Free Republic

Stop! Stop! Stop! … all the printing! These people have to be stopped! We are talking about the nation’s unhinged monetary politburo domiciled in the Eccles Building (The Federal Reserve), of course. It is bad enough that their relentless inflation of financial assets has showered the 1% with untold trillions of windfall gains, but their ultimate crime is that they lured the nation’s elected politician into a veritable fiscal trance. Consequently, future generations will be lugging the service costs on insuperable public debts for years to come. For more than two decades these foolish PhDs and monetary apparatchiks drove the...

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released the first photos of the pier under construction off the coast of Gaza which is intended to provide a means of getting aid to the war-torn region. "Construction of the floating JLOTS pier in the Mediterranean is underway," they wrote Monday:Pier-building beginsConstruction of the floating JLOTS pier in the Mediterranean is underway.The pier will support @USAID and humanitarian partners to receive and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. @USTRANSCOM and @USEUCOM support the movement of of #humanitarianaid. pic.twitter.com/tC9J12wz4Z— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 29, 2024JLOTS stands for "Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore."The pier was announced...

The University of Saint Katherine, a small nonprofit in North San Diego County, recently announced it will close May 18, citing “financial pressure due to unprecedented inflation and rising state-mandated labor costs.” It’s not alone. Nationwide, universities face financial hardships that appear to be getting worse. More than 100 colleges and universities have closed or merged, or announced plans to, over the last eight years, according to a tracker updated this month by Higher Ed Dive. The list, which does not include for-profit colleges and also omits mergers among public institutions, totals 108 since 2016. The closures span the spectrum...

Volodymyr Zelensky recently released a statement revealing that his regime and the government of Washington D.C. were in continued contact, “working on a bilateral security agreement” that would see “monetary aid” sent to Ukraine for an agreed-upon time of ten years.###Despite an individual’s personal feelings on the Russia-Ukraine war, the facts of the matter are that Ukraine is not a NATO country—and at this point, the cost-benefit analysis of being a member of the NATO pact is definitely not worth it for the American people—and Zelensky is not a good guy. This isn’t to say that Vladimir Putin is…but between...

The U.S. economy is showing signs of stagflation as growth slumps down and prices continue to surge for average Americans, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. U.S. annual economic growth measured just 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024, following a report of persistently high inflation in March of 3.5% year-over-year. The combination of both low growth and high inflation, in conjunction with continuously high amounts of government spending and debt, has led to signs of stagflation in the U.S. economy, which wreaked havoc on U.S. consumers throughout the 1970’s, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF. “It’s...

Joe Biden could barely eat his dinner at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And we think he is calling the shots in The White House?? Oh well. Perhaps it is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen or Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. In any case, Treasury bond issuance in 2024 is expected to hit $1.9 TRILLION. Surpassing levels seen even during the 2008 financial crisis. And with inflation, the US personal saving rate is near the lowest level since Obama (2010). And with the core inflation rate still higher than anytime since 2010, households are paying more for … everything...

The US debt and Federal spending is out of control. As is entitlement spending. In 2007, the U.S. national debt was below $10 trillion, and the budget deficit was about $160 billion. Federal spending was about $3 trillion, and interest payments were approximately $400 billion. Then the numbers spiraled out of control. Yet Biden/Congress keep shoveling money to Ukraine and leave our borders unsecured. Washington’s fiscal situation has drastically changed since then; total debt has surpassed $34 trillion, the annual budget shortfall exceeds $1 trillion, and interest costs have topped $1 trillion. David Walker, the former comptroller general of the...

S&P Global Ratings announced yesterday that it was changing its outlook on San Francisco's debt from stable to negative.The outlook on the city-county’s outstanding general obligation and appropriation debt was cut to negative from stable this week by the ratings company. The weakness in the city’s commercial real estate market and tourism activity were factors that drove the move, S&P said. Adding to the city’s burdens, San Francisco’s budget expenditures outpaced revenue growth in fiscal 2023.To be clear, the ratings agency hasn't downgraded the city's credit rating, which is still at "AAA," the highest possible. A downgrade in the credit...

Attorney generals for 17 Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over its latest student loan debt forgiveness plan, arguing it does not have the authority to wipe out student loan debt for an estimated 30 million Americans. Under Biden’s new effort, called the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, “borrowers who originally took out $12,000 or less in loans and have been in repayment for 10 years are eligible to get their remaining debt canceled,” an April 8 news release states. The SAVE plan would also forgive debt for “borrowers in public service for 10 years who have made...

