Free Republic

Please, please, wake up. A calamity far worse than coronavirus itself is at hand.Frightening as the death toll from the virus is, a more terrifying consequence looms: a depression, and a major one.If you think that’s exaggeration, it’s because expert opinion and news on the economy is drowned out by “frightening, click-bait headlines” that are “not useful” on meaningless numbers.The assessments from sources of all political stripes are everywhere, though you won’t see them mentioned by politicians or most of the media the general public reads. Here are a few:“We are experiencing an economic contraction that is faster and deeper...

London (CNN Business)Economists and investors had been bracing for dismal economic data for this month. But the latest readings of the closely-watched Purchasing Managers' Index, which surveys senior executives at private sector companies, are gut-wrenchingly awful. The numbers: The eurozone composite PMI, which tracks activity in the manufacturing and services sectors, hit 13.5 in April, down from 29.7 in March — easily the worst reading since the survey started in 1998. It's a sign of the extent to which Europe's economy has imploded as shutdowns to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus hit citizens from Berlin to Paris and...

If the Malevolent Donkey Party was actively seeking to plunge the country into an economic tailspin, while still maintaining some level of deniability to the credulous suckers out there, exactly what would it be doing differently? It would be pretty much doing exactly what it is doing right now – shilling for the bat-gobbling ChiComs, delaying needed assistance to keep America working, and generally trying to keep us all locked in the dark in perpetuity. It’s fair to assume that you intend the expected consequences of the actions you take, and the consequence of the actions the Democrats are taking...

Fox morning news is reporting that Oil Prices have dropped to 11 dollars per barrel. What does this mean? Eliminate and/or reduce gas taxes and we may have .33 cents per gallon gas again.

After recovering a chunk of the losses racked up during the worst of the coronavirus-induced selloff last month, the stock market finds itself at a crucial inflection point, writes Alan B Lancz. “The next 45 days may just become the most critical period in U.S. financial history,” he wrote in a newsletter published Wednesday. “While on average we may face a bear market every 10 years, this one is like no other,” he said. The contrarian money manager, who is a disciple of famed investor Sir John Templeton, said that the timing and execution of the reawakening of the U.S....

Three years to revive an economy, create roaring circumstances. It took less than two months to wipe it all out. Twenty-two million people filing for unemployment compensation — 22 million — and the idea that there is not an angry outcry from all over the world that this must stop? That outcry had better happen, because this… We’re beyond now saying this is unsustainable. This is untenable! This is cataclysmic! We’re in the midst of a self-created disaster that we could fix (snap, snap, snap) at the snap of our fingers.

If the American public stays home en masse even after public officials lift stay-at-home orders, the ‘re-opened’ economy will look nearly as morose as the current one. If we reopen it, will they come? That paraphrase of the signature line from “Field of Dreams” illustrates a dilemma facing the Trump administration, along with state and local leaders, as they contemplate when and how to reopen elements of the economy shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.Just because the Trump administration gives word that individuals and businesses can reopen doesn’t mean that most, or even any, of them will do so.A dozen...

I would like to know what Freeepers have to say about evaluating presidents through their use (or overuse/underuse?) of the veto. The first thing I noticed was POTUS 45’s low rate of use of the veto compared with other eras. How do Freeepers evaluate Trump’s use of the veto? Here are some facts: 298 years ago, on April 5, 1792, President Washington (should we now call him POTUS 01 or POTUS 1?) exercised the first presidential veto. If I am not mistaken, he blocked legislation that would have given Northern states more seats per head of population than Southern States....

As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused state, federal, and international governments to impose various degrees of "safer at home" orders to flatten the curve, at some point we will have to begin to discuss whether the cure (economic Armageddon) is as bad as, if not worse than the disease. While I won't question the medical rationale for making such recommendations, the question for Americans that must be addressed is, when and how will we exit the coronavirus turnpike? The economic impact of the national shutdown is estimated to displace upwards of 53 million American workers. What will be the impact...

While this shutdown has already done enormous damage, it is the uncertainty about when and how it will reopen that could prove far more destructive in the long run. Our leadership class responded to the outbreak of the coronavirus by shutting down the economy on a nationwide scale. While this will mitigate the loss of life the virus might otherwise have caused, it’s clear we’re also confronting a challenge no medical innovation can cure. We face an unprecedented situation — not a global pandemic, we’ve seen those before, but a modern capitalist economy that turned itself off for potentially more...

