Free Republic

As to the missing cornerstone, this is a fascinating and little known part of history. Together with the cornerstone of the Capital, which is thought to have gone missing as well, the answer for this mystery has to do with the growth of the United States as it pertains to the relocation of the nation's capital. Major stuff! Just a little bit of early American history will help fill in the blank as to how this strangely unique question of why the cornerstones went missing has held significance throughout the years. Presidents have tried to answer this. Again, the destiny...

Australia may follow US president Donald Trump’s lead and move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Scott Morrison, Australia’s new prime minister, said on Tuesday he was “open to” following the move, describing it as a “sensible” proposal.

Following the social unrest over Confederate flags, statues and symbols in 2015, a lot of southerners and their supporters around the country were rather unhappy with the results. (Regular readers already know you can count me among their ranks.) One of the most high-profile battles in that struggle took place at the capitol in South Carolina. There, the Confederate Battle Flag was finally lowered for the last time on July 10th of that year. Now, three years later, the flag is flying again… at least for a few hours. Some sons (and daughters) of the South are raising a temporary...

They said it wouldn't happen, but it did: The money companies stashed overseas to protect them from high U.S. corporate tax rates is flooding back in, boosting growth, jobs and confidence in the economy. Thank the Trump tax cuts. All told, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported, some $305.6 billion returned to the U.S. from overseas accounts. That's a $1.2 trillion annual rate, and far more than the $35 billion one year before. The BEA's analysts explain why this happened: "The large magnitudes (of inward capital flows) ... reflect the repatriation of accumulated earnings by foreign affiliates of U.S....

In the UK Prime Minister Theresa May said she would challenge the country's closest ally. 'I'm intending to speak to President Trump about this matter,' May told MPs. 'Our position has not changed, it has been a long standing one and it is also a very clear one. 'It is that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states.'

Semyon Dukach is a serial entrepreneur. In 1997, he started Fast Engines, a company that produced performance enhancing software for online apps. He sold it for $35 million in 2000 — when he owned a nearly 50 percent stake in the company, according to Forbes. Then, he became a prominent angel investor and went on to lead TechStars Boston, the most prestigious startup accelerator in town. Now, he’s working on a new project, One Way Ventures — a venture capital fund specifically for immigrant founders. BostonomiX caught up with Dukach to talk about One Way, the challenges facing immigrant entrepreneurs...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLNiUzJfsQ President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Defense Department, General (ret.) James Mattis told a congressional confirmation committee on Thursday that he believes that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, should be considered the capital of Israel. Mattis, who in the past criticized the Jewish state over “settlements” in Judea and Samaria and warned the country was at risk of turning into an “Apartheid” state, appeared to deviate from the stated policy of the incoming Trump administration, which has indicated it plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. When asked Thursday by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham what...

President-elect Donald Trump's team is moving ahead with plans to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel out of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although diplomats and officials are ramping up warnings against the move. CNN reported speculation in Israel is the U.S. will announce the move May 24, a national holiday in that country. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama renewed a waiver that blocks the move for six months. Allies have said moving the embassy could ramp up violence. "It's very dangerous," one European diplomat told CNN. "Chances for the peace process are going very quickly — it's now or...

President-elect Trump won't get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration. "The short answer is no," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "You have one president at a time." Obama's team invoked that axiom to justify high-profile foreign policy actions in recent weeks, notably his decisions to sanction Russia over the election year cyberattacks and to allow the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli settlement construction. Kirby's statement extended that principle to barring any aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to...

No matter what you thought of the U.S. election results, the new incoming Administration will impact the venture capital (VC) and private equity investment marketplace in the U.S. for many players – from founders of U.S. companies and founders of international startups looking to enter the U.S. marketplace to the funds themselves. How might a Trump Administration’s priorities impact venture capital and private equity investments in startups? The short answer, of course, is no one really knows. However, given the election results, the changes will likely be profound. At the transition team level, the transition officials have brought in Peter...

