Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Europe’s Coronavirus Pandemic Dilemma / Politics / Pandemic
By: Dan_Steinbock
In the ongoing battle against the global pandemic, belated responses will result in huge human costs and massive economic damage. In Europe, losses are climaxing in the 2nd quarter of 2020.
Before advanced economies – including those in Europe - began to flatten the epidemic curve, they fattened it for 6-8 weeks. These COVID-19 delays will prolong the global pandemic and cause secondary waves of imported infections and residual clusters both in Europe and worldwide (for the full story, see my report on the historical COVID damage: https://www.differencegroup.net/coronavirus-briefs ).
In the United States, the Trump administration's futile effort to “protect the economy” (read: the markets) backfired disastrously. The European Union was more willing to battle the virus but was unable to do so proactively because it lacks the needed common institutions for effective response.
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Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Tragedy Of Missed Covid-19 Opportunities / Politics / Pandemic
By: Dan_Steinbock
As China’s economy is rebounding, the belated COVID-19 mobilization in the United States and Europe has resulted in huge human and economic damage. New policy plunders could make the situation much worse globally.
My new report, “The Tragedy of Missed Opportunities,” focuses on the huge COVID-19 human costs and economic damage. Released by a global think-tank, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), it identifies the missed opportunities in the virus battle and its consequent human and economic costs " [link and here].
In the United States, the Trump administration's futile effort to “protect the economy” (read: the markets) has had disastrous repercussions. Yet, the White House continues to suppress science-based medical policies.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2020
The Fed Now Owns All Markets / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Michael_Pento
Since the Great Recession hit in 2008, central banks have been in the business of keeping insolvent governments from defaulting through the process of pegging borrowing costs near zero. These money printers are now in the practice of propping up corporations--even those of the junk and zombie variety--by ensuring their cost of funds bears absolutely zero relationship to the credit quality of the issuer. To be clear, central banks have been falsifying public and now private bond prices to historic and monumental degrees just as the intensity of issuances and insolvency deepens.
And now, the Fed is bailing out bankrupt consumers with helicopter money in the form of enhanced and extended unemployment, grants through the Payroll Protection Plan and direct UBI to consumers through the CARES Act Recovery Rebates clause. All together there has been about $2.8 trillion worth of deficit spending so far.
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Monday, May 11, 2020
We Are On The Verge of the Entire World Becoming Like East Germany / Politics / Pandemic
By: Jeff_Berwick
Only You Can Stop It
East Berlin citizens woke up on 13 August 1961 to more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. Overnight they were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced. And when it became clear that there would be no major action to protest the closing, the tyranny of East German authorities became silently ratified.
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Monday, May 11, 2020
Brave New Corona World – A heated Debate between Steven Pinker and Aldous Huxley / Politics / Pandemic
By: Submissions
Aldous Huxley: Did I not make sufficiently clear what I think about principled optimists and ideological perfectionism when I wrote a masterpiece of world literature on the subject? Don’t believe that a man of the mind ever takes leave of thinking and simply retires. Instead I’m anxiously following what you’re doing down there – and certainly that gives me no rest. Coronavirus is only one among many threatening forebodings. Homo sapiens insapientissimus seems to do everything in his power in order to put himself on the red list of species without a future. And you don’t even know what you are doing! *0*
Steven Pinker: Here you go, I don’t talk to the dead; you’ve had your time, now the living are calling the shots. What you delivered in your great masterpiece was after all nothing but poetry, that is to say nothing but fantasy. But I can prove – figures at hand – that almost everything is much better today than it has ever been in the past. People live longer, they kill themselves less, they eat better, they have fewer illnesses than ever before – even though their numbers have increased sevenfold during the last two hundred years. *1* What better proof is there to reduce all your objections to absurdity – together with those of all other naysayers and prophets of doom, both living and dead?
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Friday, May 08, 2020
RABBITS in the HEADLIGHTS! US and UK Government Response to Coronavirus / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
RABBITS IN THE HEADLIGHTS that's what the UK and US Government response to Covid-19. Nearly always acting about 6 weeks after they should have done so and only then when in the midst of a panic, likely due to being advised by mad scientists who should not have been let out of their ivory towers!
They do not have a clue, not a single clue whatsoever, literally are rabbits in the headlights cannot even understand the most basic aspects of what's taking place. If anything should come out of this crisis than it should be less reliance on governments! Though I fear the exact opposite may transpire as governments use the pandemic to expand their reach into every aspect of ordinary citizens lives which does not bode well for the next crisis!
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Wednesday, May 06, 2020
Crushing the States, Saving the Banks: The Fed’s Generous New Rules / Politics / Coronavirus Depression
By: Ellen_Brown
The new terms could be harnessed for local governments to own and operate their own banks.
