Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Financial Fight Club: Ackman's Hedge Fund Vs. Wall Street's Ponzi Machine / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Janet_Tavakoli
When nobody seems to be losing money, nobody cares. If a corrupt scheme is "making money," everyone involved--from the culprits to the dupes--viciously attacks anyone who tries to expose it. Bill Ackman, manager of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., learned this lesson the hard way.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The Ulterior Motive Behind the Greek Bailout / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Sol_Palha
"A mere friend will agree with you, but a real friend will argue." ~ Russian Proverb
Before we discuss this issue lets focus on some facts. Many individuals claim that Greece has to be bailed out to maintain stability in the financial markets. This is a bogus argument, in the short term it might be true, but in the long term it just delays the day of reckoning and makes the situation infinitely worse. You do not help an alcoholic by chastising him and then allowing him free access to booze; it won't work.
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Tuesday, May 04, 2010
"Super Tax" Hits Australia; In US, Gold will be an Easy Target / Politics / Taxes
By: Mike_Shedlock
Congratulations (of sorts) go to Australia for enacting the highest taxes on mining profits in the world. Please consider BHP, Rio Shares Drop on Australian Mine ‘Super’ Tax
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Debt Crisis Triggers Global Crisis of Legitimacy / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: STRATFOR
Financial panics are an integral part of capitalism. So are economic recessions. The system generates them and it becomes stronger because of them. Like forest fires, they are painful when they occur, yet without them, the forest could not survive. They impose discipline, punishing the reckless, rewarding the cautious. They do so imperfectly, of course, as at times the reckless are rewarded and the cautious penalized. Political crises — as opposed to normal financial panics — emerge when the reckless appear to be the beneficiaries of the crisis they have caused, while the rest of society bears the burdens of their recklessness. At that point, the crisis ceases to be financial or economic. It becomes political.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
US Supported Economics Spurred Mexican Emigration / Politics / Mexico
By: Submissions
Dan La Botz is a prominent labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author in the United States. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United States and Mexico. His writing appears frequently in Against the Current, Counterpunch, Labor Notes, Monthly Review, New Labor Forum and Z Magazine. He is the editor of Mexican Labor News & Analysis.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
America At The Crossroads And The War On Gold / Politics / US Politics
By: Darryl_R_Schoon
Every so often a philosophical dilemma becomes real. So it is today. For two thousand years, the message of Christ Jesus influenced and informed the West, if not in deed, then in word. Today, that is no longer so. Today, godless capitalism is threatening to supplant the two millennia reign of Christ’s message of brotherly love—if not in word, then, certainly, in deed.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Hollywood and The Rigging of Financial Markets / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Ellen_Brown
Betting on the Gross Profits of Upcoming Movies - As if attacks from popparazzi and star-crazed fans weren’t enough, Hollywood stars may soon have a literal price put on their heads by investors in the Cantor Exchange, a real-money trading platform where people can bet on the gross profits of upcoming movies. Sales of The Dark Knight skyrocketed after Heath Ledger died unexpectedly, and so did sales after the deaths of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Will greed-driven investors now be laying in wait for the stars of movies they have sold short?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Will Anyone At Goldman Sachs Go To Jail? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
Will Goldman survive the assault? Will the threat of criminal charges being pursued against the world's leading investment bank spill over onto others on Wall Street? Is the criminalization of the crisis underway, or is all this just a maneuver?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Was There A Plan to Blow Up The U.S. Economy? / Politics / US Economy
By: Mike_Whitney
Many people now believe that the financial crisis was not an accident. They think that the Bush administration and the Fed knew what Wall Street was up to and provided their support. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds. As we will show, it's clear that Bush, Greenspan and many other high-ranking officials understood the problem with subprime mortgages and knew that a huge asset bubble was emerging that threatened the economy. But while the housing bubble was more than just an innocent mistake, it doesn't rise to the level of "conspiracy" which Webster defines as "a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act." It's actually worse than that, because bubblemaking is the dominant policy, and it's used to overcome the structural problems in capitalism itself, mainly stagnation.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Congress Freezes Its Own Pay / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week Congress did something fiscally responsible. It's not very often I can say that. Granted, it was small in the grand scheme of things, but I was glad to be an original cosponsor, along with Congressman Harry Mitchell of Arizona, of a bill to block the automatic pay raise that Congress otherwise receives every year. Every Member of Congress gets this raise unless it is expressly voted down. For the second year in a row Congress has voted to freeze its own pay, which, in a time of skyrocketing deficits and high unemployment, is the very least Congress can do.
