Free Republic

In 2008, the nation entered into a financial crisis widely believed to have been caused by excesses in the residential mortgage industry. By 2010, the nation thought it had put in place a series of measures that not only would resolve the crisis but would insure that it never happened again. Yet, here we are in 2015 looking at another potential mortgage crisis. Only this time it is different. In 2008, funds flowed in waves into the mortgage industry. In 2015, it appears the funds are drying up. The solutions to the problem in 2010 and thereafter included: Suing and...

"I think a bright line rule that sort of spells out the principles that we believe in, I think the Bill of Rights is a good thing," said Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp.

Greek 4 month extension does nothing for the people of Greece. Sub-prime auto loans all time high and delinquencies are rising. Existing home sales implode while home price fall. Baltic Dry Index falls and ship builders are filing for bankruptcy. US blimp in Maryland used to watch the people. Ukraine bans Russian media and sets up their own propaganda media. Poroshenko wants Crimea back as they pull more weapons to the front line. US and the coalition forces getting ready for a major offensive in the middle east. DHS budget in trouble, using fear and a false flag event to...

With the Federal Reserve printing trillions upon trillions of dollars to keep the economic system afloat, many investors and financial pundits have surmised that the fundamental economic problems facing the United States during the crash of 2008 have been resolved. Stocks are, after all, at historic highs. But the insiders know different. And if there’s any single person out there who understands U.S. monetary policy and its long-term effects on domestic and global affairs it’s former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. As the head of the world’s most powerful central bank for nearly two decades he’s privy to the insider...

Falling oil, rising dollar and fears over US rate increase present in 1997-98 Mark Twain reputedly stated that history does not repeat but it rhymed. In an eerie parallel to 1997-98, falling commodity — especially oil — prices, a rising US dollar and potential increases in US interest rates may presage a new financial crisis. Weak growth, high debt levels, disinflation or deflation, policy driven destructive competitive devaluations, inflated financial risk taking and mispricing compounds the problems. The impending crisis may develop as follows. First, US equity prices come under pressure from a stronger dollar. Given 40 per cent of...

President Barack Obama has called on Congress to grant him fast-track trade authority for his Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement. The administration insists the authority, which would give Congress only an up-or-down vote on the agreement, is needed to get the best possible terms from its trade partners along the Pacific Rim. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama promised to renegotiate and improve the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But it now looks like what he really meant is to expand on that flawed trade model and extend it to other countries. Twenty-one years after NAFTA and four years after...

[excerpt from Yahoo Finance: What to watch next week: TGT, HD, M, HPQ, GDP and Greece] Next week will be a busy week on Wall Street with a raft of big earnings reports including Target (TGT), Macy’s (M), Home Depot (HD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to name just a few. Investors will also have a lot of economic data and geopolitics to digest this coming week and in the weeks that follow. The Commerce Department will release the latest reading on third quarter Gross Domestic Product. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman thinks investors will be watching that report closely, as well...

In the good old days, if they fell in love in B-school, got married and kicked off a career, the choices were predictable — if it was an MBA in marketing, it had to be a role in a consumer goods multinational (think Hindustan Unilever or Procter & Gamble or Nestle); if it was finance, the husband-wife duo inevitably found themselves at rival investment banks on Dalal Street. These days, it's a bit different. Many couples who met in school or college — not just B-schools — are taking the long and invigorating walk down the aisle of entrepreneurship. And,...

Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn’t love America. All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms of the Republican presidential race, a number of Scott Walker’s pointed comments about policy and politicians are not to be missed. First a word about the dinner itself, which was generously backed by John Catsimatidis. It was the second event sponsored by the Committee to Unleash American Prosperity, a new group founded by Arthur Laffer, Steve Moore, Steve Forbes, and myself....

The Federal Reserve is pushing back against mounting criticism of the central bank, even as those pushing for reforms ratchet up their attacks. Fed officials have in recent weeks met in private with staffers from both parties, focusing primarily on the Senate, according to sources familiar with the meetings. Meanwhile, Chairwoman Janet Yellen and other Fed officials have publicly sounded off against a proposal championed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-K.Y.) that would give Congress more sway over the bank. The uptick in outreach from the independent agency signals an effort to quell calls for significant changes at the Fed and...

As Republican hopefuls Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) and Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) showed themselves to be spineless against the far right by refusing to refute Rudy Giuliani’s cheap and obviously empty Palinesque attack on President Obama’s patriotism, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) tried to walk a finer line. He demonstrated how to be weak and spineless while playing more subtly with Palin fire by laughingly suggesting that while he has “no doubt” Obama loves this country (not one high profile Republican seems capable of saying Obama loves this country for sure), his polices are so terrible for the nation. Rubio told...

