Free Republic

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the housing market meltdown that led to the Great Recession. Is another crisis looming around the corner? Hopefully not, but it is worrisome that a decade later Washington is engaged in the same derelict behavior that caused the crisis. Government agencies are still issuing taxpayer guarantees on more than 90 percent of mortgages -- many with less than 5 percent down payments. Yikes. Worse, the biggest conspirators in the meltdown, the duopolistic credit rating agencies Moody's and S&P, which gave sterling AAA grades on these bonds up nearly to the date they collapsed...

ANALYSIS DONALD Trump is on a winning streak - and after his latest victories is now assured of a much-sought-after legacy. The confirmation of his conservative nominee judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States in the Senate has backed up Mr Trump's once seemingly outlandish claim about winning during the 2016 election campaign. "We're going to win. We're going to win so much. We're going to win at trade, we're going to win at the border. We're going to win so much, you're going to be so sick and tired of winning, you're going to come...

Winning: The Democrat-generated clown show surrounding the confirmation of one of the most brilliant minds to be nominated for the Supreme Court in decades, Brett Kavanaugh, got the bulk of news headlines this week, but there in the background was POTUS Donald Trump doing what he does — making America great again. In case you missed it, and many did, the president had a terrific week, which means that America had a great week as well.

The September jobs numbers are the 2018 United States economy in a nutshell: Even when an economic report is bad these days, it’s actually pretty good. When the latest numbers first were broadcast at 8:30 a.m. Friday, it looked like a big disappointment. Employers added only 134,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, well below the levels of recent months and well below what forecasters had projected. But even apart from the usual warnings about statistical error and randomness (the true rate of job creation could turn out to be either much higher or much lower), the numbers are a...

Maybe Donald Trump is such a powerful communicator and pot-stirrer that other countries, embarrassed by their own trade barriers, will eliminate them. Then I will thank the president for the wonderful thing he did. Genuine free trade will be a recipe for wonderful economic growth. But I fear the opposite: a trade war and stagnation -- because much of what Trump and his followers say is economically absurd. "(If) you don't have steel, you don't have a country!" announced the president. Lots of things are essential to America -- and international trade is the best way to make sure we...

Amazon, the massive online retailer, announced with great fanfare that it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, and will encourage others across the nation to do the same. Is it unselfish public-mindedness, or political and competitive pressures that's behind the move? Sorry, Jeff Bezos, but we don't buy the social justice talk anymore. Anytime a multi-billion dollar corporation begins talking about social issues, check your wallet. And then look at who's pressuring them. That's certainly the case with Amazon, which on Tuesday announced the minimum wage hike. "We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we...

During a news conference in Louisville, Gov. Matt Bevin joined elected officials and Kevin Nolan, president and chief executive officer of GE Appliances, a Haier company, to announce the appliance manufacturer will create 400 new jobs with a $200 million-plus investment in its laundry and dishwasher production facilities. GE Appliances has long been an exemplary corporate partner for Louisville and the commonwealth, Gov. Bevin said. This iconic company has employed many thousands of Kentuckians for generations, and we are grateful for their most recent investment in the Bluegrass State. As GE Appliances continues to adapt to a changing marketplace, we...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flirting with history on Wednesday—its first breach of a psychological milestone at 27,000. The Dow DJIA, +0.56% was up about 146 points, or 0.5%, at 26,921, at last check, putting the blue-chip index on pace for its 15th record close of 2018 and positioning the index for a chance to log a 1,000-point milestone for the first time since mid January. Presently, the Dow stands just about 0.3% shy of 27,000. The round-number marker for the Dow isn’t necessarily significant in itself but it does represent a resurgence for the stock market since the...

America’s largest metro economy—the New York area—produced 4 percent more economic output last year than the entire country of Canada. The table and first map above help to put America’s ridiculously large $19.5 trillion economy (Gross Domestic Product in 2017) into perspective by comparing America’s 20 largest metro area economies in 2017 (based on data recently released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis) to the economies of entire countries with similar Gross Domestic Products in 2017 (International Monetary Fund data here via Wikipedia). Here are some interesting facts about the size of US metro area economies: America’s largest metro...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that the combination of low inflation and low unemployment shows that the U.S. economy is in "extraordinary times." “This historically rare pairing of steady, low inflation and very low unemployment is a testament to the fact we remain in extraordinary times,” Powell said in a speech Thursday. “I was asked at last week’s news conference whether these forecasts are too good to be true — a reasonable question.” "From the standpoint of our dual mandate, this is a remarkably positive outlook," Powell said. "Since 1950, the U.S. economy has experienced periods of...

