Free Republic

Most people are convinced that the government is a drag on the economy, that it should not be allowed to spend any more money. They believe that we’ve spent far too much as it is. Therefore, they believe we must pay for our sins and spend less. It’ll be tough for a few years, they admit. But soon we’ll be back in the laissez-faire garden of Eden. That argument is dangerously wrong. It’s like someone taking a hot air balloon high up in the sky, then suddenly panicking because he’s too high. So he decides to turn off the hot...

The Federal Reserve's monetary policies have manufactured a "super bubble" that " … may give us the worst economic downturn including the Great Depression," economist Peter Schiff declared during an interview with Accuracy in Media. He explained that low interest rates prop up the government’s feckless fiscal policies and generate " … really systemic structural problems in the economy … " that “manifest themselves in bubbles that then burst." " … the Fed’s policy does not work and has not solved our problems, it has simply exacerbated our problems, and … we're gonna have a currency crisis, we're gonna have...

Berkeley economist has stumbled on a trend an increasing number of Americans experience annually: We’ve had a pretend economy in the United States for at least 16 years. "Bottom 99% incomes grew by 3.9% from 2014 to 2015, the best annual growth rate since 1999," Emmanuel Saez wrote in a paper on June 30, 2016. A trio of researchers from the International Monetary Fund was much less oblique in a paper that they wrote last month on "the rise of income polarization — what some have referred to as the 'hollowing out' of the income distribution — in the United...

This economist thinks China is headed for a 1929-style depression î ƒin World Economy News î …04/07/2016 Andy Xie isnÂ’t known for tepid opinions. The provocative Xie, who was a top economist at the World Bank and Morgan Stanley, found notoriety a decade ago when he left the Wall Street bank after a controversial internal report went public. Today, he is among the loudest voices warning of an inevitable implosion in China, the worldÂ’s second-largest economy. Xie, now working independently and based in Shanghai, says the coming collapse wonÂ’t be like the Asian currency crisis of 1997 or the U.S. financial meltdown...

Jun 21, 2016 Harry_Dent We all know the situation in the markets is dire. Like, really, everyone knows. There’s an old phrase from Margaret Thatcher’s day (and mine, I suppose) that has recently come back into use: There is no alternative. There’s even an acronym: TINA. There is no alternative example of a campaign advertising material of the CDU for the 1994 election for the Landtag of Thuringia. That’s quaint, and all, but this meatily numbered piece shows the heart of what that phrase means. There is no alternative, the markets will correct. They have to, regardless of how hard...

Like a crazed serial killer, the liberal green groups are celebrating their “victory” of putting America’s major coal producers out of business — to say nothing of the tens of thousands of miners placed in unemployment lines. Several thousand more mining jobs were lost last month. Now to get their next homicidal high, the leftists have turned their ambitions on the oil and natural gas industries. Here is how the Sierra Club spokeswoman, Lena Moffit, explains the grand, green vision: “We have moved to a very clear and firm and vehement position of opposing gas. We oppose any new gas-fired...

On the afternoon of March 12, 2014, Jennifer Collins checked her phone and found a message from her husband, Dave Collins, a retired Navy SEAL. He’d texted to say that she should pick up their son from kindergarten, and then this: “So sorry baby. I love you all.” Hours later, two police officers showed up at their house in Virginia Beach with news that Dave, 45, had shot himself in his truck a few miles away. Although Jennifer had held out hope for any other explanation, she also knew the moment she read it what the text meant. For months,...

... Bank of America (BAC) on Thursday announced it set aside $997 million to protect from loan losses, mainly in the bank's $22 billion energy portfolio. Wells Fargo (WFC) warned of "significant stress" and "deterioration" in the oil and gas space. The problems there forced Wells Fargo to add $200 million in loan-loss reserves, its first increase to this rainy-day fund since 2009. And JPMorgan Chase increased its provisions for credit losses by 88%, mostly due to the oil, natural gas and pipeline business. It was enough to cause JPMorgan's (JPM) first drop in profits since late 2014. ...