Congress seems to be at war with the states. Only $150 billion of its nearly $3 trillion coronavirus relief package – a mere 5% – has been allocated to the 50 states; and they are not allowed to use it where they need it most, to plug the holes in their budgets caused by the mandatory shutdown. On April 22, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was opposed to additional federal aid to the states, and that his preference was to allow states to go bankrupt.
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Wednesday, May 06, 2020
To Avoid a Collapse of the Eurozone, Europe Moves Closer to a European Megastate / Politics / European Union
By: Frank_Hollenbeck
The French president Macron recently fired a warning shot across the bow of the European ship of state. He said that without making all EU countries mutually responsible for the debts of individual countries the EU could collapse. In March, Christine Lagarde asked eurozone finance ministers to consider a one-off joint debt issuance of “corona bonds” to assist with the coronavirus pandemic. But this has been met with opposition by Germany and other northern European countries, since they do not want to be responsible for the debts of the more spendthrift nations of the EU.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2020
United States Coronavirus Trend Trajectory Update / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
A quick update for the US Corona catastrophe trend trajectory. Over 1 million testing positive and 61,656 reported deaths resolves to a case fatality rate of 5.8% up from 2.1% at the start of April. Which just reiterates how badly wrong ALL those who were touting that the CFR would fall when the US starts to test many more people, we'll just as I warned at the time that is NOT what's going to happen and HAS not happened!
Regardless of what President Trump and the mad scientists state about flattening the curve , in reality there is little sign of the curve flattening on even the official data which just like the UK UNDER REPORTs the actual number of deaths by likely 70%-80%! Still official data is all I have to work with and the curve on this graph does not look like it's flattening. Instead projects towards an End May death toll of about 110,000!
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Tuesday, May 05, 2020
Boris Johnson Orders CHARGE of the NHS Light Brigade Charge into the Valley of Coronavirus Death / Politics / Pandemic
By: N_Walayat
The magnitude of incompetence and negligence of the UK government is unprecedented, a death toll that should be in the hundreds now runs into the tens of thousands, not even 100 Bin Laden's could have inflicted as much damage as Boris Johnson's government has.
Nothing illustrates this then NHS workers being sent like the Light Brigade to Charge into the Coronavirus valley of death without any protection!
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Monday, May 04, 2020
Britain's FAKE Coronavirus Death Statistics Exposed / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The UK death toll has sky rocketed to over 26,000! Well beyond that which anyone could have imagined in lockdown Britain a month ago! All this whilst lockdown Britain continues without end with the government financing 80% of MOST workers wages, bailing out corporations and underwriting small business loans up to the tune of £50k each, canceling £36 billion of NHS Debt and on it goes, the final bill for which could exceed £1 trillion! All whilst the Bank of England quietly prints money to monetize UK government debt that will have inflationary consequences as consumer prices soar.
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Monday, May 04, 2020
UK Government Orders NHS Workers Light Brigade Charge into the Valley of Coronavirus Death / Politics / UK Politics
By: N_Walayat
The magnitude of incompetence and negligence of the UK government is unprecedented, a death toll that should be in the hundreds now runs into the tens of thousands, not even 100 Bin Laden's could have inflicted as much damage as Boris Johnson's government has.
Nothing illustrates this then NHS workers being sent like the Light Brigade to Charge into the Coronavirus valley of death without any protection!
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Saturday, May 02, 2020
Trump and His Coronavirus Task Force go for “Throttle Up” / Politics / Pandemic
By: James_Quinn
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” – Richard Feynman – Rogers Commission
“It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask “What is the cause of management’s fantastic faith in the machinery? … It would appear that, for whatever purpose, be it for internal or external consumption, the management of NASA exaggerates the reliability of its product, to the point of fantasy.” – Richard Feynman – Rogers Commission
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Friday, May 01, 2020
Coronavirus Wuhan Bio Lab Origins Paving Way for US War with China / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The CCP opened one of their desk drawers marked "Do Not Open" to reveal that the number of total deaths is actually 50% higher than previously reported. Expect more such revisions upwards though likely we will never know the true number since many bodies were disposed off in mass cremations, and I would not be surprised if the real number was at least 5 times higher than Beijing propaganda, all of which acts as accelerant on the War with China mega-trend as what the West is experiencing does not match that which China reported to the world to expect for which there will be a reckoning with China. As is the focus of my latest video based on excerpted analysis from my article made available to Patrons on the 6th of April.
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Thursday, April 30, 2020
Russia - Without the Propaganda - Part 2: The Rise of Putin / Politics / Russia
By: Raymond_Matison
Geographical and demographic description
The Russian Federation, commonly known as Russia, is the successor state from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia still has the largest land mass of any country with 6.6 million square miles, roughly three times that of the United States. From East to West it extends for 6,200 miles through eleven time zones, and its land mass extends from above the Arctic Circle south some 2,800 miles to the subtropical coast of the Caspian Sea. Its population of 146 million, represents just 1.9% of world population, and less than half the population of the United States. But its land mass represents 11% of the earth’s land surface! Three fourths of this land mass, and just one-fifth of its population are in Siberia where its rivers drain into the Arctic Ocean.
