Free Republic

The Fed has just released its first public consultation paper on a dollar-based central bank digital currency. For many, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a means of heading off private sector cryptos, but coincidentally the prices of bitcoin and others have collapsed, losing half their value since early November. The CBDC proposition is being sold to us by the central banks as keeping up with the times and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by new technologies to evolve payment systems. The Bank for International Settlements has been coordinating research into CBDCs, and this article gives a brief description...

oward Hesseman, the actor best known for playing DJ Dr. Johnny Fever in "WKRP in Cincinnati," has died, his manager of 35 years, Robbie Kass of Kass Management, confirms. He was 81. "Unfortunately, I can confirm that Howard passed away on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Los Angeles," Kass said, adding that Howard underwent colon surgery several weeks ago and suffered complications of the surgery. Hesseman starred in all 90 episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati," from 1978 to 1982, and returned to star in nine episodes of the series revival, "The New WKRP in Cincinnati," in the 90s. His character's...

In a recent, rare sighting, famed investor Jeremy Grantham called for a 50% market crash. Watch to find out how Harry's predictions of the "everything bubble" crash of a lifetime compare. Will this be the biggest crash in history? Beware the (market) dives of March! Harry discusses the succession of tops in the markets and timing of the coming megacrash. The S&P 500 may be down as much as 58% by the end of March.

In just the last year, police say 16-year-old Emilio Corripio used a gun at least three times in a carjacking. After pleading guilty last fall, Corripio was given probation and was back on the street with a gun last Saturday in Little Village, police say. This time he allegedly pulled the trigger while aiming at rival gang members standing on the corner on busy 26th Street. As he fired, 8-year-old Melissa Ortega was crossing the street with her mother. They ran when they heard the first shots, the little girl looking over her shoulder, then going limp as two bullets...

Kieran Prescot suffered from a cardiac arrest when he collapsed suddenly after football trainingA "fit and healthy" teenager is lucky to be alive after he collapsed suddenly following football training. Kieran Prescot, from St Helens, had just finished training for the Parkdale Sidac Celtic Under 18s team at Sutton Academy when he suffered from a cardiac arrest. The 17-year-old was rushed to Whiston Hospital and put into an induced coma after being given CPR by staff at the training ground and nearby leisure centre. Mum Sara Jones, 41, told the ECHO: "It was a normal day, I'd dropped him off...

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said on Sunday that he disagreed with former President Trump's idea of potentially pardoning people charged in connection with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year. "Of course not, oh, my goodness, no," Sununu said on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked if the rioters who were part of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol should be pardoned.

A gas station-style forecourt isn't necessarily the best option I’ve always been of the opinion that you should bring EV chargers to the people, rather than asking people to come to the chargers. But admittedly charging hubs aren’t very common, and until very recently they were all too far away to experience first hand. But at the tail end of last year, Shell opened up its first EV charging hub in Fulham, in West London. It’s still pretty out of the way for me, and the trip involves driving into the heart of the U.K.’s busiest city from nearby Reading....

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that helping Ukraine defend itself is “about the fight for freedom” when asked to respond to Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s questions about Russia and Ukraine. During his Fox News show, Carlson said, “At this point, NATO exists primarily to torment Vladimir Putin, with however many faults, has no intention of invading Western Europe. Vladimir Putin does not want Belgium. He just wants to keep his western border secure. ” Anchor Chuck Todd said, “I’m sure you love being asked about a cable TV news host, but it has...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that former President Trump’s suggestion that he would pardon Jan. 6 rioters if reelected is “inappropriate.” During an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” host Margaret Brennan played a clip of Trump speaking at a Texas rally on Saturday, when he said he would treat the Capitol rioters "fairly."

When the pandemic started, many hoped it might rally Americans to confront a grandiose global challenge, a kind unseen since the end of WWII. Instead, it just made them even lazier. New data from the CDC showed that a quarter of American adults aren’t even active enough to protect their health. For all the Pelotons sold in the last two years, millions of Americans are apparently still living a sedentary lifestyle that’s believed to be even more harmful to a person’s health than smoking. The greatest concentrations of lazy adults are found in the Southern US and Puerto Rico (areas...