The bizarre handling of Coronavirus and the obvious destruction of the United States of America...... I find myself seventy three years old here in Pittsburgh and deeply worried about the present and future of our country. As the days go by the problems ahead for the nation seem bleaker. My wife and I are Trump people yet this entire ugly event seems bigger and more evil than even he and his administration can solve. The quote below sums up the feeling I have about how the American people are being treated. I really cannot see a way out of this....

It is vitally important, literally life and death, that the proper costs and benefits are weighed with the decision on how much and how long to shut down economic activity through the pandemic. As the coronavirus pandemic continues across the world, leaders and policymakers have scrambled to respond to the growing health crisis. In the United States, multiple state governors have issued statements urging their citizens to follow social distancing guidelines.Other governors have taken more extreme measures, issuing orders to effectively lock down entire state economies. The current goal of these responses has been to slow the spread of the...

The AP’s statement has no basis in reality. There is currently no body of research that demonstrates people are less likely to take their lives in time of economic hardship. The pace of information during the COVID-19 crisis has been extraordinary. Last week President Trump said thousands could die by suicide as a result of the economic crisis created by the coronavirus.The Associated Press (AP) immediately released a “fact check” on the president’s prediction, saying it was false. Over the weekend, The Federalist’s Tristan Justice reported more people died from suicides in east Tennessee than from the coronavirus. In the...

The coronavirus has scared everyone, from consumers and investors to central bankers and politicians. But one question looms over everything: Are we frightened enough to do what needs to be done? That might seem surprising to say. The fiscal policy response to the coronavirus crisis is coming. It will be big. It will be costly. It will be messy. But it won’t be big enough. A robust fiscal response is an imperative if the U.S. economy is to avoid a deep, lengthy recession or, as some fear, a depression. And it’s going to have to be bigger than many of...

What to do about the U.S. economy in the wake of the Wuhan virus? The answer requires a mix of both short-term suppression and then long-term mitigation. Lots of people didnÂ’t see the COVID-19 pandemic coming. Many prognosticators who didnÂ’t have since found their way into two camps. In the first camp, the occupants are in full panic mode. We should all shut everything down for the time-being, they say. In the second camp, the occupants are borderline dismissive of the Wuhan virus threat. Both sides are completely wrong.The camp dismissive of the virus is dead wrong. Many do this...

Federal and state governments are making a massive gamble about a little-understood new virus. They are betting our future on the most extreme worst-case scenario without considering the costs. Federal and state governments are making a massive gamble about a little-understood new virus. They may not only be betting our entire economy, but our nation’s future. Thus it’s imperative that they not make foolish choices.We shouldn’t allow policy under a Republican president to be driven by a Democrat like Steve Mnuchin, whose overwhelming priority is reassuring Wall Street above all else. Voters don’t vote for Donald Trump to get...

I think I get it. We've all been overthinking it. The Democrats want to create Franklin Delano Roosevelt II. Their savior. The savior of the country after the Great Depression. Gonna jump right to FDR's fourth term with Biden. Pack the courts; interment camps; huge boondoggle infrastructure projects. A 30-40 year legacy eg; 1932 > 1976 And plug in an unlikely substitute; eg; a Truman

After his wife was diagnosed with cancer, Jordan Peterson went on an anti-anxiety drug to cope with the stress. It turned out that the drug was toxic and he was sensitive. His daughter Mikhaila Peterson, who first notified people about the situation in September, recently posted an updated video about Jordan Peterson’s near-death experience. In her September 2019 video, Mikhaila talked about the shock to the family when Tammy Roberts, her mother and Peterson’s wife, was diagnosed with cancer. After a successful surgery, Roberts had a bad reaction and almost died. Because Canadian doctors couldn’t cope with Roberts’ illness, she...

Posts Posted on February 2, 2020 Why Are College Students So Depressed? I enjoy listening to the “Fireside Chats” of Dennis Prager. They’re relaxed, informative, and full of practical wisdom. Recently (in episode 112) he chose to ponder why the rate of depression among college students is the highest ever recorded. Prager provided the following insight:… just about everything that can give you joy and meaning—and they are related—is gone.In large part I think he’s right, at least when you look at college kids as a group. He lists four things that give joy and meaning to life, and...

Everyone has his or her own definition of a political crisis. Mine is when our collective mental health starts having a profound effect on our politics — and vice versa. It cannot be a simple coincidence that the two have declined in tandem. The American Psychiatric Association reported that from 2016 to 2017, the number of adults who described themselves as more anxious than the previous year rose 36 percent. In 2017, more than 17 million American adults had a new diagnosis of a major depressive disorder, as well as three million adolescents ages 12 to 17. Forty million adults...