Free Republic

Obama has done it. He has brought America down. It only took him just over four years. The Republicans could have stopped him. They didn’t. How did the nihilistic left succeed in destroying America? Simple. They learned just a little of the capitalism they hate, and they drove your nation into outright bankruptcy. And here is what the GOP has to say about it: just about nothing. The once-mighty United States is now the most indebted nation on Earth. In round numbers, here are just some of the vital statistics as the patient dies: National debt: $17 trillion, or $50,000...

The White House on Wednesday backed a proposal to temporarily eliminate spending cuts disrupting U.S. air travel, while politicians in Washington scrambled to avoid blame as the effects of the cuts started to be felt around the country. White House spokesman Carney on Wednesday blamed Republicans for underestimating the negative impact of the spending reductions. "Republicans in Congress made a political tactical decision to embrace the sequester," he said. Cuts proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would bite even more deeply than those under the sequester, he added. "We share the frustration and we warned about these very...

Institutions Worthy of Our Parties: Should the U.S. Switch to a Parliamentary System? Efforts to curb legislative partisanship have weak track records, so maybe we should consider changing the other side of the equation in order to establish a government that can actually get things done. Rick Hasen has a really interesting paper up discussing partisan polarization and the possibility of changing the Constitution to deal with it. (And you should really read Jonathan Bernstein’s response, too.) Hasen starts off by asking whether we should be considering moving toward a more parliamentary style of government. It’s a fair question. We...

More wild and crazy adventures in Barack Obama’s command economy,

Have you ever had the feeling the nation is on the brink of utter disaster? Has that feeling ever been stronger than it is right now? It turns out that after spending hundreds of billions on foreign wars and nearly an equal amount on a new bureaucracy called the Department of Homeland Security, Americans are just as vulnerable to Islamic terrorist attacks as they were on 9/11. For days that seemed like weeks, the systematically disarmed residents of the Boston and Cambridge area cowered in their homes and hid in their closets in fear of one armed and dangerous terrorist...

I can't help but think that many of the *idealist* (dopey) young people who voted for Obama must be getting the shock of their young lives. Many college students who voted for Obama were only children when 9/11 happened, it may not have been real to them but THIS is their 9/11, they will not forget it. The massive coverage that the Boston Marathon bombing has had has penetrated their little air-head experience of tweeting, social media and celebrities. Maybe they will be more grown up and sober people next time they vote.

I’m not a very exciting guy. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m perusing the Budget and Economic Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office. But sometimes it pays to be a nerd because I just found an interesting tidbit of information. Here’s what CBO says about the anemic economic output we’re experiencing compared to the growth we should be enjoying. …output is likely to remain below its potential (or maximum sustainable) level until 2017—almost a decade after the recession started in December 2007. CBO estimates that real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2012 was below its potential level by about 5½...

Terrorism. Chaos. Fear of the future. In the age of Obama, America is undergoing a “fundamental transformation” – that much everyone knows. But what few seem to realize about this transformation is that the sheer stress of living in today’s America is driving tens of millions to the point of illness, depression and self-destruction. Consider the following trends: Suicide has surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of injury death for Americans. Even more disturbing, in the world’s greatest military, more U.S. soldiers died last year by suicide than in combat; Fully one-third of the nation’s employees suffer chronic debilitating...

You know a city is in deep trouble when its mayor invites Wall Street but not the press and not private citizens to a closed meeting to discuss the future, including a sell-off of city assets. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose municipality has the lowest credit rating of the five most-populous U.S. cities, did just that. My translation: Philadelphia is bankrupt. However, that easily discernible fact will of course be denied until it officially happens. Please consider Philadelphia Holds Closed Meeting With Wall StreetPhiladelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose municipality has the lowest credit rating of the five most-populous U.S. cities,...

That America created only 88,000 jobs in March, less than half the number anticipated, was jolting news, indicating the recovery that the White House has boasted about may not be at hand. But in that March jobs report, there was more disturbing news. While unemployment fell to 7.6 percent, the reason it fell is alarming. Half a million U.S. workers (495,000) disappeared from the labor force. They dropped out. They are no longer even looking for a job. Worse, this appears to be an inexorable trend. The participation rate of eligible workers in the United States has fallen to 63.3...