You eat, but you aren’t able to taste your food. You try to write your paper, or work on your p-set, but all you can do is think to yourself, “What is the point?” You try to get out of bed in the morning, but you just can’t escape its almost magnetic hold over you. So you sleep. And you sleep. And you sleep. Sleep becomes your drug of choice, and you abuse it constantly. Your old hobbies and passions no longer have the same appeal. None of them match the sense of security you feel when you’re wrapped up...

--snip-- This was the first official proposed "Bail-In" of creditors, one that took place before similar ad hoc balance sheet restructuring would take place in Greece and Portugal in the coming months. Or rather, it wasn't a fully executed "Bail-In" for the reason that creditors fought it tooth and nail. And then today, following a decision by the Austrian Banking Regulator, the Finanzmarktaufsicht or Financial Market Authority, Austria officially became the first European country to use a new law under the framework imposed by Bank the European Recovery and Resolution Directive to share losses of a failed bank with senior...

Video Only: Apr. 07, 2016 - 3:38 - Executive director of Cohen Veterans Network explains organization's efforts

Suddenly, Tyler is screaming. Screaming. Tyler’s screams could pierce through the din of any commercial. They could break glass. Gabriel sits up with a start, his heart racing.

Rock star Keith Emerson killed himself because he feared he was no longer good enough as a musician, his girlfriend exclusively told The Mail on Sunday last night. The 71-year-old founder and keyboard player of Emerson, Lake and Palmer was 'tormented with worry' about upcoming concerts in Japan because nerve damage to a hand had affected his playing, said Mari Kawaguchi. She found Emerson's body when she returned to the apartment the couple shared in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, early on Friday morning. He had shot himself with a gun he kept for protection. 'Keith wasn't feeling well on Thursday...

Showboating Obama brushes off Reagan funeral snub criticism to congratulate himself on steering America away from GREAT DEPRESSION during SXSW festival talk An ebullient Barack Obama sure sounded pleased with himself at SXSW festival on Friday – despite enduring a week of criticism for prioritizing the event over Nancy Reagan’s funeral. The President was the surprise keynote speaker at this year's Austin festival and talked about civic engagement with the editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune. During the speech he bragged about keeping employment below five per cent and congratulated himself for the recent improvement in the country's job figures. 'Because...

How do you feel right now? Check yourself. Does a place in your body hurt or do you have bad thoughts or feelings? Take note of whatever it is then set it aside for the moment. Now as you are reading this, gradually start to notice your peripheral vision. Without looking away from these words you can see the edges and shape of the screen. Is it a computer screen, a laptop or smartphone? Take note of it. Continue reading and using your peripheral vision. What is beyond the boundaries of the screen? Is there a a lamp and office...

Did you know that there are some U.S. states that have already officially fallen into recession? Economic activity all over the planet is in the process of slowing down, and there are some areas of the country that are really starting to feel the pain. In particular, any state that is heavily dependent on the energy industry is hurting right now. During the years immediately following the last recession, the energy industry was the primary engine for the growth of good paying jobs in America, but now that process is completely reversing. All over the U.S. energy companies are...

One view of what caused the Great Depression in the 1930s is that the Federal Reserve failed to prevent a collapse in the money supply. This is the famous thesis of Milton Friedman's and Anna Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, and it was, more or less, the view of Ben Bernanke when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve. The global economy today resembles that of the 1930s in several ominous ways. Financial author Edward Chancellor recently called attention to a paper written by Caludio Borio, head economist at the Bank of International Settlements, that provides...

"We’re Out Of The Red" is played by Dave Harman & His Orchestra. Vocalist is George Marks.

A pernicious cycle of collapsing commodities, corporate defaults, and currency wars loom over the global economy. Can anything stop it from unravelling? A global recession is on the way. This truism of economics holds at any point in which the world is not in the grips of a contraction. The real question is always when and how deep the upcoming downturn will be. "The crash will come, but it would be nice if it came two years from now", Thomas Thygesen, head of economics at SEB told over 200 commodity investors and analysts in London last month. His audience was...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- All adults, including pregnant women and new mothers, should be screened for depression as a routine part of health care, a government advisory group recommended Tuesday. Depression is a common public health problem, and screening simply involves health workers asking about certain symptoms even if patients don't mention them.