Free Republic

New FBI data shows that violent crime rates are improving across America, but among cities with the highest crime problems, murder rates continued to rise in 2011. The FBI finds that violent crime dropped 4% in 2011, compared with a 5.5% drop in 2010. The 2011 FBI crime data shows that violent crime rose in more than half of the cities that have among the highest rates in the country. In seven of the 10 cities, murder rates increased. In eight of the 10, burglary went up. Many are cutting police forces through planned layoffs and attrition. More than half...

Marc Faber of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom report appeared on Bloomberg T.V. recently, discussing the current bull market around U.S. Treasuries. The host asked if U.S. Treasuries are "the biggest bubble ever." Faber's response was "yes." If you me asked about the Nasdaq in December 1999, I would have said this is the biggest bubble ever. And yet the Nasdaq continued to go up 30 percent until March 21 2000, and then what happened and how have these people faired since they invested in the Nasdaq in the final months of 1999 and early months of 2000? It's been...

One of the great absurdities of our modern financial system is that a nation living within its means, i.e. spending less than what it confiscates in tax revenue, is no longer the norm. Living within your means is now considered ‘austerity’. And unfair. Whether in the UK, Europe, or North America, many voters have become so accustomed to the government’s massive role in the economy, they can’t begin to imagine how it could be scaled back. You usually hear heavy objections from people like– “What about roads? If we start cutting budgets, there would be no more roads!” The ‘road...

--Fitch would likely downgrade U.S. debt if the government does not get its fiscal house in order --Fitch sovereign group managing director Ed Parker says the firm is looking for a fiscal plan after the elections --The firm rates the U.S. at triple-A but put it on negative outlook last November A Fitch Ratings executive said Thursday that the firm would likely downgrade U.S. debt if the federal government does not get its fiscal house in order. Speaking at the firm's global banking conference in New York, Fitch sovereign group managing director Ed Parker said " the U.S. does not...

(Reuters) - Municipal bond prices fell and yields rose on Wednesday, squeezed by a retreat in the Treasury debt market, though yields remained near historic lows. The municipal bond market usually surges in June and July, when bondholders often reinvest billions of dollars of coupon payments and redemptions. But that scenario might be dampened as a result of the current low interest rates, said Edward Reinoso, chief executive officer of New York-based Castleton Partners. "The penalty for staying in cash is so minimal that it may be the better option instead," he said. In the secondary market, the 10-year yield...

Average life expectancy is one of two statistics commonly used to compare the health-care systems of different nations. (The other is infant mortality.) One of the puzzles about the U.S. system is that we spend far and away the most money per capita for health care, but we rank 50th in average life expectancy ― after Macau, Malta, and Turks and Caicos, among others. We are all familiar with statistics about how much of health-care spending takes place in the last year of life, and with stories about old people who are tortured with costly treatments they don’t want and...

President Barack Obama says he'll fulfill his campaign promises once he wins, because Republicans won't be obsessed with beating him. President Barack Obama cited a Republican "fever" as the reason why he hasn't been able to make progress on deficit reduction or immigration reform at a Minneapolis fundraiser today. The remarks are one of Obama's sharpest Republican critiques — equating their recent activism with illness — and are sure to draw condemnation from the right. From the pool report: Most of the talk was standard campaign speech, but the president did say he hopes that Republicans will be more cooperative...

The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2% in May and a broader measure rose even more to 14.8%. But the increases belied a slightly positive trend. The increase in the jobless rate primarily came from people returning to the labor force. The unemployment rate is calculated based on people who are without jobs, who are available to work and who have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The “actively looking for work” definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted an employer, employment agency, job center or friends; sent out resumes or filled out applications; or answered...

A bipartisan group of Capitol Hill lawmakers is pressing EPA Director Lisa Jackson to answer questions about privacy issues and other concerns after the agency used aerial surveillance to monitor livestock operations over their home state of Nebraska. “Farmers and ranchers in Nebraska pride themselves in the stewardship of our state’s natural resources. As you might imagine, this practice has resulted in privacy concerns among our constituents and raises several questions,” says the letter signed by Republican Reps. Adrian Smith, Jeff Fortenberry and Lee Terry, as well as Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and GOP Sen. Mike Johanns. Smith, co-chairman of...

Attacks on journalists are, unfortunately, not terribly uncommon in Russia, so it's weird that a radio presenter recently embroiled in controversy would comply with an anonymous midnight text asking him to come outside, where he was stabbed 20 times. Our best guess as to why 46-year-old radio presenter Sergei Aslanyan apparently walked into an attack is that he's an automobile journalist, and probably not used to the kind of controversy in which he finds himself. The Guardian's Miriam Elder has the most detailed English-language account of the attack, which is still pretty slim: Police sources said Aslanyan received a call...

