Free Republic

There’s blood on the Street. In a wild swing of the ax that has shocked many pundits, Wall Street’s biggest banks have slashed nearly 50,000 jobs, and bonuses and expense money are being cut as profit opportunities dry up. And there’s no easy way out, analysts say, because the Fed’s quantitative easing that once rescued the financial system with trillions of cheap dollars is — at least for now — history. But while some analysts were unnerved by the carnage announced by banks last week during their earnings calls, the warning signs were there before — from lower trading and...

President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday enjoying rising approval ratings that have been strengthened by rapidly improving perceptions of the economy and increased optimism about the overall direction of the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. [Snip] Obama’s overall approval rating now stands at 50 percent, the highest in a Post-ABC poll since the spring of 2013. His standing is nine points higher than in December and seven points higher than in October, just before Republicans captured control of the Senate, increased their House majority to its highest level in eight decades...

The great wage mystery deepens. In economic recoveries, there usually comes a time when strong job gains lead to strong wage gains. Businesses must pay more to recruit and retain the workers they need. Not this time - or at least not yet. The unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 to 5.6 percent at the end of 2014. But hourly wage gains haven't accelerated. They've plodded along at about a 2 percent annual rate, roughly matching inflation. Economists are baffled. "This labor market recovery looks different from anything since World War II," says University...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warns that the American dream is slipping away. “The central challenge facing this country right now is that for millions of Americans, the American dream seems to be slipping away,” he told the crowd during a speech at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention on Sunday. “You know, today for the first time in our country’s history, a majority of Americans believe our kids will have a worse life than we did. That has never been true in over 200 hundred years of our nation’s history until right now.” In August 2014,...

Without explanation, authorities in two Chinese cities have refused to issue approvals for transfers of apartments built by selected developers, including troubled Kaisa Group. Most analysts believe the extraordinary moves are related to Xi Jinping’s so-called anti-corruption campaign, but that explanation fails to explain certain crucial facts. There is reason to think there could be bankruptcy law factors behind the withholding of the approvals, which have unsettled markets in recent weeks. The bankruptcy explanation suggests a market correction is coming soon.

Uber chief Travis Kalanick said he wants to expand operations in Europe and, in the process, create 50,000 jobs and take 400,000 personal vehicles off the road. Kalanick said the ride-sharing service isn’t opposed to regulation, but wants “progressive regulation” that promotes safe and affordable rides and generates tax revenue without limiting competition. Cities around the globe have been going after Uber and other services, using a mix of existing regulations and new laws. “We want to make 2015 the year where we establish a new partnership with (European Union) cities,” Kalanick said, speaking Sunday at the DLD Conference in...

Barack Obama enters the final two years of his presidency with a blemish on his legacy that looks impossible to erase: the decline of the middle class he has promised to rescue. The revival of middle-class jobs has been one of Obama's mantras since he took office in 2009 fighting the worst economic crisis in generations. It was a major theme of his last State of the Union address and is expected to feature in the one scheduled for Tuesday. Administration officials said on Saturday the president would propose higher capital gains taxes, new fees on large financial firms,...

ALCO stores nationwide, including those in South Hutchinson and 21 other small Kansas communities, are closing. The stores, which typically serve small towns with few other options for everything from clothing to housewares and groceries, began conducting going-out-of-business sales on Friday morning, a day after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas authorized ALCO’s owners – Tiger Capital Group LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Great American Group LLC – to begin doing so. In all, 198 stores in 23 states will close, as will the 113-year-old discount retailer’s 352,000-square-foot distribution center in Abilene. During the liquidation sale, the company plans...

                      The main reason we try to predict markets is so afterward we can gloat saying we knew it all along.  Easy-peasy -- all we do is predict doom'n'gloom and eventually asset prices will sag.  Sure, most of the time prices go up, things grow and wealth is created, but the only time folks cry WHY!!?? is during the rough times. Then again, the other reason we figure out expected market trends is so we can make money.  That's not that hard either because over time most investments do better than say, cramming...

Our system of values in this country needs to change, and that will require more than just a single policy measure.D’Angelo’s album, Black Messiah, caused a huge sensation when it dropped last month. Its songs were greeted as welcome transcendent messages in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. The title of the album, with its messianic reference, hinted at its ambition to function as something like religious guidance. The songs evoke a justice-focused, religious sensibility – what I like to call a Pentecostal piety – that recalls the civil rights battle and that can underpin the Black Lives...

