Free Republic

President Obama has staked a great part of his legacy on the idea that he skillfully engineered a great recovery from the financial crisis. The Obama-friendly media routinely parrot the idea. But in fact, as a shocking new study from the nonpartisan U.S. Council on Competitiveness and the Gallup organization suggests, the so-called recovery doesn't exist. As recently as Oct. 11, less than a month before the election, the online publication The Hill ran this headline: "Obama's economic legacy ensures Democrats decades of success." No kidding. But it's a bit unfair to single them out: Others have run with similar...

The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That's the strongest growth since the second quarter of 2014 and revised up slightly from the initial reading of a 2.9% gain. Economists had expected a 3.1% revised reading. Consumer spending rose at a 2.8% pace, faster than the initial reading of 2.1%. . Separately, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index shot up 8.5 points in November to 107.1, the highest since July 2007 and much better than views for a rise to 101. The reading, which reflects post-election sentiment, showed consumers...

A South San Francisco police officer, who was critically injured after being smashed in the head with a skateboard on Thanksgiving, is “beginning to show positive signs of recovery,” officials said Monday. Officer Robby Chon remains in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital after Thursday’s violent attack, in which he was struck in the head by a suspect he was chasing on foot.

October durable goods orders shot up far more than expected, suggesting strength in manufacturing. Meanwhile, jobless claims rose but remain at longtime lows. Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods rose 4.8%, the biggest increase in a year. Bookings climbed 1% excluding volatile transportation items. Economists had expected a 1.5% rise in durable goods orders, with a 0.2% rise excluding transportation items. Meanwhile, September's slight decline was revised to up 0.4%. Core capital goods orders, a proxy for business investment plans, climbed 0.4%... [snip]

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.9% annual rate in the third quarter, faster than the 2.5% growth expected and up from 1.4% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday. It was the fastest pace since Q3 2014. The pickup in growth was due to an upturn in inventory investment and an acceleration in exports and growth in federal government spending. Personal consumption expenditures grew at a slower pace, while residential fixed investment and state and local government spending were negatives. The increase isn't likely to change the Federal Reserve's timetable for hiking interest rates... ...banks like higher...

Microsoft is coy about it in places, and estimates vary. (The time to make a Windows 10 recovery drive is before your PC dies. Grab a USB drive—you might need a big one!—and we'll show you how it's done...) Attila Balaton bought an 8GB USB key to create a Windows 10 Recovery Drive only to find out 16GB was required. Mea culpa: Answer Line was partly to blame, as my former colleague wrote that Microsoft suggests “at least a 4GB USB key.” It’s not his fault, though, as on this support page Microsoft says in order to create a Windows...

A raft of data out Tuesday morning will provide a signal as to whether growth is as tepid as the latest retail sales report showed, or whether the strong July jobs report is more reflective of reality. Unexpected strength could reverse the recent pullback in Treasury yields, mortgage rates and the dollar if markets begin to price in a stronger likelihood that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates before March 2017, as the CME Group Fed Watch tool now shows. Tuesday's read on July housing starts and building permits, released by the Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. ET, may...

Economists were surprised Friday when the Commerce Department reported that growth in the second quarter of this year was a mere 1.2%. But the real surprise is that anyone is surprised when the economy underperforms, since that's what it has been doing for the past seven years. There has not been a single year in the past seven when the economy did better than President Obama promised...... ...had Obama's recovery — which is now in its 28th quarter — been as robust as the average of the past 10 recoveries, the nation's economy would be $2.2 trillion — with a...

Simone ScullyJuly 4, 2016On the Monday after the Orlando mass shooting, 12 specially trained golden retrievers arrived in Florida to do what they do best: provide comfort. The dogs are part of the K-9 Comfort Dog Team, a program run by the Lutheran Church Charities that now has 130 dogs in 23 states across the country. The dogs — all golden retrievers — deploy as part of the organization's disaster response team. Each dog was picked as a puppy because of its calm demeanor, and each one was trained to be gentle, comforting, and affectionate. They all do this without...