Economist, radio host, and CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow appeared on Breitbart News Daily Friday morning to discuss economic issues in the presidential race, including his support for Donald Trump’s economic platform, with some disagreement about the best way to handle unfair Chinese trade practices.

If conventional labor and finance capital have lost their scarcity value, then the era in which financialization reaped big profits is ending. Why is wealth/income inequality soaring? The easy answer is of course the infinite greed of Wall Street fat-cats and the politicos they buy/own. But greed can't be the only factor, for greed is hardly unknown in the bottom 90%. The only difference between the guy who took out a liar loan to buy a house he couldn't afford so he could flip it for a fat profit and the mortgage broker who instructed him on how to scam...

Amid Russia’s economic woes, billions of dollars continue to disappear in offshore havens. The net outflow of capital from Russia reached $32.6 billion during the first quarter of 2015, according to the nation’s Central Bank. The bank is now forecasting that capital flight may reach $131 billion by the end of the year. In reporting first quarter numbers, the Central Bank also upwardly revised the 2014 figure for net capital outflow to $154.1 billion from the previously reported $151.5 billion. That figure marks the highest annual total of capital flight since the Central Bank started tracking the trend back in...

Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida have released a blueprint for federal tax reform called “The Economic Growth and Family Fairness Tax Plan.” First, we should not embrace the language of progressive socialism in believing tax reform should have as a goal to advance “family fairness.” The plan should simply be entitled “The American Growth and Opportunity Plan.” That said, the Lee-Rubio plan is a great improvement over the current system. For the individual tax structure, the plan introduces a two-tier system to replace the current seven tax brackets. This plan moves America from a...

The questioner (Rep. Richard Shelby, R AL) just asked Mrs. Yellen if foreign banks operating in the US were held to the same capital standards as US banks. She responded [paraphrase] that "we have asked foreign banks to create holding companies in the US to contain their US operations"...Meaning that, apparently, such banks are not held to the same capitalization standards (6 years into the Great Financial Crisis) and have therefore a competitive advantage.

Fierce fighting has gotten closer and closer to Baghdad, with some reports saying the Islamic State is within one mile of the city limits.

Walid Shoebat posted this on Sunday and this is big: Listen up folks. The most prominent spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood is none other than Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and this Sunday he declared that Turkey is where the Caliphate will be established. In an interview with TV Turkia Qaradawi declared that: “We came to Turkey to assess the Fourth Assembly of the Union of Muslim Scholars in Istanbul, capital of the Islamic Caliphate!”

As a boy, my brother used to keep baseball statistics.  Pages and pages of stats, all kinds of things, stuff that today you can get online.  He also kept track of the greyhounds that raced at the local dog track, again with lots of statistics.  He didn’t bet (actually he was a lead-out who was allergic to the dogs, so he didn’t do it long), but just loved working with numbers. It is only natural that my brother got a degree in Economics.  I minored in Economics myself. Thomas Piketty has a Ph.D. in Economics, and studied Mathematics.  I...

We are seeing the most dangerous trend ever. There is an agenda behind the curtain and that is to sustain government at all costs and that includes everything you own. I have warned that either government will move toward a totalitarian state or to real democracy – real Athens style without the career politicians. The latter is possible with civil unrest as we saw in Ukraine. This agenda requires no secret group of sinister corporations, Rockefellers, Rothschilds, or Bildebergs. This is plain old Adam Smith where those in government will never admit they are wrong so the reason they are...

When Toyota announced that it was moving its U.S. headquarters from California to Texas, some were surprised, but everyone understood why. Because of its high taxes and regulations, California ranks among the worst states in the nation in which to do business, and a move from California would have an immediate positive impact on Toyota USA's bottom line. And Toyota is only the latest.There are certainly costs involved in moving a business, including disruptions to the lives of its employees. But the migration of businesses from antagonistic states like California and New York to business-friendly states like Texas suggests that,...