Free Republic

Millions of California taxpayers will get “inflation relief” payments after lawmakers have reached an agreement on the framework of the 2022-23 budget. The deal also suspends the state's sales tax on diesel. The framework includes giving 23 million Californians direct payments of up to $1,050. The payments would be issued via direct deposit refunds or debit cards to tax filers by late October. Single filers who make less than $75,000 would get $350. Joint filers with an income under $150,000 would receive $700. If they have at least one dependent, they will receive an additional $350. So for example, that...

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that she “was wrong” about inflation and that while “unanticipated and large shocks to the economy” are a part of the reason, she also “didn’t fully understand” supply bottlenecks that have hurt the economy. Yellen reacted to clips of her downplaying the inflation threat in 2021 by stating, “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices, and supply bottlenecks...

What was the first thing you learned in that Econ 101 class that you were required to take in school? My guess is that the professor explained "supply and demand." My professor was a wonderful gentleman from Korea who explained it so beautifully: less candy, you pay more for candy. He said something similar the next week: less beer, you pay more for beer, and then the class couldn't stop laughing. Candy or beer, but we got it!Want to understand why you are paying more for gasoline? Let's check what Katie Pavlich wrote this week:According to the U.S. Energy Information...

A California longshoreman, who works at California’s San Pedro Bay Port Complex, reportedly said the labor unions are exascerbating the supply chain crisis. Identified as Alfred to Yahoo News, the longshoreman blamed Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) for “cutting the work” at the port, which is increasing the jam of containers stuck at sea and on the docks. “They’re [PMA] the ones who are not training: skilled positions. [That] means crane operators, top handler drivers, trans drivers,” said Alfred. “They’re the ones who are keeping the ships out there at sea anchored.” Despite the delays and mounting shipping costs American families...

PORTLAND, Ore. — It's been one week since federal pandemic unemployment benefits ended. In the days following, restaurants across Portland tell KATU News they saw a spike in people looking for work. The owner at Chef's Table said his team is seeing about 50% more applicants, but this comes at a time when there are still many jobs to fill. "This is a welcome influx, but I think the people that are coming back in and applying again are going to find out, or know already, that there are massive job openings and we need this level of applications and...

Angry employers fired back at President Biden for telling a restaurant owner Wednesday night at a CNN townhall that he should raise wages to address the labor shortage. Biden seemed to acknowledge the impact of federal unemployment benefits on the shortage, but he told the restaurant owner, John Lanni, that people aren't working in restaurants because they're considering "other opportunities" for employment. Restaurant owners on Thursday didn't like Biden's reponse, contending it showed how little he understands about running a business and the country's labor crisis, DailyMail.com reported. Twenty-six states have ended the federal benefits and already have seen a...

Democrats don’t trust free markets, preferring to use the power of government to control the economy. And they don’t understand basic laws of supply and demand. Appearing on CNN this morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a good illustration of that distrust and ignorance. Cuomo kvetched about the reduction in the corporate tax rate contained in the tax bill. He claimed that the bill wound up being a benefit to the rich corporations, and that: “[Republicans] hope the rich corporations will then give it to the workers as a matter of their largesse. But if they actually wanted to...

A new minimum wage study suggests Seattle's quest for a $15 minimum wage may not be completely painless. Not all is rosy in Seattle as the city gradually pushes to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, according to a new study that suggests hiring and the number of hours worked among lower-wage employees took a hit last year as minimum pay rose. The National Bureau of Economic Research unveiled a working paper on Monday that found the number of hours worked in low-skill professions dropped more than 9 percent in Seattle during the first three quarters of last...

Nearly 9,000 Starbucks Corp workers and supporters have signed an online petition saying that the company has made "extreme labor cuts" at U.S. cafes, hurting employee morale as well as customer service. Some employees said new technology that allows customers to order and pay from mobile devices is putting additional pressure on employees at some stores. "Mobile orders have increased sales and created more need for labor, yet the company is cutting labor," wrote Makenna S., identified as a shift supervisor. Like other restaurants and retail companies, Starbucks is wrestling with the effects of local minimum wage increases. Some petition...

Unifor, Canada's newest union, has called for the minimum wage in Ontario to be increased to $14 per hour. Unifor also endorsed the concept of a "living wage," which is a wage sufficient to allow a family of four, with two wage-earners, to pay for the basic necessities of family life. Unifor says studies have estimated the living wage in Ontario to be around $18 per hour, "and so increasing the statutory minimum to $14 must be only the first step of a broader strategy required to ensure all Ontario workers can enjoy decent living standards." The super-union - comprising...

