Free Republic

One key motivation for imposing tariffs on imported goods is to protect U.S. firms from foreign competition. By taxing imports, domestic prices become relatively cheaper, and Americans switch expenditure from foreign goods to domestic goods, thereby expanding the domestic industry. In a recent Liberty Street Economics post, we highlighted that our recent study found large aggregate losses to the U.S. from the U.S.-China trade war. Here, we delve into the cross-sectional patterns in search of segments of the economy that may have benefited from import protection. What we find, instead, is that most firms suffered large valuation losses on tariff-announcement...

“As above, so below” There are many more swamps to drain than the huge one in Washington DC. Every state, county and municipal government agency has one. These agencies are riddled with inefficient work processes and entrenched slackers. People interact with these bureaucracies far more often than the federal ones. So why not apply DOGE principles to these bureaucracies? It is fitting and proper to do so. For example every day normal Americans go to the DMV and Post Office and come away feeling like victims. Routinely there is a line at a post office with ten people in it...

A study team led by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) says that a 7,000-year-old weapon kit consisting of two bowstrings believed to be the oldest ever found in Europe and a set of three wood arrows discovered in the Cave of Los Murciélagos in Albuñol, Granada, reveals an “unprecedented degree of precision and technical mastery” in their construction. When describing the complexity of the bowstrings, which were woven together from the tendons of three different animal species, Raquel Piqué, a researcher in the Department of Prehistory of the UAB and coordinator of the study, said that “this...

The family of a Missouri teen who fell over 200 feet to his death while riding a Florida amusement park thrill attraction was awarded $310 million for the 2022 freak accident, as the heartbroken parents blasted the ride maker for not showing up at the trial. Tyre Sampson’s grieving parents sat inside an Orlando courthouse Thursday as Austrian-based amusement ride manufacturer Funtime Handels was ordered to pay for the teen’s wrongful death. The family emotionally celebrated as the verdict marked the end of the nearly three-year court ordeal. “Today we got our day in court — this $310 million verdict...

A visit to Russia by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is being prepared, but there is no clarity yet on when it will take place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Peskov said it was unclear whether the visit would happen this year, but that a date for the trip could be agreed very quickly if necessary. "Such a visit is being prepared, preparations are underway," Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing when asked about the matter. Moscow is preparing to sign a new bilateral treaty with Tehran that will include closer defense cooperation, the kind of treaty that...

Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Jan. 6 demonstrator Ashli Babbitt, is being promoted. (@NBCNightlyNews / X screenshot; @ForgiatoBlow47 / X) The official narrative behind US Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd just got much more interesting. On January 6, 2021, video evidence captured US Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd shooting unarmed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt without warning as she attempted to climb through a narrow window near a barricaded entryway to the Speaker of the House’s office area in the U.S. Capitol. Following an investigation, Byrd was cleared of any wrongdoing, although questions remain about...

Vice President elect J.D. Vance poses for a family photo on Thanksgiving Day after winning the 2024 presidential election with running mate Donald Trump. India Today ran a segment on J.D.’s Thanksgiving Day photos with his wife, Usha Chilukuri, who hails from Andhra Pradesh and their family. The Indian internet is abuzz with news that the incoming vice president is married to a talented and beautiful Indian woman. Indians are connecting with the images, finding them relatable to their own family gatherings. The photos depict a scene many Indians consider typical of their own family celebrations, featuring silk sarees, close...

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Special Dispatch to the New-York Times. WASHINGTON, Monday, Dec. 5. The very latest intelligence from the theatre of war in Georgia and South Carolina, is brought by the Richmond papers of Saturday, the 3d inst., received here to-day. The tone of their talk grows more boastful than ever. No longer content with predicting that SHERMAN will have accomplished nothing, even if he should get out to the coast, they now brag that he never will reach the seaboard at all, or if he does, it will, we are told, be with a loss of half his army. The following is...

Missouri State Senator David Gregory has prefiled a bill that would create new penalties for undocumented immigrants entering and residing in the state. The proposed legislation establishes the offense of "trespass by an illegal alien," making it a felony punishable by imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole. Exceptions apply if the federal government takes the individual into custody within 24 hours for deportation. Under the bill, those convicted would be prohibited from voting in any election, obtaining a driver license, receiving public benefits, and becoming legal residents of Missouri. The measure also directs the Missouri Department of Public Safety...

