Free Republic

At this time of year, a reservation with Chill RV Rentals isn’t usually the easiest to come by. The Los Angeles-based company’s 16-camper fleet is typically booked solid, with the RVs oftentimes reserved weeks in advance. That’s just not the case this year, said Nika Shneyder, who started the recreational vehicle rental business with her father in 2016. Bookings are light; plus, the people who are traveling are taking shorter trips, she said. “We’re definitely seeing demand for RV travel slowed down compared to previous years, and I don’t think it has to do with people coming out [the pandemic]...

While questions remain surrounding Oakland’s landmark sale of its undivided half of the Coliseum property to an all-Black private development group a little over two weeks ago, not just the stadium and arena are waiting for the Athletics to make a decision. The state of uncertainty is also affecting one of the most vital pieces surrounding the site: the Coliseum BART Station. BART director Robert Raburn, whose jurisdiction includes the Coliseum Station, is one of many public officials in Oakland who are quite optimistic about what the African American Sports and Entertainment Group wants to do with the Coliseum site....

Joe Biden is a dishonest politician, so it is no wonder that he ignores actual data. Like claiming that crime is down under his leadership, when it is actually large cities like New York and Los Angeles not reporting their crime data to the FBI. Take the May jobs numbers. The BLS reports that 272k jobs were added. However, the more accurate Household Survery reported a loss of -408k jobs in May. While the Establishment Survey did indeed report that 272K “jobs” were added, this number also included multiple job holders; stripping those out, we get that the actual number...

The financial markets are bracing for disruption now that Saudi Arabia decided not to renew its 50-year petrodollar partnership with the United States, MSN reported. This opens the door for Saudi Arabia to sell oil and other goods — instead of exclusively in the U.S. dollar — in multiple other currencies, including the Chinese renminbi, and in euros, yen, and digital currencies such as bitcoin.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said the swelling national debt is manageable as long as it stays around where it is relative to the rest of the economy. In a CNBC interview, Yellen also noted that high interest rates are adding to the burden as the U.S. manages its massive $34.7 trillion debt load. "If the debt is stabilized relative to the size of the economy, we're in a reasonable place," she told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin during a "Squawk Box" live interview. "The way I look at it is that we should be looking at the real interest...

FIVE Guys has abruptly shuttered one of its restaurants but locals say they are not surprised. The fast-food restaurant in New Milford, Connecticut, shut its doors for good on June 9. A sign taped to the door of the restaurant over the weekend stated that the business "is permanently closed." However, officials at Five Guys allegedly told CT Insider that there was no closure news regarding the New Milford location. Meanwhile, the sign on the door instructed diners to visit another nearby location. "Sorry for the inconvenience," it read as it directed customers to the Five Guys in Brookfield, which...

CHANCAY, Peru—In this serene town on South America’s Pacific coast, China is building a megaport that could challenge U.S. influence in a resource-rich region that Washington has long considered its backyard.... ...The U.S. worries that China’s control over what could become South America’s first true global commercial hub will allow Beijing to further strengthen its grip over the region’s resources, deepen its influence among America’s closest neighbors and eventually plant its military nearby.... Peru’s Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea said...“The United States is present almost everywhere in the world with a lot of initiatives, but not so much in Latin America,”...

The consumer price index was expected to increase 0.1% on a month basis and 3.4% from a year ago, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.

KEY POINTS The consumer price index held flat in May though it increased 3.3% from a year ago. Both numbers were 0.1 percentage point below market expectations. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core CPI increased 0.2% on the month and 3.4% from a year ago, compared with respective estimates of 0.3% and 3.5%. Price increases were held in check by a 2% drop in the energy index and just a 0.1% increase in food. ***************************************************************** The consumer price index showed no increase in May as inflation slightly loosened its stubborn grip on the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported...

The middle class and low wager workers are made for kicking. And that’s with Bidenomics did. The headline consumer price index was unchanged MoM in May – the smallest change since July 2022 – just less than the +0.1% MoM expected. On a YoY basis, headline CPI rose 3.3% (less than the 3.4% exp) – but very much stuck in a range well above the 2% target for over year now… Source: Bloomberg Energy was the biggest drag on the headline CPI MoM…(Gasoline prices tumbled 3.6% in May from April, one key reason why the headline CPI was flat on...