Fast-food workers in more than 50 cities Thursday are striking for fair pay and the right to form a union — the biggest walkout to hit the industry. What can we do to address this low-wage jobs crisis? Exerting pressure on the fast-food and retail giants that rake in billions in profits is a good starting point. These companies can afford to share more of their wealth with their frontline workers and should be doing so. Boosting wages for America’s lowest-paid workers is a crucial step toward reducing economic inequality and rebuilding a strong economy. Perhaps 50 years from now,...

Move over, Reverend Al. You're not the only MSNBC host who moonlights as a liberal activist. On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski announced that she will be not merely be covering a pay protest by fast-food workers in Detroit on August 29th--she'll be an active part of it. Joe Scarborough tried—in vain—to school Mika on Econ 101. But she did the equivalent of covering her ears and nattering "nah, nah, nah: can't hear you!" Scarborough said he'd be at the protest--on the sidelines, with a bullhorn. View the video here.

I was pulling my hair out Saturday next door in the neighbor's yard as this bleeding heart liberal democratic lawyer tore me apart in front of his 25 year old son and his friends. They could not believe that I was against Obamacare. One 25 year old kid asked me why I would be against something that is "FREE"? I was on the grass rolling around laughing. After I questioned we discovered that he worked and has a car. I asked him if it was okay to take money from him to by my two sons cars, because they do...

Many Wall Street Occupiers are echoing the Communist Party USA's call to "Save the nation! Tax corporations! Tax the rich!" There are other Americans, on both the left and the right — President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, for example — who call for reductions in corporate taxes. But the University of California at Berkeley's pretend economist Robert Reich disagrees, saying, "The economy needs two whopping corporate tax cuts right now as much as someone with a serious heart condition needs Botox." Let's look at corporate taxes and ask, "Who pays them?" Virginia has a car tax. Does the...

We don't need to ask the wizards of the Ivy League why Obamanomics is not working. Everything we need to know can be explained with lemonade and cookies. Or more specifically, a couple of news items from the last few days involving lemonade and cookies pretty well demonstrates why the economy is doing well in a few select places while being in the tank overall. Two little anecdotes define conservative versus liberal economic thinking, not to mention the inevitable failure of the Obama regime.First, in Bethesda, Maryland parents were fined 500 dollars when their kids had the temerity to run...

In the course of arguing that our real national debt is around $130 trillion — as opposed to the official number of $14.7 trillion — I have frequently encountered the argument that I’m wrong to include unfunded entitlement liabilities in the total. Here’s a typical example from the comments to this post: Kevin Williamson, expected spending 75 years in the future, based on current policies and projects that are certain to change anyway, is NOT debt. No amount of calling it “debt” or calling it “our REAL debt” changes that fact. Project funding gaps are not debt. DEBT is debt....

An insight into how liberals and conservatives differ not just in politics but also ways of thinking.

Business execs arrested for refusing to cut prices By Angus Shaw ASSOCIATED PRESS July 9, 2007 HARARE, Zimbabwe – Police arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices by 50 percent, the official media reported yesterday. The mandated price cuts ordered more than two weeks ago are a desperate attempt to confront inflation that has spun out of control during Zimbabwe's economic crisis. The falling prices have caused stampedes, panic buying and near-riots. Among those arrested in the latest sweep were the directors of Edgars, a leading clothing and...

WASHINGTON -- With Democrats plotting to make the minimum wage a major issue in this fall's congressional races, House Republican leaders are conceding that they may have to yield to pressure for an increase to the federal standard, which has been frozen for nearly a decade. Faced with elections that could cost them control of Congress, John A. Boehner, the House majority leader, acknowledged Thursday that Republican leaders are likely to reverse course and hold a vote on a proposed minimum wage increase. Though Boehner said it was a ``cynical ploy" for Democrats to make it a campaign centerpiece, polls...

(CNN) -- Amid rising gas and oil prices, a leading Republican said on Sunday that the U.S. government should consider imposing a windfall tax on oil company profits. "I think it's something worth considering among a number of options," Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN's "Late Edition." He also criticized consolidation in the oil industry. "I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," he said, citing the combinations that created ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Specter said that after the chief executives of top oil companies testified in Congress last...