Free Republic

Shares in China Evergrande, the massively indebted property developer, fell back to all-time lows on reports that its chairman and founder has been arrested. Hui Ka Yan, who started the company in 1996, was taken away by police earlier this month and is being monitored at a designated location, Bloomberg reported.

The Trump administration has been mulling ways to get more Americans married and having kids — including a $5,000 “baby bonus” for every new mom after delivery, according to a report. White House officials have recently been brainstorming plans to tackle the declining birth and marriage rates — and push more Americans toward the traditional family values of Trump and his allies. Policy experts and advocates for boosting the birth rate have been meeting with White House aides to come up with plans to convince more women to have babies, four people who have been part of the meetings told...

Beyond etymology, Good Friday can be called “good” because of the results of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice was a demonstration of God’s love for us (Romans 5:8). Through Jesus’ death, we can have peace with God: “While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). As 1 Peter 3:18 says, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God” (NLT).

Millions of student loan borrowers are expected to see their credit scores drop by summertime, reversing progress made under pandemic-era protections that lifted credit scores but expired last year.New York Fed research released Wednesday found that over 9 million borrowers with past-due balances could see "significant" decreases in their credit scores. The warning comes after many student loan borrowers' credit scores increased during the period of federal student loan forbearance, which temporarily suspended payment requirements and interest during the COVID-19 crisis. The typical borrower's score jumped 11 points in 2020, rising from 662 to 673.Ads by Money. We may be...

Debt, illegals, outsourcing -- the United States is heading for a catastrophic fall. Trump understands this. Middle-class America is rapidly going the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. And California, where mansions and homeless people abound, is the template Democrats want to bring to America as a whole. Because it suits their needs. Big money donors and poor people in crisis who think they need ‘compassionate’ Democrats’ help. The ‘American Dream’ was that any normal person who worked hard and saved could have a house and a relatively comfortable — and meaningful — life, expecting to live better...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries extended heavy losses on Wednesday in a sign investors are selling even their safest assets as a global market rout unleashed by U.S. tariffs takes an unnerving turn towards distress and a dash for the safety of cash. "This is beyond fundamentals right now. This is about liquidity," said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, the globe's benchmark safe-haven anchor, was up 20 basis points and rising in Asia - a remarkable move in a time zone where it's usually fairly steady. At 4.46% the yield is...

If Republicans like Tillis actually care about lowering Americans’ cost of living, they should slash the federal budget they’ve spent years ballooning.It’s been less than a week since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff blitz against foreign nations, and Republicans on Capitol Hill are already in full-on freakout mode. Throughout the past several days, GOP members of Congress have run to their favorite legacy media talking heads to express their supposed concerns that the president’s tariff policies could result in higher costs of living for everyday Americans. The latest example of this came on Tuesday, when Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., while...

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged a first ever $1 trillion defense budget proposal on Monday, a record sum for the military. Trump, during a press event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the upcoming budget would be “in the vicinity” of $1 trillion Hegseth went further in an X post on Monday evening, saying Trump “is rebuilding our military — and FAST.” “COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar @DeptofDefense budget,” Hegseth posted from his personal account. “(PS: we intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely — on lethality and readiness).” The number would be a...

Let us be honest: When most people hear "tariffs," they think about price hikes and trade wars. But the Trump administration’s latest tariff rollout is not merely a knee-jerk protectionist move—it is part of a far broader strategy.

Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ-01) raised an alarm about what he believes is the oncoming fiscal demise of the U.S. in a speech from the House floor. Schweikert explained that a simple series of calculations “point to a shrinking labor force, and lack of young people in our society, and the reality that in 8 years, the United States will have MORE deaths than births,” citing the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CBO estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using established "extraordinary measures" will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025. https://t.co/xqAdGulBoX— U.S. CBO...

Sen. Rand Paul has a reputation for forcing his GOP colleagues to take tough votes, and he’s already got a zinger in mind as the Senate prepares for another all-night “vote-a-rama” on Friday.Before Senate Republicans can adopt their revamped budget framework, the Kentucky Republican plans to offer just one amendment: a proposal to substantially shrink the GOP’s current plan to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion under the party-line package they’re trying to clear this year to cut taxes, boost military budgets, ramp up border security spending and more. Instead, Paul’s amendment would allow Republicans to clear a $500...

