Free Republic

The unexpected U.K. vote to leave the European Union has predictably set off a flight to safety, sinking global equity markets and Treasury yields, while boosting the value of the dollar. The immediate consequences are the opposite of what the weak global economy... ...the U.K. only accounts for about 2.4% of global GDP... ...Brexit vote will provoke "a crisis of confidence... ...For now, though, uncertainty about the future of Europe and concern about the disruption of trade are likely to weigh on investment and growth. IHS Global Insight, which had been forecasting 1.5% GDP growth in Germany in 2017, now...

Nations around the world reject its eco-terrorism tactics. Governments and courts around the world are finally cracking down on the eco-terrorist organization Greenpeace. The crackdown, which is long overdue, couldn’t happen to a more misguided bunch of people. In early December 2014, more than 20 Greenpeace activists damaged a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a publicity stunt meant to motivate greater government support for renewable-energy sources they think are necessary to battle supposed human-caused climate change. The activists walked into a “strictly prohibited” area where the Nazca Lines are located in Peru and laid big, yellow cloth letters...

Critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, such as Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, were convinced months ago that it would harm the United States... ...International Trade Commission (ITC) was mandated to deliver its verdict... ...the findings landed with a thud. That was only partly because the document was 792 pages long; it also foretold of modest results. It predicted that, by 2032, U.S. real income would be 0.23% higher with the agreement than without and employment would be .07% higher (128,000 full time jobs). Hardly earth-shattering... ...There are limitations to these workhorse trade models... ...Few -- if any --...

The People’s Bank of China have set the USD/CNY fixing for Monday at 6.6375, some 0.9% weaker than Friday’s fixing level of 6.5776. The figure, well above Friday’s close of 6.6150, was the weakest fixing level seen since December 2010.

The mayor of Paris this week issued a stern warning to Amazon over its express delivery service, raising concerns over its impact on local businesses and criticizing the US company for informing authorities "only a few days" before it launched. In a press release published Sunday, the office of Mayor Anne Hidalgo called on Amazon to guarantee that its Prime Now delivery service will not add to the city's pollution problems and that it will preserve the "diversity" of Paris' economy.

As one special relationship falters, another may beckon. The British vote to leave the EU could hasten a changing of the guard among Washington’s European allies, with Germany replacing the UK as its most important partner. In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, the White House has gone out of its way to emphasise the enduring links that will remain between the US and the UK. “One thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations,” US President Barack Obama said on Friday. But Mr Obama has less than seven months left in...

OBERLIN, Ohio - Oberlin College, in an effort to save several million dollars a year, has offered buyouts to 323 faculty and staff. Buyout offers at colleges are rare but have become a way to encourage professors, whose positions are protected by tenure, to retire. Oberlin offered the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan to employees, including 100 faculty, in April. The college expects about 85 individuals to accept the offer ... The board of trustees agreed to slow the rate of tuition increase from 3.9 percent to 2.8 percent in the 2016 fiscal year, which will result in $2.1 million in...

Switzerland will propose in talks with Brussels that it should be allowed to protect economic sectors in specific regions against immigration from the European Union, its president told a Sunday newspaper. Switzerland only has until February to implement a binding 2014 referendum demanding limits on the influx of foreigners to a country whose population is already a quarter foreign. But a blanket curb on immigration would torpedo a set of interlinked bilateral economic accords under which Switzerland agreed to allow free movement of people. "Not much can be obtained with a bare figure," Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann told the SonntagsZeitung...

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday blasted a planned EU-US trade treaty, saying the ambitious deal was against “EU interests”. “No free trade agreement should be concluded if it does not respect EU interests. Europe should be firm,” Valls told members of the governing Socialist Party, adding “France will be vigilant about this.”p> “I can tell you frankly, there cannot be a transatlantic treaty agreement. This agreement is not on track,” Valls said. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) aims to topple regulatory and tariff barriers and establish the largest free-trade and investment area in the world. The...

The European Union must stop being nit-picky and intrusive, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday as the bloc scrambled to handle the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave. The Brexit vote to leave the EU has deepened fears among mainstream politicians across Europe about the rise of eurosceptic, anti-establishment parties, particularly in France, where the far-right National Front is increasingly popular. That concern has also prompted mainstream French politicians on the left and right to call for an overhaul of Europe, in a country where surveys show disillusionment with Brussels is growing. "We must put an end to...

