Free Republic

The Sentinel has offered to let me publicly take responsibility for my recent building code violation. I appreciate that. Until very recently, I have had a tenant in a small room behind my house. Renting out this unit was not permitted under the city’s Building Code. As someone making rules about housing, I should not have been breaking the rules. This was a mistake. I am sorry.

With Donald Trump set for a yuuge victory in tomorrow's Super Tuesday slugfest - oddsmakers see 80% chance of Trump being the nominee - tensions are mounting dramatically within the Republican establishment. As The FT reports, many mainstream Republicans believe Mr Trump would struggle to beat Hillary Clinton and are urgently rallying around their man Rubio with some senior Republicans saying privately that they might consider voting for Mrs Clinton if Mr Trump were to end up as their party nominee as one conservative commentator exclaimed "we are on the verge of a real meltdown in the Republican party." Trump's...

HANAHAN, South Carolina -- 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald J. Trump tells reporters here that his pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee is now void because the Republican National Committee, along with local and state GOP factions, is stacking debate audiences with donor class officials. "The RNC is in default," Trump said at the press conference. "Just so you understand, the RNC is in default. When somebody is in default, that means the other side can do what they have to do. The RNC is in default." Trump's point is that the RNC has defaulted--through its actions against his...

n what appears to be an extraordinary snub of White House budget director Shaun Donovan, the Republican chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees announced on Thursday they would not host Donovan’s testimony on President Obama’s final budget submission next week. Obama will unveil his fiscal 2017 budget request next Tuesday, just barely meeting the statutory deadline for submitting a new budget to Congress. But Senate Budget Committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-WY) and House Budget Committee chief Tom Price (R-GA) issued a joint statement tonight saying Donovan wasn’t welcome to testify because the administration wasn’t serious about addressing the...

Federal Reserve Bank of New York officials secretly conducted real-time exercises during the 2011 and 2013 debt-limit crisis that demonstrated the federal government could function during a temporary shutdown by prioritizing spending, even as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew publicly claimed many times that such efforts were “unworkable,” according to a new report by the House Financial Services Committee obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The staff report, to be released Tuesday, charges that Lew and other Obama administration officials deliberately misled Congress and the public during the federal budget and debt limit showdowns in both years. The committee will...

Survey Reveals Bankers in China Fearing High Credit Risk By: Faraz Haleem Published: January 25, 2016 at 06:56 am EST The recent slowdown in the world's second largest economy has created several economic challenges, such as industries overcapacity and decline in manufacturing activities. The situation has mounted pressure on banking sector, owing to the rise in credit and default risks. China Banking Association (CBA) and PwC jointly released a survey; showing that 82% bankers believed that credit risk is high in industries with excess capacity. The industries include steel, iron, shipping, and cement, according to "China bankers' survey report (2015)",...

"...Daniel Yergin, founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said it is impossible for OPEC to knock out the US shale industry though a war of attrition even if large numbers of frackers fall by the wayside over coming months. Mr Yergin said groups with deep pockets such as Blackstone and Carlyle will take over the infrastructure when the distressed assets are cheap enough, and bide their time until the oil cycle turns. "The management may change and the companies may change but the resources will still be there," he told the Daily Telegraph. "It takes $10bn and five to...

The world's financial system has become dangerously unstable and faces an avalanche of bankruptcies that will test social and political stability, according to a leading global banker. William White, chairman of the OECD's review committee and former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements, suggests the stresses in the financial system are "worse than it was in 2007." Speaking with the UK Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, White warned that macroeconomic ammunition to fight further economic downturns was essentially "all used up."

The global financial system has become dangerously unstable and faces an avalanche of bankruptcies that will test social and political stability, a leading monetary theorist has warned. "The situation is worse than it was in 2007. Our macroeconomic ammunition to fight downturns is essentially all used up," said William White, the Swiss-based chairman of the OECD's review committee and former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). "Debts have continued to build up over the last eight years and they have reached such levels in every part of the world that they have become a potent cause for...

On Monday, we brought you "Saudi Default, Devaluation Odds Spike As Mid-East Careens Into Chaos," in which we outlined the jump in riyal forwards and widening of CDS spreads that Riyadh witnessed in the aftermath of the kingdom's move to cut diplomatic ties with Iran.In short: the market is getting worried that Riyadh is about to careen into crisis. In the face of slumping crude, the Saudis are staring down double digit budget deficits and the prospect of having to once again tap debt markets in order to offset the SAMA burn and keep the kingdom from having to...

