Free Republic

Conservative stars appeal to voters in radically different ways. The most attention-grabbing conservatives in the emerging 2016 Republican presidential nomination race are two freshmen U.S. senators who had never held elective office before. Though nearly equal in their fanfare, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas are romancing Republican and independent voters in radically different ways. The outcome of their fierce competition could influence the direction of their party. Win or lose, both men have an opportunity to influence a new generation of conservatives in tactics, policy and coalition-building while readjusting the movement’s planks of fiscal restraint, free...

In a new working paper from the Mercatus Center, University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan projects that the Affordable Care Act will reduce weekly employment per person by 3 percent, or roughly 4 million full-time-equivalent workers. These new estimates are significantly higher than the 2.5 million reduction in labor supply estimated by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this year. To be clear, a reduction in labor supply differs from a reduction in labor demand—a distinction many failed to recognize when the CBO first released estimates. It is not the case that the ACA will necessarily forces employees out; rather, the...

Myles UdlandOctober 9, 2014Uber-bear Albert Edwards, a strategist at Societe Generale, is out with a new note to clients about market tops and expensive baskets. Edwards highlights the following comment from this weekend's Financial Times that said the following: Sir: The next financial apocalypse is imminent. I know this to be true because the (FT Weekend) House and Home section is now assuming the epic proportions last seen before the great crash. Twenty four pages chock full of adverts for mansions and wicker tea trays for $1,000. You’re all mad. Sell everything and run for your lives.(snip)

Six years after offering hope and change, polls show the American public has fallen out of love with their president – so where did it all go wrong? Barack Obama romped to the presidency of the United States in 2008 on a tidal wave of ‘hope and change’. Back then, the financial crisis was raging and US troops were still engaged in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a fresh-faced Mr Obama brimmed with confidence. He predicted that future generations would look back on his election and see the moment “when the rise of the oceans began to slow and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just how healthy is the U.S. job market? Despite steady hiring and falling unemployment, the question has provoked sharp debate and considerable uncertainty on the eve of the September jobs report. Will millions without jobs who aren't looking for one eventually start looking? Why aren't companies filling more of their openings? Why can many people find only part-time work? Much of the uncertainty flows from a big question: Does today's 6.1 percent unemployment rate, far below the 10 percent it hit in 2009, mean the job market is near full health? Or does the unemployment rate overstate...

Last updated: October 7, 2014 8:10 pm China swoops in on Italy’s power grids and luxury brands By Rachel Sanderson in Milan EU debt crisis opened up periphery countries to Chinese investors Italy’s business elite – senior executives from blue-chip companies such as Telecom Italia and Vodafone plus high-ranking government officials – filled a renaissance palazzo across from Milan’s gothic cathedral this summer to court one of the country’s biggest foreign investors. Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, opened its only microwave research and development centre outside China in Milan in 2008. The company, whose name means “splendid achievement” in...

The Chinese economy just surpassed the U.S. economy to become the world’s largest in terms of purchasing power, according to the International Monetary Fund.The IMF measures economic strength by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in both market exchange rates and average purchasing power, the latter being where China has overtaken the U.S. with a GDP of $17.6 trillion by the end of 2014 — 16.4 percent of the world’s purchasing power. The U.S. will close out the year with a purchasing-power adjusted GDP of $17.4 trillion, or 16.2 percent of the world’s total.Financial Times predicted the change in April and illustrated...

Myles UdlandOctober 8, 2014 Stocks rallied in a big way after the Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting showed that the Fed remains particularly cautious about raising interest rates in the face of a strengthening US dollar and a slowing global economy. First, the scoreboard: •Dow: 16,989.69, +270.3, (+1.6%) •S&P 500: 1,968.86, +33.8, (+1.7%) •Nasdaq: 4,469.60, +84.3, (1.9%) And now, the top stories Wednesday: 1. The biggest story on Wednesday was the release of the Minutes from the Federal Reserve's September monetary policy meeting. The minutes were interpreted as "dovish," by the market, essentially meaning that the...

Everyday Low Benefits Wal-Mart dumps 30,000 part-timers onto the ObamaCare exchanges. Oct. 7, 2014 7:25 p.m. ET Wal-Mart endorsed ObamaCare in 2009 and helped drag the bill through Congress, and so far it hasn’t recanted. By holding back economic growth and incomes, perhaps the law is expanding the retailer’s customer base. Another plus—at least for management—is that Wal-Mart can jettison its employees into the ObamaCare insurance exchanges. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the largest U.S. private employer is dropping health benefits for some 30,000 workers, or about 5% of its part-time workforce. Earlier health-plan eligibility triage in 2011 had...

