Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Will Obama Respond to U.S. Voter Anger at Lack of Action on Banksters / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Mike_Shedlock
After a Massachusetts wake-up call Obama has decided to pay more attention to Paul Volcker. Is it too little, too late to quell public anger? What will the effects be if new Glass-Steagall legislation is enacted?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
NHS Spending Cuts Mean Sheffield's Worst GP Surgeries Could Close / Politics / Sheffield
By: N_Walayat
The British economy is in the midst of a deep debt crisis that risks a collapse into a hyperinflationary bust. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the government spends £180 billion more on public spending than it earns, i.e. government revenues are £500 billion, and government expenditure is £680 billion (2009-10 est). The deficit of £180 billion is at 14% of GDP and is not sustainable that requires an urgent and near immediate cut in the deficit to below 6% of GDP to prevent igniting an out of control inflationary debt spiral.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Disaster Capitalism Comes to Haiti to Make a Profit / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Benjamin Dangl writes: US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
U.S. - China Growing Military Tensions / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Rick_Rozoff
Even though the U.S. military budget is almost ten times that of China's (with a population more than four times as large) and Washington plans a record $708 billion defense budget for next year compared to Russia spending less than $40 billion last year for the same, China and Russia are portrayed as threats to the U.S. and its allies. China has no troops outside its borders; Russia has a small handful in its former territories in Abkhazia, Armenia, South Ossetia and Transdniester. The U.S. has hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in six continents.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
U.S. Government is Too Big to Succeed / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission kicked off their first round of hearings on the causes of the economic meltdown on Wall Street. The commission is being compared to the the Pecora Commission launched in 1932 to investigate the causes of the Great Depression. The Pecora commission is beloved by those who believe the solution to every problem is more laws because it was used to justify a number of new laws, including Glass-Steagall.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Media and Political Hysteria Over Yemen Hides a Deeper Strategic Matrix of Long-Term Importance / Politics / Middle East
By: OilPrice_Com
US and Western European political leaders have begun to focus on Yemen as a source of projected instability and as a haven for jihadist terrorism against the West.
This simplistic and overly narrow view has largely been a reaction to media reporting of the links of alleged (and unsuccessful) Nigerian-born terrorist bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to a radical Yemeni group, and to intense ongoing fighting between insurgents and Yemeni and Saudi government forces on the Yemen-Saudi border.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Steve Keen on Banking Secrets and Fed Transparency / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Last week I asked Australian economist Steve Keen what he thought about the St. Louis Fed article on the Social Cost of Transparency.
I was highly critical of the Fed's article and wrote about it in In Defense Of Secrecy; Three Prong Attack On The Fed; Selective Myopia . I asked Steve Keen to take a look. Here is a snip from my post, Keen's comments follow:
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Government and Central Bank Managing Money / Politics / Central Banks
By: Viresh_Amin
Thanks to the Federal Reserve and our government for their chase for a strong dollar policy, middle income workers are now forced to become money mangers. A strong dollar cannot come from government or the Feds, only from the private sector; although elected officials have unlimited power to destroy it. It used to be that you can work, get paid, then allocate your money to a bank and let it sit without worrying. But now, in addition to a career, we work harder preserving wealth than creating it. Since the inception of the Federal Reserve the dollar has lost in 97 years over 95% of its value. It is reasonably certain the next 95% won’t take as long, and is more likely to occur in our life time.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sack The Financial Market Regulators / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Brady_Willett
The ‘Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’ began operations last week and heard testimony from four heads of the financial industry. Not surprisingly, the tone was resoundingly negative - Inquiry Chairman, Philip Angelides, attacked Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein, Krugman called the bankers ‘clueless’, and Ritholtz posted a graphic depicting what was really on the minds of the sleazy bankers. Also not surprising was that no one made the case that what these bankers did was illegal and/or prosecutable.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
How To Beat Cancer / Politics / Social Issues
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: How Bill Beat Cancer
"Hey, Bill, it's GREAT to see you," I said. "How's it going?"
