Free Republic

It has been an incredible year loaded with surprises but I think that the next few years will surprise even more. Whenever I feel certain about something coming, I ‘m glad to put it in print. In 2004, I had successfully forecast many economic events such as the housing bubble popping and the credit crisis among other events. Current economic conditions and political outcomes have laid the groundwork for more events that we should be prepared for. All of these events combine to create a “Financial Vortex” that will hit us in the coming years. First of all, be aware...

Americans are piling into gold as national debt and inflation soar, says Philip Delves Broughton The national debt clock which ticks away over Union Square in Lower Manhattan, showing Americans the speed at which their country is sinking into the red, ran out of digits on Wednesday. The federal government's debt had tipped over $10 trillion and it will take until next year for the property developers who own the clock to update it. They promise to add two digits so that it can go up to a quadrillion. Meanwhile, in the city's streets and bars, the talk was...

The recent G-20 meeting in Washington, D.C. is where the world's 20 biggest and/or most important economies got together to change the world's economic architecture, with everybody promising to spend like maniacs right now, but to one day act honorably and adhere to some future agreement that really isn't worth the paper it will be written on.The problem is that since 1944 the United States had promised to act responsibly and hold the value of the dollar constant, controlling the money supply, and thus preventing inflation and runaway booms like the gold standard did, so that all the other...

Madame Speaker, many Americans are hoping the new administration will solve the economic problems we face.  That’s not likely to happen, because the economic advisors to the new President have no more understanding of how to get us out of this mess than previous administrations and Congresses understood how the crisis was brought about in the first place. Except for a rare few, Members of Congress are unaware of Austrian Free Market economics.  For the last 80 years, the legislative, judiciary and executive branches of our government have been totally influenced by Keynesian economics.  If they had had any...

TALLAHASSEE - It has become a hot issue in the Republican presidential campaign and the conservative blogosphere: Is ACORN synonymous with voter fraud? For weeks, state and national Republicans have attacked the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and its voter-registration drives that have prompted complaints from North Carolina to Nevada. On Tuesday, Democrat Barack Obama's campaign struck back, calling the recent attacks by John McCain and his surrogates efforts at voter "suppression and intimidation." And they got support from an unexpected source: Kurt Browning, who as secretary of state oversees Florida's election system and who, at a Tuesday...

To be filed under “suspicions confirmed,” patently partisan-for-Obama supporter Democrat Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer “I-never-met-an-ACORN-worker-I-didn’t-like” Brunner has stomped her feet and decided that she should not be required to do her job; that of protecting Ohio voters from election fraud.  She has also decided that she will elicit help from the US Supreme Court in upholding her desire.

While precious metal prices have fallen from the record high levels set earlier this year, most, if not all dealers, are experiencing shortages, and retail buyers are finding it harder to obtain gold and silver coins.The U.S. Mint, which never ran out of supply before, has sold out of its 1-ounce gold and silver coins, and the refining company that mints the South African Kruggerand gold coin announced it also had run out of supply."Gold and silver bullion is not coming in at a pace we need to satisfy customer demand," said Eddie Lowy, owner of Banner Coin Exchange...

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner also has to make the eligibility information available to all 88 county election boards and use government records to check for voter registration fraud. Nine of the 16 members of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with an opinion that upheld a lower court's ruling in the lawsuit filed by the Ohio Republican Party against Brunner.

Financial news have been coming fast and furious in the past four weeks, taking the nationalization of Frannie as a starting point for the worst turmoil any living market participant has experienced in his/her life. What we have seen since can only be called monetary madness where central banks and governments ultimately saddle more than one generation of citizens with debts for the rescue of a financial system that ultimately cannot be successful by generating still more debt.It has become almost impossible to follow all inflationary measures disguised as "liquefying operations" by monetary authorities. At the same time governments begin...

--> The United States prides itself on being the home of free market capitalism, governed by the rule of law. However, the rapidly developing capital market crisis demonstrates once again that, faced with a systemic crisis, rules and ideology take second place to pragmatism. A similar incident happened on 15 August 1971 when Nixon arbitrarily ditched the solemn US international pledge to honour the Bretton Woods Agreements making the dollar convertible into gold at US$35 an ounce. Cynics might say that the US lives by the Gold Rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.Hence, the unprecedented developments in...

