Free Republic

China's economy is humming along in high gear, thanks to a fast-growing pile of dicey debt. Such booms tend to end badly. China's economy is the envy of the world. As developed nations struggle to eke out a bit of growth and to get unemployment rates out of double digits, Chinese output gallops ahead at an 8% annual rate. This $4.7 trillion economy, it seems, is the world's dynamo and the prototype for the future. Take a close look, however, and you may come away thinking China resembles nothing so much as Japan shortly before its stock and property markets...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says its has several concerns about Sen. Jon Tester's plan to create more wilderness and mandate more logging in Montana's national forests. Speaking at a hearing Thursday, a top Agriculture Department official says Tester's bill would require logging levels in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest that are ``not reasonable'' and may be unachievable. Harris Sherman, an Agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, also said he was concerned at the bill's cost and mandates that he said could create a harmful precedent for other national forests. Tester's bill would add 600,000 acres of Montana wilderness,...

Chris Cuomo Promoted to '20/20' Anchor Desk Chris Cuomo Ends Three-Year Run at 'GMA' News Desk, Promoted to '20/20' By LEE FERRAN and SARAH NETTER Dec. 10, 2009 After three years with "Good Morning America," news anchor Chris Cuomo announced today that he will leave the morning show. Cuomo promoted to co-anchor of "20/20," will leave the news desk at "GMA."Cuomo has been promoted to "20/20" where he will share the anchor desk with Elizabeth Vargas. He will continue to cover breaking news for the network and get answers for all the shows. Friday will be his last day at...

I'm tired of the repeated bull-crap from the media and various carny barkers about "moral obligations" to meet your payments on underwater property. Why is it that you have a moral or ethical obligation to BANKS to do this, when THOSE VERY SAME DAMN BANKS ARE WALKING AWAY IN THE SAME FASHION I ADVOCATE? Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the securities firm that spent more than $8 billion on commercial property in 2007, plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market....

I'd like to thank Eugene Robinson for highlighting Alaska's achievements on climate change ["Palin's own 'Climate- gate,' " op-ed, Dec. 15] and for noting that I've "treated the issue as serious, complex, and worthy of urgent attention," while making "any number of pragmatic, reasonable, smart decisions as governor." But he's wrong to suggest that my views have somehow changed or that now I'll have to "renounce" my past efforts. Continues....

The U.S. Treasury faces a decision by year end on whether to increase its bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beyond the $400 billion it has already committed. So far, the companies have taken $112 billion in capital infusions from the government, and most analysts believe they are unlikely to use up the full $400 billion. But some analysts say the Treasury and regulators should take precautions, in case losses run higher than expected. After Dec. 31, the U.S. government would have to seek congressional approval for any increase. Until then, it can increase its commitment unilaterally. The politics...

What has been lost in the housing talk recovery is the grim statistics that commercial real estate has fallen 37 percent in value in the last year. This wouldn’t be such a big problem aside from the tiny detail that some $3 trillion in commercial real estate loans are still outstanding. The commercial real estate debacle is already happening with defaults reaching 16 year highs. This is already occurring before many of the commercial real estate loans reach their refinance dates. In some instances banks are simply ignoring non-payment and giving borrowers a few more months or even years. Why?...

Accusing prosecutors of a "shameful" campaign to intimidate witnesses and obtain unjustified convictions, a federal judge threw out high-profile criminal stock fraud charges against Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III and the company's former chief financial officer. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued his ruling Tuesday, less than a week after he overturned a guilty plea by company co-founder and Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli.The judge also dismissed a civil lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed against Broadcom executives, wiping away misconduct allegations that had plagued the Irvine-based microchip giant for years. Samueli and Nicholas,...

WASHINGTON — A call from a flight attendant to the pilots of the Northwest Airlines plane that overshot Minneapolis catapulted the cockpit crew from complacency to confusion. On Oct. 23, 2009 file image made from video and made available by KGW-TV in Portland, Ore., shows Northwest pilot Richard Cole at his home in Salem, Ore. Interviews with the flight crew and other documents released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board indicate the pilots were completely unaware of their predicament until the moment the intercom rang. They were unaware that they had flown their Airbus A320 with 144 passenger more...

