Free Republic

...what happened...underscores the exposure of our economy to economic developments in countries like China. As we have been running trade and budget deficits, they have been buying our debt and in essence becoming our banker...I have long argued that a great source of vulnerability is the fact that other countries, including China, own so much of our debt. Today, foreign nations according to the most recent Treasury statistics hold over $2.2 trillion or 44% of all publicly held United States (U.S.) debt with Japan and China alone holding nearly $1 trillion. In essence, 16% of our entire economy is being...

Sales of new homes plunged 16.6% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 937,000, according to the Commerce Department. It is the the biggest percentage decline in 13 years. The median price of a new home was down 2.1% year-over-year, at $239,800...

U.S. home prices fell 0.7% in the fourth quarter, the fastest rate since 1992, and are up just 0.4% in the past year, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday..."Annual changes in home prices are either in decline, flat or yielding negative returns across all markets," ...

A federal appeals court has has ruled that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Nebraska)upheld the right of police to confiscate cash found in the rental car of Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" and neither accused nor convicted of any crime.

Mega homebuilder KB Home, in its most recent filing with the SEC, provides a good field report as to what is really going on in the housing market right now: declining sales, inventory build-up and higher cancellation rates

...because Ken Lay's case may still have been appealed, Lay's death expunges the conviction from his record. This means that any orders to vacate his wealth are annulled, and his family gets to keep millions of dollars that they likely would have lost had he gone to jail.

It is now an open secret that when President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12631 on March, 18, 1988, he formed a cabal of Washington-Wall Street insiders, officially known as, the Working Group on Financial Markets, unofficially referred to as, The Plunge Protection Team. The PPT’s goal is to do whatever is necessary to keep markets operating under any conditions and to act to maintain confidence in the financial system, whatever that takes. If the group thinks something is a threat to the financial system, they will do what is necessary to reverse the situation...Could it be that in the...

...Terrazas said her relationship with Ruiz soured after her return to the U.S. Ruiz became jealous when Terrazas accompanied another agent to nightclubs, she said, and he threatened to deport her...Despite the fact that locals now know she is in the U.S. illegally, Terrazas said, she still gets asked out by agents. One agent assured her that "my job is my job, and when I leave I can do what I want to do," she said. But Terrazas is not interested anymore. She said, "I don't trust any of them."

Congressmen John Conyers is demanding the censure of George Bush and Dick Cheney, and an investigation of possible impeachable offenses. "I am calling upon Congress to create a select committee similar to the Ervin Committee, which investigated President Nixon’s Watergate crimes. This select committee should investigate those offenses which appear to rise to the level of impeachment," Conyers said.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its closely watched Consumer Price Index dropped by 0.6 percent last month, the biggest monthly decline since a 0.9 percent fall in July 1949. Prices dropped for consumers in November, that is, unless they eat or sleep...

Newspaper columnist Robert Novak is still not naming his source in the Valerie Plame affair, but he says he is pretty sure the name is no mystery to President Bush. "I'm confident the president knows who the source is,"...

The former Russian tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now in prison in the far reaches of Siberia has learned a hard lesson about where real power exists. He now knows that all the propoganda about capitalists having power is just that propoganda. Perhaps it was his trip to the Siberian prison that taught him that a tycoon's power could never match the power of a government leader with a standing army...

Ephron threw this tidbit out about the first gate, Watergate, in her post: "Bob is not a liar. This isn’t to say that he hasn’t told a lie or two in the course of his life (there was a big whopper during the Deep Throat saga)." Ephron was once married to Woodward's Watergate reporting partner Carl Bernstein, so she may have good reason to know something here.

The January 2006 platinum contract has broken above $1,000 per ounce for the first time since 1980. The February Gold New York Mercantile contract has just broken above $500 per ounce...

At 7:30 PM tonight we will lie down again. Tonight, I won't get up when they tell me to. (I am, after all, reading the great libertarian Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience.) Neither will some others. Outside the presidential mansion, where so many war criminals live and work, we will probably be arrested.

I can see it happening. I can see some Republicans like Chuck Hagel and Walter Jones breaking ranks with the party line. We met with a Republican yesterday – I don't want to say his name because I don't want to scare him off – but he seems to be somebody we can work with.

The fine for "demonstrating without a permit" is $75.00. I won't pay it. My court date is November 16 th. Any lawyers who want to help me challenge an unconstitutional law?

These Wacky Bag Searches in New York City Am I the only one that gets this? New York police will conduct random searches of bags at New York City subway stations. But here is the key point as reported by the New York Times: At some of the busiest of the city's 468 stations, riders will be asked to open their bags for a visual check before they go through the turnstiles. Those who refuse will not be permitted to bring the package into the subway but will be able to leave the station without further questioning, officials said. From...

Chaunce Hayden, target of a subpoena into an investigation of possible insider trading in the stock of Sirius just before Howard Stern announced he would move his broadcast to the satellite network, ... told EDC that, "A protest outside the SEC building should occur for anybody who pays taxes, on the day I am scheduled to testify." "This is a waste of taxpayer money. It's ludicrous and shameful. It's just some people who want to get their name in the paper trying to take down a big name. It's Martha Stewart all over again." The SEC view seems to be...

"The University of Nevada administration has sided with a lesbian activist, who accused Hans of hateful speech..."