Free Republic

Russia’s top banker has called on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, warning that the four-year-old conflict is dragging the country into economic collapse. German Gref, head of the state-controlled Sberbank, said ordinary Russians are increasingly feeling the economic effects of the war, which are being worsened by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries. “I think we are all worried about the same thing. I don’t believe there is anyone in this country whose primary concern is anything other than an end to military hostilities as soon as possible,” Gref told state TV on Tuesday, as reported...

In the choice between thriving capitalism and over-taxed regulatory hell, money speaks louder than Eurocratic political hype. The American economy is leaving Europe behind. It is happening in real time, and nothing can stop it. America has chosen the future; Europe has chosen its own demise. This is not just a slogan. It is the cold, hard truth visible in stack upon stack of economic statistics. The fact that Europe’s political leadership remains blind, deaf, and willfully ignorant of the economic decline of their continent is one of history’s many self-imposed tragedies. Few numbers are as devastating to a nation’s...

Wages and salaries for U.S. workers make up the smallest share of economic output in history, according to records going back to 1947. The U.S. as a whole gets more prosperous every year—but less and less of that prosperity is showing up in workers' paychecks. That's according to fresh analysis by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In a blog post on Wednesday, the researchers highlighted the declining share of the nation's economic output going to workers in the form of wages and salaries, as opposed to corporate profits and capital. Why have workers taken home a...

Ten years following the landmark vote, the EU's former Brexit negotiator said the bloc's door is open to the UK, but that London "cannot cherry-pick" EU policies. Former European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told Euronews that it is up to the United Kingdom to decide whether it would want to rejoin the bloc, but that Brussels has made its conditions clear. His comments come ten years after the UK voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%, and at a time when polling shows a clear majority of the British public, across party lines, views doing so as...

Jack Clark discusses Anthropic's regulatory fights, the possibility of recursive self-improvement, and how AI could reshape the economy.Today's guest is He's the co-founder of the artificial intelligence company behind Claudeand the head of its newly launched , a forum designed to think through the philosophical, political, and practical challenges that AI poses to society. Nick Gillespie talks with Clark, a former tech journalist at and , about his company's with the Trump administration; whether Anthropic should have held back Mythos, its superpowerful version, from general release; and what might happen if and when AI becomes fully capable of "," or...

“The Social Security Administration recently gave us their annual report with a few blockbuster footnotes. We all know that Social Security as it is currently constructed will run out of money in the early 2030s. Social Security’s cost has exceeded its non-interest income since 2010. Since then, payments have been made out of the so-called trust fund. Except the trust fund does not hold cash. The money was borrowed by the rest of the federal government to cover other spending, and the government now owes it back.”

Subtraction, not addition, is emerging as the central threat to Republicans in the 2026 election. Polls suggest that’s a greater danger for the GOP than the possibility that Democrats will add a big cache of new votes... “When both parties are viewed negatively, you are probably going not to see a lot of new voters,” said Texas-based GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak, with a view widely shared on both sides. Instead, this year’s result could turn on which side suffers greater falloff among the voters who backed it in 2024. And all signs so far indicate that Republicans now face the...

Dow Jones Industrial Average Last Updated: Jun 15, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. EDT 51,907.71 Up 705.45 1.39% Previous Close 51,202.26 Day Range: 51,364 to 51,927

In a post back in January, commenting on the November 2025 off-year elections, I remarked that the buzz-word of the moment for the Democrats appeared to be “affordability.” Many credited that theme as being the winning issue that took the Virginia and New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidates (Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill) over the top. And yet the policies that Spanberger and Sherrill had advocated as the centerpieces of their “affordability” agendas were taken from the playbooks of California and New York, otherwise known as the leading states for intentionally driving up costs for their residents. Anybody could see that...

Texas has overtaken California in Fortune 500 companies for the first time, as firms continue to leave the Golden State’s increasingly unfriendly business environment.

Australia's economic slowdown is just beginning, economists warn, as interest rate rises and cost-of-living pressures weigh on households.The economy grew just 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Wednesday, but the figures only captured the first month of the Middle East war.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is talking with the leaders of the largest artificial-intelligence companies about having the government acquire “pieces” of their firms. It could prove to be among the most significant federal interventions in the private sector in modern history. The president’s comment confirmed NOTUS reporting that he has been discussing the idea with tech executives for more than a year. He said he is aiming to invite “all of them” to the White House as soon as next week. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has talked to Trump about having shares of AI...

The US economy added 172,000 jobs in May, blowing past expectations, according to the government's closely watched jobs report. The unemployment rate remained flat at 4.3%. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated payroll growth of 88,000 for the month. April's jobs report — which itself was a massive beat — was also revised to show an even better 179,000 jobs gained, compared to the 115,000 reported earlier. March's payroll growth was similarly updated to show 214,000, bringing the first monthly gain above 200,000 since early 2024. Payroll gains were seen across several sectors — notably not relying just on the...

The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in May, posting strong payroll gains for the third month in a row, a sign the U.S. labor market is steadily recovering from a weak patch last fall and winter. The U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department said Friday, beating expectations.

ROSELAND, N.J., June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Private sector employment increased by 122,000 jobs in May and pay was up 4.4 percent year-over-year according to the May ADP National Employment Report® produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab ("Stanford Lab"). The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. ADP's Pay Insights captures over 15 million individual pay change observations each month. Together, the jobs report and pay insights use ADP's fine-grained data...

TEMPE, Ariz., June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Economic activity in the services sector continued to expand in May, say the nation's purchasing and supply executives in the latest ISM® Services PMI® Report. The Services PMI® registered 54.5 percent, the 23rd consecutive month in expansion territory. The report was issued today by Steve Miller, CPSM, CSCP, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Services Business Survey Committee: "In May, the Services PMI® registered 54.5 percent, an increase of 0.9 percentage point compared to April's figure of 53.6 percent. The Business Activity Index remained in expansion territory in May, increasing 1.8...

America has experienced stock market crashes, great depressions, and other national financial or economic emergencies. As we enter our 250th anniversary, it seems that we’re no stranger to economic difficulty. But there’s something about pride that keeps America from facing up to the fact that she’s sliding down the tubes. Add to that the fact that we have someone at the helm of this nation in the person of President Donald Trump that helps us to feel a little bit extra confident about our economic future. He’s experienced, he’s rich, and he constantly puts the welfare of this nation at...

MAGA host Dave Rubin drew a painful blank when a debate opponent asked him for a single measure under which the economy has improved under the second Trump administration. “What is one main metric that Donald Trump has made better off since he got into office?” asked one of Rubin’s opponents in the debate, published Sunday by Jubilee Media under the title “Dave Rubin vs 20 Far-Left Democrats.” “An example would be GDP, unemployment, inflation, et cetera,” the person, who goes by the social media handle “parkergetajob,” added.

In the thick of another high-stakes election year, GOP voters are sending a clear message that cuts through the noise of legacy media chatter. It even transcends far more serious pocketbook worries.AdvertisementA new national survey reveals that Republicans are firmly commited to President Donald J. Trump, rooted in his record on issues that reach beyond dollars and cents. This data was gathered by the Democracy Institute in partnership with me, as host of the current events show News Sight and author of the finance newsletter Dr. Cotto’s Digest.The poll spotlights a GOP base that stands rock-solid even as broader national...

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government — causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started at the end of February. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto...