Free Republic

Democrats were quick to blame the anemic March jobs number on the "sequester" spending cuts. If that were the case, what explains the previous four years of lousy job growth under Obama? At 88,000, the jobs growth in March was well below expectations. And while the unemployment rate dropped, that was the result of hundreds of thousands dropping out of the labor force who as a result aren't counted as unemployed. Democrats, of course, tried to pin the blame for this on Republicans for allegedly pushing austerity measures. White House economic adviser Alan Krueger complained that "arbitrary and unnecessary cuts...

The global financial convulsion of 2007-2008 was followed by the resounding announcement of new priorities: international finance was to be better regulated and there was to be no mercy in the fight against tax havens. In short, we were to put an end to the black holes in a system that was wide open to abuse—at least if the very virtuous conclusions of the G20 held in London were to be believed. … Revelations of individual cases, no matter how fascinating they are, should not be allowed to distract attention from the underlying problem: tax havens are a threat to...

Rank and file told to conserve as Big Sis buys by the billion At least one branch of the U.S. military is scrimping and saving every bullet it can while the Department of Homeland Security is on a bullet-buying spree. Marine Corps Commandant James F. Amos blames sequester budget cuts for causing the Corps to have to scrimp and save every bullet. In a video to Marines, he says, “I ask you to save every round, every gallon of gas, that you take every single aspect, or opportunity, in training to get the most bang for the buck.” “This is...

Innocent children, poor and minorities have been the worst hit. WARNING: attempted satire.On Wednesday, President Obama dined with a dozen congressional Republicans at an unpretentious little restaurant in a Washington, D.C. ghetto. His purpose was to show them how badly the poor, minorities -- and particularly little children -- have already been scarred, perhaps for life, by the Ravenous Bugblatter Austerity Beast of Traal. Even the dreams of little children that they might visit Barack's Barracks the White House this Spring have been dashed, viciously. Showing the determined leadership and frugality all have learned to expect from him, President Obama...

ABC reports tonight: “Republicans accuse the White House of playing politics. But the White House says it is canceling the tours because sequester spending cuts have sliced $84 million out of the Secret Service’s $1.6 billion budget. And they are the ones who secure the tours. They wouldn’t say how much this saves, so we did some math. Tours are open 20 hours a week and use 30 uniformed Secret Service officers at about $30 an hour. Total saved? Approximately $18,000 a week.” (Via The Weekly Standard.)Assuming ABC’s per-week estimate is correct, if you’re looking over an entire fiscal year,...

AFP - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities Saturday to protest against the government's austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone nation. The rallies were organised by a non-political movement which claimed 500,000 marched in the country's capital and another 400,000 in the main northern city of Porto. There have been no official estimates of the crowds. But the mood of the crowd was clearly political, calling for new elections with banners declaring "Portugal to the polls!" and "If you fall asleep in a democracy, you wake up in a...

Civility to oneÂ’s opponents, certainty, restraint, federalism, economy, thrift, and respect for faith: these and other Coolidge ideals are needed today. Debt takes its toll. To no one had this ever seemed clearer than to a 61-year-old farmer named Oliver Coolidge, who languished in Woodstock Common Jail in Windsor County, Vermont, in the spring of 1849. Oliver was behind bars because he owed a neighbor, Frederick Wheeler, $24.23. He had not honored a contract because he lacked the money to honor it. Now his debt had climbed to $29.48 because the justice of the peace had ruled that he had...

US economic output fell at a 0.1% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, adjusted for inflation. Blame spending cuts, say the Democrats. Blame Republican “austerity.” And one more thing: Stop the sequester. As the Center for American Progress put it: “The economy most certainly would have grown at a faster rate were it not for the ongoing political brinksmanship over the debt ceiling and the risk of sharp fiscal contraction in the form of the pending automatic ‘sequestration’ budget cuts.”If you break down the GDP report, you begin to see the problem with this line of argument. Private-sector GDP...

Italian magistrates investigating losses at Banca Monte dei Paschi say the mushrooming scandal has taken a dramatic turn, with political fallout that threatens to rock the country’s elections next month and upset eurozone plans for a banking union. “The situation is explosive,” said Tito Salerno, head of the prosecuting team in Siena, describing the fast-moving events at Italy’s third-largest bank as extremely grave. The Milan bourse tumbled 3.4pc and yields on 10-year Italian bonds spiked 15 basis points to 4.31pc as the political scandal widened. Monte dei Paschi (MPS), the world’s oldest bank dating back to 1472, is under investigation...