China, once a proud holder of United States post-World War II debt, is getting scared. For years the People's Republic has bought U.S. Treasuries, eventually becoming the largest holder of U.S. debt ($799 BILLION to be exact!). Those days are long gone, though. During 2009, China hasn't been buying many Treasuries and has been unloading dollars in a way that makes Geithner shiver at night. And other big U.S. debt carriers like Japan may follow suit if confidence is lost. This presentation, courtesy of RBS, takes a deeper look into China's holdings and associated volumes since 2005. Get ready for...

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported: An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques. At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards...

tly sent the following letter to our senior senator, Max Baucus: Max, let's start out by saying that you have been doing a good job for Montana in recent years and that is why I have voted for you every time you have been on the ballot. That, I'm afraid, is about to change if you keep going down the path you are on concerning the requirement for health insurance or risk a fine. This is unbelievable and un-American. You see Max, until recently I had no health insurance and made too much money for Medicaid. I was stuck in...

Sheldon Adelson on his casino company's plans for Macau, Singapore--and, perhaps, Europe. In 2007 Sheldon Adelson was America's third richest man. Before the collapse of the markets last year, shares of his Las Vegas Sands casino company traded at more than $140 a share, maxing out his personal fortune at nearly $40 billion. These days he's worth a mere $9 billion, 26th on the most recent Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. "The Forbes 400 is a report card for the wealthy, and seeing it this year hurt," he says. "I got a bad report card." Now he's vowing...

"Saturday Night Live" has been ridiculing President Obama’s claim that he wants to reduce spending and cut the deficit. Katie Couric says Americans are growing “disenchanted” with Obama, and she cites polls questioning his credibility on her “CBS Evening News.” The Associated Press ran stories pointing out Obama’s misrepresentations on healthcare proposals. Washington Post editorials lambasted him over his out-of-control spending. Finally, the New Yorker ran a cover showing Obama bowing to Santa Claus. As traditionally liberal media outlets finally wake up to how extreme Obama is, his approval ratings will continue to sag. The latest Rasmussen poll found that...

What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? By Liang Jing Dec 5, 2009 - 5:17:35 PM What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? by Liang Jing Everyone understands that to transform ChinaÂ’s economy, household consumption must increase, but few have real confidence in this strategy. What is so difficult about making over the Chinese economy? Overseas, people say that ChinaÂ’s consumption is inadequate because Chinese people save too much. This is actually a big misunderstanding. Some people save to buy property, to educate their children or in case of illness, but the bigger problem is that...

Lawyers see litigation and administrative nightmares resulting from political impasse. Barring a last-minute political deal, the federal estate tax is set to disappear as of Jan. 1, 2010--for just one year. Democratic leaders of Congress are vowing to resurrect the tax retroactively sometime next year, but the impending lapse has estate planners in a tizzy. They worry the lapse could turn into a nightmare for some families. "We may have to change every other client document," laments Carol Harrington, the head of the Private Client Group at McDermott Will & Emery. The one-year repeal of the estate tax has been...

Will consumers buy from a bankrupt auto maker? There always are bargain hunters, but I was certain many would stay away. With Pontiac and Saturn out of the picture, I figured General Motors would be down to 16% market share, losing perhaps another 3% as worried potential buyers talked themselves out of visiting a GM showroom. That would have left GM with as little as 13% share. At least, that’s what I figured, and I have a lot of experience covering failing auto companies. So far, I’m wrong. GM’s market share has been climbing since it left bankruptcy, hitting 20.2%...

I’ve gotten a few e-mails about the latest AP poll, which gives Obama a 56% approval rating — far above Gallup, Rasmussen, and practically every other pollster. In fact, AP’s survey of 1000 adults has Obama’s approval rating improving over last month, most definitely in opposition to the large surveys taken even in Gallup’s own survey of adults. But even the AP analysis notes that his approval rating seems somewhat disconnected to the “squeamish” reaction to Obama’s policies:

For many of America's social service charities, this holiday season is providing a daunting mix of heavier demand for services, reduced funding and an ever-widening range of clients seeking help as economic woes persist. Two recent surveys convey the extent of the challenges. According to Catholic Charities, 76 percent of the agencies in its national network are seeing an increased demand for food while 72 percent have cut operating costs. The Bridgespan Group, a Boston-based adviser to charities, said 80 percent of the 100 nonprofits responding to its latest survey are coping with funding cuts. Rebecca Brislain, executive director of...