Clothing maker The Warnaco Group, recently acquired by New York City-based PVH Corp., is closing its operations at 470 Wheeler's Farms Road in Milford in early June and is laying off 208 people in the process. The layoffs are part of 1,000 that PVH is making as it closes former Warnaco's offices in Florence, Italy; Duncansville, Pa.; Huntingdon, Pa.; New York City, and Hong Kong, in addition to Milford. PVH, which owns and markets the Tommy Hilfiger brand, announced in October it was acquiring Warnaco, whose brands included Calvin Klein and Speedo swimwear, and completed the $2.8 billion cash and...

(CNSNews.com) - The federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which takes in money via a federal payroll tax and pays it out in disability benefits, ran a record $31.2 billion deficit in calendar year 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. That means the trust fund has run a deficit in each of the first four years of the Obama presidency. For fifteen straight years before Obama took office—from 1994 through 2008—the Disability Insurance Trust Fund ran a surplus. In 2007, for example, it ran an $11 billion surplus and in 2008 it ran an $889-million surplus.

Bank of America said today it’s cutting 469 jobs from its mortgage servicing center in Newark as the number of homeowners delinquent on mortgage payments dwindles. Employees at the offices on the corner of Market Street and University Avenue were given the news last week. “We previously announced intentions to reduce the size of our mortgage servicing operations in line with the successful reduction of our portfolio of delinquent mortgage customers,” the bank said in an e-mailed statement last night. “Compared to peak levels in 2011, today we have fewer than half the number of customers who need the specialized...

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is laying off 1,320 employees in upstate New York as it will exit a mortgage-servicing facility there at the end of May, according to a filing with the New York State Department of Labor. M&T Bank Corp. (MTB) is taking over Bank of America's Getzville, N.Y., mortgage-servicing facility and hiring about 600 Bank of America employees, a spokesman for the Buffalo, N.Y., bank said. He added M&T has about 400 openings in Buffalo and Bank of America employees can apply for those positions. Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank by assets behind J.P. Morgan...

Indian tribes seek federal bailout money for casinos A native-American tribe struggling to keep its Foxwoods Resort Casino in the red is now turning to the U.S. government for a helping hand. The Associated Press reports that the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has already received more than $4.5 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services and from the Interior Department in the last five years. But now members are facing tough times with its casino — which used to be a billion-dollar empire — and are looking at the government for more grants, AP says. Critics...

<p>AMC's smash hit series the "Walking Dead" is one of the biggest things on cable and economic uncertainty may be one reason why, creator Robert Kirkman told CNBC on Friday.</p> <p>"I've always felt zombies didn't really get their due. As far as movie monsters go you see a lot of vampires, werewolf stuff. And it's just now zombies are getting recognized being as cool as they actually are," Kirkman said.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Nobody's going to win an Emmy for a parody of the TV show "Star Trek" filmed by Internal Revenue Service employees at an agency studio in Maryland.</p> <p>Instead, the IRS got a rebuke from Congress for wasting taxpayer dollars.</p>

...race trumped philosophy (albeit temporarily) in the eyes of the Harry Alfords of the world. "I had hope because he was black. [But he's] hurting my members, my constituents. I had to back off. I had to represent my people." To be blunt, Harry Alford is mad, and he's not going to take it anymore. He's concluded what many of us suspected all along: Barack Obama's hyper-progressivism is bad for black business (and all other colors as well). Obamanomics did not cost the president his job last November. But life for Mr. Alford's members has mostly gotten worse. The indictment...

Since last weekend, Mr and Mrs Regular Citizen have been denied the access people used to be granted to tour the White House, purportedly because of the clampdown on federal spending since the "sequester" that imposed cuts across the board. And their cancellation is an austerity measure that saves a pittance, while more frivolous taxpayer funding for items like the White House dog walker continues. Meanwhile, noble Americans can buy time with the president for a suggested donation of $500,000 to his new campaign group, Organising for Action.