Can lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic help treat cancer? A new study led by researchers at the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has revealed a connection between COVID-19 infection and cancer regression. The team’s discovery could pave the way for novel cancer treatments. In an unexpected twist, researchers observed that the RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus – responsible for COVID-19 – triggered the development of a unique type of immune cell with anti-cancer properties. These cells, dubbed “inducible nonclassical monocytes (I-NCMs),” were found to attack cancer cells and could potentially be harnessed...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A Chinese-owned fishing vessel with 18 crew members aboard was hijacked last week off the northeastern coast of Somalia, local authorities said Friday. An official in Xaafuun district in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, where the vessel is being held, told journalists that the hijackers include the ship’s security guards, who later joined forces with armed men from the coastal region. The European Union’s anti-piracy naval force, Eunavfor Atalanta, brought global attention to the incident after issuing a statement on Thursday that confirmed the local maritime authorities had notified it and investigations revealed that armed men...

A man was severely injured Tuesday morning when he leaped onto a polar bear to protect his wife from being mauled in the Far North community of Fort Severn. A neighbour showed up soon after and shot the bear, which then retreated to the woods. A spokesperson for the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service said the man is recovering from severe injuries to his arm and legs and is expected to make a full recovery. The attack took place in the early morning in the community, which is on the coast of Hudson Bay. Police were dispatched when they received reports...

A Charlotte, North Carolina, woman claimed Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refused to cover a minor window repair after Hurricane Helene, instead offering her a month-long stay at a costly hotel. Susan Lewis, 74, said the small window crack would cost $200 to fix, but said FEMA proposed placing her and three others in the Charlotte Marriott SouthPark hotel for a month — an option she said would cost the agency thousands of dollars, according to WSOC-TV. Lewis said she had to pay for the repair out of pocket because she had a $1,000 home insurance deductible....

The Los Angeles Times’ owner Patrick Soon-Shiong on Wednesday revealed he has been working “behind the scenes” to create a “bias meter” for every article that comes out of the newspaper. He said he hopes the new tool, which will be backed by artificial intelligence, will be released by January. It’s the businessman’s latest project to balance out the newsroom, after he vowed to bring more conservative voices to the paper and faced heated backlash for blocking the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

My ears always perk up when I hear that a lifelong Democrat has thrown his or her support behind President-elect Donald Trump. One of the biggest surprises of the 2024 election cycle was the sheer number of people who did just that. Two key factors drove this shift. First, many working-class voters finally grasped that the Democratic Party, which they had blindly supported for decades, had abandoned them. The second factor concerned Democrats at the opposite end of the economic spectrum — a group that included tech billionaires, hedge fund managers, and the ultrawealthy, many with direct access to the...

Employers in the United States added 227,000 workers to their payrolls in November, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.2 percent. Economists had been expecting 215,000 after storms and strikes saw the Labor Department report a much-worse-than-expected growth of just 12,000 in October. They had also forecast that the unemployment rate would rise one-tenth of a point from 4.1 percent. The October report was revised up by 24,000, bringing the estimate up to 36,000. The September jobs number was revised up by 32,000, from a gain of 223,000 to 255,000.

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) stated that he can protect certain illegal immigrants because “We’ve done it already” with how they handled the surge of migrants to the city, which was better than any other city. Adams said that while the sanctuary city law has gone too far in some cases, “[W]e’re telling our residents here, if you have children, put them in school. If you need medical care, our medical facilities will do so. If you’re a victim of a crime, you don’t have to be afraid to go to...

We really are living in the end times, and the coming year is going to be filled with crisis after crisis. All of human history has been building up to this last chapter and it’s time to ask if you are ready for what is to come? According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, the number of military conflicts that are currently active is the highest that we have seen since World War II… Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia… and so on. There are up to 56 active conflicts in the world,...

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I just had to write in to say thank you for explaining that Bitcoin was just a trading asset, not some new currency that would replace the dollar. I understand that money must be elastic to grow with society in economic booms and population. I just read a quote reported by Bloomberg: “After four years of political purgatory, Bitcoin and the entire digital-asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream.” I know a programmer who said you were correct that the Deep State created blockchain. Has this recent rise been orchestrated to get us...