Free Republic

Members of the University of California Santa Cruz student government reportedly pressured a Jewish student representative to abstain from voting on an anti-Israel divestment resolution over fears of a “Jewish agenda” at work on campus. The Student Union Assembly at UC Santa Cruz voted last week to divest from five companies that the students say are complicit in human rights violations by making the equipment used by the Israeli military. The resolution called for UCSC to divest from Hewlett Packard (HP), for example, because “HP systems are installed in Israeli military checkpoints.” General Electric, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, and Elbit were...

Some 25,000 illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have been caught in the first seven weeks of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1 — an increase of 58 percent. The number of Chinese, Brazilians, Indians and, strikingly, Cubans, has each surged by more than 100 percent, and the number from Pakistan, while small overall, has spiked from 6 at this point last year to 31 now — an increase of more than 400 percent. The Southwest border has broken open in recent weeks, with non-Mexicans — and illegal immigrant children in particular — crossing at a record...

New union contracts negotiated at American auto manufacturers will lead to a spike in labor costs after years of belt tightening.The United Auto Workers approved significant contract adjustments at Ford and General Motors on Friday after months of tense negotiations. Those decisions—one by membership vote, the other by union leadership—come soon after Fiat Chrysler approved a new deal with dramatic pay boosts. Each of the contracts could reverse “much of the savings achieved by the companies over the last eight years,” according to a study first published in the Wall Street Journal.The new GM deal would raise labor costs from...

More than 30 individuals, businesses seek damages from EPA. Financial damage claims for those affected by the Aug. 5 Gold King Mine blowout eclipsed $1.3 million just two months after the Environmental Protection Agency triggered the release of 3 million gallons of mine wastewater down the Animas River. ... more than 30 individuals and business owners filed Form 95, the claim process for financial reimbursements from economic loss caused by wrongful U.S. government actions. The combined claims total about $1.3 million in damages ... the hardest hit are rafting companies and their employees, who were forced to shut down for...

Cryptocurrency price fluctuation depends greatly on related news and events around of the World. This week various events including the political proposal in Southeast Asia, a new service for US customers, the expansion of the largest global banks consortium to research distributed ledger technology and the rise of new platforms to make “BitcoinCT r: 6 Only” purchases have also had a great influence on the Bitcoin price. And here are some of them. Singapore Prime Minister Said National Banks Can Use Blockchain At the United Overseas Bank (UOB) 80th anniversary dinner, Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, commented that...

Monetary Policy: Congress is taking up a bill that would increase scrutiny of the Federal Reserve and better define its job. After years of badly executed and at times damaging central bank policy, it's about time. We share the misgivings of those who fear Congress micromanaging the economy through the Fed. In particular, Democrats seem prone to using the Fed as a giant piggy bank — such as the current foolish proposal to use Fed dividends to fund Congress' pet pork-barrel... [snip] So, yes, the ability of the Fed to do its job without daily political interference is important. But...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- President-elect Mauricio Macri's promises to revitalize Argentina's sagging economy with free-market reforms and improve strained relations with the United States resonated with voters, carrying him to a historic win that ended 12 years of often-conflictive rule by President Cristina Fernandez and her late husband. ... snip ]

“I think it’s just reflective of what’s been going on for the past month or so and the way the race, at least in the establishment lane, has shifted. It’s really Jeb or Marco now.” Thus spoke an “anonymous” Bush donor, quoted in Politico. The edgy and unidentified Bushie inadvertently confessed that all those Establishment types really do consider Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as one of their own. Apparently his Tea Party upset of then-GOP Establishment Governor Charlie Crist was not what it seemed. Senator Rubio has impressed many on the campaign trail. Without doubt his foreign policy concentration is...

On Saturday evening, Dov Bergwerk arrived at the Avis branch on West 76th Street and Broadway. Accompanied by his wife Ruth, the Bergwerks were planning to join friends for dinner in Westchester. Mr. Bergwerk, a senior vice president and general corporate counsel at the Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva, got out his driver's license, reservation number and "Wizard" loyalty card - he's rented from Avis dozens of times before - and anticipated the usual smooth transition into a nondescript mid-sized sedan. That's when the trouble started.

