Free Republic

He's giving a briefing to the PRESS and taking questions about the economic policies of President Trump. This guy just is rocking it out. Answering stupid questions with impeccable logic and knowledge.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped 7,000 to 222,000 in the second full week of February, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, the second-lowest mark of the recovery and a good sign for the economy. Forecasters had expected new jobless claims to remain steady at an ultra-low 230,000. Lower claims are good news because they mean fewer people are getting laid off. Thursday's mark is the lowest since the early 1970s, setting aside the week of January 13, when claims touched as low as 216,000. The report should raise expectations for a very strong jobs report for the month of...

Starting in late 2017, Boeing executives discussed plans to conceal employee bonuses or cancel them altogether in order to keep President Trump from getting credit, following the passage of the Republican tax-reform bill. On a series of conference calls led by Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Communications Phil Musser, Musser proposed and lobbied for canceling bonuses out of fear that the company may contribute to President Trump’s rising approval rating. Before Musser worked as a high level Boeing’s communications staffer in Washington, his employment history included public and media relations work for Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Campaign and The Freedom...

J.P. Morgan slashed expectations for U.S. economic growth in the first quarter thanks to Wednesday's "hotter than Hades" inflation reading and "ugly" retail sales numbers. The bank's chief U.S. economist explained that the Labor Department's "scorching" core consumer price index measure likely means an emboldened Federal Reserve. "While it is still early going, we are taking down our outlook for first-quarter gross domestic product from 3.0 percent to 2.5 percent," wrote economist Michael Feroli. "Today's inflation reading should probably cement in place the Fed's intent to hike rates at the March FOMC meeting." The economist added that core CPI posted...

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — Employees of F&M Bank were surprised on Tuesday to learn they would receive a bonus, which the institution attributes to additional earnings expected as a result of the GOP tax plan. "This is an opportunity we haven't seen during my career, as far as cuts in corporate tax rates," said Executive Vice President Neil Hayslett. "Rather than just banking all that, so to speak, we wanted to share it with the employees." The GOP tax plan cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Those who work more than 30 hours a week...

Congressional Republicans have been raked over the coals in the last two weeks for slamming through budget caps and inflating government spending and debt by another $300 billion. The criticisms are well-deserved. It's a historical truism that Republicans are much more fiscally conscientious when they are in the minority than when they run Congress. And Republicans tend to be much bigger fiscal hawks when there is a Democratic president than a Republican president -- as we are now witnessing. The only time in half a century that the budget has been balanced was in the late 1990s, when Bill Clinton...

(Image via J.M. Smucker Company) The J.R. Smucker company announced last week that 5000 employees will be receiving $1000 bonuses as a result of the Republican tax plan. They also plan to add $20 million to the employee pension program and donate an additional $1 million to charity. "We had a strong third quarter, with sales growth for key brands in every business and strong earnings per share growth fueled by the benefits of U.S. income tax reform and ongoing cost discipline," said Mark Smucker, chief executive officer, in a press release. "These results reflect our commitment to delivering...

Imagine you open the faucet of your kitchen sink expecting water and instead out comes cash. Now imagine that it comes out at the rate of $1 million a minute. You call your plumber, who thinks you’re crazy. To get you off the phone, he opines that it is your sink and therefore must be your money. So you spend it wildly. Then you realize that the money wasn’t yours and you owe it back. Now imagine that this happens every minute of every day for the next three years. At the end of the three years, you owe back...

What’s the greatest risk to China’s economy? Look no further than its growing corporate and household debt China has been one of the leading generators of debt since 2009, contributing to the latest worries over global inflation that have roiled markets PUBLISHED : Friday, 16 February, 2018, 6:01pm UPDATED : Friday, 16 February, 2018, 6:13pm Few investors study history. And the ones that do, dismiss the lessons as being irrelevant for the current market. Predicting China’s upcoming economic collapse is a popular contrarian viewpoint, but it is not so easy to generate a convenient scenario if you look at data...

Americans are dynamic people. World statistics on the number of cars per capita show that America is in first place among the "big" countries and in third place among all countries, behind the dwarfs of San Marino and Monaco. Where do Americans drive other than to work, shopping, and perhaps to school? Americans move, and move quite often. They relocate to neighboring cities and distant states. By and large, the U.S. looks like a big monolithic country. In fact, the U.S. is a federal republic of independent states, each with many laws, many customs, and a unique political climate. Does...

