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Scorching temperatures near the triple digits weren't driving away the 325 people gathered to hear Scott Walker speak at a Lexington, S.C., barbecue joint Wednesday. Packed under an open-air porch with fans that were hardly helping, the heat didn't seem to affect the enthusiasm for the Wisconsin governor on just his second day as an announced presidential candidate — and it's the type of excitement he'll need to generate to win the important South Carolina GOP primary. Clad in his Harley boots, jeans and a button down shirt, Walker bounded onto stage that afternoon to Dirks Bentley's "I Hold On."...

In case anyone entertained doubts, Hillary Rodham Clinton's Monday speech on the economy offered proof positive that the center of the Democratic Party has moved left. Her address contained all the elements of the party's analysis of 21st-century American capitalism: • Economic rewards go only to the rich ("successful CEOs and money managers," as she put it). • Corporations reward shareholders and top executives at the expense of investment and employees. • The decimation of unions has left workers powerless to demand their share of the revenue they produce. • Sluggishness of investment, worker income and consumption has made the...

2016 Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz met July 15, 2015 at Trump Tower in New York City. Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said they had a “very friendly” meeting about a wide variety of topics.Sen. Ted Cruz had a busy Wednesday. After starting his morning in Washington with a promise to do whatever he could the keep the Export-Import bank dead and buried, he went north to New York. His first stop was CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference, where he riffed again on his opposition to Ex-Im’s “crony capitalism” and called out big business for getting in bed...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- - Missouri's most prolific political donor is planning a fundraiser for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's presidential campaign. Walker is to attend a July 26 event at the St. Louis home of Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield. Rex Sinquefield is a retired investment firm founder who has bankrolled initiatives to cut income taxes and curb the ability of teachers' union to negotiate tenure protections.

2016: If only Wall Street bankers had listened to St. Hillary during the subprime mortgage frenzy. She now claims she warned about the risky loans. Yep, a Clinton actually went there. Her campaign may regret it. While bashing Wall Street for risky acts and "criminal behavior," Clinton in her first economic stump speech portrayed herself as the voice of financial sanity in a casino of wild greed. "As we all know, in the years before the crash, financial firms piled risk upon risk," she intoned, "and regulators in Washington either wouldn't or couldn't keep up. "I was alarmed by this...

In 2015, the human race will create about $75 trillion in economic output, well more than half of which will be the product of the three largest economies: those of the United States ($18 trillion), the European Union ($16 trillion), and China ($11 trillion). Two of those economies are in the midst of serious economic and political crises. The other is in the grip of something much more difficult to overcome: complacency. Europe is being convulsed by a debt crisis in which Greece is, for the moment, the lead player, but which very well may grow much more intense if...

Transcend Lighting, one of the more unconventional startups accepted into Y Combinator’s latest cohort, is launching out of beta today to bring its energy-saving LED lights to indoor farmers everywhere. Founder Brian Bennett, an optical engineer by training, invented the first Transcend prototype after his father challenged him to build some LED lights for the family farm in upstate New York. When the lights he designed were successful, Bennett entered a business plan competition at Columbia, won some money to continue developing the idea, and was accepted into Y Combinator’s Spring 2015 class. “Farms today, generally speaking, use high pressure...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Cruz pointed out that big business and big government can go hand-in-hand, hurting economic mobility and the chance for people to live out the American dream.Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz cannot be accused of playing to the audience after some of the things he said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference. The event took place in New York City before a Wall Street crowd. Cruz pointed out that big business and big government can go hand-in-hand, hurting economic mobility and the chance for people to live out the American dream. Related Stories Here Is A Special Delivery These ISIS...

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton's job killing "growth and fairness" plan that calls for higher taxes certainly isn't fair and will only further weaken the Obama economy. If anyone really thought she could come up with a plan to move the economy in a stronger direction, they were sorely disappointed. Large parts of her plan came from Obama's long stalled agenda that is going nowhere in his remaining term, and from his previously failed proposals. The economic agenda she delivered Monday called for raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on the wealthy to make them pay their so-called "fair share," imposing...

Our situation is nowhere near as bad as Greece’s — but it’s bad enough. Last week, Keith Hall, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told Congress that the United States could be facing a Greek-style debt crisis down the road. “Unfortunately,” Hall testified, “there is no way to predict confidently whether or when such a fiscal crisis might occur in the United States. . . . But all else being equal, the larger a government’s debt, the greater the risk of a fiscal crisis.” That’s not exactly a ringing vote of confidence. Obviously there are big differences between the U.S....

