Free Republic

The stock market may be soaring to unprecedented heights, but things just continue to get even tougher for the middle class. In this economic environment, there is intense competition for virtually all kinds of jobs. For example, more than 1,600 applications were recently submitted for just 36 jobs at an ice cream plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. That means that those applying have about a 2 percent chance of being hired. About 98 percent of the applicants will be turned away. That is how tough things are in many areas of the country today. It is now more than five years...

For many years now national economic events have had little effect on the Alaska economy. Things have just kept clipping along at an even pace. But current events may change that. The combined effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, coupled with the continued drain on the federal budget from the Iraq war, may produce considerable weeping and gnashing of teeth in the 49th state on a scale not seen since the oil price crash of 1986. Just for starters, federal funding for the Knik Arm bridge in Anchorage and for the Gravina Island bridge in Ketchikan, a total of some...

With due respect to all that has been recently said about Arab economic power and demands that they assume an international political role, it is important for us to realize that emotional words are one thing and cold reality something else. Though we may have manufactured for ourselves the impressive motto, "Glory, Glory to the Arabs," it only feeds the illusion of non-existent power and a role of no importance. I have had the opportunity to look closely at the statement issued by the United Nation's Economic and Social Committee for Western Asia (ESCWA), following its conference in Beirut last...