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Monday, May 03, 2010
Matt Taibbi: The Feds v Goldman Sachs / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Trader_Mark
From the man who coined Goldman Sachs (GS) the "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" ... we have Matt Taibbi's latest take via Rolling Stone. Again, let it be said that some of the best work on our financial oligarchy is being done by a guy in a music magazine. That tells you what a farce corporate media has become. Then again, when almost all outlets are funding the same lobbyist groups (or mirror images) as those funded by the banking cartel... is is surprising?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Hedge Funds and Equity Firms Using Micro Finance to Profit from India's Poor / Politics / India
By: Global_Research
Kavaljit Singh writes: The massive investments by private equity firms coupled with an initial public offer (IPO) by SKS Microfinance has ignited a debate about the ethics and objectives of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Secretive Fed Hiding Counterfeiting Operation, Audit the Fed / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
Retiring Senator Chris Dodd's financial reform bill is now open for debate in the U.S. Senate. For the next few weeks, the public will be treated to media sound-bite snippets of Senatorial debate on various aspects of the Senate version of the reform bill. The bill is supposedly designed to prevent a replay of the 2008 crisis, in which 75 years of Federal financial reform laws proved utterly useless in preventing the crisis.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Did Lehman's Dick Fuld Lie Under Oath About Compensation? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Trader_Mark
A quite fascinating piece in Bloomberg for those interested in the subject matter, that being executive compensation, how it is hidden by abusing the "spirit of the law", board of director cronyism, and the myth that the CEOs of failed companies actually felt any real pain. We have created a heads we win, tails we still win [Sep 27, 2008: Heads We Win, Tails We Win] executive compensation culture - which is leading to asymmetric outcomes.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Down with 'Too Big to Fail': Angry Americans march on Wall Street / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Submissions
The largest anti-Wall Street rally since the credit crunch has taken place in New York. Thousands of workers and trade union leaders marched in anger over lost jobs and ruined lives, demanding answers from the source of the trouble - the banks.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
More Bonus Plus Less Lending Equals The March on Wall Street / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Static_Chaos
According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data, the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid made or refinanced 23% less in new loans in February, the latest available data, than in October, the month the Treasury kicked off the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). (Chart 1)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Russian Hackers Threaten the World / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Pravda
According to Symantec, the number of cyber crimes last year has increased twofold and continues to grow, while the number of hacker attacks has increased by 71%. Within the last year nearly 3 million viruses were registered. Russia shot significantly ahead and made it to seventh place among top ten countries producing the most cyber threats.
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Friday, April 30, 2010
Goldman Slaps The S.E.C. and the Senate Subcommittee Down To Size / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Andrew_Butter
Leading-up to the hearing on the 28th in front of Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Goldman were…“going-to-get-roasted like-a-Louisiana-Catfish”.
The Media and the Blogs were full of it, we even had “a famous New-York lawyer…with connections in the SEC” handing out FREE legal opinions.
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Friday, April 30, 2010
Goldman's "How much of that shitty deal did you sell to your clients?" / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Whitney
Tuesday's hearings of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations laid the groundwork for future criminal prosecutions of Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and his chief lieutenants whose reckless and self-serving actions helped to precipitate the financial crisis. Committee chairman Senator Carl Levin adroitly managed the proceedings in a way that narrowed their scope and focused on four main areas of concern. Through persistent questioning, which bordered on hectoring, Levin was able to prove his central thesis:
Friday, April 30, 2010
Barofsky Threatens Criminal Charges in AIG Coverup, Goldman Sachs Abacus Deal / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Mike_Shedlock
The day that Tim Geithner lands in jail will be a day of celebration. Don't count on it soon or ever, but Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), is now threatening criminal charges.