Free Republic

Money supply growth fell again in April, plummeting further into negative territory after turning negative in November 2022 for the first time in twenty-eight years. April's drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. Since April 2021, money supply growth has slowed quickly, and since November, we've been seeing the money supply repeatedly contract—year-over-year— for six months in a row. The last time the year-over-year (YOY) change in the money supply slipped into negative territory was in November 1994. At that time, negative growth continued for fifteen months, finally turning...

THE Supreme Court has frequently handed down judgments that have shaken America to its core. Now, it has turned its attention to the raisin. A group of farmers has brought a complaint about the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, under which the government confiscates part of the annual national raisin crop. The Court is considering whether the arrangement is constitutional. But why is a country that generally celebrates red-blooded capitalism regulating the raisin trade in the first place?Since the 1940s a government agency called the Raisin Administrative Committee has confiscated a portion of the annual raisin crop: 47% in 2003 and...

Back in the depression era, FDR claimed that he could get the nation's economy moving again if only he had extended powers over farming, business and industry, like his buddy Stalin had. To that end, the Roosevelt administration designed a complete regulatory bureaucracy, with each agency to be controlled by little politburos and the politburos, in turn, overseen by a dictator in the White House. The problem was, the whole scheme was totally and completely unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court told the administration exactly that. So, FDR attacked the U.S. Supreme Court, threatening court packing and other unheard of...