U.S. Bank is providing early holiday cheer to local job seekers, announcing this morning it plans to open a service center in Overland Park and hire 1,100 new workers. Mark Jorgenson, regional president and CEO, said the new U.S. Bank Service Center would be one of the largest operated by the bank, and has been in the works for more than two years. “I can’t think of a better time to make the announcement than over the holiday season,” Jorgenson said. “It’s a stimulus package of the best kind, being a private one. It’s also a positive statement for U.S....

CHEYENNE — A head-on collision that killed a Ten Sleep couple last year is prompting a new legal challenge to a state law that protects bar owners from being held responsible for the actions of intoxicated patrons. John and Carol Munkberg died Jan. 28, 2008, in a fiery crash in Big Horn County. He was 70, and she was 66. The other driver, Randall LaBrie, 41, of Malta, Mont., had a blood alcohol level of 0.16 percent — twice the legal limit — and was driving in the wrong lane, police reports stated. LaBrie and his two passengers also died....

[L]aw enforcement officials [are] worried that Mexican traffickers — facing beefed-up security on the border that now includes miles of new fencing, floodlights, drones, motion sensors and cameras — have stepped up their efforts to corrupt the border police. They research potential targets, anticorruption investigators said, exploiting the cross-border clans and relationships that define the region, offering money, sex, whatever it takes. But, with the border police in the midst of a hiring boom, law enforcement officers believe that traffickers are pulling out the stops, even soliciting some of their own operatives to apply for jobs. “In some ways,” said...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In yet another comment that will draw guffaws from pro-life advocates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is thankful to God that the Senate bill include massive abortion funding. Pelosi also claims she has enough votes to pass a pro-abortion health care bill in the House, though that is disputed.The Senate bill, unlike the House government-run health care measure, funds abortions though the public option and affordability credits.In a press conference with reporters late Wednesday, Pelosi talked about the differences between the House and Senate bills, some of which she liked and some disliked. But she appealed to...

Republican lawmakers said on Thursday they would try to block a Environmental Protection Agency proposal that opens the door to federal regulation of planet-warming gases. Last week, the EPA issued a ruling that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, clearing the way for the agency to regulate carbon without congressional legislation. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is leading an effort in the chamber to overturn the finding through a rarely used joint resolution of disapproval. Getting the proposal passed will be a heavy lift, since Republicans are a minority in both...

What is the Catholic social justice principal known as “subsidiarity�?If you’re an American and you’re unfamiliar with subsidiarity in this day and age in which the federal government is about the only segment of the economy that’s growing; you better find out in a hurry.In a nutshell, the principal of subsidiarity states that matters impacting the human person should be addressed by the smallest, least centralized, most localized, competent personal authority possible. The opposite situation is realized when personal affairs are managed by larger; more centralized and detached public authorities.At the heart of the matter lies a concern for the...

The Obama administration’s EPA ruling is an attempt to force Congress’s hand.Typically, when a law is passed or a regulation proposed, its champions believe that the action will be beneficial to society. But that’s not the case when it comes to steps that the Obama administration took last week, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson issued an “endangerment” finding that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are harmful pollutants and therefore subject to EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act. Jackson issued the finding largely because the Obama team believes—or at least thinks that Congress believes—that EPA regulation of CO2...

With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics. The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018,...

Greta Van Susteren feels sorry for CNN. On her blog today, she writes: So why do I feel bad (almost) for CNN? Because I have friends there...friends who now whisper to me everytime they see me, "what do you think is going on here? The place feels awful...it is dying." I worry about them. I want my friends to have jobs. Don't get me wrong I want to continue to win, but not to the extent their place goes belly up and my friends lose jobs. You should hear what is being said inside CNN. It is really bad when...

Three veteran city police officers today were charged in Circuit Court with separate crimes ranging from accessory to murder to forgery and official misconduct, a development the state attorney's office says could jeopardize more than 70 felony cases. The announcement comes days after a former Riviera Beach police officer was convicted in Circuit Court of attempted sexual battery and other charges and adds another blemish to a city police department in turmoil. Riviera Beach Assistant Chief Dave Harris referred questions to city spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown, who said, "Riviera Beach takes the integrity of officers very seriously. Our standards are...

