Free Republic

Western governments have allocated well over $100 billion to prop up Ukraine in its war against Russia, with countless billions more flooding into the country at an increasing pace. Yet as each day passes, it’s becoming more and more clear that all of the money awarded and assigned to Ukraine continues to dissolve into a black hole of secrecy, corruption, deceit, and now, default. On Wednesday, Ukraine finance ministry asked foreign creditors to accept a delay in its debt repayments, requesting a two year freeze on billions of dollars in Eurobonds. Per the Financial Times, “a rescheduling would amount to...

VIDEOThis video will make you want to take the cell phone that "Bloomberg Surveillance" host Tom Keene was playing with during a crucial part of an interview and smack him over the head with it. The interview was with Heather Boushey, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers that works out of the White House, and when she begins talking about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Keene was paying attention to the cell phone. Whether he was doing that on purpose or because he is too lazy to PAY ATTENTION is an open question but what is important is that...

Bloomberg.com published a story today headlined “Age of Scarcity Begins With $1.6 Trillion Hit to World Economy” which led Steve Bannon to go on a rant about how this should be an Age of Abundance, and it was — under President Trump! He’s joined in the first segment by economist Dave Brat, the dean of the Liberty School of Business, for an explanation of how we got here. In Part 2, watch energy consultant Dave Walsh talk about how the crisis is just getting started. Just wait until fall when our farmers take in the harvest, which will be...

As Elon Musk attempts to purchase Twitter, many journalists and political commentators have viewed the Tesla CEO's plans to take over the social media giant as detrimental, and have slammed the idea of billionaire ownership, yet several liberal media organizations are themselves owned by billionaires. The Washington Post Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post in 2016 for $250 million. The Atlantic Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, became the majority owner of The Atlantic in 2017. TIME Marc Beinoff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce, and his wife Lynne, purchased TIME in 2018 for $190...

CAIRO, April 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Thursday that as one of the major shareholders in Twitter he rejected a takeover bid by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. "I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects," the prince said in a Twitter post. Musk took aim at Twitter Inc with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a...

The rise of Covid cases in some regions of the U.S., just as testing efforts wane, has raised the specter that the next major wave of the virus may be difficult to detect. In fact, the country could be in the midst of a surge right now and we might not even know it. Testing and viral sequencing are critical to responding quickly to new outbreaks of Covid. And yet, as the country tries to move on from the pandemic, demand for lab-based testing has declined and federal funding priorities have shifted. The change has forced some testing centers to...

A Bloomberg Opinion senior columnist’s skewed portrayal of “free speech” after Elon Musk’s big investment in Twitter shows how ignorant media leftists are to American principles. Timothy O’Brien published a tone-deaf piece headlined: “Elon Musk’s Twitter Investment Could Be Bad News for Free Speech.” Musk, worth around $280 billion as of late Wednesday morning, bought a sizable 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, totaling 73,486,938 shares, which makes Musk the platform’s biggest shareholder. O’Brien fretted in response. “I suspect there’s something more serious informing Musk’s decision to invest in Twitter, even if he revels in buffoonery: Maybe he wants to bring...

@business JUST IN: President Joe Biden called for regime change in Russia, saying in a speech in Poland that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” after the Ukraine invasion

In Bloomberg Opinion’s world, inflation would hurt Americans less if they simply took the bus, ate lentils and let their pets die from cancer. The poor need to behave, after all.

An out-of-touch academic, writing a column for Bloomberg Opinion, demonstrated just how out of touch the country's elites are as inflation hits every sector of the country. Instead of hiding the mess, or better yet, just not printing it, Bloomberg Opinion tweeted its existence out with a handy tip sheet: (tweets at link) Inflation stings most if you earn less than $300K. Here's how to deal: ➡️ Take the bus ➡️ Don’t buy in bulk ➡️ Try lentils instead of meat ➡️ Nobody said this would be fun Which was about as amateur-hour as it gets on the age-old topic...

