Free Republic

The Federal Reserve Bank, with a capitalization of $62 billion, has recently lost $192 billion, as interest rates have risen, according to ETF Guide and Scott Minerd, the Global Chief Investment Officer at Guggenheim Partners. This, despite attempts by the central bank of the United States to keep interest rates much, much lower "Our estimate shows that the spike in bond yields since the first quarter of this year,” writes Minerd, “has caused a mark-to-market loss of $192 billion on the Fed’s holding assets, equivalent to approximately all of the unrealized gains that the Fed had accumulated since it began...

In a remarkable turn, the growing investigation of a powerful local union is turning up evidence of likely financial abuse by the labor group's top staffers during last year's attempted recall of Gov. Scott Walker. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 — which represents bus drivers in Milwaukee County and elsewhere — is the subject of a sweeping investigation by the parent union and the U.S. Department of Labor. Already, the Washington, D.C.-based ATU ousted Alan Simonis as president of the local and Patrick Clemens as its secretary-treasurer for "financial malfeasance and nonfeasance while in office." The two can appeal...

New York area union members will join an expected several thousand labor activists and supporters tomorrow in a Wall Street march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.The grassroots-grown protest is now in its third week, with a diverse array of people from across the country camping out in the heart of the financial district to demand Wall Street is held accountable for the schemes and reckless games that led to the nation’s economic collapse.The mostly young Occupy Wall Street protesters are “speaking for the vast majority of Americans who are frustrated by the bankers and brokers who have...

For Immediate Release Jul 12, 2004 For Further Information, Contact: Peter J. Sepp, Annie Patnaude, Drew Johnson, (703) 683-5700 Study: Kerry's Fiscal Agenda "Makeover" Won't Improve Budget Picture for Taxpayers (Alexandria, VA) -- For overtaxed and deficit-weary Americans, future prospects for lower federal spending are bleak indeed, according to a detailed analysis of the Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry's fiscal agenda by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF). Despite adding spending caps to his agenda, Kerry's campaign promises could still hit taxpayers with a $226 billion blow, on top of the 29 percent spending run-up under George W. Bush's...