Free Republic

There’s a reason why Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and agencies like the DHS/IRS are not the least bit concerned with defeating Islamic extremism or protecting our borders against those who only wish to infiltrate and exploit America. It’s because they too despise this country and welcome the erosion of our society to forge their progressive utopia which stands in direct opposition to every ideal this nation was founded upon. Yes, this is also why our so-called President and his brainwashed minions are only concerned with using government resources, taxpayer money and property, to destroy THEIR, not America’s, political enemies; AKA,...

From the moment that he set foot in the White House in January 2009, President Barack Obama has had to hear the silly charge that he has miserably failed blacks. HeÂ’s repeatedly heard it for two reasons. The first is obvious. HeÂ’s black, but more than that he actually practiced civil rights law and worked as a community organizer in poor communities on ChicagoÂ’s South Side. Therefore heÂ’s supposed to have an even greater sensitivity to the plight of the black poor. And because of that he has a duty, obligation and even mission to use the power and prestige...

July 14, 2014 Andrew_McKillop Always Unexpected Each monthly decline in leading economic indicators, when it happens in the Eurozone, as in the US or Japan, China, Brazil, India or elsewhere, is always “unexpected”. Why is this? For example the March, April, May and June declines for the Eurozone were each time titled “unexpected” by newswires and mainstream media the month following each “surprise”. Taking the case of Reuters, it reported April 14 that Eurozone industrial output had fallen in March “for the first time since August” so this was able to be called unexpected. Then the decline continued in April....

The economy might play a role in presidential politics, but its impact is near nil in the midterms. This month's surprisingly strong jobs report elicited fresh optimism that at long last, the economy was poised to recover its full strength. And in Washington, naturally, the question quickly became: Would Democratic candidates receive an unexpected boost from a late-in-the-election-cycle economic surge? The short answer? Don't count on it. Even if job gains do spike—and there's plenty of reluctance to predict an accelerating recovery after years of stop-and-start growth—it's unlikely voters will feel demonstrably better about the economy in time for November....

America’s oldest family owned and operated gun manufacturing company O.F. Mossberg & Sons, has its eye on Texas. The company was founded in Connecticut in 1919; however, after Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) passed one of the strictest gun-control legislations in the nation last April, Mossberg & Sons is looking to expand in a more gun-friendly state. CEO Iver Mossberg told Forbes: “Investing in Texas was an easy decision. It’s a state that is not only committed to economic growth but also honors and respects the Second Amendment and the firearm freedoms it guarantees for our customers.” The gun company will...

 Condensed version:  this past week's metals 'n stock indexes saw a (imho) a flat decision making base --not sure how metals volume went but stocks had high volume for the dips & low for the rebounds --bearish, a situation IBD calls 'uptrend under pressure'.   fwiw, their distribution day count is running at 6 for the S&P and 4 for the NASDAQ.Fortunately I can now say what the upcoming week's going to be; it'll be "interesting".    This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and investment --here's a list of popular investing links that freepers have posted here...

Black American from Gang-Besieged Baltimore: 'Where Can I Get Asylum?' by Tony Lee 11 Jul 2014 1612 post a comment As the White House plans to spend billions of taxpayer funds to take care of illegal immigrant children who are unlawfully entering the country, some black Americans who live in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods are wondering where they and their children can get refugee status and aid. On Friday's Laura Ingraham Show, Elaine, a black woman from Baltimore, expressed her outrage that President Barack Obama is putting the interests of illegal immigrant children above those of American citizens....

On Friday's Hardball, Chris Matthews and Howard Dean slammed the supposedly "lunatic" Republican Party for opposing President Obama's $3.7 billion request to deal with the ongoing crisis at the U.S-Mexico border. Dean likened the political stalemate over this issue and in general in Washington to McCarthyism in the 1950s: "It reminds me of the 'who lost China' debate...where one side is frothing at the mouth and finding communists under every bed; and the other side – including some reasonable Republicans...actually trying to run the country." Matthews endorsed the former Vermont governor's take, and targeted fiscal conservatives/the Tea Party as somehow...

For many Americans the country of Mexico conjures up images of a third world nation. The poverty, lack of basic services, and extreme violence has left the populace so desperate that thousands of people on a daily basis head to the United States for a better life. But according to Future Money Trends, all that could change in the near future as key Mexican financial leaders and politicians have been working to institute sweeping monetary change that, if implemented, could unleash a global power shift of epic proportions. “Take just three or four men out of the ‘anti’ group,” says...

