Free Republic

The chief of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] says the U.S. government’s stalemate over spending and its debt limit is “very, very concerning” and could roll back economic progress around the world. Christine Lagarde, who took over the financial watchdog-and-rescue organization in 2011, said global finance ministers assembled for meetings in Washington last week feeling like Japan had finally turned the corner and that economies in the U.S. and Europe were on the upswing. “And then they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They found out that the government...

House Republicans say they'll go for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling in exchange for a "real commitment" from President Obama and Democrats to talk about the nation's pressing problems. At a news conference Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans are ready to "move half way -- half way to what (Obama's) demanded." [snip] - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/boehner-will-lift-debt-limit-now-if-obama-will-talk-later#sthash.vzfaeZe4.dpuf

You know how it is, you're going along with the lies that are told every day about "recovery" and "economic conditions are kinda "OK" and "we're doing all right" and then the mainstream media and "economists" like Goldman's Alec Phillips step on their ***** and tell the truth by accident. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., IHS Inc. (IHS) and BNP Paribas SA said they expect the Treasury to husband the tax money it collects to make sure it can meet interest and principal payments on the nation’s debt. Other obligations, from salaries of government workers to payments to defense...

1. Salmagundi is a type of salad that contains a little bit of everything. 2. I have added several more essays to the “The One About…” page, including the one about Sharia Finance, the one about Jesus and Guns and the one about Jesus Christ: Economist. I’ll try to get some more up today. 3. YES, I SAW THAT THE OBAMA REGIME is threatening to arrest any priest chaplain who says Mass. Obviously, every Catholic priest chaplain should IMMEDIATLY go offer the August and Unbloody Holy Sacrifice in the most public way possible every single day and then force the...

When Superstorm Sandy slammed into New York and New Jersey last fall, it sent massive floods through the streets of coastal towns and cities across the Northeast, turning areas like Toms River, N.J., into something like a war zone. But nearly a year later, residents there and in many other coastal communities across the U.S. face a potentially far more devastating menace: a nationwide revamp of flood insurance rates, forcing premiums that were once around $500 per year into the $5,000-, $10,000- and even $20,000-a-year range and higher. "The adverse effect of [this] would be more devastating than Hurricane Katrina,"...

The White House is getting ready to launch a major fall blitz for immigration reform... While Washington may be consumed in the latest continuing resolution crisis and debt ceiling drama, it’s also just days away from massive new push on an issue many had written off months ago. [snip] The political imperatives driving the latest immigration effort are clear: Obama can’t just abandon an issue that he promised to deliver on during his last campaign without suffering a major backlash from activists who helped elect him, and congressional Democrats are anxious to make sure Latino voters are motivated to punish...

You know me too, Frank -- we met at McStain's campaign shindig at the University Club in Washington DC in the summer of 2008. I recall that you and Governor Ridge both refused to take a stand on all the frauds in the mortgage market -- the very frauds that just a couple of months later led to the failure of Lehman, the market crash in general and the ensuing disaster. It figures that you're now the President and chief executive of the American Bankers Association [ABA]. It must be really, really awesome to have your candidate suspend his campaign...

Maybe its incompetence or maybe it's something more, but in the end does it really matter when dead is dead? According to State Department and military sources, dozens of highly armored vehicles called GMV's, provided by the United States, are now missing. The vehicles feature GPS navigation as well as various sets of weapon mounts and can be outfitted with smoke-grenade launchers. U.S. Special Forces undergo significant training to operate these vehicles. Fox News is told the vehicles provided to the Libyans are now gone. Along with the GMV's, hundreds of weapons are now missing, including roughly 100 Glock pistols...

WASHINGTON – Asserting the Senate’s constitutional role on treaties, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, in a letter today warned the Obama administration against taking any action to implement the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty without Senate advice and consent. “The ATT raises significant legislative and constitutional questions. Any act to implement this treaty, provisionally or otherwise, before the Congress provides its advice and consent would be fundamentally inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution, law, and practice,” said Corker. Full text of the letter is included below and in the attached document. Dear President Obama,...

While some have argued that the Fed is flying blind, given their endless efforts to convince the market that their actions (or inactions) are now all data-dependent - what happens when that data simply does not exist? As SMRA notes, the official word from the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] is that they are working under the assumption that there will not be a government shutdown and the employment data will be released as scheduled; but what happens if the un-negotiation reaches beyond October 1st? How will our central-planners know what to do? Via Ray Stone of Stone McCarthy, The...