PROFESSOR: Zombies Are Popular Because People Have Given Up Hope Zombie popularity is a surefire indicator of national mental health, says Clemson University professor Sarah Lauro. Lauro, an English teacher who studied zombies while working on her doctorate, told the Associated Press that the rise of the "Zombie Walk," specifically, illustrates citizens' dissatisfaction with governments and life in general. "We are more interested in the zombie at times when as a culture we feel disempowered," Lauro told the AP. "And the facts are there that, when we are experiencing economic crises, the vast population is feeling disempowered. ... Either playing...

Two months ago, independents tilted clearly in his direction, with 54 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving. Now, half of independents express a negative opinion of the president’s performance; just 44 percent approve. The president has also seen an erosion in confidence among groups that he has counted as core supporters. Compared with a Post-ABC poll in December, the share of liberals who place their faith in Obama over Republicans when it comes to dealing with the economy is 14 points lower; there has been a 12-point slide among women. At 50 percent, Obama’s overall standing in the poll is...

But the most surprising development in February from a quality standpoint was that the number of multiple job-holders rose by a massive 340K, which just happens to be a record...

A new national study shows that too many of us are cashing out 401(k) accounts to pay bills. If that retirement account is calling your name, a financial expert advises you to stop listening.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. economy grew in the fourth quarter - but just barely - instead of contracting for the first time in three and a half years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The U.S. expanded at a 0.1% annual rate in the last three months of 2012, better than the initially reported 0.1% drop but well below the third quarter's 3.1% pace.

“A Failure of Civility” A Book Review by Matt Bracken First, let me apologize for the poor writing quality of this review. Normally, I write an essay and spend days and days polishing it. Not this time. I’m currently in between my “pretty” essays, but this review is just pure business, like a claw hammer you picked up at Home Depot to bang nails. Pretty has nothing to do with it, so let’s get on with the job. Second, let me apologize to the other very kind authors who have sent me their books to review over the past months....

Good news Detroit: We’re #1 again! In a head-to-head contest with real contenders like Chicago, New York, Cleveland (At Least We’re Not Detroit!) and Atlanta, Detroit once again grabbed victory through the misery of defeat. Numero uno on Forbes Most Miserable City in America.  Heady stuff for a city on the verge of insolvency and far beyond societal breakdown. Much should be made of the fact that Detroit, along with the other top-10 miserable winners, is reaping the fruits of decades of liberal husbandry. Unfortunately all that carefully cultivated fruit has been left to ferment on the ground. Oddly, few...

A WEEK after official figures showed a steep fall in euro-zone output in late 2012 the European Commission (EC) has added to the gloom by unveiling some gloomy forecasts for 2013. Three months ago the EC envisaged a modest recovery getting under way in the first half of this year. Now that is not expected until the second half of 2013. The lower starting-point for GDP and the delay in the recovery mean that the picture for 2013 as a whole now looks bleaker. Last November the EC expected the euro area to grow this year though barely, by just...

Did you hear the big news from the world of small business? Jewish delis are closing in both Los Angeles, and New York City. The trend has been a long time in the making, especially in New York City where Jewish delis’s used to number in the thousands and now total less than one hundred. Yet the Los Angeles Times reported this “news” just this past week, and the details that the report included – and the details that were ignored– point to some far greater problems. The article, written by Journalist Tiffany Hsu, notes that the decline of the...

Two days of weakness in stocks after the Fed hinted it might “vary the pace of asset purchases” has some folks ready to declare the bull market over and done. “Exit any and all bullish constructed positions and rush to the sidelines," declares veteran trader and newsletter writer Dennis Gartman. Others, including Pimco’s Mohammed El-Arian, “Gloom Boom and Doom” author Marc Faber and hedge fund manager Doug Kass have made similar comments in recent days, albeit sans Gartman’s dramatics. Related: PIMCO's El-Erian: Maintaining High Equity Prices Will Be Hard Given this backdrop and with the economy facing myriad headwinds from...

When Vladimir Putin says the U.S. is endangering the global economy by abusing its dollar monopoly, he’s not just talking. He’s betting on it. Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty. “The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there’s a...

There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom. There are those who have never ceased to say very earnestly, "Something is going to happen to the American form of government if we don't watch out." These were the innocent disarmers. Their trust was in words. They had forgotten their Aristotle. More than 2,000 years ago he wrote of what can happen within...

