Free Republic

It's not the managers who are incompetent, it's the organization itself that is incompetent. I received a number of interesting reader responses to my previous entries on the incompetence of the Federal Reserve and the Deep State: The Federal Reserve: Masters of the Universe or Trapped Incompetents? (March 21, 2014) Why Is Our Government (and Deep State) So Incompetent? (March 6, 2014) Some readers thought I was underestimating the power of these institutions to pursue essentially unlimited money-printing and related global strategies. While I understand the apparent power of unlimited money-printing and global Empire, my point (poorly articulated the first...

ALBERT EDWARDS: The Next Shock Will Be Enough To Send The Economy Into Recession Sam RoMar. 25, 2014, 8:15 AM    For years now, many economists have been predicting that a business investment recovery would come, spurring corporate profits, GDP growth, jobs, and all sorts of wonderful things for the economy. However, Albert Edwards and his colleagues at Societe Generale warn that it's not coming. "The bulls will point out, quite correctly, that on many key measures the profits situation in the US looks quite healthy," wrote Edwards in a new research note to clients. "But experience shows...

If you take an economics course, you may learn about the different events that can cause an increase in workers' pay. The demand for the product a worker makes may rise, causing the demand for workers to go up. The supply of workers may decline, causing employers to bid up wages to keep the ones they have. But there's one event the textbooks don't cover: The president of the United States gives you a raise. Many workers will get news to the effect that he has done just that. But it's not as simple as it sounds. Barack Obama thinks...

It is going to be really bad for all of us. The problem is one of simple economics. When labor demand is low one cannot increase supply and expect anything other than falling wages and fewer jobs. This is the reason we need to secure our border, deport those who have entered illegally and reject any and all notions of amnesty. We must also reduce legal immigration. Historically the United States government has had a period of assimilation after large rises in immigration. This is to allow for a period of assimilation. The left has used this as an attack...

EL-ERIAN: The State Of 'The New Normal' (Devastating) Mohamed El-ErianMarch 22, 2014Editor’s Note: Business Insider reached out to Mohamed for an update on the New Normal. Here is what he sent us in response. The context: When first rolled out in a May 2009 PIMCO publication, the concept of the “new normal” attracted only limited support in economic, market and policy circles. But after five years of frustratingly-low economic growth and alarmingly-high unemployment, the concept has caught on. It also relates to the more-detailed analytical work done by Carmen Reinhard, Ken Rogoff, Larry Summers, Paul Krugman, Richard Koo, Tom Friedman,...

Make a guess and place you bets – we all know it’s on it way, the next crash is going to happen sooner or later, it's just a question of what the left will try to do to not waste another “serious crisis” Think about it – the Fed is Printing money.. .excuse me “Digitizing” – they can’t even go through the motion of spitting out worthless paper that diminishes our savings, they have to add insult to injury with that sort o chicanery Let’s face it, somewhere in the deep dark crevices of the leftist mind, they have their...

President Obama gave a speech recently in which he, as he almost always does, patted himself on the back for what he described as a solid record on the economy. "We've now seen over four years of economic growth," he said. "We've seen 8.5 million new jobs created. We've seen the housing market bounce back. We've seen an auto industry that has come roaring back. We've seen manufacturing return for the first time since the 1990s." Obamaphiles in the press typically repeat these claims, arguing that, given the mess he inherited, no one could have done any better. But is...

More people are moving out of New Jersey than are moving in. The same is true for Illinois and New York. Those three states top the "outbound" list compiled by United Van Lines, the big St. Louis-based moving company that has put together an annual survey of where Americans are moving for the last 37 years. The company analyzed a total of 125,000 moves across the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in 2013 and came up with a picture of migration patterns across the U.S. According to Professor Michael Stoll, chair of the Department of Public Policy...

Growing Chinese Influence Worries N.Korean Officials There are "serious concerns" among some North Korean officials that North Korea could turn into a vassal state of China amid growing economic dependence on its sole ally, a defector said Monday. Kim Chong-song, who under his real name used to be a senior member of the Workers Party, is the highest-ranking North Korean defector living in the South and spoke to media here for the first time. "Without Chinese capital and goods, it would be impossible for the North Korean government to operate, and ordinary people would not be able to carry on...

Obamacare will reduce the earnings of its 300,000 members by up to $5 an hour by requiring them to buy health insurance, according to a report by Unite Here, a union which represents chiefly lower-wage workers in service industries. The union said it “threatens the middle class with higher premiums, loss of hours and a shift to part-time work and less comprehensive coverage.” Americans who says they’ve been hurt by Obamacare outnumber those who say they’ve benefited from it by more than 2 to 1, according to recent polls by both Rasmussen and Gallup.