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Academic Economists Serving their Political Masters / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Submissions
Frederick Sheehan writes: On January 14, 2010, an academic economist took a rare stance. Tenured professors rarely lift the veil from numbers that governments invent. In "Don't Like the Numbers? Change 'Em," Michael J. Boskin, Ph.D., formerly, an economics professor at Harvard and Yale; formerly, chairman of the Counsel of Economic Advisers in the George H.W. Bush administration; currently, T. M. Friedman Professor of Economics at Stanford University; research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; and board member of the Exxon Mobil Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Vodafone PLC (among others), wielded his sword.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Wall Street’s Power Grab, The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Hearings / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Michael_Hudson
You almost could hear the bankers heave a sigh of relief when Haiti’s earthquake knocked the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings off the front pages and evening news broadcasts last week. At stake, after all, is Wall Street’s power grab seeking to centralize policy control firmly in its own hands by neutralizing the government’s regulatory agencies. The first day – Wednesday, January 15 – went innocuously enough. Four emperors of finance were called on to voice ceremonial platitudes and pro forma apologies without explaining what they might be apologizing for. Typical was the statement by Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd C. Blankfein: “Whatever we did, it didn’t work out well. We regret the consequence that people have lost money.”
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Free Market, Public Education System and Profit Incentives / Politics / US Politics
By: Viresh_Amin
Historically, it has long been a self-evident truth that the most efficient, productive, and fastest, way to produce goods and services to best serve the consumer desires is to allow a entity to have a profit incentive i.e., unhampered markets. Without such an incentive all three (efficiency, productivity, and speed) will deteriorate and will become submarginal i.e., public education, Amtrak, and the U.S. Postal Service to name just a few. In many cases without a profit incentive, the only incentive today is the bailout incentive i.e., Fannie and Freddie, etc.
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Monday, January 18, 2010
Raining on the Governments Parade / Politics / US Politics
By: Viresh_Amin
The Lew Rockwell dot com and the Ludwig Von Mises institute have and continue to do a fabulous job at raining on the government’s parade and all the fallacies that are floating around in today’s world. They have time and time again become a place for minds to create great ideas, theories, articles, and books to show us just what this world has come to. Government has for far too long suppressed the best efforts of productive men and steals tax payer money to produce nothing productive for our end; all the while they tell us that they are working diligently for our best interest. One of these days that rain will turn into hail and a wrath the likes of hurricane Katrina will send a destructive backlash to all those “legalized” crooks and criminals living off the successful efforts of the productive minds.
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Monday, January 18, 2010
Trivial or Fundamental? / Politics / US Politics
By: Viresh_Amin
One of America’s great men on Capitol Hill has repeatedly stated that the issues at hand are dealing with the trivial and not the fundamental. Ron Paul, has many times raised the question why do the terrorists in the Middle East hate us? He always gets the typical answer. The Administration, being the caring politicians they are, tell us that these terrorists hate our freedom, prosperity, and our democratic way of life, thus government concludes that they hate everything America stands for.
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Monday, January 18, 2010
U.S. Heading for Hyperinflationary Collapse, Ruling Elite Preparing for Civil War / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
Which is the way he wants it !
Well, he gets it !
N' I don't like it any more than you men.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Google Cyberattacks China's War on the U.S. Economy / Politics / US Economy
By: Peter_Navarro
China's recent cyberattacks against Google and as many as 33 other U.S. corporations open up a dangerous new industrial espionage front in Beijing's war on American business.
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Sunday, January 17, 2010
Why Is The Haiti Disaster Response So Screwed Up: Is The Another Katrina Relief Effort In The Making? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Danny_Schechter
Every disaster plan is built to some degree around the idea of triage—deciding who can and cannot be saved. The worst cases are often separated and allowed to perish so that others who are considered more survivable can be treated.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Huffington Posts Flawed Move Your Money Campaign From Big Banks to Small Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Huffington posts campaign to get depositors to withdraw their cash from the too big to fail wall street banks and deposit the cash into small local community banks has become highly popular. as the vast majority of people clearly want the bankster's of Wall street to pay for their financial crimes instead of continuing to receive bonuses which are in effect tax payer cash paid out.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Pakistan Collapse Could Trigger Global Great Depression and World War III / Politics / Pakistan
By: Nadeem_Walayat
During 2009 the 2600 terrorist attacks resulted in the number of deaths soaring to more than 12,000 casualties in Pakistan, compared to the number killed in Iraq falling to 2,800 from the 2008 total of 5,900. The U.S. War in Afghanistan pushed the Taliban and Al-Qeeda over the border into Pakistan that has sparked an escalating insurgency and Pakistan's own U.S. backed un-popular "War on Terror" which is going just as badly as that in Afghanistan, only without the deep financial pockets to embark up on an never ending war that is increasingly sapping what little strength the Pakistan Economy had out of it and now seriously risks the collapse of the state due to the stress of the conflict on the economy and society.