Free Republic

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, If the U.S. economy really is improving, then why are big U.S. retailers permanently shutting down thousands of stores? The “retail apocalypse” that I have written about so frequently appears to be accelerating. As you will see below, major U.S. retailers have announced that they are closing more than 6,000 locations, but economic conditions in this country are still fairly stable. So if this is happening already, what are things going to look like once the next recession strikes? For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislators on Wednesday voted to force the governor to take $350 million in federal stimulus cash that he has refused to request unless it is used to pare down state debt. Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has been railing loudly against the $787 billion stimulus package since before President Barack Obama signed it in February. He has been airing ads for weeks paid for by Carolinians for Reform that explain his philosophy of not taking the cash unless it goes toward debt, an idea twice rejected by the White House. South Carolina agencies and programs...

The Federal Reserve is working with the US Treasury on plans for a dramatic move into unsecured lending in the hope that this extreme step could help bring credit markets back to life. As well as unsecured lending to banks, this could lead to the Fed directly purchasing commercial paper or funding a special purpose vehicle set up to do this. Any unsecured lending would be a radical departure for the Fed. Central banks the world over almost never make unsecured loans, and the Fed has never done so in its history. It would allow the Fed to address two...