Labor groups are gearing up for another fight with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) now that he has entered the presidential race. After a failed recall bid in Wisconsin, unions are determined to make sure Walker never sets foot in the Oval Office. But organized labor’s opposition could play well for Walker in the GOP primary because it appeals to his conservative base. Some of the biggest unions are still formulating their plan of attack against Walker, even as they signal they will dip into their coffers to go after him. The strongest signal came from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka....

U.S. stock futures ticked higher on Wednesday, with a note of caution taking hold ahead of a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to Congress later in the day. Second-quarter earnings season, a key vote in Greece's parliament to pass legislation needed to secure a third bailout and renewed turbulence in China's stock market were also in focus. Having closed higher on Tuesday, stock futures pointed to a slightly positive open for Wall Street shares with Dow Jones industrial futures up just 10 points in early London trade. Fed chief Yellen appears before the House Financial Services Committee...

Gov. Scott Walker kicked off his presidential announcement tour Tuesday with a stop in Las Vegas, where he decried the new nuclear deal with Iran—and quickly drew fire for comments he made criticizing the minimum wage and a Boy Scout decision to lift a policy banning gay troop leaders....."I was an Eagle Scout,my kids have been involved,Tonette (Walker) was a den mother...I have had a lifelong commitment to the Scouts and support the previous membership policy because it protected children and advanced Scout values."...Critics quickly accused Walker of supporting homophobic policies and implying that gay people are pedophiles."Maybe Gov. Walker...

More millionaires have left China over the past 14 years than any other country, according to a new study reporting where the wealthy choose to live. Asia Unhedged views this gold-plated exodus from China as another country’s gain. The report from New World Wealth, a company which provides information on the global wealth sector, lists the top eight countries that saw the most outflows and inflows of millionaires between 2000 and 2014. Out of the top 10 nations with the most millionaires, China came in fifth, with 608,500 millionaires in 2014. The US topped the list with 4.1 million. However,...

There is an unsolvable problem at the heart of our financial system. The outcome of this problem is inevitable. The joblessness, increasing debt and recession that we see now is only the first stage of a crisis that is certain to come soon. Everything about our way of life is about to change. Many people believe that today is as bad as it will get and that things will not get worse. The truth is that this is just the start of what is about to unfold. We will all be witnesses to the real consequences of this coming collapse...

Trump is resonating with Americans, especially the so-called “silent majority,” by speaking bluntly about illegal immigration, and Levin also had some politically incorrect points to make on the subject. While listening to Breitbart News Sunday, Levin said he was particularly bothered by the claim—made by politicians on both sides of the aisle—that there are so many so-called “jobs that Americans will not do.” Levin mentioned that, according to the Census, 73% of janitors are American citizens, as are 51% of maids and housekeepers, 58%of taxi drivers, 64% of landscapers, 66% of construction workers, and 72% of bellhops, porters, and concierges....

CNBC TO AIR PORTIONS OF INTERVIEW DURING CNBC'S "CLOSING BELL" WHEN: WEDNESDAY, JULY 15TH AT 3:10PM ET In a CNBC EXCLUSIVE, CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood interviews Senator Ted Cruz live from the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York City on Wednesday, July 15th. CNBC.com will live stream the full interview and portions of the interview will air on CNBC's "Closing Bell" (M-F, 3PM-5PM ET). Mandatory credit: CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference. Transcript to follow the interview. About CNBC: With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa,...

It is a supreme irony of modern American life that the political movement that terms itself “progressive” is, in the economic realm at least, increasingly passionate about the status quo. Speaking today about the burgeoning “gig economy,” presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could not help herself but to set modernity firmly within aging ideological tram-lines. Developments such as AirBnB, Zaarly, Uber, DogVacay, and RelayRides, Clinton conceded, are not likely to “go away” any time soon. But they are worrying nonetheless. Indeed, the “sharing economy,” she proposed, is “polarizing” and it is disruptive — guilty of no less than “displacing or...

In a striking series of admissions, Pope Francis told journalists on the flight back to Rome from Paraguay that he has an aversion to the economy, which he does not understand very well, and that he has neglected the middle class. On the plane, journalists asked the Pope his opinion of the economic situation in Greece and its relation to the rest of the European Union. Francis responded that he has “a great aversion” to the economy because his father was an accountant and used to bring his work home with him on the weekends. “I don’t understand it very...

Hillary Clinton is a walking, talking cliche who spouts decades-old sound bites that were bad enough when her husband first delivered them but are painfully anachronistic today. Same old material, same old demagoguery. You would think a self-styled "progressive" would be less regressive and reactionary, but this woman apparently believes that the Clinton magic of the '90s can be dusted off and resurrected without the slightest rhetorical modification. The problem with that is that Clintonomics only works on the heels of Reaganomics and liberals have been squeezing every last ounce of Reaganomics out of our system. In her first major...