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - South Korea will have to foot the bill for the reunification with North Korea and when citizens learn about the cost they will not support reunification, Korean Patriots Party leader Cho Won-jin told Sputnik. "US President [Donald] Trump is saying that he wants reunification without using America’s money whereas [South Korean President] Moon Jae-in wants to use Korea’s money for reunification, but the Korean public doesn’t really know this, and when they find out about it, there won’t be many Koreans who will agree to it," Cho said on Tuesday. Cho pointed out that "people are not...

Even Amazon can get squeezed by political pressure and a tight labor market. The online giant on Tuesday said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its United States workers. It said the pay increase would include part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage. Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the...

Calling it "The Most Important Least-Noticed Economic Event of the Decade," the New York Times finally acknowledges the degree to which Barack Obama's policies were strangling business investment in his final year in office.  During the presidential campaign, acknowledging this "mini recession that many missed" was taboo, of course.  And among those "many" who "least-noticed" it was the New York Times.  So why is the Times admitting it now?  Why, of course, to denigrate the achievements of President Trump in rescuing the economy from the miasma Obama inflicted on it with taxes and regulatory policies. Neil Irwin writes: [In 2015 and 2016, t]here was a...

Presser upcoming at 11 this morning. Trump will speak about new USMCA trade deal.

[familyop: The short video of this interview is behind the link. Impressive video!] NRATV host Dan Bongino issued a dire warning to Republican Senators on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s behalf on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Friday. “Tucker, if they let this guy go down, Brett Kavanaugh, if they let this character assassination of a father, a basketball coach, a son, and a dedicated public servant go down in flames,” Bongino stated. “If they let this happen, I can’t tell you, the GOP will be wiped, absolutely wiped out in the midterms. It will be a stain on them...

“It’s not surprising that China Daily sought to place advertising with the Des Moines Register, because the Register is Iowa’s largest news organization and Iowa farmers are disproportionately affected by China’s tariffs,” Hunter said. A senior Trump administration official said China uses political, economic, commercial, military and information tools to influence U.S. public opinion and promote the interests of the Chinese government and Communist Party. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence plans to make a speech next week detailing the allegations, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, saying the U.S. government was working to declassify further...

Past administrations have called out China for violating the internationally agreed-upon rules of trade for decades. After countless high-level talks, admonitions and appeals, China did nothing to change its cheating ways. President Trump has dispensed with the talk and taken action, slapping tariffs on billions of dollars of goods China exports to the United States at artificially low prices. Naysayers predicted the president’s tariffs would tank the stock market and drag down the economy. But the Dow is posting record gains, unemployment is at a 49-year low and the economy remains strong. The forecasters are at a loss to explain...

Our families will thrive. Our people will prosper. And our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free. President Donald J. Trump 500 DAYS: In his first 500 days in office, President Donald J. Trump has achieved results domestically and internationally for the American people. Since taking office, President Trump has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. After 500 days, the results are clear: the American economy is stronger, American workers are experiencing more opportunities, confidence is soaring, and business is booming. President Trump has re-asserted American leadership on the world stage, secured vital...

Ten years ago, it was too-easy credit that brought financial markets to their knees. Today, it could be a global debt of $247 trillion that causes the next crash. After a decade of escalating US household debt brought on by low wages and the national debt more than doubling over the same time frame, to $21 trillion, debt could soon put the brakes on this economic recovery, analysts warn. “We think the major economies are on the cusp of this turning into the worst recession we have seen in 10 years,” said Murray Gunn, head of global research at Elliott...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed Friday, extending its record-setting run to a second consecutive session. The Dow rose 86.52 points, or 0.32 percent, to 26,743.50. The S&P 500 ticked 1.08 points lower to 2,929.67. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 41.28 points, or 0.51 percent, to 7,986.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 set intraday records in early trade Friday. On Thursday, the two major stock market indexes also set records, with the Dow rallying over 251 points to close at a record high for the first time since January. The S&P 500 also climbed to an all-time...