President Barack Obama has presided over the weakest multi-year economic recovery since the end of World War II, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Since the end of the last recession in June 2009, the economy has grown only 7.5 percent—compared with the double-digit increases the economy experience in other multi-year post-World War II growth cycles. …

Duke Energy will close two of its oldest coal-fired power plants, Riverbend west of Charlotte and Buck in Rowan County in April, two years ahead of schedule. Both plants date to the 1920s and had been planned for retirement in 2015. They’re among a wave of older, smaller coal plants closing down rather than investing in new pollution controls to meet federal environmental regulations. The plants had been little used in recent years as larger, more efficient plants came online and falling natural gas prices shifted generation to gas. ....

Michigan: Detroit Closing 50 ParksDetroit will close nearly half of its parks and will reduce maintenance and services at dozens of others after the City Council passed on a deal that would have had the state operate the city’s Belle Isle park, Mayor Dave Bing said on Friday. Closing 50 of 107 parks will allow the city to keep running Belle Isle, a 985-acre park in the Detroit River, after the Council declined to vote on Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal. Mr. Snyder’s offer called for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to run Belle Isle as a state park, but...

President Obama blamed the recent contraction of the U.S. economy on “bad decisions in Washington” in his weekly address. The national economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to figures released this week by the Commerce Department. The contraction was an unexpected reversal of months of modest economic growth since the end of the recession in mid-2009. Obama said in his address that the dip was the fault of “bad decisions” being made in Washington. “We began this year with economists and business leaders saying that we are poised to grow in 2013,” he said....

• Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 in government coffers' • However he today contradicted his claims by saying the following day $30m was paid into government accounts • Result is culmination of years of ruinous economic policy by Zimbabwe's despotic President Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe's finance minister has taken a hard look at the cash strapped country's bank accounts - and discovered it only has £138 and 34 pence left. Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference yesterday declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants...

Zimbabwe’s finance minister has taken a hard look at the cash-strapped country’s bank accounts—and discovered it only has £138.34 left. Tendai Biti made the announcement at a press conference yesterday, declaring: “Last week when we paid civil servants, there was $217 in government coffers.” Mr. Biti went on to tell the shocked news reporters that they were individually likely to have healthier bank balances than the state’s. “The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment”, Mr. Biti admitted. … The stunning confession about the country’s poor financial state is the culmination of years of ruinous economic policy...

Hundreds of job cuts stemming largely from the pending loss of two major federal contracts will begin soon at Monona-based WPS Health Insurance. WPS filed notice with the state Monday that 451 employees in Monona, Madison and Wausau would likely lose their jobs starting March 29. That includes 250 people in Madison and Monona, and 201 in Wausau, where about 300 work now. And there could be more job cuts coming. Founded in 1946, WPS is Wisconsin's leading nonprofit health insurer. It currently employs about 3,600 people, including some 2,500 in the Madison area. Read more: http://host.madison.com/business/wps-health-insurance-files-notice-of-layoffs-in-monona-madison/article_f0188544-69ad-11e2-96de-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2JPbqF3Hl

The Kapolei Golf Club laid off 14 out of 110 employed at the course recently. The employees were from various departments. "After careful consideration and full review of operations, we had to make the difficult decision of reducing our staff at Kapolei Golf Club," said Micah Kane, chief operating officer of Pacific Links Hawaii, in a statement. "This shift enables Pacific Links Hawai'i to operate at optimal efficiency and better provide the high quality of service that our customers have come to expect and solidify the future of our remaining employees. We do not anticipate any further staff cuts." Other...

With record numbers of college graduates underemployed in jobs that don’t actually require degrees, economists are joking that even aspiring janitors may soon have to get master’s degrees to compete for jobs. A study released Monday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity found that 37 percent of employed graduates didn’t need to attend college at all to successfully perform their current jobs. The study was co-authored by Dr. Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University and director of CCAP; Jonathan Robe, a CCAP researcher; and Christopher Denhart, an economics student at the university. “Just as a bachelor’s...

