Free Republic

Remember the dark days of the Biden years, when the economy felt like it was sputtering along and every other job created seemed to be on the government payroll? Well, there's good news. Things have changed completely under President Donald Trump's second term. The latest numbers are nothing short of phenomenal, especially if you're a fan of actual, you know, private sector job growth. The White House wasted no time touting the recent jobs report, and who can blame it? The contrast is stark. The U.S. job market continues to defy expectations under President Trump. In May alone, the economy...

The U.S. economy added jobs in May at a slower pace than in the past two months as uncertainty over the direction of trade, tax and monetary policy caused employers to pull back on hiring. The Labor Department on Friday reported that employers added 139,000 jobs in May. That figure was slightly above the estimate of economists polled by LSEG, who projected 130,000 jobs added – though it was cooler than the initial report of 177,000 jobs added in April or the 185,000 jobs gained in March. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, unchanged from the past two months and in...

By every honest metric, President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill dramatically improves the fiscal trajectory of the United States and unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.HOAX: The One Big Beautiful Bill increases spending.FACT: The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers nearly $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings — a fact that even the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) admits is true.FACT: This is the highest level of mandatory savings in history — dwarfing spending reductions from similar reconciliation bills in 2005 ($140 billion), 1997 ($800 billion), 1993 ($370 billion), and 1990 ($440 billion) on an inflation-adjusted basis.FACT: The One Big...

There are countless pundits who proclaim that America’s population must grow, grow, grow. Otherwise, our economy will crash and there won’t be enough people to support the elderly, join the military, pay taxes, or to keep housing values from falling. Census data show that America’s population growth rate is decreasing, which has prompted many observers to embrace the argument that we must rely on immigration to prevent population from declining. The evidence suggests that immigration provides few if any economic benefits for the majority of Americans. Take the simplest measure of all — real GDP. George Borjas, a Professor of...

For months, US economic data has shown resilience, with layoffs remaining low and business activity staying steady despite fears over policy uncertainty. But the tide may be shifting. Multiple data points this week have shown signs of slowing as a wide swath of tariffs has been in effect. On Thursday, weekly filings for unemployment benefits hit their highest level since October 2024, adding to a slew of data showing a cooling economy leading into the Friday morning release of the May jobs report. Earlier in the week, the Institute for Supply Management's Services PMI registered a reading of 49.9 in...

UNHINGED: @SenSchumer says "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" if we pass the largest tax cut in history, block illegals from taxpayer-funded health care, and cut the deficit. These are NOT serious people.

The economy appears to be booming, consumer confidence is rising, inflation is coming in lower, and job growth higher, than expected. Normally, we’d all be celebrating good news like this. But not when Donald Trump is sitting in the White House. Then it must be ignored or explained away. Ever since Trump took office, we’ve been treated to a steady diet of doomsaying. His tariffs would fuel inflation. He was driving the economy toward a recession. When the Commerce Department reported a slight contraction in the first quarter – so slight that future revisions could show that the economy expanded...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) made multiple false statements on President Donald Trump’s economy and the Republicans’ proposed changes to Medicaid and Obamacare spending, prompting a fact-check from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). Speaking on the Mornings with Zerlina radio show last Thursday, Jeffries repeated the already-debunked lie that “about 13.7 million people will be flown off their health care” due to the reconciliation bill the House passed last month, which is now under the consideration of the Senate. Jeffries claimed: Well, it’s a reckless extreme budget that Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of the...

The news coming from CNN has not been good for Democrats lately. As we reported on Sunday, even Democratic voters don't have any faith in where the party is headed. They don't think they are the party with strong leaders, and a vast majority of Democrats don't think their party is the one that can get things done. That followed a focus group survey that indicated the American public in general viewed them like "sloths" and "tortoises" when comparing them to animals. That's not exactly a sterling take for them. Now CNN's senior data analyst Harry Enten has more bad...

This morning, Trump Administration officials took to the airwaves to describe how the One Big Beautiful Bill will be an economic boon for working Americans, the soaring nature of the Trump economy, and more.Here’s what you missed:Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought on State of the UnionOn lowering the deficit: “This bill doesn’t increase the deficit or hurt the debt. In fact, it LOWERS it by $1.4 trillion.”On protecting Medicaid: “This bill will preserve and protect the programs, the social safety net, but it will make it much more common sense.”On cancer research funding: “We actually want it...

