Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, April 08, 2010
A Floating Alternative to Nabucco Undercuts Potential Disruptions to EU Energy Supplies / Politics / Natural Gas
In late February 2010, Romania, Azerbaijan, and Georgia finalized an agreement on the direct export of Azerbaijani natural gas to Romania. This has profound ramifications for halting Turkey’s ability to hold the EU hostage to energy supplies via Turkey, and offers far more rapid easing of European energy pressures.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia, Russia and China At Geopolitical Crossroads / Politics / GeoPolitics
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed five years after and in the same manner as he came to power, in a bloody uprising.
Elected president two months after the so-called Tulip Revolution of 2005 he helped engineer, he was since then head of state of the main transit nation for the U.S. and NATO war in Afghanistan.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 08, 2010
What Happens When We Don't See the Tipping Points / Politics / US Politics
Bernard Weiner writes: Often in our busy daily lives, we miss the significance of a piece of news. Sometimes it's not until years later that we realize how very important that news event was in shifting the paradigm.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Congress Is a Criminal Syndicate / Politics / US Politics
The director of Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente, comments on Congress taking a 2-week break while 200,000 American people may lose their unemployment benefits.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Understanding the Fed, Not Just the Myths / Politics / Central Banks
If you would like to understand more about how the U.S. Federal Reserve works, you can spend some time on its website -- or you can get the real story. Elliott Wave International has collected eight of Robert Prechter's most trenchant articles about what the Fed actually does. He takes on the misleading myths about the Fed and explains what's really going on as he writes about these topics.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Wall Street Bank Bailout Tally Shows Billions of Dollars of Stolen / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Methodology: In calculating the bailout totals, CMD’s focus has been on direct and indirect support to financial institutions that had a role in causing the financial crisis. We tally programs across five federal agencies (Federal Reserve, Treasury, Federal Housing Administration, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the FDIC) and include direct support, loans, and guarantees.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Going After the Banksters, Then and Now / Politics / Market Regulation
A Tale of Then and Now, FDR vs Obama: A Story of Shame, Co-optaton, Partisan Bickering and Industry Lobbying To Undermine Financial Reform
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Goldman Sachs Spinning Gold / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
Goldman Sachs claims great risk management skills, while it shirks responsibility for its role in the near collapse of the U.S. economy. The former is a myth, and the latter is a dodge. [1] As taxpayer wealth was destroyed, Goldman exploited the financial crisis it helped cause, while the U.S. was (and remains) at war.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
This is Part 3 of the series, "When Empire Hits Home."
Part 1: War, Racism and the Empire of Poverty
Part 2: Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis: The Impoverishment of the Middle Class
As nations of the world are thrown into a debt crisis, the likes of which have never been seen before, harsh fiscal ‘austerity’ measures will be undertaken in a flawed attempt to service the debts. The result will be the elimination of the middle class. When the middle class is absorbed into the labour class – the lower class – and lose their social, political, and economic foundations, they will riot, rebel, and revolt.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The Greek Financial Crisis and the European Timetable / Politics / Euro-Zone
Dimitri Diamant writes: Now that the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 is behind us, after it was forced through Ireland, after the Irish were told to keep voting on this until they said "yes"; now the European Union moves on to the next item on its timetable. The next step is to create a centralized Ministry in Brussels for Finance and Taxation, thereby further eroding the diminishing national sovereignty of the now twenty-seven member states; and what better way to do this than to organize a specific potshot against the little country of Greece?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The NY Times and Other Establishment Broad Sheets are Dead as Doornails / Politics / Mainstream Media
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." ~ A. J. Liebling
"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." ~ A. J. Liebling
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
U.S. Will Lose a Trade War with China / Politics / Global Economy
In light of the number of manufacturing and goods producing jobs lost in America over the past decade, it’s no wonder why many in Washington and on Main St. are clamoring for a trade and currency war with China. The raucous has grown so loud that Congress, Treasury and the Commerce department may soon be forced to declare China a currency manipulator. Senators Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina and Chuck Schumer (D) New York have introduced legislation that would compel the Treasury to cite the Chinese as currency manipulators, which would allow the Commerce Department to impose duties and tariffs upon them.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
How Much Do You Really Pay for Social Security? / Politics / Government Spending
Vedran Vuk, Casey Research writes: Every generation scolds the next one down the line and blames society’s ills on the guy up at bat. Considering past policy decisions, this common perspective doesn’t make much sense. Just look at the Great Depression generation, both known for its great character as well as the worst policies of the century. Clearly, older generations did not always make the best decisions.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
No More False Flags From the Russia's FSB, Time to Set the Chechen's Free / Politics / Russia
Eric Margolis writes: There is an old saying about the fierce Chechen tribes who inhabit southern Russia’s Caucasus mountains: "Chechen cannot ever be defeated. They can only be killed."
Chechen are Russia’s nemesis. Even the notoriously brutal Russian mafia fears the ferocious Chechen, and for good reason.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Job Creation, Stupid Is as Stupid Does / Politics / Employment
No one can seriously doubt that the huge amounts of borrowed federal dollars poured into the economy since Barack Obama became president has prevented even more jobs from being lost than might otherwise have been the case in the current devastating recession. It’s impossible, however, to come up with a “real” number, because no economist has a good enough handle on matters to sort out all the variables at play, including readjustments due to the fall of housing prices, low interest rates, a slightly improved export environment, rebounding of depleted inventories, new highway construction resulting from stimulus spending, etc. Still, let’s look at some facts about the current so-called “recovery”:
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
European Central Bank - Seize the Opportunity! / Politics / Euro-Zone
For better or worse, any support to Greece is a political matter. However, in the absence of a political process, much of the focus has been on the European Central Bank (ECB): one of the few European institutions that has provided consistent and robust leadership throughout the financial crisis. ECB President Trichet has rightfully argued that it is not the ECB’s role to provide financial assistance to Greece.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Stop Greedy Banks from Killing Capitalism and Stealing From Tax Payers / Politics / Market Regulation
Shah Gilani writes: Taking No Prisoners
What the big banks want is the socialization of their risk exposure and the privatization of their unbridled profitability.
And they are willing to hold the economy hostage to get it.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Government and Gasoline / Politics / US Politics
As we head into the summer driving season and gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up more off-shore areas for exploration and drilling. On the one hand this can be lauded as a positive step. On the other hand, it is too little, much too late to have any meaningful or long-term effect on what Americans pay at the pump any time soon, if at all.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 05, 2010
The Real Economic Consequences of Obama's Bank Tax Plan / Politics / US Politics
Monty Agarwal writes: President Obama plans to introduce a fee on the largest banks in the country — those with assets greater than $50 billion — in an effort to get back “every single dime” for the taxpayers. This levy will start June 30 and aims to collect $90 billion over a course of 10 years.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 05, 2010
Pacifying the Panda, U.S. Companies Must Take a New Approach to China / Politics / China Economy
Jason Simpkins writes: There's no question about what kind of profit opportunities the Chinese market offers. Moreover, the willingness of U.S. companies to partner with China in the pursuit of profit is equally blatant.
So why is it that more U.S. businesses feel less welcome in China now than they did four years ago?
Read full article... Read full article...