Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Well Blowout May Never End / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Washingtons_Blog
As I have previously noted, it is now clear that there is damage to BP's well beneath the sea floor.
Recently-retired Shell Oil President John Hofmeister told MSNBC yesterday:
The question is whether there is enough mechanical structure left at the base of the reservoir to hold the cement when they start pouring cement in [from the relief well].
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Sunday, June 27, 2010
Who Owns the World? / Politics / New World Order
By: Submissions
Shirin Shafaie writes: No one owns the world, yet we all do, along with other non-speaking species. This is a reality which has very real consequences. Each one of us has the potential to impact the lives of everyone else in this world for better or worse. After all, it is up to individuals to make all the final decisions and act upon them whether towards enhancing the quality of our lives or destructing it altogether. It takes individual human beings to make decisions, even though it may take some machines to act upon them. It takes one pilot to press the button and one man to fly an airplane into a skyscraper; even the unmanned military aircrafts do have some men remotely controlling them. But it is not as simple as that.
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Saturday, June 26, 2010
Congress Or Fed Too Big To Fail? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
The mark of political sovereignty is legal immunity from failure. For example, the government of the United States cannot be sued without its consent. It is above the law. It must consent to expose itself to the possibility of failure in a court.
In school, we are taught about an ancient idea that is long out of favor: the divine right of kings. What did it mean? I think most people would find it difficult to say. It meant that there was no earthly court of appeal above the king. The king's judicial word was law, because no higher authority could lawfully overturn his word.
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Saturday, June 26, 2010
What Now After Financial Reform? Will We Be Spared Another Market Crash? / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
The Sturm und Drang is over. The Bank lobbyists went home to collect their bonuses as the House and Senate agreed on a 2000 page financial “reform” quickly praised by the White House and superficially covered in the press.
The key underreported fact highlighted by Naked Capitalism: “On a flat trading day, financial firms shares rose 2.7% after the deal was announced.” Compare that to the market volatility and dire forecasts on Wall Street that followed the call for new financial regulations and you can see who won.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
The Design in Society / Politics / Technology
By: Christopher_Quigley
“Science will have its mastery of all things.”
“Thus the design of a system of generational control and transfer of
technology and technique and resources must have been developed long ago.”
Friday, June 25, 2010
Towards a New Monetary Order / Politics / Central Banks
By: Thorsten_Polleit
Henry Ford is alleged to have said that "it is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
The spirit of his words encourages us to put forward questions about the banking and monetary system — especially in view of the international credit-market crisis. Is it a good thing that central banks have cut interest rates essentially to zero and have increased the base-money supply dramatically to support the financial sector? Will depression be prevented if governments underwrite banks' balance sheets and run up huge deficits in an attempt to strengthen production and employment?
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Friday, June 25, 2010
U.S. Afghanistan Strategy After McChrystal / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
The commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Gen. Stanley McChrystal has resigned his command. His resignation is a direct result of his controversial remarks in a Rolling Stone interview broken late June 21, and not a reflection or indictment of the campaign he has led in Afghanistan. But that campaign and the strategy behind it are having significant issues of their own.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Government Insiders Get Ready for the Gulf "Dead Zone" Environmental Disaster / Politics / US Politics
By: OilPrice_Com
Bad news concerning the Gulf oil disaster continues to come from WMR's federal government sources in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Emergency planners are dealing with a prospective "dead zone" within a 200 mile radius from the Deepwater Horizon disaster datum in the Gulf.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Congress Dithers On Financial Reform While Courts Give “Get Out Of Jail Cards” To White Collar Crooks / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
No Yellow Cards Here: Wall Street Banksters Lead In The World Cup of Phony Reform
charade | sh əˈrād|
noun
an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance : talk of unity was nothing more than a charade.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Greek Plague, Sticky Wages / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Howden
After the deaths of three bank employees, Greek president Karolos Papoulias lamented that the debt-ridden country had finally "reached the edge of the abyss." It should be so lucky. Abysses allow for falls into the deep unknown. If real wages would make the plunge, Greek workers would have a future with more options than striking and senseless destruction.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Brilliant but Confused Radicalism of George Orwell / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Riggenbach
