Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Mainstream Media Pumping the Illusion of Green Shoots of Economic Recovery / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Record profits were posted by Goldman Sachs on July 14, and a surge in profits at J.P. Morgan Chase were reported two days later, along with reports that record bonuses will be paid out too. Meanwhile, RealtyTrac reported that home foreclosures had risen 15% in the first half of this year, year to year. Guess which headline appears at the top of the news and which headline gets blurred? (Answer: The financial firms' surging profits get top billing.)
Friday, July 17, 2009
US Strategy of Total Energy Control over the European Union and Eurasia / Politics / Energy Resources
By: F_William_Engdahl
One of his first foreign visits as new President took Barack Obama to Ankara for a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and other leading Turkish officials. Obama engaged in classical “horse trading” wheeling and dealing. “I give you support for Turkey’s EU membership; you open the diplomatic door to Armenia,” appears to have been the core of the deal. What other inducements the US President gave in the case of Turkish influence within NATO and such is secondary. Obama’s goal was to break a political deadlock in Turkey to construction of a major gas pipeline to Germany and other EU countries in direct opposition to Russian Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Biden States United States Needs To Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt / Politics / US Debt
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are flabbergasted over the latest comments from Vice President Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Peter Schiff: Wrong on the Economy, Wrong on Healthcare (Part 2) / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Mike_Stathis
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Privately Owned Federal Reserve Bank Runs the United States / Politics / Central Banks
By: Global_Research
Bob Chapman writes: Last week the Dow fell 1.6%; S&P fell 1.9%; the Russell 2000 fell 3.3% and the Nasdaq slipped 1.8%; cyclicals fell 3.6%; transports 1.5%; consumers 1.6%; utilities 1.4%; banks 2.3% and broker/dealers 2.8%. High tech fell 1.8%; semis 1.8%; Internets 2.1% and biotechs 2.7%. Gold bullion fell $19.50 and the HUI gold index fell 8.4%.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Democrats Abandon the Environment / Politics / Climate Change
By: Global_Research
Shamus Cooke writes: “As a banker, I also welcome the fact that the 'cap-and-trade' system is becoming the dominant methodology for [carbon dioxide] control.”Simon Linnett, Executive Vice Chairman of Rothschild Bank.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
U.S. Reaction to the CIA Assassination Program / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: STRATFOR
On June 23, 2009, Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta learned of a highly compartmentalized program to assassinate al Qaeda operatives that was launched by the CIA in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. When Panetta found out that the covert program had not been disclosed to Congress, he canceled it and then called an emergency meeting June 24 to brief congressional oversight committees on the program. Over the past week, many details of the program have been leaked to the press and the issue has received extensive media coverage.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Financial Crisis Solution, Ban Credit Default Swaps? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: Ask U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, about credit default swaps and she’ll offer this warning: Ban them now or expect a reprise of the ongoing global financial crisis – which the derivative securities helped create.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
From WW II To WW III: Global NATO And Remilitarized Germany / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Global_Research
Rick Rozoff writes: The reunification of Germany in 1990 did not signify a centripetal trend in Europe but instead was an anomaly. The following year the Soviet Union was broken up into its fifteen constituent federal republics and the same process began in Yugoslavia, with Germany leading the charge in hastening on and recognizing the secession of Croatia and Slovenia from the nation that grew out of the destruction of World War I and again of World War II.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
In Promoting Protectionism, American Labor May Be Putting U.S. Workers At Risk / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
Can Doing What Seems to be The Right Thing Turn Out To Be The Wrong Thing?
Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers union is one of America’s most progressive and outspoken labor leaders. I met him at a Cornell University conference that brought environmental organizations and labor unions together to fuse a forward looking consensus on the need for green jobs as key to the transformation of our declining industrial base.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ageing Baby Boomers, the One Mega Trend NO ONE is Talking About / Politics / Social Issues
By: Graham_Summers
Thus far, analysis the financial collapse has been framed almost entirely in terms of money. All the research I’ve seen has delved into lending standards, securitization, inflation, interest rates, housing and the like.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Strategic Calculus and the Afghan War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: STRATFOR
U.S. and allied forces began their first major offensive in Afghanistan under the command of U.S. Gen David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal this July. Inevitably, coalition casualties have begun to mount. Fifteen British soldiers have died within the past 10 days — eight of whom were killed within a 24-hour period — in Helmand province, where the operation is taking place. On July 6, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks across Afghanistan within a single day, and on July 12 another four U.S. soldiers were reported killed in Helmand.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Fed Independence or Fed Secrecy? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week I was very pleased that hearings were held on the independence of the Federal Reserve system. My bill HR 1207, known as the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, was discussed at length, as well as the general question of whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate independently.
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Monday, July 13, 2009
Military Escalation From Afghanistan To the Caspian Sea and Central Asia Largest Since Vietnam War / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Global_Research
Rick Rozoff writes: The Pentagon and its NATO allies have launched the largest combat offensive to date in their nearly eight-year war in South Asia - Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) with 4,000 US Marines, attack helicopters and tanks and Operation Panchai Palang (Panther's Claw) with several hundred British engaged in airborne assaults - in the Afghan province of Helmand.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
New NATO as Germany Returns To World Military Stage / Politics / New World Order
By: Global_Research
Rick Rozoff writes: When the post-World War II German states the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, West and East Germany, respectively, were united in 1990, it was for many in Europe and the world as a whole a heady time, fraught with hopes of a continent at peace and perhaps disarmed.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
HR 2749: A Stealth Agribusiness Empowering Act / Politics / Agricultural Commodities
By: Stephen_Lendman
America is the truest example of what George Bernard Shaw meant when he said "Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt few." Obama is upholding the tradition and then some.
In fact, in less than six months, he's done the impossible. With congressional Democrats, he's compiled a worse record than even his fiercest critics feared, worse than George Bush, straight across the board on both domestic and foreign policies that include:
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Debt and Financial Scam's- Six Syllables to a Savage Truth / Politics / US Debt
By: Stewart_Dougherty
On December 9, 2008, $65 billion of investor money was at peace. On the fear / greed seesaw that is said to characterize investor emotion, fear was down on the ground, while greed was high in the sky, having all the fun. Greed was earning a steady 1% per month, making fear look like an over-cautious fool.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Minimum Wage is Maximum Economic Stupidity / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Peter_Schiff
In a free market, demand is always a function of price: the higher the price, the lower the demand. What may surprise most politicians is that these rules apply equally to both prices and wages. When employers evaluate their labor and capital needs, cost is a primary factor. When the cost of hiring low-skilled workers moves higher, jobs are lost. Despite this, minimum wage hikes, like the one set to take effect later this month, are always seen as an act of governmental benevolence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Government Bets on Positive Spin to Save Bankrupt Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Just when you thought the U.S. banking system had regained its footing, the reality is that a carefully woven federal-government PR campaign may actually be masking the next phase of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Indeed, it’s what’s just out of sight that has some analysts and economists scared to death.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Is Washington Playing a Deeper Game with China? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: F_William_Engdahl
July 12 —After the tragic events of July 5 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, it would be useful to look more closely into the actual role of the US Government’s ”independent“ NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). All indications are that the US Government, once more acting through its “private” Non-Governmental Organization, the NED, is massively intervening into the internal politics of China.