Unfortunately, we Americans now realize that the decision by Ben Bernanke to slash the Fed Funds rate to 2% (a three hundred twenty five basis point reduction) was just the opening act in this Republican administration's socialism play. At the time some wondered why the government didn't just allow home prices fall to historical averages rather than seeking to lower the value of the U.S. dollar and send inflation to a 17-year high. Now we have learned just this past weekend that the Department of the Treasury has come up with a plan for conservatorship of the GSEs, enacting the...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the man who said that subprime was contained and that the Bazooka in his pocket would never be used, now assures us that the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be costless to taxpayers. Despite the near euphoria that the plan has sparked on Wall Street, the move will go down in history as the biggest policy blunder of all time, and will be credited as a pivotal point in the financial collapse of the American economy. The ultimate cost to Unites States citizens will be in the range of hundreds of billions of...

By WILLIAM MARCH and CHRISTIAN WADE The Tampa Tribune Published: September 8, 2008TAMPA - In her first appearance in Tampa since losing the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly endorsed Barack Obama Monday, but refused to criticize the newer woman on the presidential campaign scene, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "Barack and I may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now," Clinton said. The crowd and the speakers at the event appeared to consist largely of former Clinton supporters who now back Obama, but her speech was aimed at convincing those who don't, or...

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has launched a tirade against John McCain, claiming he and his campaign are behind reports tying him to the Muslim faith. Obama, a committed Christian today, was born to the Muslim faith and raised as a Muslim in his early youth, though he did not actively practice his religion.

Saturday, September 6, 2008 McCain to make Palin energy czar The Sunday Telegraph is reporting that John McCain wants to put Sarah Palin in charge of US oil and energy policy if he becomes president:The Republican presidential candidate will make his running mate the public face of the country's drive for energy independence, according to a McCain campaign official. The campaign official said: "The Democrats say that Governor Palin is inexperienced, but she has vast experience in the energy sector. She will be at the forefront of the push for energy independence. She's popular and she's very persuasive." A Republican...

"Sa-rah! Pa-lin!" came the chant at a Colorado Springs rally on Saturday moments before Republican nominee John McCain took the stage with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a woman who was virtually unknown to the nation just a week earlier. The day before, thousands screamed "Sa-rah! Sa-rah! Sa-rah!" at an amphitheater outside Detroit.

Richard Viguerie:  Conservatives are making liberals pay a political price for the high costs of gas, food, and other goods         (Manassas, Virginia)  The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, regarding the responsibility for the high cost of gasoline, food, and other goods:         “Conservatives in Congress, the alternative media, and grassroots organizations have provided the leadership to use high gas prices as a teaching moment for America.         “The Democrats and their left-wing environmental allies are being held accountable for the energy crisis they created.  As long as the debate rages,...

The Strong Dollar Illusion By Peter Schiff Economists who now see American troubles spreading around the world are predicting that foreign central banks will ignore the gathering inflation threat and follow the Fed down the rate cutting path. Similarly, they argue that since the downturn began here, the U.S. recovery will likely be underway while the rest of world is still decelerating. These assumptions have prompted a rally in the dollar, a sell-off in gold, commodities and foreign stocks, and have cast doubts on the ability of foreign economies to "decouple" from the United States. Investors should not take...

The History and Future of the Present Revival - Part 7  View Part 1 Last Sunday morning in one of our services, I polled those attending by asking the following questions: How many had come to the Lord through a revival?How many had come to the Lord through a crusade or evangelistic campaign?How many had come to the Lord through Christian television?How many had come to the Lord through the witness of a friend or relative? There were roughly a thousand people in that service. The following are the approximate results to these questions: 3 people7 – 8 people4...

Remember the optimist's creed, "If life gives you lemons, make them into lemonade"? Well, ConocoPhillips and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels are trying to do one better in a new, $5 million research partnership: "If life gives you pond scum, turn it into alternative fuels. And while you're at it, fight global warming." OK, trying to cram two good ideas into one slogan may make it too long for bumper stickers. But it is a classic example of the creative thinking that promises to reshape Colorado's future while creating jobs in the new energy economy. Making fuels from...