Free Republic

Almost a half-century ago, in 1968, the United States seemed to be falling apart. The Vietnam War, a bitter and close presidential election, antiwar protests, racial riots, political assassinations, terrorism and a recession looming on the horizon left the country divided between a loud radical minority and a silent conservative majority. The United States avoided a civil war. But America suffered a collective psychological depression, civil unrest, defeat in Vietnam and assorted disasters for the next decade -- until the election of a once-polarizing Ronald Reagan ushered in five consecutive presidential terms of relative bipartisan calm and prosperity from 1981...

Link only (Bloomberg)

No city in America runs on anything resembling a free-market model. But Texas' major cities are probably the closest thing, with vast improvements to their economies and living standards to show for it. Their looser land-use laws mean that housing supply grows quickly, stabilizing prices. Their lighter tax and regulatory structure helps businesses locate there and grow. And—shenanigans from the governor's office notwithstanding—their openness to immigrants means they have cheap and robust labor forces.But one market-oriented aspect little discussed is Texas' approach to transportation. The state has 25 toll roads, more than any other state. They are particularly common in Houston and Dallas,...

Commentary: Welcome to the dysfunction of Illinois government Diana Sroka Rickert I walked into the Thompson Center on my first day, not knowing what to expect. In many ways, my new workplace was like any other large organization: big building, thousands of people and plenty of broken computers. Except this building is dilapidated, many of the employees are political hires and the computers will never be repaired, ever. And it’s all paid for by you, Illinois taxpayers. “Welcome to state government,” said a new colleague, as we boarded the elevator for the 16th floor. This summer I got to see...

There's been a lot of negative stories in the news. Have you noticed? America needs to heal. We have suffered four consecutive body blows in the past six weeks. Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria and now the Vegas mass murder. The media lives by the mantra “If it bleeds, it leads.” And they have served us nonstop headlines of crisis, death, and destruction. But amidst all these negative headlines, we missed some remarkable positive economic news. What Vegas and America need now is some great news. The kind of news that makes you smile and pound your fist in the air....

Vietnam and Japan would be among hardest hit by a Korean conflict Moody's and the World Bank warn of serious economic consequences to Asia MASAYUKI YUDA and TOMOMI KIKUCHI, Nikkei staff writers TOKYO -- If recent escalations in tensions ultimately culminate in a military conflict on the Korean peninsula, the U.S. and North Korea would not be the only countries to suffer -- at least in terms of credit-worthiness, the ratings company Moody's warns. Vietnam and Japan would be also be in the firing line. More broadly, the simmering tensions could jeopardize otherwise upbeat prospects for growth across the region,...

If you thought that the Greek crisis was over and done with, think again. "Hundreds of Greek pensioners have taken to the streets of Athens shouting 'shame on you' as they protested the deep cutbacks to pension payments ordered by the crisis-hit country’s creditors," the UK Express reports. "Dozens of pension cuts have been put in place since the Greek financial crisis of 2010. More will be implemented in 2019, as the latest reforms are passed." German and Dutch taxpayers have been fed up with Greece for years. That's not so strange considering the fact that they have kept the...

In school, I liked math the least and history the most. Both can be useful in the coming debate over President Trump's proposed tax reforms. The one thing I learned in math class is that if the formula is wrong, the answer will be wrong. In history class, I learned we are not the first people to occupy the planet and that the experiences of those who came before us can be helpful when considering contemporary issues. Since the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the left has presented government as the answer to every problem. The increasing taxes needed to...

Folks on all sides of the political spectrum are absolutely muddled trying to understand President Donald Trump. Those on the left and right are apoplectic over his jibes, tweeting and directness. “He certainly isn’t a true conservative,” they say. Before the election, Lock Piatt [1] described him in a way we are slowly beginning to understand: "The current tribal view of Donald is wrong. How many have lived in New York City for years but never became part of the real NY culture? Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey and other boroughs are very loud and harsh speaking people. They sound...

MEXICO CITY -- Autoworker Ivan Flores spends his days transporting parts for U.S.-bound Audi SUVs at a plant in central Mexico, but he laughs when asked if he could ever buy one of the $40,000 Q5 SUVs the plant produces on his $2.25 per hour salary. "For us it is a dream to buy a Q5; we never could," said Flores, 40, who supports three sons on his roughly $110 weekly paycheck. The premise of the auto industry since the time of Henry Ford was that workers would earn enough to buy the cars they produced. Across the U.S. and...

