Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, December 25, 2017
Towards "Nuclear Winter”? / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
By: Dan_Steinbock
All efforts to resolve the elevated nuclear tensions in the Korean Peninsula should be subject to extreme caution, due to the potential of massive collateral damage of death, destruction, radiation and environmental collapse.Reportedly, Washington is drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program. According to high-level sources, the White House has “dramatically” stepped up preparation for a military solution in recent months amid fears diplomacy is not working.
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Sunday, December 24, 2017
Magical Christmas Lights Helium Balloons at Peace Gardens, Sheffield / Politics / Holidays
By: Anika_Walayat
Here's a magical optical illusion created by use of these transparent Christmas lights helium balloons as this video from Sheffield's Peace Gardens illustrates where their two giant bauble and box present walk in light displays as if by magic reappear within the helium balloons.
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Saturday, December 23, 2017
Internet, the Weapon of Mass Disruption / Politics / Internet
By: Richard_Mills
The ever-increasing digitalization of our world has meant advances in technology that would have been unimaginable 30 years ago when the Internet first entered the popular lexicon. Created by the U.S. Government in the 1960s to build robust communications via computer networks, “Internet” as it was then called had no means of electronic mail, telephony or file sharing, which are the building blocks of today's world-wide web.
More recent inventions like e-commerce, cloud computing and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have transformed the way we do business and conduct our personal lives. We take for granted the ability to shop and bank online, have a constant cell phone connection either through broadband or wifi, stream music and videos, or talk to each other across thousands of miles through Skype and FaceTime.
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
Here’s Why China Unofficially Ended the Dispute with South Korea / Politics / China US Conflict
By: John_Mauldin
BY PHILLIP ORCHARD : The countries of East Asia are worried about the coercive power of Beijing’s pocketbook. And perhaps they should be.
China is flush with money, and as it continues to pour massive amounts of aid and investment into the region, it’s only a matter of time before Beijing tries to cash in.
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
20 Positive Trends That Will Make You Feel Good About the World in 2018 / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
I’m probably one of the most optimistic people you will ever meet. I’m confident in the future of humanity. But I also recognize that we must overcome many challenges to get to the future we ultimately want.
In other words, I try to stay balanced.
For whatever reason, we tend to tune into bad news more eagerly than we do good news. The media is partly to blame, because murders, fires, and nasty weather sell advertising. But something deeper is at work.
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Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Christmas in an Amazon Culture / Politics / Amazon
By: BATR
Remembering the days when you shopped until you dropped seems to be from a time when socializing meant actually interacting with other people. Toys "Я" Us has lost its appeal because the reverse dynamics of spoiling the toddlers resists the challenge of braving the elements and cold temperatures to put wrapped presents under an artificial tree. Now, if it cannot arrive at the door delivered by USPS, UPS or FedEx; it's just not desirable. The consumer culture has made a giant leap into the cyber space of emptiness and irrelevancy. Spending money and spreading the wealth no longer operates under the same rules that enriched the growth in the (PCE) personal consumption expenditures. The void of satisfaction in buying trendy gadgets and stylist apparel feeds a basic isolation from meaning or contentment.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Today’s Technological, Monetary, and Political Forces Are Raising a Perfect Economic Storm / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
Identifying incentives is key to analyzing trends and forecasting what different players will do next.
Those who control the tech are intent on bringing the era of superautomation forward as fast as possible. That’s obvious. But between dicey Federal Reserve policies and possible tax reforms, all kinds of businesses seem to get new incentives to automate sooner rather than later.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Nader Explains the Ongoing Collapse of the Democratic Party / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right." John Kenneth Galbraith
The last presidential election was obviously, and by choice of the parties, a contest between the lesser of two evils. The Democratic candidate was the choice of the party insiders, and the Republican of people who had just had enough, and were willing to believe the unabashed nonsense of a conman in their desperation.
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Thursday, December 14, 2017
The Unprotected, the Protected, the Vulnerably Protected Classes—Which Are You? / Politics / Employment
By: John_Mauldin
Last month I shared in Outside the Box (subscribe here) a new McKinsey report on job automation. Every year, reports like this reflect a process that’s occurred many times in human history.
People discover or invent something useful: fire, the wheel, iron, gunpowder, coal, oil, the steam engine, electricity, the automobile, the airplane, the computer, etc. Life changes as the new knowledge spreads. People either adapt or they don’t.
Those who don’t adapt fade into the background. In the last few decades of their working lives, they end up taking the very lowliest of jobs in order to get some food, clothing, and shelter, but it’s not a comfortable life.
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Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Why the Saudis Failed to Cripple Qatar / Politics / Saudi Arabia
By: John_Mauldin
BY ALLISON FEDIRKA : Six months ago, Saudi Arabia announced the closure of its shared land border with Qatar in response to its supposed support of terrorism. The other Gulf Cooperation Council members denied Qatar use of their airspace and ports.
The measures were meant to bring the Qatari economy to its knees. However, the plan didn’t work out as planned and the effort ultimately failed.
