Free Republic

Anyone questioning the sustainability and rightness of The New Normal is immediately attacked by the mainstream-media defenders of the crumbling status quo. Not only is everything that broke in 2008 fixed, everything's going great globally, and anyone who dares question this narrative in a tin-foil hat conspiracy nut or simply an annoyingly doom-and-gloomer who recalcitrantly refuses to accept the positive glories of official statistics: low unemployment, rising valuations of stock market Unicorns, etc. But the New Normal is anything but normal; all the readings of artificial life-support and manipulation are off the charts. If the New Normal were indeed a...

“Negative interest rates” have become a phenomenon with economists and the media. But I’m writing to tell you something about negative interest rates you haven’t heard. You certainly won’t hear about it in the mainstream press. What’s coming at you is a historic event. It’s something our grandchildren will hear stories about, much like the Great Depression or the Cold War. It could send the price of gold much higher in the coming years. If you know what’s coming, it could mean the difference between having lots of free cash in retirement and barely getting by. And please remember this...

Donald Trump assailed the media on Monday for what he said was a misrepresentation of his comments on debt, rejecting the notion that he would have the United States default on his debt. "I said if we can buy back government debt as a discount. In other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back as a discount, if we are liquid enough as a country we should do that. In other words, we can buy back debt as a discount," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a telephone interview on CNN's "New Day." Those who...

The Winter of 2015-2016, which came to an end a few weeks ago, has been officially designated as the mildest in the U.S. in 121 years according to NOAA. While this fact will certainly add a major talking point in the global warming debate, it should also be front and center in the current economic discussion. The fact that it isn't is testament to the blatantly self-serving manner in which economic cheerleaders blame the weather when it's convenient, but ignore it when it's not. If economists were consistent (and that's a colossal "if"), the good weather would be taken as...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is happy with the job done by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, with whom he is meeting on Monday to discuss regulatory issues and world economy, the White House said. "The president has been pleased with the way she has fulfilled what is a critically important job," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

NEW YORK — Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen offered an upbeat view of the U.S. economy Thursday and affirmed the central bank’s next step is likely to raise interest rates. But the central-bank chief didn’t say when she wants the Fed to boost borrowing costs again. “We think a gradual path of rate increases will be appropriate” given the progress the economy has made and is likely to continue to make, Yellen said as part of a panel discussion involving all the living chairs of the Federal Reserve past and present. She was joined on stage at the International House...

Speaking before a packed audience at the prestigious Economic Club of New York, Fed chair Janet Yellen basically announced that there would be no rate hikes for quite some time - maybe once before year end, maybe not. Her key point was that the global economy is worse today than it was in December, back when the Fed took its target rate up a quarter point. I think she's right. I also think she is paying more attention to forward-looking, inflation-sensitive financial and commodity-market prices. This is good. Very good. Yellen cited shrinking inflation spreads in the Treasury bond market,...

Janet Yellen signaled that the Fed is grappling with the problem I have been warning about: the dollar has become the de facto currency and the Fed is indeed becoming the world’s central bank. Yellen has admitted that everyone is lobbying the Fed to surrender its domestic policy objectives for international ones. This is precisely what took place in 1927. Yellen stated that the Fed should worry less about inflation domestically than about global growth risks. She pointed to the slowdown in China and depressed commodity prices, but Europe is a real basket case. She used the words that “caution...

They say it's broccoli, and they say the hell with it. But Big Brother is watching you, kids: The federal government is taking steps to fine schools that do not comply with first lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday to codify parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama. The regulation would punish schools and state departments with fines for “egregious or persistent disregard” for the lunch rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains.It can't happen...

Five consecutive weeks of gains makes it hard to argue that we’re in a bear market. While it may not seem like much has changed since the markets last swooned, a few key developments remain supportive of stock prices.In particular, a shifted stance on monetary policy, change in the trajectory of the dollar, and recovery in oil prices have turned sellers into buyers.The Fed Last Wednesday the Federal Reserve confirmed what many had anticipated going into the latest FOMC meeting: that the Fed would have to back off of its four-rate-hike plan for 2016.For some time now, the Fed’s...

Stocks haven't done much in a while. Wednesday marked the eight-straight day that the S&P 500 had closed less than 1 percent above or below its prior closing price. Ominously, the last time the market staged this long a period of quiescence was in early August — shortly before stocks took a gut-wrenching tumble. Now, as then, "we are at a precarious position," Erin Gibbs of S&P Investment Advisory said Wednesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "We're trading at fairly high valuation and earnings growth doesn't look that good, so any big shocks — disappointment from China, any movement from the...

