Free Republic

Amid the hysteria surrounding Romanian immigration at the beginning of this year, something crucial was forgotten: borders open both ways. As the English tabloids were throwing a tantrum about the impending "Romanian invasion", the would-be-intruders were preparing for an invasion of their own: 1 January 2014 marked the day when Romania's honeymoon period as a new EU member came to an end and, under EU law, the country was obliged to open up its land market to foreign investors. As a country with almost 5 million peasant farmers – a quarter of the population – this was a matter of...

The great Obama contradiction on the economy is this: he takes credit for the improved economy, but openly admits that in this recovery almost all of the gains have gone to the very rich. Here is the disturbing passage from Obama's State of the Union speech that I refer to: “What I believe unites the people of this nation ... is the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead. “That belief has suffered some serious blows. ... Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and...

First, the Obama administration showed during the course of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings, that when it comes to Most Preferred Voter classes, some unsecured creditors - namely labor unions, and the millions of votes they bring - are more equal than other unsecured creditors - namely bondholders, and the zero votes they bring. Five years later we are about to get a stark reminder that under the superpriority rule of a community organizer for whom "fairness" trumps contract law any day, it is now Detroit's turn to make a mockery of the recovery waterfall. As it turns out,...

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, to obey the law and support themselves and contribute to society, and others don’t. That’s the divide in America. It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power...

President Obama on Tuesday offered up a new kind of "starter" retirement accounts aimed at employees of companies that don't offer such plans. Obama is calling them the "MyRA" and said he would, by executive order, direct the Treasury Department to create them. Details were scarce Tuesday night, but employees will be able to contribute part of their wages to the savings accounts, which would be backed by the U.S. government.

Another insane cold wave — not the infamous “polar vortex ” but its evil twin — is bringing sub-zero and single-digit temperatures to much of the nation. And global warming may be even more extreme, and potentially more catastrophic, than climate scientists had feared. This is, of course, no contradiction. The rallying cry of the denialists — “It’s really cold outside, so global warming must be a crock!” — can be taken seriously only by those with a toddler’s limited conception of time and space. They forget that it’s winter, and apparently they don’t quite grasp that even when it’s...

Struggling to generate second-term momentum, President Obama will use Tuesday’s State of the Union address to announce new executive actions on job training and retirement security, while prodding a divided Congress to work harder on expanding economic mobility for middle class Americans

The combined wealth of the world’s richest 85 people is now equivalent to that owned by half of the world’s population—or 3.5 billion of the poorest people—according to a new report from Oxfam. In a report titled “Working for the Few” released Monday, the global aid and development organization detailed the extent of global economic inequality created by the rapidly increasing wealth of the richest, warning of the major risks it poses to “human progress.” […] Oxfam said that based on its polls conducted across the world, it is believed that there are many laws and regulations designed to benefit...

RICK SANTELLI: We all know that after Friday's jobs report, we know the economy is doing better. What we can't predict is will it be in a straight line, a nice even glide path? Will it be a 25-degree upward glide path, 30-degree, 45-degree or continue to be somewhat bumpy as some of the strength we observed in 2011, with GDP later to be followed by weakness? I can't answer that but what I can answer is that governments can't keep spending like it's 1999. Now, comments made before his first cabinet meeting for 2014, President Obama said the following,...

Maybe France's President François Hollande's publicly revealed, private personal indiscretions (ok, maybe in France they're not considered indiscretions but standard operating domestic procedures) also prompted him to publicly question the standard operating procedures of France's socialist economy.  With French unemployment officially at over 10.5%, unofficially probably higher, Hollande put on his clothes, slunk out of his latest female friend's apartment and stood before the national enquiring minds of not only the French press but the international media as well, plaintively asking: "How can we run a country if entrepreneurs don't hire?" he said. "And how can we redistribute if there's...

Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Newport Beach in California. Steve, I'm glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Rush, good to be here, love listening to your show, and again your comments this morning regarding the unions and the -- RUSH: Money laundering. CALLER: Exactly. That's the term I was looking for, the money laundering. It's exactly what's going on out here in California with the bullet train. The politicians in California, all the Democrats have given all of the public employee unions their payback, but they've got a problem. All of the private sector...

~SNIP~...It seems this man, Richard Lindzen, actually lives in Massachusetts. Apparently, he’s a professor at MIT, which has the best Earth Sciences program in the United States. And he is a leading international climate change expert. That’s something to think about, liberals, as you’re stuck in the ice on your climate change crusade!

President Barack Obama is set to speak on Thursday about how he will target job creation, housing, law enforcement and education in the poorest U.S. communities, part of his pledge to narrow the gap between rich and poor in America. Obama signaled last month that he plans a new focus this year on income inequality, which he called "the defining challenge of our time", pushing to raise the minimum wage and find new ways to help poor children break out of the cycle of poverty. As part of this effort, Obama will create "promise zones" in San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los...

President Obama considers income inequality a “defining challenge of our time.” Continuing from my previous column ( “Questions for redistribution's proponents” ), I have some additional questions for Mr. Obama and others who want government to redistribute more income from “the rich” to “the poor.” • When you describe growing income inequality in the United States, you typically look only at the incomes of the rich before they pay taxes and at the incomes of the poor before they receive noncash transfers from government such as food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. You also ignore noncash transfers that the poor receive...

A panel of politicians and commentators on NBC’s Meet the Press sized up the political issues that will dominate 2014 heading into the midterm elections on Sunday. The panel largely agreed that the Affordable Care Act is the most pressing issue of the day today, but they were not sure if that dynamic would still be in place by November. PBS anchor Judy Woodruff said that the issue of “inequality” is compelling and could speak to more Americans’ lives than the ACA’s implementation woes. NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd began the segment by observing that the Democrats...

(CNSNews.com) – American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012, according to a federal government report submitted to the United Nations on a subject that Secretary of State John Kerry described as “a truly life-and-death challenge.”That sum of $7.45 billion, which reached more than 120 countries through bilateral and multilateral channels, met President Obama’s “commitment to provide our fair share” of a collective pledge by developed nations to provide a total of nearly $30 billion in “fast start finance” (FSF), the report stated.

Would you enjoy the cosiness and warmth of Christmas with your children or grandchildren just that little bit less if you knew that other people's children were dying because of it? More than four million children under five years old are now at risk of acute malnutrition in the Sahel, an area of the world that is one of the clearest victims of the rich world's addiction to fossil fuels. About 18 million people in the Sahel – the vulnerable pan-African strip of land that runs from Senegal to Sudan along the southern edge of the Sahara – faced famine...

A tourist from Pittsburgh and his Brooklyn pal were robbed at gunpoint, at 12:30 am today in Central Park, cops said. The victims were on West 64 St. near West Dr. when they were approached by two men. “Don’t move, don’t make noise or I’ll kill you,” one of the suspects said as he pulled out a gun, cops said. “What you got? Don’t move, give me your money,” a second suspect asked.

What started out as a convenient collaboration between Dr. Richard Terry, professor of soil science at BYU, and a group of BYU archaeologists, soon became a groundbreaking discovery. Trough the combined efforts of Dr. Terry, Dr. Bruce Dahlin from Howard University, their students, and archaeologists from around the world, they were able to disprove the long-held belief that the Maya depended on the elite class to tax and redistribute their food and other goods. After receiving a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation, Terry and his students met up with Bruce Dahlin and his students at the huge...