How specifically should the United States react to Russia’s Ukrainian intervention? The owner of one Knoxville, Tennessee liquor store has weighed in by having a fire sale on Russian vodka, which he won’t re-import until Moscow “gets its act together.” Former U.S. Representative and Republican (and Libertarian) presidential contender Ron Paul seems to have the opposite attitude, and thinks any sanctions against Russia by Washington would be “criminal” acts intended to provoke a war. Loosening restrictions on American exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rests somewhere in between these two approaches and has been advocated by a cast as diverse...

<p>Consumer sentiment dipped modestly in early March, entirely due to reduced expectations for the future, a survey said on Friday.</p> <p>The preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan overall index of consumer sentiment fell to 79.9 in March, down from the 81.6 final reading in February. That was below analyst expectations for a reading of 82 and the lowest level for that index since November.</p>

U.S. producer prices fell in February, dragged down by falling costs for services and offering little sign of a pickup in inflation pressures. The Labor Department said on Friday its seasonally adjusted producer price index for final demand dropped 0.1 percent last month. U.S. inflation has held at a very low level in recent years because of a persistently high unemployment rate. This is expected to push the Federal Reserve to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for many more months even as the central bank dials back its monetary stimulus. Prices received by the nation's factories, retailers and...

Ukraine Economics: Georgian Anti- corruption - the elimination of state machinery "Every once official who sits in the state apparatus , hinder economic development and prevent the creation of five jobs in the private sector ." The success of Georgia in the fight against corruption are well known, as well as the rapid increase in ratings that determine the ease of doing business. For example during the reform of taxes - from 22 three to six. We offer a href = "http://www.ekhokavkaza.com/content/article/1897283.html"> interview one of the authors of " Georgian miracle" - former Minister of Economy of Georgia Kakha Bendukidze...

America’s consciousness has shifted.  We live in a predominantly unstable and unpredictable world, a situation long accepted as the norm, however,  we also live during the first period of history in which America's prominence in the world and its own vision and notion of itself, has been blurred.  A majority of Americans have adopted self doubt and the confidence America has held through much of its story has been dissipated. Through the fog of apprehension Americans plucked an unknown to take the helm of their governance.  The fog did not lift, and in fact with the unknown’s propagation of envy, the...

We're Starting To See Some Economic Green Shoots In The US Marc Chandler, Marc to Market Mar. 13, 2014, 11:56 AMUS retail sales rose 0.3% in February, a little more than expected. The news was blunted by sharp downward revisions to the January series, leaving the level of retail sales lower and pointing to somewhat less personal consumption to drive GDP here in Q1. The take away is that as the weather returns to a greater semblance of normalcy, the US economy should be expected to return to trend. Since mid-2009, the US has grown at an average quarterly annualized...

The latest polls indicate a weak economy continues to drag down President Obama’s job approval rating, but those hardly guarantee any big changes in Washington. Americans may want more jobs and better wages but they also support many of the president’s specific policies. Obama’s recovery is hardly better, or worse, than President Bush’s. Both only registered 2.3 percent GDP growth, whereas the economy expanded more than 4 percent annually for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The continuing mess in Manhattan is a joint venture of the Republican and Democratic Parties, as neither seems able to break loose from its campaign...

What began as a local Austin, Texas, celebration of live music and slacker chic has become emblematic of a global phenomenon: individual economic innovators, open-minded marketing professionals and individual investors connecting poly-digitally to kick start wealth creation. Personal observation confirms that Austin's South By Southwest expo -- the music venues, the film festival, but especially the interactive technology networking conference -- is poly-digital. The pun makes a serious point about human relations, 11th century B.C. and 21st century A.D. Digital communications systems, via Internet and cell phone, have given individuals near-instant inter-continental reach. Calling home to Texas from Kabul and...

Obamanomics: For five years now, President Obama has been telling Americans that we "have a long way to go" before the country will see a return to prosperity. Just how long does he expect us to wait? Do a search of the White House website for "long way to go" and you come up with hundreds of hits, most of them involving President Obama or someone in his administration counseling patience on economic growth. Now, it might have made sense in mid-2009 to say that recovery from a deep recession will take time. After all, the recovery had just begun....

Copper Is In Straight Up Meltdown Mode Again In ShanghaiJoe Weisenthal Mar. 11, 2014, 9:22 PMCopper prices — which are often seen as a proxy for the Chinese economy, if not the entire global economy — have been getting crushed. And they're in full meltdown mode tonight. Via Deirdre Wang Morris, here's the chart of Shanghai Copper prices limit down.