Free Republic

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” -Thomas Jefferson Well we are now living in a time when we are being told that there is a shortage of oil and food. The demand for food and gasoline is up but the supply has not gone up and that means higher prices. It now costs 5$...

CHACALA, Mexico Retired U.S. soccer executive Gordon Preston has no regrets about retiring to Mexico. Standing on his third-floor patio, overlooking the turquoise blue Pacific Ocean, coconut palms swaying in the gentle breeze, he sipped his Pacifico beer, chuckled and shook his head. "No, I can't think of a single downside," said Mr. Preston, surveying the comfortable three-bedroom, three-bath home he had built and furnished for less than $100,000. "I feel at home here like nowhere else." Mr. Preston is a retired Detroit executive with the now-defunct North American Soccer League who helped bring the World Cup to the United...

California growing more slowly High cost of living seen as dampening its appeal Tyche hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 21, 2006 California's population growth rate slipped for a sixth year in a row as tens of thousands of residents left for other states, according to new estimates the state released Wednesday. Demographers said many of those who left probably were seeking a lower cost of living. New arrivals from other countries and babies born in California more than offset the departure of residents for other states, bringing California to an estimated total population of 37.4 million on July 1....

NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street workers took home nearly $300,000 on average last year as profits from trading and merger advising fueled record earnings, New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi said. Wall Street compensation averaged $289,664 per person, 5.1 times the average $56,634 for workers citywide, the comptroller said in a study released Tuesday. The highest-paid bankers and traders can command eight-figure pay packages. Bonuses totaled a record $21.5 billion, or $125,500 per person. The securities industry paid out $48.8 billion, while generating $2.1 billion of taxes for the city, Hevesi said. Wall Street compensation increased 21.9...

  From the Desk of Mark Stephens, Executive Director, NRSCDo you have your wallet handy? Well, you better . . . . . . Let me tell you why.The LCLI (Liberal Cost of Living Increase)Anytime liberal Democrats take the reins of government, the American people must pull out their wallets and pay a price. It's the automatic Liberal Cost of Living Increase - the LCLI. You see it happen at the local level, state level and at the federal level.Americans are feeling the squeeze of rising energy prices and escalating health care costs - but the LCLI will dwarf...

STATE AND LOCAL ISSUES Boulder, Colo., is one of the first American cities to curtail development with growth control and publicly-funded land preservations. But does the city represent an example to follow or a mistake to avoid, asks Eric Schmidt of the Boulder Daily Camera? According to Randal O'Toole, author of "The Planning Penalty," Boulder's slow growth and open space policies drive housing prices past what average residents can afford: ** The combination adds $117,000 to the median price of a home, even when adjusted to reflect affluent residents' buying power; for example, a house worth $210,000 in Colorado Springs...

Legislation that would give 1.4 million minimum wage earners a $1-an-hour pay raise and then tie their wages to increases in inflation was approved by the Assembly Wednesday night, setting the stage for a possible election-year fight with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 43-30 vote sent the measure by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, to the Senate, which planned to vote on an identical increase by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, on Thursday. Both bills would raise the minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.75 an hour in two 50-cent steps - the first on July 1, 2007 and the second on...

The Middle Class on the Precipice Rising financial risks for American families by Elizabeth Warren During the past generation, the American middle-class family that once could count on hard work and fair play to keep itself financially secure has been transformed by economic risk and new realities. Now a pink slip, a bad diagnosis, or a disappearing spouse can reduce a family from solidly middle class to newly poor in a few months. Middle-class families have been threatened on every front. Rocked by rising prices for essentials as men’s wages remained flat, both Dad and Mom have entered the workforce—a...

RUSH: I'm going to mention this again today. It's from Slate.com. It's by Daniel Gross, and it's just... Well, it speaks for itself. It may also explain why journalists are so mean and nasty and jealous and vengeful is because they have no money. (clearing throat) Daniel Gross, Slate.com, Tuesday December 20th, actually, this ran. "The New York real-estate boom is claiming a different kind of casualty, according to an article in Sunday's New York Times. Keying off a new report issued by the Center for an Urban Future, Jennifer Steinhauer noted that, thanks to high housing prices, many...

I am looking at a possible job in the Allentown area of PA. I need so info on schools, community, crime, cost of living, etc., etc. Forgive the vanity, but this is only my 3rd vanity in over 4 years and I know my fellow freepers are a source of knowledge. If you have any input, please provide. Thanks!

Silicon Valley is going to lose its competitive advantage if it can't improve public education and traffic flow, contain the cost of housing, and reduce the effect of sales tax on manufacturing, says a report scheduled for release Sept. 21 by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Silicon Valley must compete with concentrations of high-tech industry in Research Triangle Park near Raleigh, N.C.; Boston; Fairfield County, Va.; Austin; Seattle; San Diego; and Portland, Ore. To remain competitive, the area must invest more in its highway and education infrastructure, while encouraging manufacturing, argues Wells Fargo senior economist Scott Anderson in the 38-page...

Hawaii citizens see it as a mark of distinction that they have a high cost of living -- because every justification and demand for a wage increase is not based on merit or increased productivity, but on the cost of living and the cost of living adjustment based on the rate of inflation. Therefore, it is desired that the rate of inflation be as high as possible, not realizing that wage increases fueling inflation may decrease their buying power, and value they receive for their exchanges. The highest inflation is when all the money in the world gets one nothing...

Maureen Spillane, an executive at a shoe and handbag maker in New York, always thought a $100,000 salary equaled serious success. Like many professional people, however, when she finally broke the barrier, she was a bit deflated to learn that it was hardly salvation. It still took her several years of "hoarding away" and avoiding standard Manhattan indulgences - fancy food, fancy clothing - in order to afford a down payment on a one-bedroom fixer-upper on the Upper West Side. "It's not the big shiny number that you think about when you first get out of college," said Ms. Spillane,...

The cost of being a Californian is going up in 2004 and few in the Golden State will be spared from the efforts to bolster the state and local budgets with higher fees and fines. Fishing will cost more. So will filing for divorce. And driving. Or flying. And drinking from bottles and cans. Planning to pitch a tent this summer? That'll cost you. But perhaps nobody will feel the immediate effect of the new calendar like BART's 315,000 daily patrons. BART's across-the-board 10 percent fare increase takes effect with daytime service on Jan. 1. The average price of a...

Financial Freedom is a Cornerstone to all other Freedoms Others say "it’s the economy stupid" Many citizens have been "Free Traded" out of a job, and the American public has been hoodwinked into swallowing "Free Trade" hook line and sinker. The "Cash Cow" of tax revenue is citizens working for business and making an ever higher Standard of Living. Ask yourself which party is the friend of working citizens. I give up I don't know. Ask the candidates and ask them if they support foreign workers taking your job and the economic rug being pulled from out from under your...

<p>Ah, driving in New Jersey. The most crowded roads.</p> <p>The longest commutes. The, ahem, nicest drivers.</p> <p>And the highest average auto insurance bills in the nation. Again.</p> <p>New Jersey beat out all the other states for the eighth time in the past decade, according to the annual National Association of Insurance Commissioners' survey, released yesterday.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security recipients will get a 1.4% cost-of-living increase in their monthly checks next year, the smallest increase in four years, reflecting a slowdown in inflation caused by the weak economy. The increase will mean an extra $13 a month for the typical retiree.</p>