Being this far north, its growing season is limited to four or five months, while the winters are long and harsh. Approximately 60% of its land mass is covered in a taiga, a coniferous forest rooted in acidic nutrient-poor soil, with a permafrost underlying roughly half of this terrain. This is not a hospitable environment for agriculture, being suited mostly for spring plantings of hardy early maturing crops. Given the huge distance barriers, growers are inhibited from growing and harvesting more than can be eaten or traded locally, but the nation produces sufficient harvests to feed its population.
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Wednesday, April 29, 2020
US Paving the Way for War with China / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Meanwhile the CCP opened one of their desk drawers marked "Do Not Open" to reveal that the number of total deaths is actually 50% higher than previously reported. Expect more such revisions upwards though likely we will never know the true number since many bodies were disposed off in mass cremations, and I would not be surprised if the real number was at least 5 times higher than Beijing propaganda, all of which acts as accelerant on the War with China mega-trend as what the West is experiencing does not match that which China reported to the world to expect for which there will be a reckoning with China. As is the focus of my latest video based on excerpted analysis from my article made available to Patrons on the 6th of April.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Russia - Without the Propaganda - Part One: Rise of Communism to 1991 / Politics / Russia
By: Raymond_Matison
This set of two articles is being created to investigate Russia’s embrace and evolution from Communism, political development of their new state, advance of their market economy, current influence in the world regarding regional conflicts affecting their near geographical neighbors, and potential threat to the United States.
This first article reviews major events leading to the Russian Communist revolution in 1917, through the two world wars and subsequent Cold War to the ultimate unraveling of the Soviet Union. The second article in this series looks at the development of a new Russia – without the propaganda. Consequently, that article looks at facts and some statistics rather than politicized opinions of proponents or opponents. One can lie also with statistics, but less so, and they tell a story that the reader himself can evaluate and confirm either to accept or reject.
Since the beginning of the 20th century Soviet Union’s or Russia’s military force has participated directly or indirectly in WWI, WWII, Korea, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria. Despite the world being a huge space, America also has been a participant in these same countries, and over the last several decades the U.S. has identified certain countries as formidable rivals or even as “enemies endangering our national security”. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and even Venezuela are on this list. Curiosity caused this author to investigate the reasons why these less economically developed and militarily weaker countries are such a concern to the all-powerful United States. Those wishing to review this author’s investigations into China, Iran, Vietnam, or North Korea may do so by accessing Market Oracle’s Author’s Archive, for those interested in Russia, read on.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2020
UN Warns Of Famines Of Biblical Proportions Due To Lockdown Caused By Covid Plandemic / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Jeff_Berwick
"Let them eat cake"
As the legend goes, this was Queen Marie-Antoinette from France’s famous response to the peasants who complained they didn’t have bread to eat. With this, she reportedly became a hated symbol of the decadent monarchy and fueled the revolution that would cause her to (literally) lose her head several years later.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2020
US Coronavirus Catastrophe Current State / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
US buck passing has started as Trump de funds the WHO in the middle of a pandemic, yes the WHO has been infiltrated by the CCP as have many western institutions just as the CCP was planning on having the likes of Huawei infiltrate western 5G networks that they were offering at deep discounts to the fools in the UK government who were eager to blindly lap it up despite warnings from the US.. At least the US did not fall for China's 5G cunning plan. Though of course following the corona catastrophe many nations should be waking up to the full spectrum Chinese threat that includes bio-weapons as the story of the lab in Wuhan being the source of the pandemic has once more started to make an appearance in the mainstream press. And It does not matter if it is true or not for it is all for inclusion in the dossier that is being quietly assembled by US Intelligence agencies in preparations for military action later this year.
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Monday, April 27, 2020
How My Quantum Computer Interpreted and Predicted the Coronavirus Pandemic 2020 - DEVS Machine / Politics / Quantum Computing
By: N_Walayat
This video shows how my Quantum Computer interpreted the unfolding Coronavirus events from late January that forecast the world was heading towards a pandemic just as Quantum computers such as that of DEVS of millions if not billions of Qubits offer the promise of being able to simulate reality and then project simulations backwards and forwards in time. Whilst DEVS is sci-fi that likely is a good 20 years away from becoming anywhere close to reality. However, do bear in mind that there already are several billion working quantum computers on the planet right now with the ability should the be so tuned to to simulate the past and project into probable futures and thus allow actions to be taken accordingly.
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