Some of the web's biggest destinations for watching videos have quietly started using automation to remove extremist content from their sites, according to two people familiar with the process. The move is a major step forward for internet companies that are eager to eradicate violent propaganda from their sites and are under pressure to do so from governments around the world as attacks by extremists proliferate, from Syria to Belgium and the United States.

University of Tartu guest history lecturer Joseph Enge thinks that the UK's vote to leave the European Union is both reasonable and rational, and that it should not come as a surprise. Even more, the current criticism of the voters shows that they are right to leave. Yesterday’s vote for the UK to leave the European Union should not come as a surprise. Their decision is reasonable and rational given the unilateral decisions made by President Obama and Chancellor Merkel without consulting or taking account British concerns or interests. Yet, the hue and cry have been falsely and insultingly directed...

Brexit, combined with Europe's festering migrant crisis, has created a "catastrophic scenario" that has grave consequences for Britain and the world economy, Soros wrote, "making the disintegration of the EU practically irreversible." Noting that Scotland is agitating to leave the U.K., Soros said the county itself "may not survive" the decision to leave Europe. "The consequences for the real economy [from Brexit] will be comparable only to the financial crisis of 2007-2008," wrote the billionaire, adding that a domino effect could potentially end decades of continental unification. "But the implications for Europe could be far worse," Soros cautioned. "Tensions among...

Annual pay raises don't work. The salary increase serves two purposes: to motivate workers and to keep employees from leaving for a better-paying job. In its current form, the traditional raise does neither of those things very well. "You can't really do a lot with the annual raise," said Evren Esen, director of survey programs at the Society for Human Resource Management. When the economy is decent, annual pay adjustments come in at 1 percentage point or 2 percentage points ahead of inflation for a given year. That doesn't go far. Employees expect to get at least the cost of...

A British opposition lawmaker says Parliament should stop the “madness” Iand overturn the result of a referendum calling for Britain to leave the European Union. Labour legislator David Lammy says Thursday’s national vote was non-binding and “our sovereign Parliament needs to now vote on whether we should quit the EU.” David Lammy ‏@DavidLammy 21h21 hours ago Wake up. We do not have to do this. We can stop this madness through a vote in Parliament. My statement below 16,725 retweets 15,684 likes              

Business groups in France and Germany on Sunday said EU nations should respond to Britain’s decision to quit the bloc by working even more closely together to limit the “turbulence” caused by the Brexit shock. In an joint appeal published in the French Journal du Dimanche, the heads of Germany’s powerful BDI and BDA industry groups and the president of France’s MEDEF employers’ federation made the case for stronger political and economic cooperation. […] They urged the leaders of France and Germany to “solemnly remember their commitment to European values” and boost European cooperation on foreign policy and security, especially...

Credit rating agency Moody's has lowered Britain's credit outlook to 'negative' from 'stable' in the wake of the country voting to leave the European Union.Following the Brexit vote, it said Britain's economic growth will be weaker and warned the public finances will be weaker than previously forecast, meaning it will be harder to cut the deficit. A negative outlook means there is a greater danger of a country being downgraded. It is three years since Moody's cut Britain's AAA rating. It currently has the UK on AA+, the second highest rating.It said: 'During the several years in which the UK will have to...

German lawmakers approved a law that essentially bans fracking, ending years of dispute over the controversial technology to release oil and gas locked deep underground. The text approved on Friday does not outlaw conventional drilling for oil and gas, but leaves it up to state governments to decide on individual cases. But fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, which is carried out by blasting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground to release shale oil and gas, will be banned. …

Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Hampshire are proposing pilots to figure out how they might charge motorists a fee for the miles they travel — rather than taxing their gas, as state and federal officials do today. The I-95 Corridor Coalition, which represents transportation officials from 16 states and the District of Columbia, applied for a federal grant last month to test the idea. Officials would stitch together the policies and technologies needed to count the miles driven by 50 recruits from each of the four states, including state legislators, transportation officials or other willing guinea pigs. They would send...

The economic story of the past quarter-century was the rapid advance of globalization, the unleashing of trade and commerce among countries rich and poor - a McDonald’s in every European capital, “Made in China” labels throughout Toys R Us. The Brexit vote on Thursday ends that story, at least in its current volume. Voters will soon tell us what sort of sequel they’d prefer. A slowdown in trade growth has already gripped the globe over the past several years, according to data from the World Trade Organization. Prospects now look bleak for completion of major new trade agreements, including the...