Bears, beer and horse heads: What exactly is going on with the leader of the free world? On a single day this week in Denver, President Obama scarfed down pizza and drinks with strangers, shot pool with Colorado’s governor and shook hands with a guy on the street wearing a horse mask. His top staffers are promoting these stops on Twitter with the hashtag #TheBearIsLoose — a term one of Obama’s aides coined in 2008 when the candidate would defy his schedule. More than five years into his presidency, Obama is trying to free himself from the constraints of office,...

Most employees believe they have no say when it comes to changes in the workplace that directly affect their jobs. Six out of ten corporate staff said they have little or no input in decisions which affect them personally at work, according to a recent survey by Strayer University and Ipsos. Those over 35 felt their opinions mattered less than those workers aged 18-34 - although perhaps that's just a healthy dose of cynicism that comes from spending longer on the corporate ladder.

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — It’s been almost 2,000 days since President Barack Obama entered the Oval Office, and MarketWatch felt it would be fitting to measure the stock market’s performance during the president’s tenure to this point with its performance through the 2,000-day mark of other recent presidential administrations. Obama was sworn in amid extreme financial turmoil in January 2009, roughly six weeks before the stock markets hit bottom in the depths of the Great Recession. Pretty much the only direction for stocks to go was up. How far up, though? More important, how do gains under Obama compare with...

Myles Udland July 11, 2014Something seems off in the economy.Over a three-week span starting next Monday, 72% of the S&P 500's members will report earnings, but some of the early indications about this earnings season, especially from companies highly exposed to the U.S. consumer, have not been encouraging. On Tuesday afternoon, two companies that are all about consumer spending, Bob Evans and The Container Store, reported earnings that were disappointing. But even more discouraging were the comments from company executives. Bob Evans, which wrapped up its fiscal year 2014 in its most recent quarter, said its results were impacted by...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The effect on the congressional immigration debate after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprising primary loss should not be about whether to have reform, but whether that reform should be about increasing foreign labor or reducing it. Cantor represented the unanimous views of the leadership of both parties, which have only differed in how and how much to increase lifetime immigrants, guest workers and legalizations of unlawful foreign visitors. By stressing the opposite option — reductions in legal immigration — during his campaign against Cantor, victorious economics professor Dave Brat has suddenly given hope to the many members of Congress...

The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly floated a rule claiming authority to bypass the courts and unilaterally garnish paychecks of those accused of violating its rules, a power currently used by agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service..... ....Critics said the threat of garnishing wages would be a powerful incentive for people to agree to expensive settlements rather than fight EPA charges. EPA officials did not respond to repeated questions by The Washington Times about why they thought it was necessary to garnish people’s wages. The EPA announced the plan last week in a notice in the Federal Register, saying...

Since 1994 there has been no official measure than includes discouraged people who have not looked for a job for more than a year. Including all discouraged workers produces an unemployment rate that currently stands at 23.1%, almost four times the rate that the financial press reports.

1. Historically, when Capacity Utilization is as high as its now (suggesting not much industrial slack) the inflation rate has been much higher. 2. According to survey data from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, more and more companies are saying they can't find qualified applicants for job openings. 3. Survey data shows a big increase in the number of businesses who say they plan to raise wages in the future.

The economy took a bad hit during the first quarter this year. It shrunk at an annual rate of 2.96 percent. Since the beginning of 1947, there are only 16 of the 268 quarters experienced worse growth. The Obama administration blames the slow growth on the “historically severe winter weather, which temporarily lowered growth.” Jason Furman, the chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, made this assertion again on July 3rd and President Obama has made this claim several times. But that doesn’t square with the historic data. The five worst winter storms or winters with the coldest temperatures do...

And well they might. Insurers got a close look at the profiles of the enrollees in the individual health-insurance market this spring, and they turned out to be sicker than projected, as the “young invincibles” took a pass on ObamaCare in 2014. That means that premiums will go up in the fall in order to cover the added expense of the higher-risk enrollments — and that has the Obama administration spin team working extra hard this summer to cover their rear ends just before the midterms: Most state health insurance rates for 2015 are scheduled to be approved by early...

"The reason the stock market is high, in part, is that interest rates are low, wages are low and the emerging markets are still growing much faster than the U.S. economy, let alone Europe," Stiglitz said. He pointed to the fact that many U.S.-listed multinationals are increasingly getting a large chunk of their profits from emerging markets. "These very strong stock market prices are in a sense a symptom of the weak economy, not a symptom that we are about to have a strong recovery to our real economy," he said. Stiglitz, a professor of economics at Columbia University, said...