Free Republic

The silver shimmer of Silicon Valley is replacing the oil slicks that once gilded the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in black gold. That silver shimmer is Salesforce.com, and it's replacing the longest-tenured DJIA component: ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), effective Aug. 31. Exxon's removal adds another red flag to a series of headwinds that have pushed its shares down over 40% for the year. Is there more pain ahead, or is there reason to believe Exxon can turn it around? The fall of ExxonMobil Going back a few years further to 2007, Exxon was the largest company by market capitalization. Limited supply...

U.S. President Donald Trump, in a Fox News interview airing Sunday, raised the possibility of decoupling the U.S. economy from China, a major purchaser of U.S. goods. In a video excerpt, Trump initially told interviewer Steve Hilton “we don’t have to” do business with China, and then later said about decoupling: “Well it’s something that if they don’t treat us right I would certainly, I would certainly do that.”

“Free Trade” isn’t. Low tariffs combined with high taxes on domestic labor is not Free Trade. It’s Subsidized Outsourcing, subsidized destruction of our industrial base and our national character. We tax domestic manufacturing in order to pay unemployment and welfare to those who lose their jobs to foreign competition. This is an evil positive feedback loop that has been crushing our working classes since the 70s. Our core cities are turning into uncivilized war zones and our college campuses into communist indoctrination centers. But at least we are subsidizing a rising fascist superpower with a terrible environmental record.

China will no longer be the world's manufacturing epicenter going forward, according to Apple's largest supply chain partner Foxconn, which has been gradually expanding its operations in other countries amid the U.S.-China trade war. "No matter if it's India, Southeast Asia or the Americas, there will be a manufacturing ecosystem in each," said Foxconn chairman Young Liu, according to Bloomberg. Liu boldly proclaimed that while China will continue to be a key location for Foxconn's factories, the country's "days as the world's factory are done." The report claims that Foxconn's manufacturing capacity outside China is now 30 percent of its...

Canada has announced that it will retaliate dollar for dollar – to the tune of C$3.6bn – after the US announced a 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum. Donald Trump announced the new aluminum tariffs on Thursday at a campaign stop at a Whirlpool appliance plant in Ohio, accusing Canada of taking advantage of its trade relationship with the US. “The aluminum business was being decimated by Canada, very unfair to our jobs and our great aluminum workers,” he said. At a news conference on Friday, Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, called the move “unwarranted and unacceptable” and said [cut]...

India emerged as the world’s fifth largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report. A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic policies. “India’s economy is the fifth largest in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion, overtaking the UK and France in 2019 to take the fifth spot,” it said. The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion. The report further said that in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, India’s...

By: Hassan.Mahmoudi Sanctions, imposing maximum pressure on the clerical regime, backed by internal economic crises have laid the ground for regime fears of an explosive society, the people’s dire livelihood leaving them with nothing to lose, as well as having provoked infighting at the top of the regime. To find a light at the end of this dark tunnel, the regime intends to tie up with China and Russia, to take advantage of their international and political potential, to break its economic deadlock and to block any potential uprising. On July 12, speaking at the National Security and Foreign Policy...

“Be careful at this stone. Do you see the holes? A rattlesnake lives here,” Linda Rawles warns. She says it’s better to make a lot of noise to scare off the potentially deadly creature. That has also been Rawles’ approach to the presidential campaign: Make as much noise as possible to keep the worst, or more of it, from happening this November. The 61-year-old lawyer, like many in her age group, is doing all she can take make sure Donald Trump does not win reelection. She says that is because his rude, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic style has angered old allies....

For those paying close attention, it appears the background geopolitical economic cold-war between President Trump and China has intensified. As a consequence, all U.S. entities who have cemented their affluence in a partnership with Beijing are now in a position of considerable risk. The executive order signed yesterday by President Trump supports the liberty of Hong Kong yet accepts an unfortunate reality; a full communist movement to control HK is a foregone conclusion. […] I therefore determine that the situation with respect to Hong Kong, including recent actions taken by the PRC to fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, constitutes an...