An economics professor has a solution for the little people dealing with the country’s inflationary woes: Use mass transportation, eat more veggies instead of meat, and cut back on unnecessary care for your pets.In a Bloomberg.com op-ed, the New School’s Teresa Ghilarducci says these tips are a good idea for anyone making less than … $280,000 per year. “To deal with gas prices, it’s worth reconsidering public transportation if it’s an option where you live,” Ghilarducci says. After all, mass transport fares are up only 8 percent compared to 38 percent for gasoline. And don’t think about getting a new...

A BLOOMBERG Opinion piece is getting backlash after a 'tone-deaf' tweet saying that inflation 'stings most' for those making under $300K a year. "Nobody said this would be fun," the controversial tweet by Bloomberg Opinion reads, sparking thousands of people to react to the March 13 article by Teresa Ghilarducci. Ghilarducci makes suggestions in the piece like pivoting to vegetables in order to avoid inflated meat prices, and taking the bus to avoid inflated gas prices. "I expect those most affected will adjust to inflation in the classic way by shifting away from relatively expensive items toward close substitutes." The...

In the annals of manufactured scandals by TV networks, one of the lamest examples was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ telling high school students at an event of his: “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything, and we’ve got to stop this COVID theater.” “NBC Nightly News” tried to make this a story for not just one night, but two. It’s lame because it came after everyone took off their masks for the State of the Union address, after the “nonpartisan” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ruled against...

Bloomberg News co-founder Matthew Winkler is twisting numbers again to try to make leftists look like economic wizards. This time, he went to bat for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) who imposed tyrannical COVID-19 shutdown policies on her constituents. Winkler’s blog celebrating Whitmer Feb. 16 was headlined, “‘Woman in Michigan’ Governs the No. 1 Economy.” Winkler fawned, in part, about how Whitmer’s economic policies“outperformed the U.S. when Trump was in the White House and continues to do so 15 months after voters rejected his bid for a second term.” He claimed that “Among 37 states with a population greater than...

Michael Bloomberg writes in a new op-ed that he is "deeply concerned" the Democratic Party is "headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot." The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate points to the recent recall of three school board members in San Francisco while making his argument in Bloomberg News. "Coming from America's most liberal city, those results should translate into a 7 to 8 on the Richter scale, because the three main factors that drove the recall are not unique to the Bay Area," Bloomberg writes. Bloomberg notes that a "recent Democratic...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to serve as chair of the Defense Department's Defense Innovation Board. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin nominated Bloomberg to "leverage his experience and strategic insights on innovation, business and public service," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. Kirby added that Bloomberg will bring "a wealth of experience in technology innovation, business and government to the Defense Innovation Board." "His leadership will be critical to ensuring the department has access to the best and brightest minds in science, technology and innovation through the team of diverse experts that he will...

The financial news site accidentally reported that Russia had invaded Ukraine Friday afternoon with a headline on its homepage. “Live: Russia invades Ukraine,” read a jarring headline on Bloomberg’s homepage at around 4 p.m. It stayed up for about 30 minutes, according to Olga Lautman, a Russian analyst who posted the message on social media. Users who clicked on the eye-popping story — which comes as Russian troops mass on the Ukrainian border and US officials warn of a potential invasion — were shown an error page. “I went on the site and saw the breaking news but knew it...

The White House has reportedly floated an offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow Kremlin access to key NATO bases in exchange for Moscow de-escalating tensions over its military buildup on Ukraine’s border. The proposal would also involve discussions about Russia verifying that the US has not deployed Tomahawk cruise missiles to bases in Romania and Poland, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. ​ The reported offer would be contingent on agreement from US allies, including Romania and Poland, while Russia would also have to provide similar information about bases with ground-launched weapon systems. The ​overture reportedly is intended to ease...

Big Tech billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, who already censor comments and news they don’t like, are now coming after your local paper. The group Report for America is placing its hand-selected woke reporters into local newsrooms across America to cover “under-reported” stories such as climate issues. ... Zuckerberg’s company, Facebook (now called Meta), and his and his wife’s charitable foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, are pouring millions into this effort. And it ain’t beanbag. They expect results. Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan spent $300,000,000 taking over elections offices in 2020 with the Center for Tech and Civic Life to tip the...