Free Republic

Nonfarm payrolls were expected to increase by 53,000 in August while the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

One thousand days is a long time in politics...When I wrote about Javier Milei’s first 100 days in office, Argentina was embarking on yet another attempt to break free from a cycle that had become painfully familiar: fiscal excess, monetary financing, inflation, capital controls and, eventually, crisis. Markets were optimistic, but they had been optimistic before. Argentina has a habit of disappointing even its most enthusiastic supporters.At the time, Milei inherited an economy in severe distress alongside a reform agenda that many viewed as politically impossible to implement. Today, as Argentina approaches the 1,000-day mark of his presidency, investors can...

President Trump laid out his plan Wednesday to help Republicans win 35 key midterm races in the final stretch before the fall elections. Beginning in October, a month before the critical Nov. 3 contests, the president plans to hit the campaign trail and host several tele-rallies as part of his push to keep the House and Senate in Republican hands, he explained in remarks to GOP lawmakers and administration officials at a White House Rose Garden dinner. “I’m going to take the final 30 days, maybe a little bit more than that, because it’s all about 35 races,” Trump said....

"Skills matter more than simply earning a degree" VOV.VN - Vietnam is moving to place greater emphasis on job skills, practical ability and adaptability rather than academic degrees, as a new government plan seeks to raise labour productivity and build a more modern and efficient labour market. Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra on August 30 signed a decision, issuing a plan to implement Conclusion 62 of the Party Central Committee Secretariat on improving national labour productivity alongside the development of a synchronised, modern and efficient labour market. The plan sets out eight groups of tasks and solutions aimed...

The Trump administration plans to charge US employers $103,265 in new fees to hire highly skilled foreign workers via the H-1B visa program - an eye-popping increase that comes amid the administration's broader hard-line immigration crackdown. The six-figure hike, proposed Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, would force employers to shoulder the extra $103,000 in costs for each H-1B recipient, in addition to other filing fees currently in place.

The buyback is a supply/​liquidity fix aimed at a problem that isn’t primarily about supply or liquidity. In other words, the Treasury is trying to reduce long-term rates by restricting the supply of those bonds. But their rates have been rising (prices falling) in response to the budget deficit, heavy overall government debt issuance, a rising term premium, and persistently above-target inflation. Moreover, the bond sell-off is global: Long-end yields hit multiyear highs in Germany, France, and Japan. This sell-off suggests that the United States alone cannot fix its rate problem because that problem is not unique to the US.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s debt buyback announcement this week fits into a broader pattern that can signal a forthcoming crisis, according to billionaire investor Ray Dalio. The Bridgewater Associates founder said Bessent’s plan to increase government debt purchases may portend trouble for the U.S. economy.

American workers' wages are once again failing to keep up with inflation — a painful financial déjà vu of the pandemic years. The repeat situation may feel even more acute given that many workers are still catching up from the 2021-2022 inflationary bout, when companies gave workers only moderate pay raises that fell short of four-decade-high price increases, according to new economic research. From February 2021 to June 2022, real wages — or the purchasing power of the average American's paycheck — fell by more than 4%, according to the paper from the University of Chicago and ADP researchers. That...

I ask for your patience, this is an experiment. This is an AI summary of a video that Jay Martin released yesterday so that you don't have to spend 25 minutes watching the video, which I recommend but which few of you would bother doing. I firmly believe that we are heading down a perilous economic path that few here have an understanding of. Executive Briefing: 2008 vs 2026 — The Same Dominoes Are Falling1. Executive Summary & Core Thesis• High-Level Overview: This briefing provides a detailed structural breakdown comparing the subprime mortgage mechanics of the 2008 Financial Crisis with...

Private credit companies are key owners of AI-related assets. Many of their parent private equity firms own life insurers that are dumping grounds for bad loans—and subject to state bailouts. If AI is propping up the economy, who is propping up AI? The answer, extrapolating from a fascinating new paper about private credit and the life insurance industry, could be the U.S. taxpayer. Private credit is private equity’s $3 trillion financing arm. They make largely unregulated, relatively high-risk, relatively complex and opaque loans, mostly to their own portfolio companies. Private credit is entangled, maybe more than the rest of Wall...

