Free Republic

World economic leaders are being urged to rally around a plan to let government do what it does best - spend money - in an effort to buoy a global economy that remains slack and slowing. The effort comes as six years of crisis fighting have lapsed with little guarantee the world economy is on a stable footing. Germany is in danger of slipping into recession, China has slowed, and U.S. policymakers are concerned a fresh bout of global weakness will stymie the U.S. recovery as well. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde issued a blunt call on Thursday...

Money

.....Obama is coming to the city today to raise money for the Democratic party. The president is expected to arrive at JFK Airport around 1:30 p.m. From there he will head to Manhattan for two events involving the Democratic National Committee.

Abortion doctors face stigma from the medical community and society, protests and pressure from pro-lifers, and the emotionally disturbing aspects of the abortion procedure which often includes sorting through individual body parts, i.e., arms, legs, etc. So why do they do it? For some, the motive may be as simple as making money. Here are some quotes from abortion providers, from now and in the past, that indicate how profitable abortion can be. 1.) “It started out as a financial thing. But I got heavy into the [abortion rights] movement and realized there was a lot of need for physicians…....

October 2, 2014Linette Lopez Argentina's Merval stock index is down about 7% Thursday after taking an 8% beating Wednesday as well. The selling off is all likely due to Wednesday's news that the country's Central Bank head, Juan Carlos Fabrega, resigned from his post. The rumors that he was out started swirling around in the Argentine media Wednesday morning. Fabrega was in favor of negotiating with the group of hedge fund creditors whose lawsuit for over $1.3 billion in sovereign debt tipped the country into default at the end of July. Reports also indicated that he did not get along...

NIH spends $466,642 to determine if it’s all about that bass The federal government is spending nearly a half a million dollars to find out why obese teenage girls have a hard time getting dates. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $466,642 grant last week for the study, which will examine whether social skills have an impact on why obese girls have fewer dating experiences than their less obese counterparts.

Billionaires are holding mountains of cash, offering the latest sign that the ultra-wealthy are nervous about putting more money into today's markets. According to the new Billionaire Census from Wealth-X and UBS, the world's billionaires are holding an average of $600 million in cash each—greater than the gross domestic product of Dominica. That marks a jump of $60 million from a year ago and translates into billionaires' holding an average of 19 percent of their net worth in cash. "This increased liquidity signals that many billionaires are keeping their money on the sidelines and waiting for the optimal moment to...

Barack Obama will not be pledging any cash to a near-empty fund for poor countries at a United Nations summit on climate change next week, the UN special climate change envoy said on Friday. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has challenged the 125 world leaders attending the 23 September summit to make “bold pledges” to the fund, intended to help poor countries cope with climate change. The UN has been pressing rich countries to come up with pledges of between $10bn and $15bn. “We are putting a lot of pressure for them to do it at the summit on...

The announcement from the Vikings came at about 2 a.m. Gutless Standard Time. That means it took the team about 14 hours to cave from public pressure. "Cave" is the wrong word. Cower, run, scamper, bolt, run frantically and chickens--t might be better. In one moment, the Vikings were saying that Adrian Peterson deserved due process. In the next, he was effectively suspended. I'd have more respect for the team if it stuck by its wrongheaded stance. Instead, the Vikings basically said: We stand by Adrian Peterson and will let due process play out...ah hold on, sponsors are pulling out....

Do you leave a tip in your hotel room for the maid? Marriott is launching a program with Maria Shriver to put envelopes in hotel rooms to encourage tipping. The campaign, called 'The Envelope Please,' begins this week. Envelopes will be placed in 160,000 rooms in the U.S. and Canada. Some 750 to 1,000 hotels will participate from Marriott brands like Courtyard, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance hotels. The name of the person who cleans the room will be written on the envelope along with a message: 'Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable....

"Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy has been publicly called out by the owner of a local eatery for leaving a 20-cent tip on a bill totaling more than $60. The Philadelphia burger joint PYT shared a receipt online showing what was described as Mr McCoy's paltry tip. 'The twenty cent tip that the Eagles' LeSean McCoy just left our server on his $60 check is going to come in really handy for that new official NFL McCoy jersey he had his heart set on,' the message that accompanied the receipt read. 'That is a .03% tip. New record!'"

Investing money in or starting small businesses-- Backbone of America In a moment of recent hand-wringing, the Fed examined the question of why inflation has stayed extremely low in the United States despite all the efforts of quantitative easing money pumping. Their answer: American consumers are mainly to blame. Yes indeed. In a paper released this week by the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the Fed cites “low level of money movement in large part on consumers and their “willingness to hoard money.”. To be fair, the paper also criticized its own policies as well, suggesting that the has they have...

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A 22-year-old B.C. woman is suing her ex-boyfriend to pay tuition for a class she says she failed due to distress over the breakup. Roopam Plawn, a marketing student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, says in her notice of claim that she is seeking $500 for the class, $600 for anxiety, depression, insomnia and loss of working time and performance and $250 for "severe distress." She also wants Jasmeet Ahluwalia to pay court costs. Plawn says in the court document that she met the international student in September 2013, they broke up in early 2014, got...

**SNIP** “A politiquera is a person who works for a candidate to encourage people to vote, to bring voters to the polls, to ensure that voters select the appropriate candidate, to pay voters for their votes”, according to court documents. Veronica Saldivar was allegedly given part of an “eight ball” of cocaine to bribe voters to cast their ballot for a Hidalgo County Commissioner. Court documents reveal a campaign manager distributed the cocaine in baggies to campaign workers. A voter told FBI agents Saldivar promised to pay $10 in exchange for their vote.

Hundreds of adoptive parents in New York City who've sent their children to live elsewhere continue to get monthly government subsidies of up to $1,700 per child. They can continue receiving the checks until the child turns 21 years old.They gave up on their “hard-to-place" adopted kids — but not on the government check intended for the discarded kids’ care. Hundreds of adoptive parents across the five boroughs who've sent their children to live elsewhere are continuing to pull in monthly checks of up to $1,700 per child while the city, state and feds look the other way, the Daily...

Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch preacher and New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen, is now facing withering criticism online for a viral video clip in which she is shown telling congregants at Lakewood Church that obedience, worship and church attendance is not for God but themselves. "I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God—I mean, that's one way to look at it—we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we're happy," she said in the 36-second clip posted on YouTube, with her husband smiling...

A recently recorded video is circulating online of Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen, calling on congregants at Lakewood Church to ‘do good for your own self’ because obedience, the church and worship are not for God as much as for self-happiness. “I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God—I mean, that’s one way to look at it—we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy,” she declares in the undated 36-second clip with her husband standing by her side...

In three of her last four budgets, Gov. Jennifer Granholm cut state funding to K-12 schools. In Gov. Rick Snyder's first four budgets, he has increased state funding to K-12 schools, up to a record $12 billion in 2014-15, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. So how is Gov. Snyder being tagged by critics as the villain who has cut funding to school children? The answer lies in how the complicated nature of school funding has been the most misunderstood story reported in the media, as well as a campaign to portray schools as underfunded. “If you repeat a lie...

If you want to know why economics is so important to understand, this is the series for you. In our day and age, it’s a message every Christian needs to hear.