RUSH: What happened to the call from the woman who wanted me to explain what she thinks is being hypocritical? Where did she go? Did she just…? (interruption) She disappeared. There was a woman on the line, she was the next caller up — and she knows who she is — and she blew it. She hung up. Maybe her battery ran out or maybe something else happened. But she was going to ask me, “How in the world can you on one hand be talking about how the Democrats are imploding — as you have been — and then...

RUSH: “Feds Collect Record Taxes in First Month Under Tax Cuts.” When I saw this, I wondered how many people are gonna say, “Rush was right.” I wonder how many people are gonna say, “Rush told us this was gonna happen.” I wonder how many people are gonna remember for the last 30 years, “Yep. This is exactly what works every time it’s tried. Rush told us.” Quote: “The federal government this January ran a surplus while collecting record total tax revenues for that month of the year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released [Monday]. January was the first...

With an average hourly wage of $18.64 (with taxes accounted for) and the median price of rent at $1,194 in Austin, SmartAsset calculated it would take about 64 hours for those living in Austin to make enough to cover their housing bills. Obviously, if people make more or less or if rent is less or greater, then those numbers shift. To calculate yours, take your monthly rent and divide it by how much you make an hour, after tax and deductions. San Jose, California, is the big city with the most hours of work needed to pay off rent, with...

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government this January ran a surplus while collecting record total tax revenues for that month of the year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today. January was the first month under the new tax law that President Donald Trump signed in December. During January, the Treasury collected approximately $361,038,000,000 in total tax revenues and spent a total of approximately $311,802,000,000 to run a surplus of approximately $49,236,000,000. Despite the monthly surplus of $49,236,000,000, the federal government is still running a deficit of approximately $175,718,000,000 for fiscal year 2018. That is because the government entered the...

Tiny gap between private trade confirmations and public data feed can be exploited to detect market moves, critics say Five years ago, the world’s largest exchange operator vowed to fix a flaw in its systems that allowed high-speed traders to infer the direction of the futures market a fraction of a second before everyone else. Now, the defect is back at CME Group Inc.,traders say. And some allege it is yielding rich profits for ultrafast firms at the expense of ordinary investors. The problem arises from the two ways that CME distributes information about a trade. One is the private...

Whatever happened to the New Normal? First, Obama Democrats told us that what looked like long-term stagnation under President Obama’s economic policies, with growth stuck at 2 percent on average for his whole eight years in office, was the New Normal that the American people were going to have to get used to, the best we could do now.That was after the worst recession since the Great Depression, making 10 years of insignificant growth, even though the historical pattern is the worse the recession the stronger the recovery.Republicans who argued that we could still do much better with 3 percent,...

RUSH: Here’s Chuck You Schumer. And Chuck You was in Louisville at the University of Louisville, and he spoke a Q&A period after his remarks. It was this morning. And a member of the audience said, “There’s been talk of a blue wave of Democrats winning seats in the midterms. If this is to happen, what are the biggest obstacles that Democrats must overcome in order to win big in November?” SCHUMER: People will make their own decisions about Donald Trump. Our mistake, I think, you cannot just run against Donald Trump. And it is the job of we Democrats...

Perhaps the most persistent delusion about economics is the lump of labor fallacy, the notion that the amount of work available in an economy is fixed and the more people you have, the more unemployment you have – instead of recognizing that the amount of work is not static, and people create more of it. One of the most vivid arguments against the lump of labor fallacy unfolded almost 50 years ago, when Uganda dictator Idi Amin expelled some 60,000 South Asians to ensure that “the average Ugandan enjoys the wealth of his country.” Such massive dislocation of a people...

Democrats claim their policies are superior to Republicans, but they keep leaving their blue states and moving into red states. Democrats are known for taking over large urban areas and turning them blue, then deserting them as they become unpleasant to move on to better territory in red states where they make the same transformations. They increase taxes and regulations, making it expensive and annoying to live wherever they get into power. According to United Van Lines, the top 10 states people are leaving include the blue states Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Only three red...

It is time to create a merit-based immigration system that makes sense for a modern economy – selecting new arrivals based on their ability to support themselves financially and to make positive contributions to U.S. society..... President Donald J. Trump Our immigration system’s prioritization of family relations over merit, education level, or skill has allowed a wave of low-skilled labor into our country.... More than two-thirds of the legal immigrant admissions into the United States each year are admitted based on family relations rather than merit or skill. The United States grants up to 50,000 visas each year through the...