Mike BirdOctober 7,2014 Sorry, America. China just overtook the US to become the world's largest economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. Chris Giles at the Financial Times flagged up the change. He also alerted us back in April this year that it was all about to happen. Basically, the method used by the IMF adjusts for purchasing power parity, explained here. The simple logic is that prices aren't the same in each country: A shirt will cost you less in Shanghai than San Francisco, so it's not entirely reasonable to compare countries without taking this into account. Though a...

A homeowner who tried for months to sell a beat-up, two-story house in Detroit has offered to sell it to anyone who gives him an iPhone 6. He’s also willing to sell it for a 32GB iPad.

A sell-off on Wall Street Tuesday extended losses into a second straight session. All the major markets lost more than 1.5% as investors worried about how the slowdown in Europe will play out for earnings. The Dow dropped 272 points.

We are destroying our economy in order to satisfy the environmental lobby, while other countries like China and India are polluting away As the global warming alarmists tell us that “the science is settled, there is no debate, and government bureaucrats are going full-speed ahead with taxation plans that will further weaken our already suffering economy, honest and wise politicians like Delegate Scott Lingamfelter of Virginia ask, “let’s see the physical science, not the political science before we strap Americans with huge taxes as the Obama Administration wants to do.” We should not formulate public policy such as carbon tax...

In an in-depth assessment of the disease’s likely impact, the bank concludes that from the gold mining companies operating in the continent Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) is particularly exposed due to the locations of its mines, as the company's production is entirely focused on West and Central Africa. Nordgold and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) are also in a tough position, with 57% and 53% of their net present value (NPV) in the most affected region respectively, it adds. Iron ore and aluminum producers, as well as oil drillers also have some exposure. ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) has iron ore assets in both Guinea and...

Tyler Durden 10/07/2014Yesterday it was German manufacturing orders which cratered 5.7% in August following a freak, 4.9% rebound in July, prompting Goldman to warn that "the underlying dynamic has weakened further at the end of Q3" ... ... And then a few hours ago we finally got undeniable confirmation that Europe is once again in recession, its third since Lehman, only this one is worse: it is led by the "core" countries, with Germany in the forefront, a Germany which just reported industrial output which suffered its biggest monthly decline in more than five years in August. Specifically, German IP...

In another sign of President Obama's deteriorating public support, more than half of Americans now say that he is failing as president, the latest IBD/TIPP poll finds. The poll, which ended Friday, found that 53% characterize Obama's presidency as a failure vs. 41% who rate it a success. Just 6% say that they aren't sure. Obama's standing among independents is even worse, with 58% calling his presidency is a failure. Half of those who live in states that voted for Obama say that his presidency is failing.

I started this narrative bibliography for "The Case for Reparations" back in June, but, regrettably, I didn't finish the final section before I left for the summer. Some time has passed but I think it is very important that, as much as possible, I complete this public acknowledgement of all the previous work that contributed to my own. As I've written, the process began with the understanding that racism was a "done thing" and not an irrepressible clash between people of different hues. Another way of putting this is to say white supremacy is not an invention of white people;...

MOSCOW, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The value of the Russian ruble hit a historic low Monday when compared with U.S. and European currencies, the Russian Central Bank said. It took just over 40 rubles to buy one U.S. dollar, or just over 50 rubles to buy a euro, in Monday trading, the bank said. The bank said last week it was struggling to keep Russian inflation in check because of U.S. and European sanctions on Russian energy companies. Sanctions were imposed earlier this year because of Russian policies in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin rebels are fighting for more authority. Exports...

It’s been a while since we heard from healthcare.gov and the fallout of the law, but we’re approaching the end of the year and the period when most of us will begin looking at our tax situation. For those who were fortunate enough to still have jobs with health benefits (and who got to keep them, as promised) or those who earned so little that they qualified for mostly subsidized Obamacare, they won’t see much of an effect. But by the latest estimates there are still roughly 41 million Americans without insurance who did not enroll in the government plan...

In a perfect world, Democrats would love to the 2014 midterm elections to be all about the economy. But in 2014, the world has been far from perfect. And Democrats say it's hard to grab the public's attention and focus it on a slowly improving economy with crises popping up at home and abroad. "August was Ebola. It was ISIS. It was Ukraine," Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told a small group of reporters Monday morning. "Global issues dominated. And in September, those issues continued to dominate. And so, part of the headwind...