Up to half of Britain’s care homes will close and the NHS will be overwhelmed by frail, elderly people unless the chancellor, George Osborne, acts to prevent the “devastating financial collapse” facing social care, an alliance of charities, local councils and carers has warned. In a joint letter, 15 social care and older people’s groups urge Osborne to use his spending review on Wednesday to plug a funding gap that they say will hit £2.9bn by 2020. They warn that social care in England, already suffering from cuts imposed under the coalition, will be close to collapse unless money is...

Low oil prices are leaving many oil and gas companies with difficult debt loads, causing them to default at an extraordinary rate. On top of that, rating firm Moody's forecasts the default rate will increase. The strain on the oil patch comes after years of borrowing heavily at the start of the domestic energy renaissance. Marc Lasry, the chief executive of distressed investing specialist Avenue Capital Group, said these energy companies boosted their borrowings to between $250 billion and $300 billion, compared with the $100 billion at the start of this year. The energy boom of the past decade was...

Americans' overall satisfaction with the total cost they pay for their healthcare has been generally stable over the past 14 years. .....Americans cite cost as the most urgent health problem facing the U.S. today. One might expect that their satisfaction with healthcare costs would drop after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought more previously uninsured people into the system and made changes to coverage. However, satisfaction with healthcare costs has remained relatively stable. The current 57% who are satisfied is lower than the 62% measured in November 2009 -- the year before the ACA was signed into law.

If you recall, the popular storyline since late last year has been that the U.S. economy is moderately improving while the world’s other major economies – Japan, China, and Europe – are rolling over. The U.S. economy would power through. Moreover, stock prices had achieved a permanently high plateau.

Israel's prime minister is accusing a German department store of a "boycott" after it removed products made in Israeli settlements under new European Union labeling guidelines. Benjamin Netanyahu noted Sunday that Berlin's KaDeWe department store was once owned by Jews before the Nazis seized it. He says its decision to label products from Israeli communities and remove them from its shelves is "a boycott in every respect." ...

Summary: Over 100 cities have pledged to create bold climate action plans as President Obama & Secretary Kerry travel to Paris to negotiate an international climate agreement. In August, as part of an ambitious plan to expand renewable energy to households across America, President Obama called on all U.S. mayors to publicly commit to a local climate action plan. The President set a goal of at least 100 U.S. cities signing the Compact of Mayors prior to the Paris UN climate change meeting (“COP”). Today, that goal has not only been met, but surpassed. Why are U.S. cities so important...

This market is looking like a disaster and the rates are a reflection of that," warns one of the world's largest shipbrokers, but while The Baltic Dry Freight Index gets all the headlines - having collapsed to all-time record lows this week - it is the spefics below that headline that are truly terrifying. At a time of typical seasonal strength for freight and thus global trade around the world, Reuters reports that spot rates for transporting containers from Asia to Northern Europe have crashed a stunning 70% in the last 3 weeks alone.

Stocks have been on a tear to nowhere this year. Now investors are praying for a Santa rally to pull them out of the mire. They’re counting on desperate amounts of share buybacks that companies fund by loading up on debt. But the magic trick that had performed miracles over the past few years is backfiring. And there’s a reason. IBM has blown $125 billion on buybacks since 2005, more than the $111 billion it invested in capital expenditures and R&D. It’s staggering under its debt, while revenues have been declining for 14 quarters in a row. It cut its...

Subprime auto lending is shifting into higher gear, raising some concerns in Washington where top financial regulators have sounded alarms about this category of loans. Over the six months through September, more than $110 billion of auto loans have been originated to borrowers with credit scores below 660, the bottom cutoff for having a credit score generally considered “good,” according to a report Thursday from the New York Fed. Of that sum, about $70 billion went to borrowers with credit scores below 620, scored that are considered “bad.” This rise in subprime auto lending comes against a backdrop of gradually...

in a major policy reversal, Carson .. no longer supports subsidies for any industry, including U.S. ethanol producers ... Plainly irritated, the ethanol industry shot back immediately, saying it receives no government subsidies. But it neglected to mention a very important fact. Instead of subsidies, ethanol producers get something better: a mandate that orders refiners to blend ethanol into motor fuels which forces consumers to buy their product. A federally guaranteed market beats a subsidy every time. The ethanol industry also benefits indirectly from agriculture programs that support farmers who grow corn for ethanol ... In attempt to push more...

Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters. ...