If you come at a career business savant like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, you better not miss. CBS Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan hilariously had to learn that the hard way on Sunday. Brennan tried to corner the Treasury Department head from a number of fronts on the economy, such as tariffs and inflation. In response, Bessent repeatedly made Brennan look completely foolish. Regarding inflation in particular, Brennan whipped out a piece by anti-Trumper strategist Karl Rove (whom she dubbed a “conservative”), arguing that Walmart wouldn’t be able to break even if it just ate the tariffs President Donald...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's factory activity shrank for a fourth month in May as frail domestic demand and the impact of U.S. tariffs took a heavy toll on factory output while overall orders plunged at their steepest pace in five years, a business survey showed on Monday. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, released by S&P Global, edged up to 47.7 in May, from 47.5 in April. The index has stayed below 50-mark, which separates expansion from contraction, since February. "South Korea's manufacturing sector came into May on an unstable footing," said Usamah Bhatti,...

Self-interested Wall Street analysts and leftist economic ‘experts’ once again proven wrong. It is almost impossible to find any financial data review written objectively by media. Everything is skewed with a negative tone, yet the data clearly shows -just like 2017- President Trump’s MAGAnomic policy benefits are starting to surface. News pundits said President Trump’s tariff policies would skyrocket prices. In reality the yearly inflation rate [BLS data] has dropped to 2.1%, the lowest in four years. Core prices (removing food and energy) rose 2.5% from a year earlier, below the March figure of 2.7%, and the lowest in more...

“The modern politics of division have become a banally hectoring faux morality play put on by the theater kids for the other theater kids.” —El Gato Malo on X. President Trump Alone While Jake Tapper leads the Mea Culpa Chorus singing Kumbaya in a minor key, absolutely nobody is fooled that the grotesque psychotic deformities of US politics can be reduced to a few White House factotums lying to the news media about “Joe Biden’s” cognitive abilities. For one thing, the news media was not lied to. The news media (including Jake) lied to the nation, consistently, flagrantly, mendaciously, for...

Say, weren't we supposed to fall into the Tariff Apocalypse this month? See runaway inflation? According to the Chicken Littles, the consumers were poised to flee the consumer-driven economy as a trade war ravaged Middle America. Looks like consumers missed the memo on the Tariff Apocalypse. After a hiccup on Liberation Day, the economic indicators all trend in the right direction this month. For example, the runaway inflation not only failed to show, inflation has actually gone down the last three months, including Liberation Month. Today's PCE Index report shows the best month for consumers on prices in months. At...

The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s key inflation measure, increased just 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.1%. Core inflation also was at 0.1% for the month though it was higher on an annual level at 2.5%. Consumer spending, though, slowed sharply for the month, posting just a 0.2% increase, while the savings rate surged to 4.9%, the highest in nearly a year.

How are businesses supposed to plan for the future if they have no idea what the rules of the game are going to be? Businesses thrive in a predictable environment, but we have entered a period of time of extreme uncertainty. One day we are facing high tariffs, the next day one court strikes them all down, and then the next day another court temporarily reverses that decision. How is anyone supposed to make solid business decisions in such an environment? Our economy has been heading in the wrong direction for a long time, and we need to take bold...

Low incentives and complicated state regulations, combined with high housing and business costs, have rendered California unable to keep Hollywood from moving production to other states and countries, according to an entertainment industry report released on May 27 by the Milken Institute, a California-based think tank.Hollywood’s in-state production has dropped in the past two years as other states and international destinations continue to increase industry incentives, according to the report’s authors, Kevin Klowden, executive director for the Milken Institute Finance, and Madeleine Waddoups, a graduate teaching assistant in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California–Los Angeles.The...

KVVU reporter Molly McBride is OK after being accosted live on-air by a man who wanted a dollar. McBride had just started her standup about recent shootings in the area, when the man came running from behind asking for a dollar. He kept repeating the request until the camera panned off McBride and the Las Vegas Fox affiliate’s anchors moved on. News director Tom Bell told TVSpy, the man “briefly made contact with her then ran off.” “Molly was not hurt, just startled. The incident occurred in seconds. She said when she looked back at the tape, it looked scarier...

China is the original riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. A country striving for modernity but feudal in its treatment of its citizens, Beijing's economic identity is a combination of Communist orthodoxy and crony capitalism. As you might expect, the two don't work well together. On the outside of the riddle, China is booming, the people are subservient and happy, and the government is looking to the future with confidence. This is the picture the Chinese Communists paint for the world to see. The reality is much different. China is being crushed by debt, has become dependent on...