Free Republic

The powerful agency that manages development on California’s coastline fired its executive director Wednesday after a lengthy and, at times, emotionally charged meeting that veered from accusations about the influence of developers and lobbyists to discussions on the mundane inner workings of government. The California Coastal Commission voted 7-5 to dismiss Charles Lester, who has held the post since 2011. The shake-up raises questions about the direction of an agency often caught in the clash between property rights and conservation. The panel has broad sway over construction and environmental issues in coastal areas that include some of the most coveted...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Feb. 10, 2016) – Carrier plans to relocate its Indianapolis operations to Mexico over the next three years, a move that will affect about 1,400 jobs.</p> <p>Jobs will begin transitioning to Monterrey, Mexico, in 2017, with completion estimated in 2019. The company manufactures heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems at its plant located on West Morris Street.</p>

The global Central Banks have declared War on Cash. Historically, one of the safest things to do when the markets begin to collapse is to move a significant portion of your holdings to cash. As the old adage says, during times of deflation, "cash is king." The notion here is that cash is a safe haven. And while earning 1-2% in interest doesn't do much in terms of growing your wealth, it sure beats losing 20%+ by holding on to stocks or bonds during their respective bear markets However, in today's world of fiat-based Central Planning, cash represents a REAL...

In an extensive Facebook rant, Coulter highlighted excerpts from debate transcripts in which Trump denied support for socialized medicine. In both instances she referenced, Trump denied support for Obamacare, arguing that he would repeal it and replace it with "something so much better." Asked about universal health care during an interview with 60 Minutes in September, Trump said, "I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not." "The government's gonna pay for it," Trump replied. "But we're going to save so much money on the other side. But for the most...

I've been watching this guy for a few years. He's a market analyst type that does a lot of commentary about the direction of the stock market and the economy in general. He's one of the few guys whose opinion I trust. He's been doing financial commentary for years and is also a medical doctor. Quite a resume! Anyway, enjoy! Here is the link: Today's market analysis: Humanity at a Crossroads

The number of jobs in the services sector has increased by 2.4 million in the past year, while the number of jobs in goods-producing industries has risen by just 176,000. “The stock market is preoccupied with itself,” and those Wall Street blinders are leading a lot of people to think the economy is doing a lot worse than it really is, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics and the winner of the January Forecaster of the Month award from MarketWatch. If you watch the stock market ticker DJIA, -1.91% all day, you’re probably worried that the U.S. economy...

U.S. equities fell sharply Thursday as investors digested a massive global sell-off and oil prices fell further. "I'll say this again, the arbitrary desire on the part of the Fed, ECB, BoJ, BoE, Riksbank, and SNB for 2% inflation has truly wrecked havoc on the global economy and has lit major financial instability," Boockvar said. "The central banks have lost control of the situation," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial. "If this continues, there's real trouble ahead." Cardillo said. "I think we could see a bounce there. Otherwise, we're in trouble."

Right now policymakers are deliberating a touchy question: Should governments force tech companies to insert “backdoors,” or intentional access points into their encrypted products?Doing so would presumably aid law enforcement officials in their criminal and counter-terrorism investigations. (Otherwise they would be shut out from reading or intercepting certain data.) Yet any “backdoor” in a consumer product could also be exploited by hackers or spies, technologists warn. Enter Bruce Schneier. The crypto expert and best-selling author has spent the last few months bolstering an economic case for why the U.S. should reject any proposed mandates for “backdoored” encryption. In fact, Schneier...

Fast Facts for Conservatives on Net Neutrality Since its birth, the Internet has existed on phone lines which were covered under what are known as "common carrier" regulations, (or "Net Neutrality"), which prevented discrimination by network providers based on content or where a call originated. This principle carried over to the Internet and helped make it a dynamic engine for free expression and economic growth. In recent months, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted "net neutrality" regulations off of the Internet, leaving the issue up to Congress to decide. It is currently being debated as part of pending telecommunications legislation....

They bounce back after terrorist attacks, pick themselves up after earthquakes and cope with pandemics such as Zika. They can even handle years of economic uncertainty, stagnant wages and sky-high unemployment. But no developed nation today could possibly tolerate another wholesale banking crisis and proper, blood and guts recession.

Somewhere between random free college for everyone and Teutonic regimentation geared towards industry is a happy medium of career choices that American high school graduates used to come much closer to having access to. "The middle-skill level, short of a BA but beyond high school, has been shrinking for about 20 years," Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown, pointed out on Tuesday, February 09, 2016 at the Center for American Progress (CAP). Yet and still, few in the educational establishment want students to come up short of a Bachelor of Arts. "My biggest nemesis is the high school counselor who...

California has something of a migration problem. Yes, the state's population growth rate has been hovering just under 1% for a few years with natural increases and international net migration staying just strong enough for the state to continue growing, but California's consistent net domestic out-migration should be concerning to Sacramento as it develops state policy. As the adage goes, people vote with their feet and one thing is clear, more people are choosing to leave California than come. First, a note about population growth. A state's population grows (or shrinks) based on two major components: one, natural increase -...

As Obama's consumer watchdog agency kneecaps yet another car lender for payola for Democrat constituents, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pledge to double down on the monstrous abuses carried about by the agency. The five-year-old Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, now the single most powerful and least accountable federal agency in Washington, just put a $22 million hit on Toyota Motor Credit over more trumped-up racism charges. All told, the out-of-control agency has extracted more than $220 million from the auto finance industry, including major players Ally Bank, Honda and Fifth Third Bank. Several other lenders are under anti-bias investigation. The...

Donald Trump seems quite certain that the real unemployment rate is higher than the 4.9 percent that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported it to be. A lot higher. "Don't believe these phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment," Mr. Trump said in his victory speech after the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. "The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent." Mr. Trump might be bombastic, but he's not entirely wrong. And the ways in which he is wrong are actually useful for anyone who wants to...

Google GOOGL +0.83% is removing the loophole allowing European users to sidestep the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling that censors their search results. After the European Court of Justice ruled two years ago that people could ask for search results to be removed if they contained inaccurate or ‘outdated’ information, Google attempted to strike a compromise. It complied with the order – but only for European versions of its website. This meant that European users wanting to see uncensored results have only to log on to Google.com to get the unedited version; and plenty do. This state of affairs, as...

SEOUL, South Korea-Stocks shuddered again Thursday, led by a sharp drop in Hong Kong as it caught up with global market turmoil after Lunar New Year holidays. An escalation in tensions between North and South Korea added to a litany of woes for markets that were already flustered by signs of slowing global growth and the slide in oil prices. ANALYST'S TAKE: "What started in January as mainly China based worries has clearly broadened back out to concerns about global growth," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital in Sydney. He said five fault lines are driving concerns about...

The stock market is having a horrible time so far in 2016, with the S&P 500 down more than 9%. Gold, on the other hand, is up nearly 10% year-to-date and hit a four-month high of just under $1200 per ounce on Monday before dipping 0.7% Tuesday to $1189.30. It's a bit of a cliche to say that people turn to gold in times of uncertainty: Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Gold did phenomenally well from 2000-2011 but really suffered after hitting nearly $2000 per ounce in 2011. From 2011 to 2015, the yellow metal pretty much fell in...

"..economic libertarians and others who place a high value on property rights, the right to earn a living, and the right to open a business will find no better friend than Texas senator Ted Cruz...his work at the FTC established a foundation on which the cause of economic liberty progresses still today.Leading a team of senior FTC lawyers, Cruz...relentlessly [fought] against state laws conferring privilege on politically and economically powerful interest groups.Many of these laws do little more than protect entrenched incumbents from small entrepreneurs seeking to open a business and earn a living. Cruz and his team vigorously opposed...

I have no clue how many climate science denial myths a Republican presidential candidate can fit onto the head of a pin, but given these zingers are generally huge it's probably not that many. But we do now have some clue how many myths one of those candidates, Senator Ted Cruz, can fit into an eight-minute diatribe. At least six. When asked about climate change at recent hustings, Cruz has been delivering a stock set of answers from the Little Book of Climate Change Denial (not a real book). At one such event in New Hampshire, the representative from Texas...

One of the most surprising comments this year came from a closed session on fintech where I sat next to someone in policy circles who argued that we should move quickly to a cashless economy so that we could introduce negative rates well below 1% – as they were concerned that Larry Summers' secular stagnation was indeed playing out and we would be stuck with negative rates for a decade in Europe. They felt below (1.5)% depositors would start to hoard notes, leading to yet further complexities for monetary policy.