<p>As Wilbur Ross so eloquently noted, for Puerto Rico "it's the end of the beginning... and the beginning of the end," as he explained "Puerto Rico is the US version of Greece." However, as JPMorgan explains, for some states the pain is really just beginning as Municipal bond risk will only become more important over time, as assets of some severely underfunded plans are gradually depleted.</p>

Puerto Rico's governor pressured Congress on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to win debt relief for his territory before the end of the year, warning that the island is headed toward a "humanitarian crisis under the United States flag." Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla lobbied lawmakers to oppose a massive year-end spending bill that fails to include the debt restructuring that Puerto Rico is seeking. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said Congress must act soon and he was hoping negotiators would change the bill, a step Republican leadership has ruled out. ...

When we presented America's new debt ceiling of $19.6 trillion lasting through March 2017 last week...  ... some took offense saying a debt ceiling deal is nowhere near done, and that the conservatives would at least put up a token fight. A few days later, the deal is virtually complete, the Freedom Caucus has been isolated, Paul Ryan never even got his hands dirty, and Boehner has caved one last time corporate/democratic prerogatives, precisely as we said would happen. Yes, the republicans will pretend to demand concessions, such as a balanced budet and other "sound money" conditions but they...

LARES, Puerto Rico – Ismael Rodriguez looked out on a nearly empty plaza from the clothing store he opened in 1960, now hemmed in by padlocked businesses in this mountain town in northwestern Puerto Rico... experiencing the deepest malaise of just about any community on this island in the depths of an economic crisis. "I have seen the destruction of a town," Rodriguez, 67, said as he gestured toward the plaza. "Look at all the shuttered stores." Lares has become emblematic of the economic stagnation that is overwhelming Puerto Rico, and those who live here believe it is a warning...

Puerto Rico is $72 billion in debt, and it will take a painful process to bring the island's finances back from the brink. It's a massive debt load for such a small territory, and the problem can really be traced to one issue — bad tax policy. After Puerto Rico let one tax break for manufacturers expire almost a decade ago, manufacturers started shutting down operations on the island. That caused a spike in unemployment. On top of that, business-friendly tax policies for some of the companies that remained allowed multinational giants to pay tax rates of little more than...

Puerto Rico just went into default for the first time in its history. The commonwealth paid a mere $628,000 toward a $58 million debt bill due Monday to creditors of its Public Finance Corporation. This will hurt the island's residents, not Wall Street. The debt is mostly owned by ordinary Puerto Ricans through credit unions. "This was a decision that reflects the serious concerns about the Commonwealth's liquidity in combination with the balance of obligations to our creditors and the equally important obligations to the people of Puerto Rico," Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank president Melba Acosta Febo said in...

Puerto Rico missed its first debt repayment on Monday, the first time the troubled US commonwealth has failed to pay its bills. The island paid just $628,000 toward a $58m debt due to creditors of its Public Finance Corporation. While the default was expected, it is likely to worsen the financial situation for the island as it struggles with debts estimated at $72bn.

Puerto Rico paid only $628,000 on a $58 million debt bill due Monday, putting the country into default for the first time. The country's Government Development Bank was supposed to make the full payment on its Public Finance Corporation debt service, but failed to do so. Moody's said it considers the lack of payment a default, CNBC reported. "Due to the lack of appropriated funds for this fiscal year the entirety of the PFC payment was not made today (the first business day after the Saturday deadline)," GDB President Melba Acosta-Febo said in a statement.

One evening three weeks ago in Kifissia, an affluent garden suburb of Athens, a retired financial adviser and his wife decided to take in one of the delights of summer here, an outdoor movie. They pulled tight the shutters, set the alarm, locked the house and strolled off. Halfway through the movie the alarm company called, and they rushed home to find the alarm immersed in a bucket of water, the shutters jimmied and a safe emptied of jewelry. The speed and sophistication of the crime were astonishing, the financial adviser’s wife said, still feeling vulnerable and not willing to...

UBS AG is backing away from its own Puerto Rico bond funds, warning clients that they can no longer use them as collateral for certain loans after the island's financial troubles resulted in downgrades by major credit rating agencies. In a July 13 letter to clients, reviewed by Reuters, UBS’ Puerto Rico arm said it would contact investors to discuss alternatives. “The firm will also reduce to zero the collateral value assigned to all Puerto Rico closed-end funds shares,” UBS wrote to investors. Puerto Rico’s Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla dropped a bombshell on holders of its $72 billion debt in...