Free Republic

Following today's release of the latest Personal Income and Spending data, Wall Street was predictably focused on the changes in these two key series, which showed a surge in personal income (to be expected in the month when the $900BN December 2020 stimulus hit), coupled with a far more modest increase in personal spending.But while the change in the headline data was notable, what was far more remarkable was data showing just how reliant on the US government the population has become.We are referring, of course, to Personal Current Transfer payments which are essentially government sourced income such as unemployment...

Real per capita federal spending has increased more than sevenfold since fiscal 1941, which concluded on June 30 of that year -- or about five months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In fiscal 1941, real per capita federal spending was approximately $1,718. In fiscal 2017, which concluded at the end of September, it was about $12,239. Back in 1941, at the beginning of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's unprecedented third presidential term, the federal government spent $13,653,000,000, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although that was a massive increase from the $4,598,000,000 the federal government had spent...

But the sales won't be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars. The restrictions that took effect in July stem from the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move!" campaign. The law overhauled nutrition standards affecting more than 30 million children. The law also required the U.S. Department of...

Immigration reform is notoriously contentious. Yet it's hard to find anyone who doesn't think employers should be barred from hiring illegal immigrants — and sharply penalized if they do so. When President Obama last week endorsed what he called the "common-sense, bipartisan" immigration package now before the Senate, he praised it for getting tough on "shady employers" who "knowingly hire undocumented workers." The White House website devotes an entire page to workplace enforcement of immigration restrictions. It leads off with the president's call for "cracking down more forcefully" on companies that employ undocumented aliens, and boasts that his administration has...

With housing prices down 30+% on average over the last few years, is Uncle Sam blowing fresh air into the housing balloon and actually creating another housing bubble? I believe that’s exactly what is happening. If you are scratching your head and think I am off base with my assertion, please navigate this path along our economic landscape with me. What drove the housing bubble? Cheap rates and undisciplined lending from the private sector. What added to the bubble? The internal ‘hedge fund’ portfolios of Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM). What is perpetuating the housing bubble if not...

WASHINGTON - In 17 states where the federal government spent $128 million to discourage tobacco use, smoking dropped by about 3 percentage points over eight years, just over half a point more than in states without the program. The program was responsible for reducing the number of smokers in the target states by about 104,000, estimated Frances A. Stillman, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Translating the results to the entire nation, the program, called the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study, or ASSIST, would have cut the number of smokers by about 278,700, said Stillman,...

<p>A study by the Brookings Institution lays out several arguments to support the fact that the nation's capital deserves more direct funding from the federal government than it currently receives. The study is worthy of serious deliberations.</p> <p>Currently, the District of Columbia, like states, receives federal funds for things like schools, law enforcement, Medicaid and food stamps. But the District is not a state, nor should it be. However, as the nation's capital, it should receive federal dollars in lieu of such things as federal taxes.</p>