Americans who are fed up with Obamacare won a victory yesterday. The House voted to defund Obamacare while still funding the federal government to avoid a “devastating” shutdown. (I shall not digress, but it’s beyond distressing to hear liberals try to convince Americans that any government slowdown is comparable to “terrorism.”)Now the battle goes to the Senate, and we’ll find out if Harry Reid is so committed to the horrendous “Un-affordable Care Act” that he’ll be the one to shut down the government to fund the unworkable Obamacare.Let’s be clear. Republicans in Congress aren't advocating a government shutdown. That’s why...

This much has been determined yesterday -- The Fed could not handle a 2.8% 10 year Treasury rate. Nor could it handle any further increases. But consideration of the impact of this policy on the common man, along with the destruction of purchasing power and outright theft from the people who produce the services (and few goods remaining) in this nation was damned -- exactly as has been the case for the last three decades. What Bernanke did yesterday was guarantee a crash. He guaranteed it because he took what was a clear opportunity to take what had been priced...

MULBERRY, Fla. (AP)— Polk County sheriff’s deputies arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 34,..He had said he was heading to a nearby park to burn 2,998 Qurans — one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks... Mulberry’s mayor, along with area elected officials, a sheriff’s deputy and several Polk County residents have talked about the need to express love and tolerance for all faiths on Sept. 11. [snip]

On Poland and Detroit. Not For the Faint of Heart. Back to finance. Poland did exactly what I and a few others have been warning about for years with regards to private retirement accounts and pensions. Poland confiscated 50% of all private pension funds last week. PRIVATE pensions. As Warren Pollock and I have been screaming, one of the largest chunks of collateral left in the system is private retirement money, both in the form of 401(k)s and IRAs and in private pension accounts. In the U.S., the latest data for 2012 shows that there are now $10.5 Trillion in...

[To Moderator - the title contained an obscene reference for one to do something physically impossible to oneself.] Mr. Lew, I know you continue to say that the Congress has "no choice" but to raise the debt limit. You're wrong. Congress has the choice to say no. You have a credit card but the limit is set not by your King but rather by Congress. And Congress has the right to cut that card up any time it so chooses. So says the Constitution: Article I Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts...

Are we, the people, going to allow yet another unlawful military action to take place? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel suggested Friday that the Pentagon was moving naval forces closer to Syria in preparation for a possible decision by President Obama to order military strikes. Hagel declined to describe any specific movements of U.S. forces. He said Obama asked that the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria and that some of those options "requires positioning our forces." I don't seem to recall a Declaration of War by Congress. And there is certainly no exigent emergency that requires an immediate response...

Last night I had a surreal experience at the American Legion building in Ft. Walton. If you live around here, you know where it is. There's a tank out front. It's a patriotic place. Last night it hosted The Republican Club of Okaloosa County for their regular meeting, dinner and a speaker -- in this case, Jeff Miller (R-FL-1) The food, hospitality, and crowd were a nice change from my usual evening routine (that often includes a nice hard run) but the surreal began when Mr. Miller stepped to the microphone. What followed was an astonishing display of fear, cowardice...

Wondering why the ES is soaring? Because the NYSE just broke, too. NASDAQ HAS DECLARED SELF HELP AGAINST NYSE ARCA (ARCA) NASDAQ DECLARES SELF HELP AGAINST NYSE ARCA AS/OF 15:26:42 E.T NYSE ARCA HAVING DIFFICULTY PROCESSING OUTBOUND TAPE C QUOTES And BATS too: BATS HAS DECLARED SELF-HELP AGAINST ANOTHER MARKET CENTER BATS SAYS ROUTING TO NYSE ARCA HAS BEEN SUSPENDED AS OF 15:39 An absolute circus meant only to preserve confidence in a rigged, manipulated system based on incorrect electronic trades.

I can't remember if I have ever written this up, or maybe just explained it in a interview at some point, but I have had several people ask, so I'll explain it. This is how Hillary Clinton "made" $100,000 off of an initial "investment" of $1000 in cattle futures back in the early 80's. It was textbook money laundering. I know you're shocked - SHOCKED to think that a Clinton could be involved in anything untoward, but I'm afraid it is true. Back in the 80's in Arkansas, Bill and Hillary were the power couple ascending first to the position...

According to researchers at EMPact America, an organization dedicated to studying and preparing for the possibility of large-scale electro magnetic pulse threats that can destroy our modern day electrical infrastructure, the earth came dangerously close to a serious destabilization event. A couple of weeks ago the sun emitted a massive CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that, had it been earth-directed, would likely have wiped out critical portions of the world’s power grid and sent developed nations back to the stone age within a matter of seconds. ‘The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,’ Henry Cooper, who now heads High Frontier, a group...