A coalition of 26 states fought and won a battle to freeze President Barack Obama’s deferred action plan to give temporary work visas to illegal immigrants with children born in the United States. Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction order, issued Monday, makes certain eligible illegal immigrants won’t get permission from the federal government to seek lawful employment, and will have to continue working without legal papers. The states who filed the lawsuit claimed such an action would cause “undue burden” to their finances. “Regardless of the reasons behind the actions or inaction of the executive and legislative branches of the...

"......The more significant development was Scott Walker’s semi-public confab with the leading lights, such as they are, of supply-side economics. Last night, the Wisconsin governor attended a dinner in New York hosted by Stephen Moore, Arthur Laffer, and Lawrence Kudlow. This is a strong indication of the policy leanings of a candidate who probably stands as strong a chance as anybody of capturing the nomination. The backdrop to Walker’s meeting is that the Republican Party is undergoing the first serious effort to alter its domestic policy in a quarter century....... This has left a gaping void for a Republican candidate...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is scheduled to attend a private dinner Wednesday with longtime advocates of supply-side economics. The gathering, set for the upscale “21” Club in Manhattan, is the latest effort by the potential Republican presidential contender to bolster his relationships with the GOP’s anti-tax wing. It also reflects the interest business-friendly conservatives have in his possible candidacy, in spite of the recent ascent of former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Economists Larry Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Stephen Moore will host Walker, according to several people with knowledge of the event. For decades, that trio of friends — all associated...

As the state pours billions of dollars in business tax breaks into programs aimed at strengthening New Jersey’s struggling economy, it has put the brakes on another incentive program, leaving hundreds of companies without promised payments that could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Seeking to balance the state budget over the last few years, the Christie administration and the Legislature have each slashed funding for the Business Employment Incentive Program, commonly referred to as BEIP, eliminating payments to companies that were promised annual income tax rebate checks in return for moving to New Jersey or expanding here....

China's Real Estate Market Crashing... Real Estate is the single biggest domestic lending segment in China. Combined with deflation in Iron Ore, Steel, Copper, and other industrial metals China's collateral quality is looking very very shaky compared to loan volume... SNIP While the world's attention is glued to events in Greece, the real action continues to evolve quietly thousands of kilometers east, in China, where the near record surge in new loans remains unable to offset the dramatic slowdown in shadow banking issuance. And while China's bubble-chasing, animal spirits have recently reoriented themselves from real estate to the stock market,...

Don’t count on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to play dealmaker in the fight over Department of Homeland Security funding. The Kentucky Republican is under intense pressure from conservatives to hold the line against President Obama’s immigration actions, and he shows no signs of backing down. McConnell on Tuesday used a judge’s injunction against Obama’s immigration order to increase the pressure on Democrats, saying the onus is on them to stop filibustering legislation that would fund the DHS and stop an illegal power grab by the White House. “Senate Democrats — especially those who’ve voiced opposition to the President’s executive...

The Bible speaks at length about our uniqueness. We are created in God’s image and are matchless, just like a snowflake. We are also commanded to use our unique combination of skills and abilities to glorify God and serve others. Our unique skills allow us to make a special contribution to the world we live in, not just in the church or on the mission field, but through our work. Because we are uniquely created, we are endowed by Christ with a specific set of gifts. We can further the Kingdom of Christ by knowing our gifts and pursuing them...

The Case Against Imminent Economic Collapse: “They Can Keep Bailing Things Out for Several More Years Without Fear of Collapse” Joel Skousen February 16th, 2015 Editor’s Note: The following commentary comes to us from Joel Skousen, a well respected geopolitical analyst and Strategic Relocation expert. We see evidence of an impending collapse of the global financial and economic systems on an almost daily basis. From falsified statistics to an almost unfathomable series of never-ending monetary machinations, all signs point to something being horrifically wrong, not just with the economy but the entire global paradigm as it exists today. By all...

Tyler Durden 02/16/2015 You know things are bad in the ship-building business when... amid considerably larger than expected losses, China's COSCO announced that it has dis-assembled 8 vessels in January alone (including 3 bulk carriers) and will be decommissioning and disposing of them as it awaits a "more conducive" environment. It appears that is not coming anytime soon, as The Baltic Dry Index just hit 522 - a new all-time low (down a stunning 53 of the last 55 days). As COSCO explains in its HKSE Statement:(snip)