The US Congressional Budget Office is warning that the federal deficit has hit a point of no return. It is far too late to cut wasteful government spending. Politicians have kicked the can down the road for far too long and left us with a financial system held up through perpetual borrowing that cannot be reversed. The CBO’s long-term forecast shows the federal deficit rising to 7.3% of GDP by 2055, but the figure is currently at 6.2% as of 2025 and this is an optimistic report. In contrast, the 30-year average from 1995 to 2024 was 3.9% of GDP....

The Treasury General Account (TGA), essentially the US government's checking account, now has just $280 billion left for disbursing funds for Social Security checks, government salaries and other crucial programs millions of Americans rely on. The last time the Treasury's coffers dwindled this low was in 2023 when the US breached the debt ceiling, a legal limit set by Congress on how much the government can borrow to pay its bills. By May of that year, the TGA, which is managed by the Federal Reserve, was down to just $37 billion. Social Security, healthcare and military spending alone would lead...

Elon Musk announced he will leave his role in the Trump administration at the end of May after leading a $1 trillion deficit reduction as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE claims it has saved Americans $130 billion so far. Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday announced that he plans to step down from his role in the Donald Trump administration at the end of May after overseeing a massive $1 trillion reduction in the US deficit. Musk, who was brought in as a “special government employee” for a 130-day term, has been spearheading government cost-cutting efforts...

The previous version of the deal was not signed because of a verbal spat between Vladimir Zelensky and US leaders at the White House MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Ukraine will not recognize Washington’s military aid as a debt, Vladimir Zelensky said at a briefing. A new US-Ukraine draft agreement on natural agreements stipulates that Kiev should compensate for all the aid, which may exceed $120 bln, the European Pravda news outlet reported, citing a copy of the document. "Ukraine has received the new draft agreement on natural resources from the US, which is totally different from the previous framework agreement....

Investors abroad sold longer term Treasuries for three consecutive months, a sign of central bankers reducing their reliance on the U.S. as a financial buffer. In January, foreigners sold a net $13.3 billion of U.S. notes and bonds that had more than one year to maturity, the latest Treasury data show. It comes after $49.69 billion was sold in December, following sales of $34.41 billion in the month of U.S. elections, November. Global central banks represent a big chunk of foreign demand. Before the back-to-back net selling of the world’s safest debt, foreigners had kept buying for 15 straight months....

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio on Wednesday warned that a significant supply-demand problem regarding U.S. debt could have a profoundly disruptive impact on the global economy. It is the latest in a series of stark warnings about America’s mounting debt from the U.S. hedge fund billionaire, with the country’s national debt currently standing at more than $36.2 trillion. “The first thing is the debt issue, we have a very severe supply-demand problem,” Dalio told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore. ”[The U.S. has] to sell a quantity of debt that the world is not going to want to buy.”...

Samaritan’s Purse has confirmed that $19 million in frozen USAID funds has been released to the ministry. Payments to the North Carolina-based evangelical aid organization had been stalled since January, when President Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all federal foreign aid. News of the release follows the Supreme Court’s March 5 ruling that the Trump administration must unfreeze nearly $2 billion for foreign humanitarian work already completed at the government’s behest. “The funding grants that Samaritan’s Purse has with USAID are reimbursement agreements,” said Samaritan’s Purse President and CEO Franklin Graham in a statement to MinistryWatch. “We pay for...

American households have been unable to pay off their debts. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently reported that household debt has reached a new all-time high at $18.04 TRILLION. Americans acquired an additional $93 billion in outstanding payments during Q4 of 2024, with half of this debt finding its way onto high interest credit cards. Credit card debt has also reached a record high at $1.21 trillion. I reported in January that credit card defaults his a 14-year high after skyrocketing by 50% in a one-year period. Donald Trump said during his campaign that he would like to...

President Donald Trump's goal is to eliminate taxes for people earning less than $150,000 per year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said. "I know what his goal is — no tax for anybody making under $150,000 a year. That's what I'm working for," Lutnick told CBS News on Wednesday. He said that major tax cuts could be implemented without causing spiraling national debt through tackling overseas tax fraud. Why It Matters The proposal to remove taxes for people earning less than $150,000 per year would impact the vast majority of Americans. In 2022, around 93 percent of Americans aged 15...