Free Republic

“Drain the swamp.” It was one of President Trump’s most powerful messages on the way to victory. Shake up Washington. Break a few eggs to create a new omelet. Overturn the establishment. Well, hats off to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for doing some swamp-draining when he exercised the “nuclear option” to overturn the filibuster for Supreme Court justices. McConnell busted an old 19th century rule, which was never in the Constitution, and cleared the path for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch -- as good a candidate as can be found. Good for McConnell. But let’s shift our swamp-draining focus...

Trump, Xi agree to 100-day plan to discuss trade issues U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to a new 100-day plan for trade talks that will boost U.S. exports and reduce the United States' trade deficit with China, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday.

INDIANAPOLIS — Consumer electronics chain hhgregg Inc. is going out of business and shutting down all its stores. Founded in 1955, the retailer had 220 stores in 19 states selling major appliances like washers and TVs, as well as computers and home theater systems. As of May last year, it had about 5,000 employees. Just days before announcing its bankruptcy protection filing last month, hhgregg said it planned to trim down by closing three distribution centers and 88 stores. But the move was not enough to salvage the chain.

Illegal immigrants, and their children, cost Texans a net $12.36 billion a year. That works out to roughly $6,000 per alien. "Of this, $10.03 billion came out of taxpayer pockets. Given that Texas’s biennial budget for 2016-2017 was 209.4 billion this means that illegal immigrants eat up 9.6% of their budget ended up being spent spent on illegal immigrants. Let’s look at it another way: for every $9 Texas spends on its citizens, it spends $1 on illegal aliens."

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits recorded their biggest drop in nearly two years last week, pointing to a further tightening in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000 for the week ended April 1, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The drop was the largest since the week ending April 25, 2015. The prior week's data was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market for 109 straight weeks. That is the longest stretch...

So I'm 'Negative Nancy' Eh? Stop the inane folks. Seriously, stop it. (Snip) Health Care including VA (which I exclude in my current postings) was $850 billion in 2012. Last fiscal was $1,417 billion or nearly a double in five years. That's the same acceleration in spending that has been going on since the 1980s. This cannot continue. It must stop now. I have been writing on this incessantly since 2007 here in The Market Ticker, been raising hell about this since I was an Internet CEO in the 1990s and been doing presentations on it to so-called Conservative groups...

Federal Reserve officials said the shedding of the $4.5 trillion in bonds the central bank is holding on its balance sheet will begin this year. The revelation came Wednesday from a summary of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held in March, during which the group approved a quarter-point hike in its benchmark interest rate target. Officials at the meeting noted that the Fed likely is on a faster pace with rate hikes ahead. Unwinding the balance sheet is significant both because of its sheer size and the impact it could have on markets, as Fed members including Chair Janet...

Reporters used adjectives such as “torrid,” “solid,” “unexpected,” and “strong” to characterize March jobs growth of 263,000, as reported by ADP/Moody’s on Wednesday, which far exceeded professional economists’ estimates of 170,000 new jobs for the month. Last month Mark Zandi was uncharacteristically buoyant when commenting on February’s jobs numbers: “February was a very good month for workers. Powering job growth were the construction, mining and manufacturing industries.… Near record high job openings and record low layoffs underpin the entire market.” Today Zandi extended his comments as the jobs market continues its recovery: “Job growth is off to a strong start...

Bend, Ore. – Ibex Global, which employs about 500 people at a Bend call center, is planning to double that number this year, a company recruiter said Thursday. Ibex provides customer support for four brands that it declines to identify. Two are telecommunications companies; one is in motor sports, and one is a medical company, according to John Schweiter, lead recruiter for Ibex Global in Bend. Ibex Global, based in Washington, D.C., and formerly known in Bend as iSky, is a subsidiary of privately held TRG, based in Pakistan, said Rosemary Hanratty, Ibex senior director of marketing. According to news...

[The stream is slated to start at 12:30 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] President Donald Trump is set to speak publicly for the second time Tuesday at the North American Building Trades Unions legislative conference. Trump will likely address his promises to boost American manufacturing and promote new infrastructure projects. In a town hall with CEOs earlier in the day, Trump touted his pledges to reduce regulations on businesses and encourage companies to make new investments in the United States....

