The Politics/Economics Resource Thread

[NoirAvlaa]

This is a topic for people to submit links to websites, articles and name some books that would help everyone gain a better understanding of how politics and economics work.

I will endeavour to keep the OP updated with anything anyone submits as a source for information, hopefully in the correct place in the sections below.

So, please submit where you think is a good place to start to become educated on current affairs, political structures, economic models etc. Any source is fine, as long as it is truthful, any website that are caught to be willingly quoting false figures, inventing stories etc will be deleted off the list.

This isn't a thread to troll in btw, please just keep it to anything that could help everyone gain understanding of current issues.

Websites
Blogs
Books
Articles

General

World

http://www.aljazeera.com/ - Middle Eastern world news organization based out of and owned by Qatar. Generally unbiased when Qatar is not directly involved.
http://www.economist.com/ - Very information dense weekly journal, more fact-focused vs opinion. World-Focused (but mostly Europe and USA)
http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics - Good research website
http://mondediplo.com/ - Monthly magazine with a focus on international affairs and political economy. Arguably it has to be considered as left.
http://www.newleftreview.org/ - Bi-monthly journal, with a focus on politics, economy and culture from a socialist/marxist POV.
http://www.heise.de/tp/ - News site with clear links to sources, liberal - IS IN GERMAN
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ - Most prominent/famous German news magazine. Was most cited source in German media. Left.
Principles of Economics - Gregory Mankiw - Very highly rated book on Economics, author has other books on other areas of Economics for anyone interested.
http://www.statista.com/ - Lots of statistics (graph are free, sources required a paid for account) on over 600 industries.

UK


USA

http://www.brookings.edu/ - Non-profit, independent research organisation
http://www.rand.org/ - Non-profit, independent research organisation in the US.

Europe
https://www.destatis.de/EN/Homepage.html - Lots of raw facts and stats. German stats only

China


Rest of Asia


Latin America

Australia


Politics

World

http://www.cfr.org/ - Council on Foreign Relations
http://csis.org/ - Center for Strategic & International Studies
http://www.wsws.org/ - World Socialist Web Site

UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news - General stories about Politics and the Economy. Start point before going more in depth through other sources.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ - Lowdown on UK Politics - CHECK SOURCES FOR ARTICLES FROM HERE
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/ - Ian Hislop's political magazine

USA

http://www.nytimes.com/ - Daily Newspaper. Start point before going more in depth through other sources
http://www.csmonitor.com/ - Liberal, focused on analysis and opinion. Start point before going more in depth through other sources
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/?country=US - Lowdown on US Politics
http://cnas.org/ - National Security and Defense
http://www.politifact.com/ - Unbiased, checks sources diligently
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/ - Blog on events in Washington
http://www.truthdig.com/about/ - Current subjects and issues reports using field experts.
http://www.alternet.org/ - Non-profit media site that uses Independent Journalism.
http://www.nextnewdeal.net/ - Blog on current events that uses experts for their discussions
http://www.motherjones.com/ - Investigative Journalism website on current affairs.
http://www.propublica.org/about/ - Investigative Journalism Blog website on current affairs.
http://www.harvardlawreview.org/index.php - Student run journal of legal scholarship
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet - Far left, good for background articles
http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/ - Good for brushing up on gaps in your knowledge
http://www.opensecrets.org/ - Center for Responsive Politics. Lets you track (some) campaign finance income/expenditures for US candidates.

Europe


China


Rest of Asia


Latin America


Australia
http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/australia/federal/ - Australian political news site
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/ - The Poll - Analysis and Opinion by William Bowe. Statistics incoming
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/thestump/ - The Stump - Analysis and Opinion by Richard Farmer
http://www.abc.net.au/news/thedrum/ - The Drum - Analysis and Opinion by various ABC columnists

Economy

World

http://debategraph.org/Stream.aspx?nid=6637&iv=05 - Interactive, visual representation of global economy issues.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ - Blog with articles about world economics
http://crookedtimber.org/ -Blog with articles about world economics
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/ - Blog with articles about world economics

UK


USA


Europe


China


Rest of Asia


Latin America

Australia
http://economics.com.au/ - Multi-authored economics blog by academic economists.
http://johnquiggin.com/p - Economics blog by John Quiggin


Misc
http://www.newscientist.com/ - Science website, good for gaining an understanding of how some subjects can effect politics/economies (ie. Health, science related industries etc)


All links can be updated or removed if they are found to be giving false information or are discredited in any way. I will try and post accurate descriptions with every link and put them in the right place. If you spot any mistakes or disagree with a link being part of this then please let me know with the reasons. Debate on whether links are suitable or not are fine.

Layout will be changing constantly as I attempt to figure out the best format to lay this out.

When you submit a link can you please add a short description. Say if it's left/right/unbiased/other, what it's about (politics/economics/both) and how accurate it is (Good place to start looking/sources are dependable etc)

Last update to list:- 01-08-2012 @ 17:33

[Aea]

The way I see it, there are two sides to this coin. There's understanding politics and economics and then there's the much simpler part of being aware of political and economical events. For the latter I strongly recommend:

The Economist - Very information dense weekly journal, more fact-focused vs opinion. World-Focused (but mostly Europe and USA)
Christian Science Monitor - Small weekly journal, contrary to the name is liberal and more focused on analysis and opinion. (Very US Focused)
New York Times - Daily Newspaper, No explanation necessary

[Tarminic]

I've occasionally referenced a site called DebateGraph - it takes various debates and then visualizes the topics, subtopics, supporting arguments, etc. An example: http://debategraph.org/Stream.aspx?nid=6637&iv=05

[Rans]

The only way to do it is by reading a lot and from very varied sources. Read from mostly liberal sources, you will have a strong liberal bias, etc which means you're not knowledgeable at all.

