Free Republic

The prospect of a Donald Trump return to the White House in 2024 poses a “fundamental” challenge to Europe, the leader of the world’s largest investment company warned Tuesday. The Daily Telegraph reports BlackRock vice chairman Philipp Hildebrand issued his caution from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. In doing so he added his voice to the swelling chorus from Europe that fears a Trump return to the world stage. The veteran Swiss banker said the re-election of the former U.S. president “would challenge Europe fundamentally” given Trump’s determination to embrace America First in matters...

Human life suddenly became less valuable when a "constitutional right" to abortion was created by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. Part of the worry from critics was that that very standard would be applied to seniors, too. In Colorado. which was a leader in the race to turn abortion into a national industry, the move to get rid of seniors also surged at that time. In fact, it was Colorado's governor, Dick Lamm, who shortly later proclaimed to senior citizens, "We've got a duty to die and get out of the way…" Now a report from The DCPatriot is...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that “what we learned from this COVID crisis” will be applied to climate change, sparking fears from some of future “climate lockdowns” that will restrict freedom of movement and consumption in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions.“Do you remember when we warned that covid lockdowns would segue into climate lockdowns?” obesity researcher Zoë Harcombe wrote on Twitter in response to a video clip of the comments.Marc Morano of Climate Depot, who highlighted the remarks on his website, expressed concern about the power that he thinks Trudeau and other world leaders may be seeking.“Declaring...

In an explosive legal complaint filed last month in Delaware, attorneys for a major Ukrainian bank alleged that two oligarchs who founded the bank and controlled it from 2006 to 2016 laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent corporate loans to purchase assets in the United States and unjustly enrich themselves and their associates. Dubbed the "Optima Schemes" in the 104-page document, these "brazen fraudulent schemes" were successful, among other things, in making the oligarchs and their co-defendants the largest commercial real estate holders in Cleveland. With money siphoned from public bonds and 20 million private Ukrainian citizens who'd...

Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual assault. The alleged victim had contacted Democratic members of Congress months ago anonymously with Democrats revealing the matter after Kavanaugh's nomination hearings ended.... In Sochi, Russia today President Vladimir Putin is meeting the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Syria..... Over the weekend a Russian general said that militants have moved canisters of chlorine into a village in Idlib in preparation for a false flag chemical attack that would be used to justify an attack on Syria by the US and allied nations..... Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman...

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Thursday urged policymakers to steer clear of all protectionist measures amid rising trade tensions between the United States and its major trading partners. "Trade restrictions have not been proven helpful and we suspect that they might even dent confidence," Lagarde said at a press conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, adding all countries should "work together to resolve disagreements without using exceptional measures." The spring meetings of the two leading international financial institutions come after the Trump administration recently announced additional tariffs on...

The world is swimming in a record $152 trillion in debt, the IMF said on Wednesday, even as the institution encourages some countries to spend more to boost flagging growth if they can afford it. Global debt, both public and private, reached 225 percent of global economic output last year, up from about 200 percent in 2002, the IMF said in its new Fiscal Monitor report. The IMF said about two thirds of the 2015 total, or about $100 billion, is owed by private sector borrowers, and noted that rapid increases in private debt often lead to financial crises. While...

...Abdullah, like other Saudi royals, had numerous wives — at least seven, and perhaps as many as 30. He had at least 15 daughters. Four of them, according to news reports, live under house arrest.... Fayez claims her daughters’ supposed incarceration, which has gone on for some 13 years, was both a mark of Abdullah’s vindictive streak and intolerance of his daughters’ modern, independent upbringing. She says the four have been locked away for more than a decade, subject to abuse and deprivation. Last year, various news stations managed to reach Sahar, 42, and Jawaher, 38, who live in a...

We don’t like to concede that a primary cause of the financial crisis was a Wall Street compensation system that rewarded executives, bankers and traders for taking big risks with other people’s money without holding them the least bit accountable. And because we don’t like to discuss such things in polite company, it is certainly unsurprising that six years later, not a single fundamental aspect of how Wall Street pays its top people has changed. The incentive system that handed out millions of dollars in bonuses to bankers and traders who packaged shoddy mortgages into securities and sold them as...

Eurozone in danger of repeating Japanese stagnation, IMF chief warns By Benjamin Fox BRUSSELS - International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde has warned that the eurozone risks following Japan and falling into a prolonged cycle of recession and stagnation. Speaking on Thursday (9 October) ahead of the IMF's annual meeting in Washington DC, Lagarde said: “We have also alerted to the risk of recession in the eurozone", putting the likelihood of a drop in output at "between 35-40%, which is not insignificant". “We are not saying that the eurozone is heading towards recession, but we are saying that there is...

Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, was placed under official investigation for negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days as France’s finance minister. In a statement Wednesday after a fourth round of questioning before magistrates, Lagarde said she would return to her work in Washington later in the day and said the decision was “without basis.” She is the third IMF managing director in a decade to face legal troubles. …

One of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s most important duties is watching his mouth. One ill-considered utterance is enough to sow panic on the financial markets. But during a press conference earlier this month, Draghi allowed himself a telling slip. Speaking to gathered journalists at the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Draghi twice almost uttered a word he has been at pains to avoid. “Defla…”, Draghi began, before stopping himself and continuing with the term “low inflation.”Yet despite Draghi’s efforts, the specter of deflation was omnipresent in Washington during the meetings. And it...

The chief of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] says the U.S. government’s stalemate over spending and its debt limit is “very, very concerning” and could roll back economic progress around the world. Christine Lagarde, who took over the financial watchdog-and-rescue organization in 2011, said global finance ministers assembled for meetings in Washington last week feeling like Japan had finally turned the corner and that economies in the U.S. and Europe were on the upswing. “And then they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They found out that the government...

The U.S. federal budget cuts are an inappropriate measure that will weigh on potential growth, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday, urging Washington to present "credible" fiscal plans. In its annual check of the health of the U.S. economy, the IMF forecast economic growth would be a sluggish 1.9 percent this year. The IMF reckons growth would be as much as 1.75 percentage points higher if not for the rush to cut the government's budget deficit. While the budget cuts that took hold on March 1 do not appear to be hitting government payrolls directly so far, some economists...

French police have searched the Paris apartment of IMF chief Christine Lagarde, as they investigate her role in awarding financial compensation to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008. As finance minister, she referred his long-running dispute with bank Credit Lyonnais to an arbitration panel, which awarded him 400m euros (£340m) damages. Mr Tapie was a supporter of ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy. Critics say she abused her authority but Ms Lagarde denies any wrongdoing. "This search will help uncover the truth, which will contribute to exonerating my client from any criminal wrongdoing," Ms Lagarde's lawyer, Yves Repiquet, told the Reuters news agency. The...

The Eurogroup reached on Friday night an unprecedented decision for bailing out Cyprus that dictates a haircut on all bank accounts on the island’s banks with immediate effect, while cash withdrawals are not allowed for the time being, generating unrest. Along with loans adding up to 10 billion euros from the European Support Mechanism, Cyprus will have to find another 7-7.5 billion euros from privatizations and from a 6.75 percent one-off haircut on all bank accounts with a balance up to 100,000 euros, rising to 9.9 percent on accounts exceeding 100,000 euros. Already bank customers are gathering outside major and...

Good morning. It is a great pleasure to be here. I would like to thank the Center for Global Development for sponsoring this event. The Center does really great work under the inspiring leadership of Nancy Birdsall. Thank you, Nancy. It has been twenty years since world leaders first went to Rio to commit to the noble goal of protecting the planet for future generations. And now, twenty years on, we will be journeying back to Rio to affirm our commitment to sustainable development—the idea that we should strive for economic growth, environmental protection and social progress at the same...

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that the global economy is entering a "dangerous new phase" on Friday, ahead of the G7 summit in Marseilles, France. ... "The world is collectively suffering from a crisis of confidence, in the face of a deteriorating economic outlook and rising concerns about the health of sovereigns and banks." Her speech at Chatham House in London came after a turbulent week for the markets, with the focus on sovereign debt issues

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund's new chief foresees "real nasty consequences" for the U.S. and global economies if the U.S. fails to raise its borrowing limit. Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the global lending institution, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would cause interest rates to rise and stock markets to fall. That would threaten an important IMF goal, which is preserving stability in the world economy, she said.

During a press conference on February 12, 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF). The panelists, described below, will work together to mobilize the financial resources for climate change that were pledged at the Copenhagen Summit. The group’s objectives include developing practical proposals to significantly scale-up both short-term and long-term financing for mitigation and adaptation strategies in developing countries, in particular by jump-starting the mobilization of new and innovative resources to reach $100 billion annually by 2020,High-Level Panel ProfilesChristine Lagarde...Christine Lagarde Christine Lagarde made history as the first female chairman of the...