Washington (CNN) -- The Pentagon has begun laying off 46,000 contract and temporary civilian employees in an effort to cut back on military spending, the No. 2 Pentagon official said on Friday. Full time civilian employees, which number in the hundreds of thousands, also will be furloughed for one day a week for 22 weeks, Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in an interview with wire service reporters. His comments were confirmed by a Pentagon spokesman.

Last week was a bleak one at Thomson Reuters, the financial news and wire service giant. According to sources, as many as 3,000 people were let go, out of approximately 50,000 employees around the globe. Most of the layoffs came from the financial sector—the sales, training and analysts’ divisions—but some were on the editorial side. “Yes, I can confirm there have been layoffs across Thomson Reuters today, including editorial,” Barb Burg, vice president and global head of communications at Reuters, told Talking Biz News last week. “Similar to efforts across the company, the Reuters organization is focusing attention on our...

As President Barack Obama begins his second term, democratically returned to office by a majority of Americans who seem to buy what he is selling, it would profit us to pause a moment and examine the discrepancies between the vision he expounded in his inaugural address and the economic reality that surrounds us. This leads to a pivotal question: What, exactly, is the underlying purpose of Obamanomics, and how would we know? Logic offers two choices. We can take the president at his word, and then ask why the promised economic recovery, growth, prosperity, and equality, haven’t arrived yet. Or...

<p>Holiday sales of electronics and toys plunged this past Christmas season. Also of note, JPMorgan lowered its annualized 4th quarter GDP estimates down to .8% from 1.5%. Nonetheless, analysts see a silver lining to the data. They always do.</p> <p>Toys R Us reported a key sales figure declined in November and December, hurt by weak demand for videogames, electronics and toys and shoppers who pulled back because of Superstorm Sandy.</p>

Obama Breaks Promise to Not Raise Taxes on the Middle Class. The headline news from the recent deal to avert the fiscal cliff is that Congress is raising tax rates on wealthy individuals for the first time in nearly two decades. Less noticed is something that may be equally momentous: Congress just raised taxes on the middle class as well.virtually every worker will still get a smaller paycheck in 2013, because of another tax measure that expired. Beginning in 2009, Congress cut the payroll tax—which helps finance Social Security—to put a bit of extra spending money in workers' pockets. The...

Exclusive: Pamela Geller traces death of the republic to 2 short words The United States of America was created as an independent nation whose founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Freedom. Ayn Rand said that “freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion.” America was the first moral government based on individual rights, the nation of the Enlightenment. In this age of Obama, that ideal has been tossed aside for … “free stuff.” I have, for some time, struggled with the new reality: America void of her reason, existing without the reason for her existence, her...

The fiscal cliff bill’s impact would be far-reaching for American taxpayers, and particularly painful for very high-income households, according to a new analysis. About 77% of American households would see a tax increase compared to their 2012 tax levels, according to the analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. The biggest impact for most households comes from the expiration of a two-percentage-point payroll-tax break that existed for 2011 and 2012. It basically hits all working people. But the bill also contains sizable tax increases for the wealthy, compared with 2012...

The fiscal-cliff negotiations have deteriorated into an embarrassing travesty of competing press conferences, off-the-record remarks, closed meetings, and sound bites. The Republican side is frustrated and flabbergasted by the absence of a concrete proposal from the President that can be scored by the Congressional Budget Office and then “marked up” by Congress according to standard procedures. Vague offers of so and so many trillions of revenue increases and spending cuts spread over a decade are just words, not real proposals. The last serious fiscal-cliff projections date back to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) August 2012 assessment of the budgetary effects...

The annual holiday shop-a-thon drew to a muted close for many retailers, according to preliminary data, reflecting what some experts said was the slowest growth in spending since the 2008 recession. For the eight weeks from Oct. 28 through Christmas Eve, retail sales for the holidays rose just 0.7% from the year before, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit. Enlarge Image Close Reuters A man with shopping bags sleeps in Macy's in New York on Monday. . After falling 5.5% in 2008, holiday sales rebounded strongly in 2009 and 2010, and rose about 2% last year, according to the company's...

From Gas Prices to Food Stamps; from 'Bulk Ammo' to Consumer Confidence; and from Earnings to Economic Data, these 12 charts of the 12 months of 2012 are definitely Not Jim Cramer's.