Free Republic

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States has fallen back to 11%, the lowest level since December 2008 and just four percentage points above the all-time low recorded in October 2008. The Aug. 11-14 Gallup poll finds satisfaction down five points from July (16%) and nine points since June (20%). The dip is likely a response to the recent negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling and continued concern about the national economy amid a volatile stock market. The recent downing of a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan resulting in the deaths...

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that suggested hiring in August was steady but not robust. Meanwhile, the Labor Department says the Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent in July, following a drop of 0.2 percent in June. Gas prices accounted for much of the swing. Prices increased by a seasonally adjusted 4.7 percent, after falling sharply in June. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy, rose 0.2 percent. That's below the 0.3 percent rise in each of the previous two months. Prices are 3.6...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Factory activity in the Philadelphia region weakened sharply in August to the lowest level seen in more than two years, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday, adding to fears that the economy has ground to a halt. The Philly Fed’s business outlook survey fell to negative 30.7 in August from 3.2 in July. This is the lowest reading since March 2009. Readings below zero indicate contraction in the region’s factories. The size of the decline in the index stunned analysts — economists had expected a reading of 0.5 in August...

With the United States and European economies having slowed markedly according to the latest data, and with global growth continuing to disappoint, a reasonable question increasingly arises: Are we in another Great Depression? The easy answer is "no" - the main features of the Great Depression have not yet manifested themselves and still seem unlikely. But it is increasingly likely that we will find ourselves in the midst of something nearly as traumatic, a long slump of the kind seen with some regularity in the 19th century, particularly if presidential election-year politics continue to head in a dangerous direction. The...

NEW YORK -- Turmoil returned to U.S. stock markets at Thursday's open as renewed concerns about the global economy sent major indexes plunging and pushed gold to a new record high. Investors were working through bad news on various fronts, including a dismal forecast from Morgan Stanley for global economic growth, and two U.S. government-issued reports on inflation and the job market.

A day after clashing with a tea party activist, President Obama Tuesday told crowds here that it was “a faction in Congress” that was to blame for blocking economic progress. At a rural jobs forum, Mr. Obama ticked off a list of pending bills that he said would create jobs. “The only thing that’s preventing us from passing the bills I just mentioned is the refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party,” the president said in a thinly veiled reference to House Republicans backed by the tea party. “That has to stop.” ... Mr. Obama...

Washington just added another $2.4 trillion to an already exploding debt of $14 trillion. The accumulated obligations of the U.S. now exceed 100% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. We’ve reached that point at which we are trapped in an economic catch-22. Over the last 150 years or so, the average interest rate paid on cost of capital has been 4%. But these days, interest rates on the federal debt run just 1.25%. That’s mostly due to a lack of demand by private companies for borrowing and the fact that the Fed is pumping money into the bond markets to keep...

OK - I may not be the brightest bulb in the room...[Snip], but how can you call something a deficit reduction committee if you are going to spend more taxpayer dollars to stimulate the economy? Isn't that sort of counterintuitive? Welcome to Obama's Fantasyland: President Barack Obama is considering recommending that lawmakers on a deficit committee back new measures to stimulate the lagging economy, people familiar with White House discussions said Tuesday. The plan Mr. Obama is considering also would recommend the congressional committee come up with a package that reduces the federal budget deficit by much more that its...

Seeking a jolt for a wilting economy, President Barack Obama will give a major speech in early September to unveil new ideas for speeding up job growth and helping the struggling poor and middle class, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The president's plan is likely to contain tax cuts, jobs-boosting infrastructure ideas and steps that would specifically help the long-term unemployed. The official emphasized that all of Obama's proposals would be fresh ones, not a rehash of plans he has pitched for many weeks and still supports, including his "infrastructure bank" idea to finance construction jobs. On...

So far the U.S. government has bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the tune of at least $130 billion, and perhaps as much as $1 trillion. And yet, the Obama administration continues to stonewall the release of documents that could shed light on why Fannie and Freddie failed, thereby sending the economy into a tailspin from which we have yet to recover. (Those records are housed at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) now that Fannie and Freddie are owned and operated by the federal government.)

We got another negative data point today, the August Empire State Manufacturing Index came in below expectations, showing a 3rd straight month of contraction in current business conditions. Alarmingly, the index for future business conditions had the 3rd lowest reading in the last 10 years (the only lower datapoints were for September 2001 because of what happend on 9/11, and February 2009). Besides the actual reading, the rate of change is rather disturbing. Over the last six months, future expectations have deteriorated at the fastest rate of the last 10 years. As you can see from the chart below, the...