The Federal Reserve's years-long campaign to sheepishly back away from its own policy forecasts continued in earnest last week when it officially reduced the four expected 2016 quarter point hikes, suggested back in December, to just two. Given the deteriorating economic outlook, I believe there can be little doubt that the Fed will soon complete the capitulation process and remove all expectations for additional hikes this year. Even before that happens, savvy observers should have already concluded that the Federal Reserve is stuck in the monetary mud just as firmly now as it has been since the dawn of the...

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged today and lowered its economic forecasts after a turbulent start to the year in financial markets and lackluster U.S. growth persuaded the central bank to reassess the timing and magnitude of its plan to raise rates. The Fed maintained its target for interest rates at a range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent to give the U.S. recovery more time to get on a stable track without making recovery more difficult for the rest of the world, where growth is flagging. Only one member of the Federal Reserve's open market committee dissented...

The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, but policymakers may signal fresh monetary action in the next few months, perhaps in June. The Fed will issue its policy statement at 2 p.m. ET, along with new economic forecasts. Fed Chairwoman will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. The central bank raised rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December. But financial market turmoil, perhaps partially fueled by that December move, along with weaker economic data spurred policymakers to hold off on further tightening...

Central Banks Have Signed Their Death Warrants During the past year U.S. consumption spending for health care rose by 5%. Spending at restaurants and bars were up by 9%, while spending for gasoline and other energy products was down by 22%. This was Mr. Market at work--millions of households reallocating their spending in response to relative price changes. It had nothing to do with a macroeconomic abstraction called "weak demand". Actually, the medical care component of the CPI rose 3.3% last year. Housing and shelter were up by 3.2%, while gasoline prices were down by 7.3%. It all added up...

Ever since the financial crisis, many outside the wealthy elite (sometimes referred to as populists) have argued that the largest banks are too big and too risky. Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari recently echoed those beliefs.Yet if a new Federal Reserve proposal goes through, Wells Fargo and other large banks might get even bigger and riskier, adding billions to their balance sheets that could increase the banks’ risk profiles.The Federal Reserve says the proposal, which specifies the amount and kind of debt that systemically important large banks must hold, could help make sure that those banks can be wound...

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen faced what may have seemed like an absurd line of questioning on Capitol Hill this week: Has the Fed considered negative interest rates? It's not a fantasy. At central banks around the world, negative benchmark interest rates have become the new normal, leading to some unusual paradoxes. In Denmark, instead of paying interest on their mortgages, many borrowers have been receiving payments from banks on their home loans. On the flip side, some Swiss bank customers have had to pay banks to keep cash in savings accounts. Yellen told Congress Thursday, following negative moves by central banks in Europe and elsewhere, the Fed has...

Roughly 2 1/2 years ago ; readers were introduced to a paradigm of crime, corruption, and control which they now know as "the One Bank". First they were presented with a definition and description of this crime syndicate. That definition came via a massive computer model constructed by a trio of Swiss academics, and cited with favor by Forbes magazine . The computer model was based upon data involving more than 10 million "economic actors", both individuals and corporations, and the conclusions which that model produced were nothing less than shocking. The One Bank is "a super-entity" comprised of 144...

Will the crash of 2016 be worse than 2008? Central banks have failed to solve the crisis, and instead have taken on more debt than any time in history. At the same time, western institutions are welcoming in Islamic money. Does this mean Sharia-compliant finance? Listen here: http://usatransnationalreport.org/2016/02/13/usa-transnational-report-february-13-2016-guest-charles-ortel/ While European banks, such as Deutsche Bank, falter, what does this mean for the U.S. economy? And what does the future look like? Charles Ortel is an investor and writer interested in economics, geo-politics, history, travel and just, lasting peace. He has done extensive research on the fraudulent activities of the Clinton...

If Ben Bernanke's epitaph is going to be "We could raise interest in 11 minutes if we have to," what will be written on his successor's tombstone? How about "Blames World." That is the headline up today on the Drudge Report. It links to a dispatch of the Agence France Press on Janet Yellen's growing concerns over a worsening financial situation less than two months after she raised interest rates as a sign of confidence in the improving economy. What an opportunity for Senator Ted Cruz... The story, pegged to Mrs. Yellen's semi-annual testimony yesterday to the House Financial Services...