American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party). For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely,...

Nearly 92,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2020, marking a 30% increase from the year before, a 75% increase over five years and by far the highest annual total on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Preliminary figures suggest that the 2021 death toll from overdoses may be even higher. While overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men. As a result, Black men have overtaken White men and are now on par with American Indian or Alaska Native...

Nothing has been the same since the financial crisis of 2008 (except we still have insider-trading superstar Nancy Pelosi as US House Speaker). What has changed is that US Public Debt to GDP (nominal dollars) has doubled. Has doubling Federal debt helped the hourly worker? Initially we saw a surge in REAL hourly wage growth in 2009 as the US began to recover from the housing bubble burst and ensuing financial crisis. Another surge in REAL wage growth occurred when Federal debt exploded as the COVID crisis took hold. BUT more recently we see that REAL wage growth is negative....

I am going to prove that Durbin, Duckworth, Pritzker, and Beetlejuice were all selected and not elected. They are all frauds. Every person in Illinois knows this, I am focused on proving it beyond a reasonable doubt. These corrupt souls need to be removed permanently. The first county of Illinois that I did a deep dive on with over 100,000 people has over 20,000 suspect registrations or possible phantom voters. My initial estimate of 7 to 10% of all registrations in IL being fraudulent appears to be too conservative. I estimate that upwards of 22% of the registration files of...

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have expressed their “concerns” to Spotify for allowing “COVID misinformation” to be spread on its platform. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have weighed into growing controversy surrounding fellow Spotify star Joe Rogan and his false claims about the COVID vaccine. SNIP The couple has a reported $25 million deal with the audio giant. In a statement Sunday, an Archewell spokesperson said: “Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform.

The 44-year-old mayor of Hyattsville, Maryland, a city on the outskirts of Washington D.C., died from an “apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound” on Tuesday, the city stated in a release. U.S. park police found the body of Mayor Kevin Ward (D) in Fort Marcy, a park in McLean, Virginia, according to WJLA.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family were reportedly moved to a secret location Saturday after thousands of protesters descended on the country’s capital to decry COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Trudeau, his wife and their children were relocated from their Ottawa home to the undisclosed location in the capital amid heightened security concerns, sources told CBC. The prime minister’s itinerary for the day usually states he is in Ottawa if he’s at home, but on Saturday it was changed to say “National Capital Region.” Trudeau has been working remotely and isolating after one of his children tested positive for COVID....

CNN's "Democracy in Peril" host Jim Acosta charged that "Virginia's new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is turning the state into a Soviet-Style police state." As evidence, he cited "the Governor's bizarre notion that parents ought to have a say in what their children are taught in the public schools. The whole point of public school is to liberate children from the domination of their parents." "Take the teaching of critical race theory as an example," Acosta said. "When telelearning enabled more parents to observe what was being taught they caused a ruckus at school board meetings. The response under the...

SHARE TWEET Play Neil Young on Amazon Music Unlimited (ad) The market value of Spotify has dropped by over $2 billion since Neil Young called out the streaming platform for "spreading fake information about vaccines," various outlets reported. Last week, Young demanded the removal of his catalog from the streaming platform in protest of the company's multi-million dollar deal with broadcaster Joe Rogan, who’s been identified as a source of inaccurate information surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine through his Joe Rogan Experience show. Joni Mitchell later called for her own catalog to be deleted in an act of support for Young’s...

The two-time Emmy nominee and improv veteran also played teacher Charlie Moore on 'Head of the Class.' Howard Hesseman, who made a career out of portraying off-the-wall characters, none more popular than the disc jockey Johnny Fever on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, has died. He was 81. Hesseman died Saturday in Los Angeles of complications from colon surgery he had last summer, his rep Robbie Kass told The Hollywood Reporter. A member of the San Francisco improv group The Committee and a real-life DJ back in the 1960s, Hesseman also was known for his stint as out-of-work actor turned...