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Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Masters of Economic and Political Illusion – in Taxes, Debt, Government, and Markets / Politics / US Politics
By: Raymond_Matison
We are a gullible people, and have become more so with the evolution and development of ever more persuasive propaganda. We accept many commonly popular economic or political “established facts” as truth almost without question. We forget or are ignorant of the fact that there are large well financed organizations in whose interest it is to provide us with information and views that will polarize our own thinking and values to parallel those of these powerful influences. In effect we are provided with the scaffolding for an illusion which we fill in according to our own personal, but mainstream media propaganda and other organization-channeled input. In creating such illusions it seems appropriate to paraphrase President Reagan’s comment: it’s not that we are ignorant, but that we know so much that simply isn’t so.
Saturday, December 09, 2017
China’s Struggle for Market Economy Status / Politics / Global Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, the Trump administration joined the EU and rejected the view that under the WTO terms China should have graduated last year to market-economy status. Now Trump is using Obama’s accession legacy to undermine world trade.The accession debacle intensified a year ago, when then president-elect Trump stated categorically in Iowa that “China is not a market economy.”
In the prior months, Trump had pledged to beat back the Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP (which he buried on his inaugural day), undo the North-American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA (whose fifth round of talks ended recently in simmering friction), and impose huge tariffs on China and rewrite the rules of world trade - in which the accession mess could prove a milestone.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Republicans Fake Tax Reform / Politics / Taxes
By: Peter_Schiff
After supposedly chomping on the bit for years to pass meaningful tax reform, Republicans are now set to blow an historic opportunity. Whatever version of the Bill that emerges from the House and Senate Conference Committee (which will be signed by President Trump faster than he can down a Filet o'Fish), will be far less than the Republicans envisioned when they finally captured the White House and both Congressional Chambers in 2016. But from what I have seen of the particulars, the revisions to the tax code will offer a marginal, although temporary, win for low income individuals, a major slap for moderately successful wage earners and home owners, (especially in the high tax Blue States) and a huge victory for the extremely wealthy and certain categories of business owners. While it is certain that the plan will add to the growing deficit, its immediate economic and political impact is hard to predict.
Friday, December 08, 2017
The US Fed Might Shrink to Two Members in 2018 / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: John_Mauldin
BY JOHN MAULDIN : In talking with some of my Fed-watching friends, it appears the world’s most important central bank is about to experience some potentially profound changes—not just in personnel but more importantly in the kind of people who lead it.
Those changes could, in turn, have some serious economic impacts, so it’s worth taking a deeper look.
But before we get into the impending changes at the Fed, let’s quickly review how the organization works.
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Thursday, December 07, 2017
Why Bank Presidents Could Rule the Fed Next Year / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: John_Mauldin
There’s a possibility the Fed will shrink to three—or even two—governors next year. I wrote about this in great length in my latest Thoughts from the Frontline, and I highly suggest you give it a read.
Among other things, the missing governors could have an enormous impact on monetary policy. But before we delve into the implications again, I must explain the Fed’s Byzantine organizational scheme.
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Wednesday, December 06, 2017
Germany’s Grand Coalition Is Collapsing / Politics / Germany
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Germany has the fourth-largest economy in the world and the largest in Europe.
This country has been the stable center of the European system for decades. Amid social and political tensions that have torn the European Union since 2008, Germany has been the solid rock on which Europe has rested.
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Monday, December 04, 2017
Heaven Forbid Peace Should Break Out Between the US and North Korea! / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
As long as the US Empire can be funded and maintained on the backs of its taxpaying public, the chance of de-escalation of tensions not only on the Korean peninsula, but throughout the world are practically nil. And, as long as the nation’s current interventionist ideology holds sway, it will only be through a financial meltdown that the US’s role as global policeman will come to a much-needed end.
Monday, December 04, 2017
Canada-China Trade Amid NAFTA Friction / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
As tensions prevail in the NAFTA talks, Canada is hedging its bets by fostering consensus for a trade agreement with China.On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shall start a trade and tourism dialogue with Chinese officials during his ongoing visit to China. Canada and China began to talk about a free trade agreement (FTA) more than a year ago, following back-to-back meetings of Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in China and Ottawa.
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Sunday, December 03, 2017
A Letter To The IRS: Go F Yourselves You Bunch Of Criminals / Politics / Taxes
By: Jeff_Berwick
Many people will tell you that the IRS and income tax in the US are unconstitutional.
That is totally true… but the CONstitution is also a scam to enslave people while telling them they are free… so who cares.
In any case, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies pose the biggest threat to central banks and governments in their entire, evil history.
“Taxes”, which is just another word for extortion, are not voluntary and the only way to “collect” them is to use violence or threats of violence.
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Friday, December 01, 2017
Britain Pushes for Brexit or Bust / Politics / BrExit
By: Boris_Dzhingarov
There are competing arguments as to how a Brexit will impact Britain. Those opposing a Brexit believe it will have disastrous repercussions on the UK economy, plunging the country into raging inflation, high unemployment, and a skills shortage among others. One of the more pressing concerns for Britain is the exodus of companies from the City of London to other European capitals.