The United States Constitution declares in Article I, Section 2 that "representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers." To accomplish this foundation for proportional government, Article 1 tasked federal authorities with "actual enumeration" within three years of the first meeting of Congress and then every ten years thereafter. The first Census was carried out in 1790 with Thomas Jefferson the nominal supervisor as Secretary of State. In fact, the first Census-takers were actually Federal Marshals deputized by each of the US Judicial Districts.That...

Update following my accident.

Despite his proclamation that he "saved the world from a Great Depression," the fact is that Obama will be the first President ever to not see a single year of 3% GDP growth - but only cynical fiction-peddlers would mention facts at a time like this. In yet more legacy-defending narrative, Obama told The NYTimes today that his biggest failure was being unable to sell his success in putting the American economy back on track to the American people (no matter the actual realities) careful to blame Republicans for slowing growth "by a percentage point or two." And then in...

U.S. economic growth braked sharply to its slowest pace in two years as consumer spending softened and a strong dollar continued to undercut exports, but a pick-up in activity is anticipated given a buoyant labor market. Gross domestic product increased at a 0.5 percent annual rate, the slowest since the first quarter of 2014, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its advance estimate, also as businesses doubled down on efforts to reduce unwanted merchandise clogging up warehouses. The economy was also blindsided by cheap oil, which has hurt the profits of oil field companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton, resulting...

The U.S. Marine Corps says it has recovered the remains of nine of the 12 Marines killed when two helicopters crashed during nighttime training off Hawaii. Remains of three Marines were not recovered, the Marine Corps said Thursday in a statement. Sgts. Dillon Semolina and Adam Schoeller and Cpl. Christopher Orlando are still missing. The Marines say they have completed recovery operations.

DENVER — When the aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corporation moved into the Colorado Technology Center about eight years ago, employees on their lunch break could stroll by the alpaca farm next door. Now the animals are gone, and the land is cleared and ready for the new development surging along the Denver-to-Boulder corridor. At campaign rallies throughout the South and Midwest, economic frustration and sluggish wage growth are dominant themes. States like Alaska and Oklahoma, faced with low oil prices, are grappling with bankruptcies and layoffs. And overall growth in the United States economy remains disappointing. But this thriving industrial...

How would you react to the following news stories? Former Shoppers Fined $5,000 for No Longer Frequenting Nearby Mall Residents of Anytown, USA were surprised to receive invoices in the mail from their local county government Friday. The county identified people who used to shop in the local mall but, due to reports of muggings, rapes, and vehicle theft at the mall, switched to shopping at other, safer malls, or just doing it online. The thousand dollar a year fine was based on the estimated amount of revenue the mall says it lost due to their departure. Professional economists, when...

During his State of the Union address, the President said that the United States has “the strongest, most durable economy in the world.” It was a clear shot across the bow at those who might not be feeling the love at the moment and critics who don’t see things through rose colored glasses. So how is the recovery going? The unemployment rate as defined by the Department of Labor is certainly back down to a manageable number, but that doesn’t really speak to the factors which affect people in their day to day lives.The Wall Street Journal took at...

The iconic department store announced plans on Wednesday to lay off about 4,350 employees across the country. ... All told, Macy's hopes to save about $400 million to help offset its "disappointing" 2015 results. ...

The president keeps congratulating himself on how the economy's doing, and Hillary Clinton just gave her former boss an 'A' for his handling of the nation's finances. Who said inflation was under control? The latest revised numbers for GDP growth through the third quarter of 2015 tell us that we are still stuck in a 2% growth rut and real middle class wages are still flat-lining. Meanwhile, another new report from Sentier Research based on Census data finds that median household income of $56,700 at the end of 2015 stood exactly where it was, adjusted for inflation, at the end...

After seven years of Obama, who raised taxes, almost doubled the national debt and created massive new government bureaucracies through the Affordable Care Act For the past few years, the Obama lovers in the media have been boasting about the supposedly great economy Americans are enjoying. According to this fictitious narrative, Obama’s strong leadership saved the economy and led to our “recovery,” but, in reality, we face today a RINO or “Recovery in Name Only” economy. The real economy was exposed in the September labor report. The country created only 142,000 new jobs, much less than expectations. This year, we...