President Donald Trump told chief executives of major companies on Tuesday that his administration is working on an infrastructure plan worth $1 trillion or maybe more. Trump told the audience that he wants to speed up permitting for road and bridge projects and that federal money wouldn’t go to projects that couldn’t be started within a month and a half....

Richmond Fed President Lacker says he was involved with Medley leak, announces immediate resignation Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker announced his immediate resignation Tuesday, admitting that he discussed sensitive information with an analyst regarding the Fed's plans for economic stimulus.

With the new US President’s anti-globalisation and anti-immigrants stance, those wishing to toil their way in to a US citizenship might find it hard in the near future. But money might buy you a rightful place under the US sun. This can be achieved with the help of the EB-5 program, that can get you permanent residency and eventually citizenship, provided you have a deep pocket. Many countries, including the UK, Australia and exotic locales such as Malta and Cyprus provide a channel to high networth individuals to obtain multiple citizenship if they invest specific sums or meet some criteria,...

Before you begin to mention the grandiose gains in the stock market since Obama took office, bear in mind a few things. 1. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to zero percent, making bonds and interest bearing accounts untenable for retirees, effectively forcing people into stocks. Also, the Fed's balance sheet went from ~$750b to $4.5t over that time frame -- rigging both equity, currency, and bond markets over Obama's entire 8 year term. {..snip..}

Those who lost out on the Fed’s “wealth effect.” Here’s a mystery: Has this “wealth-effect” economy that the Fed so beautifully engineered since the Financial Crisis gotten a lot riskier, scarier, and uglier in some profound ways for lower-income Americans, those making $30,000 or less a year? One of the questions that Gallup posed was this: "Next, I’m going to read a list of problems facing the country. For each one, please tell me if you personally worry about this problem a great deal, a fair amount, only a little, or not at all? First, how much do you personally...

Eric Bolling from FOX News gave President Donald Trump rave reviews for his first few months in office. …making America better is what he is doing. Jobs which were planned for deportation are staying put and criminal illegals who were planning on staying put are being deported. The economy is roaring back to life. Consumer confidence this week topped the 16 year high not seen since before 9-11. Home prices spiked to a 31 month high as well. And get this, yesterday [March 31] ended the first Quarter. Want a report card for Trump’s first Quarter, just open up your...

Recently, much has been made of the role that artificial intelligence will play in taking our jobs. From manufacturing to driving to fighting wars, AI’s ascendancy into the workforce elicits everything from celebration to consternation. Depending on who you ask, AI will save jobs, or create jobs, or will banish humans from the job market forever. While the singularity is a long way off, the anxiety has set in. Salespeople are nervous, too. A million business-to-business salespeople are already in danger of losing their jobs to websites by 2020, according to Forrester. The basic sales jobs are already migrating to...

Indian companies are creating thousands of jobs in the United States opening both bricks-and-mortar as well as technology companies Indian companies are here for the long haul – not only investing in greater numbers, but expanding their reach, creating jobs and training American workers. For most it is a continuation of past policies. So, even as they wait and watch for any changes that accompany a new administration, they are honing their message and laying out their priorities before the White House and Capitol Hill. Things look good with a businessman in the White House, say experts and entrepreneurs....

Last month, America lost a great defender of freedom, Michael Novak.Novak was committed to rightly ordered liberty and cared deeply about the principles and practices that produce it. His enormous body of work emphasized the cultural prerequisites for political and economic freedom, as he stressed that economic conservativism and social conservatism are indivisible.In the words of Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner, “Michael forced those of us trained in the dismal science of economics to explain that we should be more than ‘free to choose’—rather we should be free to make good free choices.”Last year, I was the recipient of the...

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J., March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mars Chocolate North America announced today a $70 million reinvestment in its U.S. supply chain, continuing a long-standing commitment to American manufacturing and innovation. This latest investment will add approximately 250 new jobs to sites across the country, ensuring that more than 95 percent of Mars' chocolate products for the U.S. are made here. Mars is dedicated to supporting the U.S. communities in which the company lives and works. This latest pledge builds upon $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing investments over the past five years, which have added more than 1,000 American jobs...