Not knowing who the eventual Republican presidential nominee will be in the 2012 election, President Obama's supporters are taking the opportunity to blast all of the GOP candidates, using aggressive language to argue that the crop of contenders is either uninterested or incapable of helping Americans. Much of the criticism is focused on describing the candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S. snip "In a Republican field that has already pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and failed to present any plan that will benefit the middle...

Who can forget that rare moment of honesty during the campaign to pass Obamacare when Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the bill in order for you to find out what's in it"? Now we have it, and almost daily there are new revelations about the staggering extent to which our private lives and individual freedoms have been stomped on. We learn now that free birth control in the form of contraceptives, morning-after pills, and sterilization is part of the grand Obamacare socialist dream-come-true. The health insurance that Obamacare mandates that all employers provide and that all citizens acquire...

Stop the presses. Barely did we have time to report that European regulators failed to impose a coordinated short selling ban, that Bloomberg reports that the countries most impact by the market plunge are about to impose standalone short-selling bans. These are Belgium, Italy, Spain and France. In other words, it really is on and the 2008 Lehman PTSD flashbacks may now resume. Until we get a headline that says it isn't. The rescue of the Borsa Italian is now more schizophrenic than that of Greece. As a reminder, in the previous post the FT quoted Abraham Lioui, a professor...

President Barack Obama sought to reassert economic leadership on Thursday by pledging to deliver new ideas every week to create jobs, and he slammed Congress for "bickering" that hurts economic recovery. In a passionate speech to auto industry workers aimed at deflecting public anger over policy gridlock in Washington, Obama said the refusal to put country ahead of party "has got to stop." His hopes for reelection in 2012 will hinge on his success in lowering unemployment, currently pinned above 9 percent, and boosting sluggish economic growth, and he promised to deliver fresh approaches. "I'll be laying out more proposals...

DeMint: "We saw within a few days that this President was going to be heavy-handed, he was going to implement his agenda and pay back his political allies, and it just went on from there to ObamaCare and then to Dodd-Frank. It has been the most anti-business and I consider anti-American administration in my lifetime. Things that are just so anathema to the principles of freedom, and everything he has come up with centralizes more power in Washington, creates more socialist-style, collectivist policies. This president is doing something that’s so far out of the realm of anything Republicans ever did...

NEW YORK—American consumers can expect bigger grocery bills in 2012, even as commodity prices are forecast to fall. (snip) In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said grocery-store prices will likely rise 3% to 4% in 2012, on par with this year, even though ingredient costs may fall. The biggest increases would likely be in the first half of next year, but prices would most likely ease later in 2012, said USDA economist Richard Volpe.

Treasury reports $1.09T deficit through JulyBy Erik Wasson - 08/10/11 03:13 PM ET The Treasury Department on Wednesday reported the nation has run a $1.099 trillion budget deficit through July. The deficit is about $70 billion less than last year's budget deficit at this point in the fiscal year. The reason is higher government revenues, the Treasury statement said. Total spending has increased this year from $2.921 trillion to $2.992 trillion, but receipts to the government are up from $1.753 trillion to $1.893 trillion. The fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. The latest figures on the budget deficit come after...

As the U.S. bond rating falls and the stock market plunges, the American Century looks to be well and truly over. While this has provoked no small amount of hand-wringing, Americans may soon come to enjoy no longer bearing the responsibility for running the world's indispensable nation. The signs of decline are everywhere. Illegal immigrants are heading back home in search of a better life. China already leads the world in green technology and is about to become the world's biggest economy in terms of purchasing power. Two U.S.-led wars are dragging toward an end charitably described as: mission not...

As our economy continues to self-destruct; U.S. credit is shockingly downgraded; home prices remain at historic lows; unemployment rises; small businesses continue to close their doors; public-employee-bloated cities, towns, states and employers continue to default; race riots flare, Mexican drug cartels cross our sovereign border at will to establish ultraviolent operations; test scores for public school children continue to plummet; the health care system falls under the control of a failed socialist model; terrorism rises, and the world outside our borders spirals into deeper and more dangerous chaos, a serious and very legitimate question needs to be asked: In the...