The scene in South Florida was surreal Saturday. On one side of the MacArthur Causeway, the side where police had braced for trouble, scantily clad men and women poured beer and testosterone into the streets, cafes and clubs, while thumping to the loud, restless beats of South Beach. Meanwhile, on the mainland side of the causeway, allegedly the quiet side this weekend, a naked man was shot to death by police after he was found chewing on another man’s face. Under the hot sun Saturday in South Beach, long before the nighttime partying began, revelers took videos, posed for photographs...

The Government is drawing up plans for emergency immigration controls to curb an influx of Greeks and other European Union residents if the euro collapses, the Home Secretary discloses today. In an interview in The Daily Telegraph, Theresa May says “work is ongoing” to restrict European immigration in the event of a financial collapse. People from throughout the EU, with the exception of new member countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, are able to work anywhere in the single market. However, there are growing concerns that if Greece was forced to leave the euro, it would effectively go bankrupt and...

If Greece leaves the euro, the U.S. economy could easily slip into recession. That cost is worth bearing, however, given the long term consequences of Europe struggling with a currency regime that makes little sense. Essentially, Athens would exchange drachmas for euros in circulation among its inhabitants, remark private debts and bank accounts to drachma, and until conditions stabilized, limit withdrawals at Greek banks and capital outflows. As the drachma fell in value, Greek exports would increase, reducing unemployment. consumers and businesses, with their debt re-denominated into a cheaper currency, would enjoy a windfall and spend more. All would help...

Global economic recovery will be slow and bumpy over the coming years, a senior economist from Vanguard told financial services professionals in Hamilton yesterday. Speaking at the Vanguard 2012 Bermuda Investment Forum at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, Roger Aligia-Diaz highlighted several headwinds facing the economy including the European sovereign debt crisis, high oil prices, a slowdown in China and the “fiscal cliff” facing the US at the end of this year. Although Mr Aligia-Diaz warned his audience that his message might appear depressing, the presentation was cautiously optimistic, indicating that growth was happening and was likely to continue. Vanguard, which...

About 22 percent of California's eighth-graders tested on a national science test passed, ranking the Golden State among the worst in the nation, according to figures released Thursday. Scores from the 2012 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card, show that too few students have the skills that could lead to careers in the field, educators said. Nationally, 31 percent of eighth-graders tested scored proficient or advanced. Both the national and state scores improved slightly over scores from two years ago, the last time the test was administered. The state ranked 47th, only above Mississippi,...

Stimulus Tactic of Increasing Government Debt to Increase GDP Broken and Unsustainable. How Long before Massive Government Debt Buildup Triggers Another Financial Shock? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. A recent post on the popular ZeroHedge financial blog compared the annualized growth in federal debt to the annualized growth in GDP in Q1 2012. ZeroHedge reported that while U.S. government debt rose by $359.1 billion in Q1 2012, the U.S. GDP grew only $142.4 billion. Durden noted that, “It now takes $2.52 in new federal debt to buy $1 worth of economic growth.” The surprising observation prompted us...

The Southern Poverty Law Center has over $150 million in portfolio assets, but says it doesn’t have the resources needed to track legitimate hateful and violent groups. Rather than doing that, apparently, they will continue to monitor and track everything I say on the radio. I was added to their “hate group” list years ago for making statements like the one below, which was documented in the epic report on my work that appeared in their misnamed “Intelligence Report” magazine. “Crime and violence follow African-Americans wherever they go,” he said in his April 4 CNN debut, a panel debate on...

Niall Ferguson, economic and financial historian, sees parallels between the U.S. now and the mid-20th-century U.K. In his latest book, Civilization, The West and the Rest, the economic and financial historian Niall Ferguson argues that Western civilization's rise to global dominance over the past 500 years was due mainly to six killer apps, as he calls them: competition, science, rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic. While "the Rest" lacked these concepts, they might not for much longer, as emerging markets are quickly catching up. Someday, they could even surpass the West. (On May 22 and 29,...

MUNCIE, Ind.—Jerry D. Bumpus Sr. was a member of the United Auto Workers union for four decades and earned as much as $28 an hour at a General Motors Co. GM -1.84%car-parts plant before accepting a bonus to retire at age 60 five years ago. On a recent Saturday morning, Mr. Bumpus, wearing a black jacket and clutching his résumé, was one of several thousand people lining up to apply for jobs at a new Caterpillar Inc. plant that makes train locomotives here. Those jobs start at as low as $12 an hour plus benefits, and there is no union...

The find follows warnings from governments in the region that instability in Libya after the end of Muammar Gaddafi's rule is allowing weapons taken from Gaddafi's arsenal to fall into the hands of al Qaeda's north African branch and other insurgent groups across the Sahara desert. The weapons cache was discovered in the desert about 60 km (40 miles) south of In Amenas, an energy-producing Algerian region near the border with Libya, said the source, who spoke to Reuters on condition on anonymity. The source said the cache was located following a tip-off from a smuggler who had been arrested....