The Most Likely Cause Of The Next Recession... Joe WeisenthalJanuary 21,2013 Bill McBride at Calculated Risk has a great post up about the difficulty of recession forecasting. One difficulty is incentives. Many on Wall Street have a persistent incentive towards optimism. On the other hand, blog/media pundits have more of a pessimism bias, since bad news sells. McBride himself, who called the downturn and the upturn, writes: "Now one of my blogging goals is to see if I can get lucky again and call the next recession correctly." So what will cause the next recession? McBride thinks there are three...

Britain, and especially London, has become a popular place for tens of thousands of southern Europeans in search of work as the governments of Spain, Portugal and Italy continue to impose austerity measures. 5,350 Spaniards and 5,370 Italians were allocated national insurance numbers in London in the first quarter of 2012, according to The Times newspaper. The number of national insurance registrations for Spaniards across Britain has soared by 25% year on year. The unemployment rate is more than 25% in Spain. …

RIGA, Latvia — When a credit-fueled economic boom turned to bust in this tiny Baltic nation in 2008, Didzis Krumins, who ran a small architectural company, fired his staff one by one and then shut down the business. He watched in dismay as Latvia’s misery deepened under a harsh austerity drive that scythed wages, jobs and state financing for schools and hospitals. --------------------snip--------------------------- Hardship has long been common here — and still is. But in just four years, the country has gone from the European Union’s worst economic disaster zone to a model of what the International Monetary Fund hails...

The minor mob boss from the south of Europe learns about how hard it is for a small business to survive, with big government, high taxes, and EU austerity programs crushing your every effort... coming soon to a western nation near you?... ------------------ It was a good day for a walk. The sun was shining, the air was clear… the view from Athens, out across the lovely Aegian Sea, had never been so sparkling. So Greco put on his pea coat and fisherman’s cap, clipped his blackjack on his belt and checked his pocket for his switchblade, pulled on his...

(Today, our friendly mob boss learns the ultimate conclusion of punitive taxation:) Greco was making his rounds, one cool December morning, when he turned the corner and saw an unexpected sight. One of his clients, a shopkeeper who was never late with his protection payments, was sitting on the park bench in front of his shop, covered in bandages, gently rubbing his cheek and temples. “Giannis!” shouted Greco as he strode up. “What happened? Were you in an accident?” Giannis looked up. “Yeah, it was an accident, all right.” “You look like you were hit by a bus!” said Greco....

The 2013 EU budget has been agreed after MEPs signed off on a deal worth €132.8 billion ($173.8 billion) in Strasbourg on Wednesday (12 December). The agreement breaks months of deadlock between MEPs, the commission and national governments. It increases EU spending next year by just €3.8 billion ($4.97 billion), over €5 billion ($6.5 billion) less than the sums demanded by MEPs and the EU executive. It also includes a controversial deal providing just €6.1 billion ($7.98 billion) of emergency funding to the European Commission to cover outstanding bills from 2012. …

The US Is Entering A New Era Of Fiscal Austerity Comstock PartnersDec. 6, 2012, 6:59 PM In discussing the fiscal cliff issue, the one big takeaway not to forget is that it is all about austerity----extreme austerity if we go over the cliff and a lesser amount of austerity if we settle it before year-end. More than likely, this is the start of new era of fiscal austerity in the U.S. In no way do we see this as a solution to the myriad of problems besetting the U.S. economy and stock market. These include the still excessive level of...

Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Barack Obama’s plan to prevent American from going over the fiscal cliff is “a joke.” “I think we’re going over the cliff,” the South Carolina Republican said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It’s pretty clear to me they’ve made a political calculation. This offer doesn’t remotely deal with entitlement reform in a way to save Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security from imminent bankruptcy.” …

Connecticut is hurting. We have a Democratic Governor with a stacked state house. We've been cooking the books for 20 years (with RINO gov's too). Today, a giant list of cuts was released... Now we'll see what happens. The cuts are here.

When Greece's government pushed through a law last week aimed at slashing public wages and raising taxes, its biggest threat was not the firebrand opposition or the 100,000 protesters thronged at the gates of parliament. It was the assembly's workers themselves, a well-connected group that has long evoked disdain for enjoying the kind of lavish pay and benefits that have become emblematic of the public sector excess at the heart of Greece's debt crisis. The staff dispute that image. But, having discovered that a 500-odd page draft law of cost cuts and tax hikes included a last minute amendment giving...

A woman jumped to her death as bailiffs approached to evict her from her fourth-floor Spanish apartment for failing to pay the mortgage. It was the second apparent suicide linked to evictions and further highlights the dire conditions many Spaniards find themselves in as the country’s economy sinks. The government recently created a task force to study how to reduce evictions because of the devastating personal impact of repossessions due to tough mortgage rules and growing unease among the public on the subject. The unnamed 53-year-old woman threw herself from her balcony in a suburb of Bilbao, the regional Interior...