Free Republic

LOS ANGELES - Oregon state employees will probably see a thaw in their multiyear salary freeze. California and New York will plug billion dollar holes left by depleted cash reserves since 9/11. New Jersey, Hawaii, and Oklahoma will sink big bucks into higher education facilities that have been neglected for five years. Continued recovery of the US economy and more cautious budgeting by state officials - burned by overestimating revenues for several years - have brought about a rebound in the fiscal fortunes for 48 states that have been sagging since 2001. Personal and corporate income taxes, sales taxes, and...

HOUSTON - After only a year at CenterPoint Energy, Shelley Daniel has big plans for her career. In 20 years, she sees herself in the company's executive management ranks; by the time she retires, CEO. This recent college grad, in other words, is exactly what the energy industry is looking for - not just because she's highly motivated, but because she wants to remain in the business. For years, energy analysts have been warning that their industry will run out of employees faster than it runs out of oil or gas. By some estimates, half the workforce will retire in...

WASHINGTON - When the US Supreme Court ruled in June that private homes may be seized to make room for commercial development projects, the decision ignited a firestorm of criticism. Outraged property-rights activists said the 5-to-4 opinion in Kelo v. New London would render homes and businesses nationwide vulnerable to government land-grabs to foster economic revitalization. Some ranked it among the high court's worst decisions, calling it this generation's Dred Scott. Now, six months later, the debate over property rights is still raging, but it is about to enter a new, more deliberative phase as state legislatures prepare to open...

A measure to shield drug manufacturers from lawsuits in an effort to encourage them to develop new vaccines is likely to be quietly attached to a "must pass" defense appropriation bill within the next few days. If the US Secretary of Health and Human Services declares that vaccines were being distributed during a national health emergency, such as a flu pandemic, the bill would make it very difficult for people who felt they had been harmed by vaccines to pursue legal action against the manufacturer. A broad swath of consumer-rights groups and open-government advocates had succeeded in slowing the progress...

The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich are Rich,the Poor are Poor -- and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car By Tim Harford Oxford University Press, 286 pages, $34.95 Economics has the power to bore the bright and to enchant the dull with abstractions that have no counterpart in the real world, and policies concocted by those who have never tried them. It is a discipline that gets respect because its precepts ought to work, apart from frequent evidence that they don't. Tim Harford is an official of the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He also writes...

NEWS AT A GLANCE Paramount makes a deal Paramount Pictures Corp. announced it is buying DreamWorks SKG, the movie studio founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Paramount plans to offset the $1.6-billion cost by selling a 59-film DreamWorks library that includes Oscar winners American Beauty and Gladiator. Paramount swooped in at the last-minute after a DreamWorks deal with NBC Universal stalled. "I can't stress how transforming an event this is," said Paramount Chairman Brad Gray. (Los Angeles Times, free registration required) Conoco goes shopping ConocoPhillips is negotiating to buy oil and gas producer Burlington Resources for more...

I love short ways of summing up huge issues in life. One of the best I ever heard came from a super smart guy named Ray Lucia a few years ago. Ray owns and heads up a national financial planning and services company. I often speak for him at his conferences and, yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I get paid for it. He had a stunning insight when I first met him about the basic dilemma of the middle class American: "You have an immense future liability, paying for your life when you retire. You have to create...

Warren Buffett, one of the world's greatest investors, said, "Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they are doing." Many financial advisors recommend that you diversify for your own protection. What they fail to tell you is that it is also for their protection. Since most financial advisors cannot tell you exactly which stock or mutual fund is a great investment, they tell you to buy a bunch of them. Instead of diversifying, my rich dad taught me to focus on finding the best investments. That meant sifting through hundreds of...

If you're looking for a gift that won't go out of style, you might consider something of a financial nature that will grow in value. Depending on your budget, it could be a few shares of your favorite mutual fund, a head start on a retirement or college savings plan or a book about investing. While the idea of tucking stock certificates into a stocking is appealing, this sort of gift might require you to give the recipient some advance notice, which can ruin the surprise. But don't let that put you off the idea, said Don Cassidy, senior research...

The November payrolls job report was announced Friday with the usual misleading hype. Spinmeisters made the most out of the 215,000 jobs. Looking beyond the glitter at the real facts, this is what we see. Twenty-one thousand of those jobs were government positions supported by taxpayers. There were only 194,000 new jobs in the private sector. Of those, 37,000 are in construction and only 11,000 are in manufacturing. The bulk of the new jobs – 144,000 – are in domestic services. Wholesale and retail trade account for 20,000. Food services and drinking places (waitresses and bartenders) account for 38,000. Health...