Eric Arthur Blair, who is best known under his pseudonym, George Orwell, was born 107 years ago this month in India, where his father was a British civil servant. His father's job, according to Orwell biographer Gordon Bowker, "was to oversee the growing of opium, mainly for export to China." Though young Eric's mother had herself grown up in Burma, the daughter of yet another British civil servant, she had long since tired of Asia; and when her son was only a year old she successfully lobbied her husband to ship her and their two children — Eric and his older sister, Marjorie — back to England. Eric did not see his father again for eight years, until he was nine years old and had come home for Christmas vacation from his "prep school," St. Cyprian's.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Is Alan Greenspan a National Security Risk? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
(Reuters) - "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said 'outrageous' advice from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan helped create record U.S. budget deficits that put national security at risk." -February 25, 2010
Alan Greenspan lamented U.S. budget deficits in the Wall Street Journal on June 18, 2010 ("U.S. Debt and the Greece Analogy"). For an analysis of Greenspan's flapdoodle, Barry Ritholtz covered the turf on his blog, The Big Picture. The former Federal Reserve chairman should have withheld comment, given his personal contribution to the nation's poverty-stricken state.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Housing Benefit Illustrates Britains Disgraceful Wasteful, Benefits Culture / Politics / UK Tax & Budget
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Coalition government's measures to cut spending on Britians huge £110 billion benefits bill by £11 billion per year by 2014-15 is being met with much outrage and indignation by vested interests. However it is ordinary tax payers who should feel the real indignation when they find out that people are able to claim upto £1,000 per week, that's £52,000 per year in housing benefits alone, which is more than twice the average salary.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Detroit is Dying, Impact of Globalization, Social Decay and Urban Destruction / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
A YouTube video titled "Dying Detroit" takes you on a tour of "neighborhoods literally falling apart"—through streets that look like "a hurricane has recently swept through, destroying nearly everything on its path." Thousands of houses have been abandoned—in many areas 50-60% of the houses are in foreclosure. Some blocks have only a few homes left standing. A thousand people a month are leaving what has been called " America ’s fastest dying city."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Deepwater Horizon: The Worst-Case Scenario / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Richard Heinberg writes: Reports from the Gulf of Mexico just keep getting worse. Estimates of the rate of oil spillage from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead just keep gushing (the latest official number: up to 60,000 barrels per day). Forecasts for how long it will take before the leak is finally plugged continue pluming toward August—maybe even December. In addition to the oil itself, BP has (in this case deliberately) spilled a million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersant. Biologists’ accounts of the devastation being wreaked on fish, birds, amphibians, turtles, coral reefs, and marshes grow more apocalyptic by the day—especially in view of the fact that the vast majority of animal victims die alone and uncounted.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Americans Worried Sick About Their Economic Future Are Barely Hanging on / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
The recession that began in December 2007 produced a change in Americans' perception of their economic future. They moved from the tradition of hope to one of just barely hanging on. I have never seen this before. Only someone born around 1910 can recall anything like it, assuming that he recalls anything at all.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Labor Market Dynamics, Defending the Rate Buster / Politics / Employment
By: MISES
Walter Block writes: The scene is familiar from hundreds of movies featuring labor themes: the young eager worker comes to the factory for the first time, determined to be a productive worker. In his enthusiasm, he happily produces more than the other workers who have been at the factory many years, and who are tired, stooped, and arthritic. He is a "rate buster."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Bashing BP For Doing Exactly What Government Led Them to Do / Politics / US Politics
By: Matthew_J_Novak
There has been tremendous criticism in the media of late regarding BP's response to the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the subsequent spilling of millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
An ABC news / Washington Post poll shows that 81 percent of those polled stated they thought unfavorably of the response by BP to the spill. The same poll shows that nearly two-thirds of those responding favor criminal charges against BP and other companies involved in the spill.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Midterm Elections: No Panacea for the U.S. Economy / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: With many of the primaries past, and the November 2010 midterm elections less than five months away, it is worth taking a look at what policy changes we might expect from the next U.S. Congress. Both the political and economic worlds have changed one hell of a lot since the last elections, in 2008.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Gulf Oil Spill - The Greatest Disaster Since The Flood? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Submissions
Joshua S. Burnett writes: Most articles begin with a purpose statement revealing what the author desires to convince the reader of. This article is different. These few paragraphs begin with a plea for someone to tell me that I’ve got the evidence all wrong and that what I see and know is a smoke filled illusion void of reality. I want someone who knows differently to tell me. So as you read this article please understand that I’m not attempting to be a fear-mongerer. Please know I’m no prophet or guru, just a guy who looks at all the evidence he has and draws conclusions. And if you know I’m wrong and why, please write and tell me.