Biden’s Problems Are the Real ThreatsDemocratic analysts don’t seem to understand why the all-out legal assault on President Donald Trump isn’t working. It’s because they keep talking among themselves and not with the American people.The American people don’t live and work in the New York-Washington political-media-government bubble. If reporters and analysts listened to Americans, as we do at America's New Majority Project, they would learn how decisive the choice between President Joe Biden or President Trump is. They would also see how difficult, if not impossible, it will be for President Biden to get easily re-elected.The propaganda media is trying...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its key interest rate unchanged and signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year. With markets hoping for a more accommodative central bank, Federal Open Market Committee policymakers following their two-day meeting took two rate reductions off the table from the three indicated in March. The committee also signaled that it believes the long-run interest rate is higher than previously indicated. New forecasts released after this week’s two-day meeting indicated only slight optimism that inflation remains on track to head back to the Fed’s 2% goal, allowing for some...

The higher-education industry is having a bad decade. Some problems are obvious: With wokeness and campus unrest, colleges and universities have lost some of their mystique. They’ll tell you to “follow the science,” right before they tell you that men can get pregnant. Violent antisemitic riots haven’t done much to burnish their image, nor have the limp responses to those riots from many university administrations. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make ridiculous. Mission accomplished! Then there’s the economics of it: The reward of college was supposed to be a good job at the end. [snip] Younger people are...

Millions of Americans are struggling to afford necessities like food, rent, insurance, and a car payment. But if you’re one of them, don’t expect any understanding from the White House and its sycophants in the media. They say your financial pain is all in your head. As an MSNBC host put it, Americans need “an economic explainer,” since “people are confused” about their financial situation. They’re actually “doing quite well,” she laughably asserted. That will surprise the half of Americans who are struggling to make their rent or mortgage payments on time, especially the one-fifth of renters who are skipping...

The pro-Trump MAGA Inc. super PAC pointed out that Bidenomics is not a joke, referring to how food prices at restaurants have increased under President Joe Biden’s administration. In a press release from MAGA Inc. on Monday, the super PAC referenced a viral parody post on X which shows photos of former President Donald Trump at his rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, reading and criticizing the prices and items off of a Cheesecake menu. “This viral post might be a parody, but Bidenomics is no joke,” Alex Pfeiffer, the spokesman for MAGA Inc. wrote in the press release. “Prices at...

Harry Dent, the outspoken financial author and economist, isn’t reversing course from his bold “crash of a lifetime” declaration this past December. Speaking in an updated interview with Fox News Digital, Dent cautioned that the “everything” bubble still has not burst, and it may be a bigger crash than the Great Recession. “In 1925 to ‘29, it was a natural bubble. There was no stimulus behind that, artificial stimulus per se. So this is new. This has never happened,” Dent said Tuesday. “What do you do if you want to cure a hangover? You drink more. And that’s what they’ve...

In this short video, VDH discusses the lies that the Democrats are selling that are destroying the economy, the middle class, the military and the moral fabric of America.

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong says we are going to have a wild close to 2024. Let’s start with Biden’s new job approval rating from Martin Armstrong’s “Socrates” program, which is now only 6% to 7%. Armstrong explains, “It’s the old story of draining the swamp, but now, the swamp is an ocean. This is completely crazy. The cases against Trump show you how desperate they are here. The reason they want Biden, and they even blocked RFK Jr. from getting on the Democrat ticket, the reason they want him is he is just a sock puppet....

Under Bidenomics and Fed monetary “policies”, we now have the wreck of the US middle class. To begin with, America’s paychecks are bigger than 40 years ago, but purchasing power of those larger paychecks is about the sames as it was 40 years ago. Great job Washington DC!!! … NOT!!!! Meanwhile, credit card delinquencies are at the highest level since 1991. Americans are feeling extreme financial stress. Coping with Bidennomics and The Fed has been most difficult. Especially if you listened to Biden’s D-Day speech (almost stolen word-for-word from a Ronald Reagan speech). Demented Joe Biden being led by the...

Known for many decades after the Second World War as a key tool for putting economic pressure on developing nations and competitors of the US-led liberal rules-based order, the International Monetary Fund took a major step toward greater autonomy after successfully squashing a surprise plot by the Biden administration to oust its director in 2021.IMF deputy managing director Gita Gopinath has given Washington an unusually blunt warning about its debt and spending levels, demanding that the United States and other developed economies take steps to get debt under control. “For the US, we see ample ground for them to reduce...