Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Larger Context of the 2009 Iranian Elections / Politics / Iran
By: Submissions
Reza Fiyouzat writes: Much furor is being expressed by all sides, foreign and domestic, regarding the outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential elections held on June 12. The rapid announcement of the total results in a mere few hours after the closing of the polls, came as a shock to the supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the main 'reformist' challenger to Ahmadinejad. Since then, there have been massive spontaneous demonstrations in Tehran as well as in other major cities, such as Shiraz, Tabriz and Rasht. At least one person has been killed in the clashes between the police and Mousavi supporters.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Iran Faces Greater Risks Than It Knows / Politics / Iran
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Stephen Kinzer’s book, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, tells the story of the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammed Mosaddeq, by the CIA and the British MI6 in 1953. The CIA bribed Iranian government officials, businessmen, and reporters, and paid Iranians to demonstrate in the streets.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Obama’s Financial System Overhaul Would Give the Fed Broad Powers Over Wall Street / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes: U.S. President Barack Obama took a swipe at Wall Street yesterday (Wednesday) as he unveiled a sweeping 85-page proposal to reinvigorate government regulation of the U.S. financial markets by giving the Federal Reserve new powers to supervise the economy.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Carl Marx was the First Real Globalist / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Global_Research
William Bowles writes: If nothing else, the wholesale plunder of the planet’s natural resources has brought into sharp focus the necessity for some kind of global (and globally enforceable) regulation of what’s left of the planet’s precious cargo of life. But can capitalism undertake such a task? Not only that, is it willing to do so and is even some kind of ‘reformed’ capitalism capable of doing so given that the basic drive of capitalism is expand or die.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ankara Moscow and Washington in the Eurasian Crude Oil Pipeline Calculus / Politics / Crude Oil
By: F_William_Engdahl
Calculus has two main variants—derivative and integral. The Eurasian energy pipeline geopolitics between Turkey Washington and Moscow today has elements of both. It is highly derivative in that the major actors across Central Asia from China, Russia to Turkey are very engaged in a derived power game which has less to do with any specific state and more to do with maintaining Superpower hegemony for Washington. Integral as the de facto motion of various pipeline projects now underway or in discussion across Eurasia hold the potential to integrate the economic space of Eurasia in a way that poses a fundamental challenge to Washington’s projection of Full Spectrum Dominance over the greatest land mass on earth.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
U.S. Healthcare Costs / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Guy_Lerner
I came across this quote from Professor Mark J. Perry of the Carpe Diem blog. I have often thought similar things.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Regulatory Overhaul Equal Summers Job Creation Program? / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Axel_Merk
Today, the Administration is sharing its vision for the future of the financial system. To us, it seems more like a job creation program for Lawrence Summers, the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council. It’s long been rumored that he wants the top job at the Federal Reserve (Fed) should Fed Chief Bernanke’s term not be renewed in early 2010. Summers, a former Treasury Secretary, and known for his hands-on, at times confrontational approach, seems an odd fit for what is traditionally a job for calmer spirits.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Politicians to the World: “Forget All Those Trillions, the Dollar’s Doing GREAT!” / Politics / US Dollar
By: Graham_Summers
As a general rule of thumb, anytime a politician (especially a finance minister or central banker) comes forward to assure investors that his country’s currency is sound, you better believe the currency is in BIG trouble.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Alzheimer's and the Sense of Smell Are Closely Connected / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Pravda
The Russian scientists who have been working on establishing a connection between the sense of smell and the development of certain diseases came to conclusion that the distortion of smell perception may signal the beginning of Alzheimer's disease.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Obama's Blueprint for Reform Concentrates Still More Power in Hands of the Fed / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Washington Post has released a "near final" draft of Obama's financial reform proposals. As expected, the paper whitewashes the role of the Fed and Fractional Reserve Lending as well as the role of unfunded Congressional spending in creating the mess. Instead, Obama's plan gives more power to those responsible for creating the mess.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Iran Political Situation Ready to Explode / Politics / Iran
By: Pravda
Iran is standing on the verge of chaos after sitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the first stage of the presidential election in the country on June 12. His three rivals received less than a third of all votes, which triggered massive riots across the nation. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who obtained 33 percent of the votes cast, stated that the election had been totally fabricated. Two other candidates - Mohsen Rezaee, former Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of the Majlis, - said that they would support Moussavi in his endeavor to revise the election results.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wall Street vs. Main Street: The Regulatory Battle Begins Tomorrow / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says the Obama administration’s overhaul of U.S. financial regulations is aimed at creating a “boring” financial system.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Life Is Destroying the Planet! / Politics / Climate Change
By: LewRockwell
Butler Shaffer writes: Recent news stories advise us of yet another contributor to the menace of global warming, this one arising from the flatulence produced by cows. The metabolic processes engaged in by our bovine neighbors produce methane, one of the greenhouse gasses against which the environmentalist faithful are ever vigilant. Methane is also produced through the breakdown of organic matter (e.g., manure, dumpsites) and, other life forms. In his book Gaia the renowned chemist, James Lovelock, analyzed how methane, produced in the guts of termites, is an essential factor in the self-regulating nature of the earth’s atmosphere.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Crude Oil and Islam, Will America Shift Away from Its Past Unilateralist Policies? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Global_Research
Prof. Peter Dale Scott writes: In his remarkable speech at Cairo University on June 4, President Obama promised “a new beginning.” In the words of the Israeli commentator Uri Avnery, the speech offered “the map of a new world, a different world, whose values and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language -- a mixture of idealism and practical politics, vision and pragmatism.”1
Monday, June 15, 2009
Iran Election Result and Western Misconceptions About the Iranian Reality / Politics / Iran
By: STRATFOR
In 1979, when we were still young and starry-eyed, a revolution took place in Iran. When I asked experts what would happen, they divided into two camps.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
De-Dollarization, Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Global_Research
Michael Hudson writes: The Yekaterinburg Turning Point - The city of Yakaterinburg, Russia’s largest east of the Urals, may become known not only as the death place of the tsars but of American hegemony too – and not only where US U-2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down in 1960, but where the US-centered international financial order was brought to ground.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Property Rights Take a Hit Due to Crony Capitalism / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Peter_Schiff
“Crony capitalism” is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes what you know, and favoritism trumps the rule of law. Unfortunately, this week's events demonstrate that the phrase now more aptly describes our own country.
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Bush Doctrine, Economic Warfare and Your Investment Portfolio / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Rob_Kirby
Let us be clear, that in the aftermath of 9/11, American policy vis-à-vis its relations with the rest of the world changed forever under the aegis of the Bush Doctrine:
Friday, June 12, 2009
Global Booming Arms Trade Reaching $1.5 trillion / Politics / Global Economy
By: Pravda
World’s leading countries spend too much of their war preparations. A new arms race has been gathering pace in the world recently, and even the global economic setback does not seem to be a reason to stop the race.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
American's Trapped by the Insidious Web of Debt by the Poisonous Banking Cartel / Politics / US Debt
By: James_Quinn
Abby Normal
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck's?
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