Bold tax reform got a big boost on Wednesday. Leaders in the House, the Senate, and the White House have all agreed on a tax outline, meaning a true update to our broken tax system could be imminent. First, the GOP tax plan framework would lower taxes for individual Americans. It would double the standard deduction for individuals and thereby expand the zero-percent bracket, and it would create three income tax brackets (down from seven): 12, 25, and 35 percent, respectively. Most simply, this will allow all Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. Importantly, the...

Multi-Billion Dollar Stadiums: The Seen vs. the Horrid Unseen By Allan Golombek September 27, 2017 In 1995, the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers to help build a new stadium. After 20 years in the Gateway City, the Rams moved right back where they came from – leaving the people of St. Louis and Missouri stuck with a $6 million a year tab to pay for an empty football field. American taxpayers spend billions of dollars a year to lure professional sports teams from one place to another in one of...

The United States is now the second most competitive economy in the world, climbing to an eight-year high in global rankings, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the World Economic Forum. The latest edition of the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual ranking of 137 countries based on data from international financial institutions, moved the U.S. up from the number three position to second place, just behind Switzerland. Singapore, the Netherlands and Germany rounded out the top five spots. “The strength of the United States comes from its performance in efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors,” wrote economists Klaus...

I wanted to post this just in case people missed it, a while back the U.S National Debt clock began publishing the real ratio for U.S dollars to gold. At this point it's up over 6,000 per ounce. Keep stacking!

It’s easy to think that South Korea doesn’t stand a chance of ever surpassing Japan. After all, the Korean economy is now barely over 1/4th its size. That’s despite strong growth over the past few decades. Japan was Asia’s most important regional power for centuries – at least until China caught up in 2010. However, Korea is a slightly poorer country and has just 50 million people compared to 120 million in Japan. You’d be correct in saying Korea probably won’t catch up to its larger, more populous neighbor in the short to mid-term. But there are several reasons why...

To The Daily Sun, While I would argue some of his points, I agree with the main point in Alan Vervaeke’s Sept. 19 column titled “The Gravy Train is for my dogs”: America’s welfare system needs a lot of fixing. The fixes need to ensure that people who are truly incapable of caring for themselves are cared for while capable people have the opportunities and incentives to support themselves. Vervaeke expresses this view, perhaps a little harshly, in his comment, “Enough with the programs and freebies and giveaways — save them for those people who actually need them. Get the...

Legalizing cannabis doesn't just create jobs involving cultivation of the plant; it also creates businesses that aid those cultivations, infused-product manufacturers and dispensaries. Ancillary businesses to the cannabis industry can be in anything from extraction technology to industry consulting, with many, many things in between. Ancillary businesses represent the largest and broadest sector of the cannabis industry, according to multiple industry reports, and many of the top companies are based in Colorado. Of the top 150 ancillary cannabis businesses on a recent list from Cannabis Business Executive, 41 are headquartered in Colorado. By comparison, California had 35 on the list,...

Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The International Trade Commission has found injury in a suit filed by Suniva and SolarWorld, a pair of struggling, foreign-owned, U.S.-based solar cell companies who claim foreign imports have unfairly harmed their bottom lines. ITC judges voted four to zero to advance the suit into the remedy phase. While it's not yet clear what the commission will recommend, the two companies have requested a tariff of 40 cents per watt for foreign-made solar cells, as well as a price floor for solar cells manufactured in the United States. Such a remedy, should it be granted by...

Mercedes-Benz announced plans today to invest an additional $1 billion in its Alabama operation, where it will set up electric vehicle production and build a battery plant. In addition, the German automaker will expand its logistics activities in the U.S. with a new Global Logistics Center and a new after-sales North American parts hub to be built in nearby Bibb County. Altogether, Mercedes’ new investment in Alabama is expected to create more than 600 jobs and upgrade a plant that the company already describes as one of the world’s “smartest” manufacturing facilities.(Excerpt) Read more at Alabama Newscenter

S&P says downgraded China as credit growth still too fast BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s attempts to reduce risks from its rapid buildup in debt are not working as quickly as expected and credit growth is still too fast, S&P Global Ratings said on Friday, a day after it downgraded the country’s sovereign credit rating. While S&P warned in June that a cut may be on the cards, it said it decided to make the call after concluding that China’s “de-risking” drive that started early this year was having less of an impact on credit growth than initially expected. “Despite the...