Congress is facing the most significant and transformational opportunity to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) since the end of World War II. The heritage equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine for its self-defense in the face of the brazen and illegal invasion by Russian forces in 2022 needs to be replenished to ensure the United States is postured to continue to deter its adversaries. The new hardware will be produced at factories across the nation. Of the $113 billion appropriated by Congress to date related to the conflict in Ukraine, as much as $68 billion...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blasted the House for passing foreign aid bills, arguing Congress is spending money that “we don’t have” and that the U.S. should be focusing on securing its own borders instead. “We’re gonna further mortgage and plunder our children’s future, over $100 billion,” Johnson said during his Saturday morning appearance on NewsNation. “We spend close to $900 billion on defense, but every time there’s some kind of defense action seems like we need to do a supplemental.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “personally” grateful to “Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track” after Johnson shepherded a $61 billion Ukraine aid package through the House Saturday. The image of scores of Democrats waving Ukraine flags and cheering on the House floor as the bill passed will forever sting the conservatives from whose ranks Johnson rose, only to serve them with the ultimate betrayal.

In 1797, a year after revolutionary France abolished paper money following a disastrous inflationary experiment, U.S. President John Adams delivered a warning on government debt. “The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own,” Adams told Congress.

It’s practically an international article of faith: Countries may not default on their sovereign debt. Yet China has done just that on $1 trillion it owes to U.S. bondholders. Is there nothing we can do about it? Finding members of Congress willing to talk tough isn’t hard. Many resolutions and joint letters over decades have called for China to honor its debt to U.S. citizens. But too many members, their election coffers lined by Wall Street and other financial and business interests heavily exposed to China, leave it at that. OPINION>FINANCE THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND...

Moments like the one we live in now come along from time to time, providing the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past. For instance, key takeaways from the Deepwater Horizon incident of April 2010 and how they apply to today are clear except to those who deny them. On Apr. 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink into the deep and started a devastating oil leak from the well. Prior to it being capped three months afterward,...

Congressional Spending Goes Full WeimarIt has become a speculative game in the blogosphere to predict what black swan calamities could lead to a breakdown in civil order and the imposition of some form of martial law. Wars and rumors of war abound. We have already seen a container ship mysteriously knocking down a bridge and closing a key port. Other such scenarios include massive cyber-attacks that shut down the grid and block communication and transportation networks nationwide. The speculation on the variations of such events is virtually endless.However, one crisis is no black swan and is entirely expected, already happening,...

For Joe Biden, government spending has no bottom. There's always a student loan to 'forgive,' a green scheme to lose money on, or an illegal alien to offer a 'free' lifetime service package to. And bureaucrats to hire, lots and lots of bureaucrats... As a result the U.S. deficit has hit record levels. According to the Treasury Department:A deficit occurs when the federal government’s spending exceeds its revenues. The federal government has spent $1.06 trillion more than it has collected in fiscal year (FY 2024, resulting in a national deficit.And the national debt? The Treasury Department says:The national debt ($34.60...

@_wake_up_USA 🚨BREAKING: House Speaker Mike Johnson moves forward with a $95 billion dollar aid package, including funds for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. $61 Billion for Ukraine $26 Billion for Israel $8 Billion for Taiwan

The International Monetary Fund sounded the alarm on the Biden administration’s rampant spending as “out of line with what is needed for long-term fiscal stability.” The latest forecast from the IMF — a Washington-based group tasked with fighting financial crises worldwide — warned that the ballooning national debt and the fiscal deficit threatened to exacerbate sky-high levels of inflation while posing a long-term risk to the global economy. The IMF noted in its forecast that the US federal budget deficit grew from $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2022 to $1.7 trillion last year. ... The debt held by the public, which...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Tuesday that America’s recent economic performance is partially the result of the country’s unsustainable fiscal practices, creating risks for the global economy. “The exceptional recent performance of the United States is certainly impressive and a major driver of global growth, but it reflects strong demand factors as well, including a fiscal stance that is out of line with long-term fiscal sustainability,” the IMF wrote in its latest World Economic Outlook. “This raises short-term risks to the disinflation process, as well as longer-term fiscal and financial stability risks for the global economy since it risks...