I was sound asleep when the phone rang and so I cannot be absolutely sure the conversation was not a dream,but it seemed real enough.“Hello,...[m]y name is Mr. Mensch,..president of the Parodists of the World, Professional comedy writers,and we want to engage you in a suit against the administration for tortious interference with our livelihood.”.....He then launched into a litany of grievances against the administration......[SNIP]...............“Sounds like a bad joke..,”I replied. “With the world’s attention focused on Moslem extremists. New jihadi groups showing up all through Europe,and Palestinians continuing to attack our ally Israel and we train and arm Palestinian guards...

A proposal from Sen. John McCain has sparked a furious backlash from shipbuilding and ship repair executives who say the plan would cripple their industry and compromise coastal security.. The Arizona senator wants to repeal a key provision of a 95-year-old law that governs shipping in America's coastal waters and between domestic ports. It would strike the requirement that vessels engaging in port-to-port, domestic waterborne trade be built in the U.S. .............. In a news release, the Arizona senator said, "It costs six dollars per barrel to move crude from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast United States on a...

Rick Perry! The man who has been governor of Texas since pterodactyls roamed the plains took his leave at the State Capitol this week. He is not saying anything for sure about running for president. Mum’s the word until springtime. However, he recently told a reporter that if voters want to break from the Obama era, “I am a very clear and compelling individual to support.” Wow, the Republican race is getting to be like one of those crime shows where the detectives have to paste pictures all over the wall so they can keep the suspects straight. So many...

One day, it’s gold. The next, it’s equities. Most days, it’s crude. On Wednesday, it was copper. On Thursday it was the Swiss franc and Swiss stocks. And the move in those two makes those others look like minor-league hiccups. While you were sleeping, all hell broke loose in Switzerland, as the central bank ditched its currency cap against the euro after four years and slashed interest rates to negative 0.75%. The Swiss franc is rallying wildly, while the Swiss stock market is cratering and U.S. stock futures are mostly on the losing side as investors figure out this latest...

ECONOMIC DEATH SPIRAL: MORE AMERICAN BUSINESSES DYING THAN STARTING....

Myles Udland January 15, 2015 The crash in oil prices might be good for consumers, but it's terrible for inflation data. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the consumer price index on Friday morning at 8:30 ET. The index is a measure of consumer prices, and the most popularly cited measure of inflation. Expectations are for headline inflation to fall 0.4% in December compared to the prior month, which would be the largest month-on-month decline since December 2008. Compared to last year, headline inflation is set to rise 0.7%. "Core" inflation — which strips out the...

Dream Act, Veterans, Religion, Renewing the American Economy Barack Obama’s approach to power is a deterrent example of current political trends. Officeholders elected to preserve, protect and defend laws and unique national identity, are not only derelict in their duties, but feel entitled to realize their personal dreams and to mold “their” country into a private kingdom. The sense of entitlement is reinforced by lack of obligation of results, culminating in rampant impunity. Native American Chiefs considered that “man has responsibility, not power”, for present-day selfish leaders, power is all but responsibility. People are the share-holders in their own country,...

Myles Udland January 15, 2015 Here's a word no one wants to hear: "recession." Headline payroll gains were strong in 2014 and GDP growth has been above 3% in four of the last five quarters. So everything is good, right? Well, one indicator that has a perfect record of predicting recessions is creeping towards some uncomfortable levels: the yield curve. The yield curve, or the interest rate paid on the range of US Treasury bonds, typically ranges from low to high: the shortest duration bills are paid the least interest, with investors earning additional yield for lending the government for...

Linette Lopez January 15, 2015The story on Wall Street this earnings season is a classic case of, "be careful what you wish for; you just might get it." Since Wednesday, when Wall Street started reporting its earnings for the last quarter of 2014, we have seen an across-the-board beatdown on trading revenues. •A 23% drop in bond trading (from the same time last year) contributed to JP Morgan's earnings miss. •Citigroup's trading revenue fell by 14% overall, and bond trading fell 16% from this time last year. •And sales and trading revenue at Bank of America fell 20% from the...

As President John F Kennedy once quipped, the rising tide lifts all boats; but one only needs to compare San Francisco and Stockton - cities just 80 miles apart - to question whether the rising tide lifts all boats equally. California has recovered all of the jobs the state lost during the recent recession. But that doesn't necessarily mean the state's job market is uniformly doing well. California's tale of two states isn't new or surprising, but it is one that has been conspicuously absent from the Sacramento agenda. Yet, in the event there wasn't enough evidence already, the January...