According to the Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now REAL time model, Q3 Real GDP is 5%. The subcomponents of GDP growth are as follows: So much for the doom and gloom of Trump’s tariff “war” or Trump’s Iran “war.” 5% Real GDP growth is outstanding! And The Fed keeps on printing money (M2)! Keep on printin’! The Q3 Real GDP report is so good, I feel like yodeling!

The federal government is now acting as regulator, customer, financier, and shareholder. Decisions involving contracts, trade restrictions, permits, and additional subsidies can affect the value of its holdings. Competitors have reason to question whether the playing field is level. And if a portfolio company falters, Washington will have an added incentive to protect its investment with more taxpayer support.

A LinkedIn post shared by George Kollitides, head of the Pentagon’s Economic Defense Unit (EDU), gives it a more troubling meaning. The post by a mining executive described Washington as the “state as limited partner” and declared that “sovereign backing is now a competitive variable.” Companies receiving federal equity investments or debt guarantees, it says, “will have easier access to offtake agreements, permitting support, and follow-on institutional capital.” Meanwhile, “projects without state alignment will face higher hurdles, regardless of grade or jurisdiction.” Those words came from the mining executive, but Kollitides chose to amplify them. Read alongside Feinberg’s warning, they...

Narrative violation. WSJ today.

The 2026 midterm elections are 100 days away as Republicans and Democrats will battle in Congress and statehouses across the country for control over the future of the country in what is expected to be a contentious and expensive campaign season. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress, controlling the House with a razor-thin 218-212 edge, with one independent and four vacancies, and the Senate with a 53-47 advantage, including two independents who caucus with Democrats. With every House seat and 35 Senate seats on the ballot, Democrats need a net gain of just six House seats...

The first half of the interview is Musk at his most visionary: highly optimistic about production, robotics, space exploration and abundance, while admitting genuine AI danger. The second half is much more defensive and combative. The interviewer presses him on concentrated power, Ukraine, DOGE, immigration and his influence over European politics. Neither side meaningfully changes the other’s position. The single biggest takeaway is that Musk no longer talks about AI primarily as a technology product. He treats AI plus robotics as a near-term replacement for the existing economic system itself—including employment, scarcity, wages, money and ultimately human control. https://elonmuskarchive.org/video/economist-elon-musk-2026-07-23

Sunday on “The Alex Marlow Show,” Kelly Loeffler, the Small Business Administrator, talked about business formation. Loffler said, “We have record all time business formation in America. Just announced about on average the last six months on average about 513,000 new business formations each and every month.” The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, broadcasts coast to coast on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on the Salem Radio Network stations. You can listen to the radio show online here. The show also airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel. Marlow’s podcast,...

A recent article from The Cut received a huge amount of attention: ‘It’s Hard to See My Parents Live So Lavishly While We’re Struggling’. The piece includes vignettes of Millenial hardship:…his dad, Steve, sold his company to a private equity firm about five years ago, which enabled him to retire comfortably in his mid-60s…Two years ago, Joe asked his dad for a loan. He wanted to start a lawn-care business and needed capital for commercial-grade equipment and a trailer, at least $15,000. He presented Steve with his business plan, which included a schedule to pay back the money. Still, Steve...

This video explores the reasons behind the European Union's current economic struggles compared to the United States and China. The continent is facing a "moment of reckoning" characterized by low productivity, a reliance on traditional industries, and a lack of investment in transformative digital technologies. Key Takeaways: Economic Stagnation: The EU economy is estimated to be roughly 18% smaller than it might have been, resulting in a €3 trillion shortfall in annual income (0:36-0:45, 4:11-4:20). The Draghi Report: Former ECB president Mario Draghi warned that Europe's competitiveness is weak. He emphasized that the EU must invest hundreds of billions of...

Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan said the US economy was strong and that consumers remained resilient as the company reported a jump in its second-quarter profit on Tuesday."The U.S. economy has proved more durable than expected, supported by the strong consumer, ongoing AI-driven investments across the board, and easing energy costs," Moynihan said during the bank's post earnings conference call. Bank of America stock rose 2% in morning trading after the bank's profit jumped 27% last quarter to $9.1 bilion, with net income growth across every business segment. The results came as investors look for signs on how...