Free Republic

Ripple, or XRP, surged 89 percent Thursday to a record high of 89.2 cents and was last trading near 81 cents, giving it a market value of $31.6 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Just a quick, cranky reminder: Despite what you may have read, the Dow Jones industrial average did not hit a new high today in any meaningful sense. After adjusting for inflation, the Dow was higher in 2000 than it is today. It was also higher in 2007. It would need to rise another 10 percent or so to hit an all time high in real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) terms. … There are other, less arbitrary indexes of the U.S. stock market, such as the S&P 500, which tracks 500 (rather than just 30) big U.S. companies. The S&P 500, for what...

...The end of the last fiscal year on September 30 brought good news on the deficit front. And there's a fighting chance that the current lame-duck Congress will actually exercise some restraint in its appropriations for 2005. The media Furies and partisans are all astir because Congress voted to raise the debt limit again this week, as if not lifting the borrowing cap and defaulting was a viable option for the U.S. But the real story emerging this week is that the White House finally seems serious about holding the line on its budgetary spending strictures -- and won't stand...