How serious is the split in the Democratic Party over the ObamaCare compromise that leaves progressives without a fig leaf? Howard Dean has gone on national TV for three days in a row demanding that his allies in the Democratic Party defeat the bill and force Barack Obama and the White House to start over from scratch. Joe Scarborough managed to get both Dean and David Axelrod on his show today to get both sides of the (Democratic) story. First, Axelrod says the Left would be “insane” to kill ObamaCare now:

The decision by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to sharply cut services to close a nearly $383 million deficit is the latest sign that the state will operate under harsh fiscal constraints in the coming year. The proposed cuts, which would include shutting down two subway lines and slashing night and weekend hours on a system that operates around the clock, will be aired at several public hearings this winter. A final vote is planned in the spring by the board of the MTA, which manages transit systems in New York City and surrounding areas, including Long Island. The measures...

"...The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” And that’s only the beginning of this tawdry tale, Mr. Barnes. The “privately-owned” Chicago Climate Exchange is heavily influenced by Obama cohorts Al Gore and Maurice Strong. For years now Strong and Gore have been cashing in on that lucrative cottage industry known...

Why make risky loans when you can exploit the Fed-Treasury interest rate spread? Over the weekend, President Barack Obama went on the offensive against Wall Street for not lending more to Main Street. On CBS's "60 Minutes," the president declared, "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." He was joined on the Sunday morning circuit by his chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who echoed the message of intimidation. Wall Street fat cats are always a convenient political target, but bankers are responding to the incentives generated by the...

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

The planet may be saved after all, and it will only cost $100 billion. Just as the Copenhagen climate summit appeared to be on the verge of unraveling, the United States Thursday announced its support of an annual $100 billion climate protection fund, the Associated Press reports. “The US is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. Included in the conditions for the US' contribution, Clinton demanded that China's emissions reductions be scrutinized...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is Time magazine's "Person of the Year." Twelve months ago, the "honor" went to then-President-elect Barack Obama. Notably, the 1932 recipient was President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who asserted in his March 4, 1933, inaugural address, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Mr. Roosevelt went on to describe the economic anxieties of millions left jobless in a deepening depression as "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." He then served notice that if the "national emergency" required it, he would "ask the Congress for the one...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other senior Democrats vowed in Copenhagen Thursday to back up Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s pledge to increase U.S. climate aid for poor nations. But Democrats also endorsed Clinton’s linking the commitment to China and other nations making their emissions curbs subject to outside verification, a major issue of dispute at the international climate summit.

A leaked UN document emerged last night that shows the current proposals for a deal at Copenhagen will ‘put at risk the very viability of our civilisation on Earth’. The document is an internal briefing paper drawn up by the UN Framework Committee on Climate Change that is in charge of the talks. It says that even the most ambitious emission reduction targets currently offered by developed and developing countries, including the EU and US, would set the world on course for warming of around 5.4F (3C).

Democrats in the Senate still face a filibuster threat from within their own party as they try to push health care legislation to a vote, though the key holdout says he's merely interested in "getting it right." Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he was unsatisfied by a proposed compromise on the issue of federal abortion funding in the Senate's health care reform bill -- but even if that is resolved, he still might support a filibuster if other issues he has raised aren't addressed. A spokesman for Nelson told Fox News on Thursday that the Nebraska Democrat also is...

A friend of mine lives in Kona on the Big Island in Hawaii. He has a fishing boat which he proudly named the 44-DD after a spectacular feature of his wife's anatomy. This is not about that sort of Double-D. While it may be difficult to keep your mind off what that spectacular feature might look like - just as it's hard to comply with the demand that you not think of a pink elephant - let's try and focus on a Double-D that can rescue our country from the clutches of the Fascist Democrat Party and the destruction being...

If you believe polls, current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke favorability has been slipping. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll indicates that only 21 percent of Americans favor his reappointment as the Fed chair. And this hasn't gone unnoticed by some members of the Senate, where Bernanke's fate lies. Bernanke's reconfirmation passed through the Senate Banking Committee by a 16-to-7 vote on Dec. 17. But that margin calls into question how his reconfirmation vote on the Senate floor could go. And as CNBC "The Kudlow Report" host Larry Kudlow warned, that puts his reconfirmation in question. "Look, ‘Helicopter' Ben passed the...