So take the biggest 2-3 serious news agencies in each of the big european/american/asian countries.

[Tarminic]

The only way to do it is by reading a lot and from very varied sources. Read from mostly liberal sources, you will have a strong liberal bias, etc which means you're not knowledgeable at all.

So take the biggest 2-3 serious news agencies in each of the big european/american/asian countries.

I would add a few things to that:

1. Make sure you're reading reports and not editorials. Often news websites do not do an especially good job of distinguishing between the two.

2. Don't give the people with whom you agree a free pass on citing their sources. There are a lot of claims that can be researched and verified fairly easily, especially when they involve numbers.

3. Make sure your sources are reliable. Don't ever cite blogs, cite the information blogs are citing. If you can't find the information a blog is using, I advise against taking it without a few grains of salt. Same with Wikipedia - added bonus that when you give your sources people can't go "herp derp anyone can edit wikipedia". Wikipedia is a clearinghouse of sources, after all.

[inora aknaria]

I'll second the fact that the economist is a great way to stay current with world news. I used to read it cover to cover, but unfortunently I slowly stopped making the time and I now feel less able to have a discussion about or explain to other people about world / economic issues.

tapatalk

[Fourfingers frankie]

I personally regularly read the economist, time and Al jazeera. I also do the whole omnivorous thing on Google news. I think over a long enough period you build up knowledge like strata so really it's not like you can be told read this or look here and then you will know. I think it's always good to read some pants on head stuff around subjects too just to give a flipside.

[FourFiftyFour]

Fact check everything.

Doublespeak is hugely prevalent in today's media.

[F*** My Aunt Rita]

Unless you read the things that aren't about economics, the economist is right up there with zerohedge except with better editing.

[Qwert]

Seconding Al Jazeera for world news. They tend to be fairly neutral when Qatar isn't directly involved.

[lubica]

I like www.huffingtonpost.com for the lowdown on US politics, but I can't stand listening to my own country's politicians for more than 2 minutes, before I feel the urge to break shit.

http://www.politifact.com/ -> is a pretty damn good and unbiased (as far as I can tell) resource. It won't be the first site with a breaking story or anything, but they do check their (and everybody elses) sources very diligently.

http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics - good site for data research, though not the one I wanted to link...

[Rans]

Let me give you an example of a very bad newspaper with a very good reputation: The Guardian in the UK.

[Reed Tiburon]

  Spoiler:

too

  Spoiler:

many

  Spoiler:

spoilers

I like www.huffingtonpost.com for the lowdown on US politics, but I can't stand listening to my own country's politicians for more than 2 minutes, before I feel the urge to break shit.

HuffPo is the equivalent of a political tabloid and tbh I wouldn't trust anything they write without two more sources

some good IR / foreign policy thinktanks:
http://www.cfr.org/ - Council on Foreign Relations
http://csis.org/ - Center for Strategic and Intl Studies
http://cnas.org/ - national security and defense stuff
http://www.brookings.edu/
http://www.rand.org/ - analysis on everything

[Rudolf Miller]

I regularly read the Wall Street Journal (which admittedly is a Murdoch owned publication, for now) because in terms of it's economic reporting, it is still top notch. If you want to read about dollars and cents happenings of markets and individual companies, it tends to be very unbiased and in depth.

However, anything political and especially editorial needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt, as there isn't a line they won't cross like claiming the internet was invented by private businesses and not massive amounts of government research grants

[untilted]

Le Monde Diplmatique - mondediplo.com / www.monde-diplomatique.fr / www.monde-diplomatique.de
monthly magazine with a focus on international affairs and political economy ... often putting a spotlight on not-so-talked about areas of the world. arguably it has to be considered as left.

New Left Review - http://www.newleftreview.org/
bi-monthly journal, with a focus on politics, economy and culture from a socialist/marxist POV.

[NoirAvlaa]

Updated. At the moment the updates are basically copy/paste of what you're all putting up there, trying to get them in the "right" place. Let me know about any mistakes.

Also, let me know if the spoilers are a bad way to organise the lists and I'll try and think up a better way. I just didn't want the OP to take up 10feet of scrolling, and for it to be easy to find "UK Politics" or "Chinese Economics" etc depending on what you want to read up on.

[lubica]

Politifact is focused solely on USA, I think. You put it under 'Politics - World' which is not entirely accurate.

[NoirAvlaa]

fixed

[Aea]

I like www.huffingtonpost.com for the lowdown on US politics, but I can't stand listening to my own country's politicians for more than 2 minutes, before I feel the urge to break shit.

HuffPo is the equivalent of a political tabloid and tbh I wouldn't trust anything they write without two more sources

Couldn't agree more, and mostly (all?) amateur journalism.

[NoirAvlaa]

I like www.huffingtonpost.com for the lowdown on US politics, but I can't stand listening to my own country's politicians for more than 2 minutes, before I feel the urge to break shit.

HuffPo is the equivalent of a political tabloid and tbh I wouldn't trust anything they write without two more sources

Couldn't agree more, and mostly (all?) amateur journalism.

Added a disclaimer for now, if more people chime in saying the same I'll remove it.