penetrated volcanic rock (gabbros) and reached a fossil magma chamber lying 1.4 kilometers beneath the seafloor.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Offshore Drilling Moratorium: Hear It From The Little People / Politics / Oil Companies
By: Static_Chaos
Hornbeck, a $400-million vessel company in Louisiana, filed a lawsuit against the administration on June 7, a month after the moratorium started.
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Oil Espionage: Don’t Mess With China! / Politics / US Politics
By: Static_Chaos
An American geologist-- Xue Feng--was sentenced to eight years in prison for gathering data on China's oil industry, as reported by the Associated Press today:
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Economists Gathering Data Whilst Economy Burns / Politics / Economic Theory
By: MISES
Mark R. Crovelli writes: When future generations of scholars look back on the economic and political disaster enveloping the United States today, three questions should be at the forefront of their minds.
First, they should wonder whether the many generations of politicians that collectively engineered this economic and political disaster were either (1) too outrageously stupid to know that what they were doing would produce such a dreadful catastrophe, or (2) whether they were so evil and underhanded that they did know what they were doing would result in disaster — and yet they did it anyway.
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
State Pension Woes Only Worsening … / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: Nilus_Mattive
I know some investors right now who are making major mistakes when it comes to retirement planning …
First, they have been consistently underestimating how much money they’ll need down the line. In essence they are pretending that inflation doesn’t exist …
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Striking Overpaid Workers, Public Unions Should be Banned / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
Illinois construction workers live in fantasy land of business-as-usual. They are demanding 15% pay hikes when everyone of them ought to be fired with their jobs outsourced to the cheapest non-union shop.