PRESIDENT BUSH'S VISION OF SOUND economic policy has remained remarkably constant over the last five years--tax cuts, free trade, and a generous amount of immigration. And why not? Low taxes, free trade, and new immigrants have benefited our economy over the past quarter century, and helped produce a remarkably successful economic performance after the shock of 9/11. Yet all does not seem to be well. Americans are unhappy about the president's management of the economy and pessimistic about the future. Maybe popular sentiment is simply shortsighted, or uninformed. But there is another, more rational reason for voter discontent: Times have...

Today it is official, former State Senator John Campbell will take the Congressional seat vacated by SEC Chairman Chris Cox. Campbell is a solid conservative. In September, I had a chance to interview him during his race. I have republished that interview in full in the extended section. Read the whole thing, and you will see that Campbell will be a welcome addition for conservatives. Tim Chapman Interviews CA State Senator John Campbell Thursday, September 29, 2005 TC: We’ll start with some questions about conservatism in general. Can you explain to me, and to our readers, what you see as...

NEW YORK - The economic gloom cast in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the subsequent run-up in energy prices are subsiding. In its place are brighter prospects for 2006, considered a year of slowdown just three months ago. That means America could enter a fifth year of economic expansion with solid growth, nearly on pace with this year. Powering this brighter picture is the retreat of energy prices from record highs, prospects for stronger business investment, and a relatively vibrant job market. One indication the economy is back on track came Friday, when the Labor Department reported...

If you're like most Americans, you've already started buying gifts for the holidays. According to the National Retail Federation, more than 145 million Americans shopped during the Thanksgiving weekend. Between in-store and online purchases, shoppers dropped an average of $302.81. These numbers will just keep rising as the December shopping marathon continues with the average American expected to drop almost $740. That's a lot of ties and fruit cakes. I'm not going to tell you to watch your spending in this column. What I want to talk to you about is how to avoid being royally ripped off by department...

U.S. mortgage applications rose for the first time in a month, mostly driven by a robust rebound in home refinancing volume even as interest rates rose, an industry trade group figures showed on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity for the week ended December 2 increased 5.2 percent to 656.7, up from the previous week's 624.1. Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 6.32 percent, up 0.12 percentage point from the previous week's 6.20 percent. It was the first increase in three weeks. The MBA's seasonally adjusted purchase mortgage index...

Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Monday that a steadily expanding U.S. economy has reached a point where it should start generating good news about incomes and jobs. "We're about at a tipping-point here where we're going to see much improvement in wage rates and compensation," Snow said during an interview on CNBC television. The U.S. Treasury chief was one of a series of Bush administration officials participating in a media blitz aimed at highlighting positive developments on the economy. Earlier on Monday, President George W. Bush pointed to faster-than-expected growth and other positive economic news to try to counter...

Hardly a day goes by without someone in Washington weighing in on the housing market. If it's not that, it's a housing report that sends investors into a tizzy. And the news is often downright confusing. Just last week we learned existing home sales slid 2.7 percent in October from September. That seemed reasonable enough given the recent rise in interest rates, which are expected to reduce home sales. But the next "official" housing tidbit was that new home sales, as calculated by the Commerce Department, actually surged in October, rising 13 percent compared to September. The findings seem to...

SARASOTA, Fla. Bud Carson, who developed Pittsburgh's "Steel Curtain" defense, has died of emphysema at age 75. Carson, a defensive back at North Carolina from 1949 through 1951, was the Steelers' defensive coordinator from 1972 through 1977, and shaped a defense led by Joe Greene, Jack Ham and Jack Lambert into one of the best in N-F-L history. In that span, the Steelers won three Super Bowl titles under coach Chuck Noll. Carson then became defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams, who lost to the Steelers in the Super Bowl after the 1979 season. He coached the Cleveland Browns...

After years of "who cares?" status, gold is very much back on the investment map. Even ordinary investors are talking about the run-up in gold prices to a 22-year high. That's good news for those who bought in at low prices five years ago. But is it a troubling sign for the world economy? That's the question some investors are asking after gold topped $500 an ounce last week. Gold is considered a safe investment, so its price rises when financial uncertainty grows. Gold prices can spike amid war, high inflation, or depression. But this year's run-up in gold doesn't...

CHICAGO - America's labor movement may be at its weakest point in decades, with just 8 percent of private-sector workers in unions and a huge split in its ranks. But it's also fighting back, trying to resonate with Americans worried about job losses and healthcare. Among its hopeful signs: • A big victory in organizing janitors in Houston, not known as a union-friendly city. The win by the Service Employees International Union came just months after it and five other unions split from the AFL-CIO. • The Communications Workers of America have been busily organizing at Cingular Wireless, adding more...