President Donald Trump on Friday said there was no possibility of a second trade deal with China. "I don't think about it now. The relationship with China has been severely damaged," Trump said, in a conversation with reporters on Air Force One on a flight to Florida. The president blamed the pandemic for the breach in bilateral ties. "They could have stopped it. They didn't," he said, according to the pool report of the conversation. Published: July 10, 2020 at 12:29 p.m. ET

Both the English and the Native Americans Used Children to Learn the Mysterious Ways of Their New Neighbors In 1608, Thomas Savage, age 13, arrived on the first ship from England bringing supplies to the newly founded Jamestown colony. He had been in Virginia just a few weeks when he was presented as a gift to Wahunsenaca, the great Powhatan who ruled over most of the people along the rivers leading into the lower Chesapeake Bay area. In return, Powhatan gave the English a young man named Namontack. Such exchanges of young people were considered normal. As English expeditions began...

Coca-Cola would like you to know that it cares about oppression and believes America is evil. In a rambling statement by CEO James Quincey, titled, "Where We Stand on Social Justice", the head of the obesity conglomerate declared that he is, "outraged, sad, frustrated, angry." It’s hard that out there for a guy in a racist country who is only making an $18 million salary. The Coke CEO then pledged to give money to the social justice usual suspects and the company joined a boycott of Facebook to pressure it into censoring Trump and conservatives. "Companies like ours must speak...

This is a translation of the Mexican president's remarks during the Rose Garden ceremony

Join Freepers around the world as we pray for President Trump, Vice President Pence, and AMERICA—churches, families, our military and first responders, businesses, healthcare, schools, and media. Threads labeled [prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

A Hong Kong businessman issued a dire warning on Monday, saying a Joe Biden win would be a win for the Chinese communists and a loss for the free world. Elmer Yuen told the Polish show Against the Tide TV a Biden presidential victory would be disastrous for freedom. SNIP “While he was vice president under Obama, he was in charge of the relationship with China. He was directly in charge and he let (them) go,” Yuen, who is in the United States advocating for freedom in Hong Kong, said. “He let the Chinese build a military installation in the...

Through deep genetic analyses, Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have found conclusive scientific evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and Native Americans from the region that is now Colombia—something that's been hotly contested in the historic and archaeological world for decades. (snip) Before the study brought scientific evidence to the debate, the idea that Native Americans and Polynesians had crossed paths originated from a complex—both in its structure and origins—carbohydrate: the sweet potato. It turns out the sweet potato, which was originally domesticated in South and Central America, has also been known to grow in one other place prior...

The new North American free trade agreement that goes into effect Wednesday was touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as an engine of American job creation. But Japan's automakers are largely opting instead to keep operations in place and pay Mexican workers more or even just pay tariffs. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement requires 40% or more of parts for each passenger vehicle be manufactured by workers who are paid at least $16 per hour as a condition to make them tariff free in the region. Trump hailed that feature as a way to boost production in the U.S., which has a...

The USMCA is now in full effect. It replaces the decades old North America Free Trade Agreement. According to the USDA, Canada and Mexico were our top two trading partners in 2019. They also say that the USMCA contains significant improvements to rules of origin, ag market access, and labor issues. The U.S. Treasury Department's Monica Crowley believes that those improvements will have a very positive impact on our farmers and ranchers. "President Trump promised that he would scrap NAFTA, which was a horrendous trade deal, particularly for our nation's farmers... He promised to scrap that and replace it with...

President Donald Trump was elected in part on his promise to change the direction of U.S. trade policy so it would put America first. He has kept that promise with new trade agreements and tough enforcement actions that break down foreign trade barriers, protect America’s competitive edge and stop the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. A key Trump success — and an important promise kept — has been to end the job-killing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and replace it with a complete and long-overdue transformation. To replace NAFTA, Trump negotiated a modern, state-of-the-art trade agreement with Mexico and Canada...

The United States warned further measures were on the table to revoke its preferential treatment for Hong Kong, as Beijing imposed a controversial national security law on the city... The sweeping law would heighten the risk that sensitive US tech exports to the city – including metal alloys, high-powered computers and lasers – would be diverted for use by the Chinese military or the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Ross said... The US was Hong Kong’s second-largest trading partner in 2019, with trade worth HK$516 billion (US$67 billion), official data showed... “Further actions to eliminate differential treatment are also being...