Free Republic

Environmental scholar Bjorn Lomborg recently calculated that across the globe, governments have spent at least $16 trillion feeding the climate change industrial complex. And for what? Arguably, not a single life has been or will be saved by this shameful and colossal misallocation of human resources. The war on safe and abundant fossil fuels has cost countless lives in poor countries and made those countries poorer by blocking affordable energy. Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree -- as even the alarmists will...

Manhattan’s luxury housing market is quietly edging back toward its mid-2010s swagger after a decade marked by excess, collapse and recovery. And this time, the rebound appears to be powered by real money, not just empty supply. New data shows the borough’s priciest homes are nearly back to their 2016 highs, a milestone last seen during the condo boom that reshaped Manhattan’s skyline. By the end of last year, the median price for a luxury home — defined as the top 10% of the market — hit $6.39 million, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman. Manhattan’s luxury housing...

RAY DALIO SAYS THE MONETARY ORDER IS BREAKING DOWN AND FIAT IS NO LONGER A CENTRAL BANK ASSET. GOLD AND SILVER BECOME THE ANCHOR WHEN PAPER CONFIDENCE CRACKS.

The sudden collapse last fall of a string of American companies backed by private credit has thrust a fast-growing and opaque corner of Wall Street lending into the spotlight. Private credit, also known as direct lending, is a catch-all term for lending done by nonbank institutions. The practice has been around for decades but surged in popularity after post-2008 financial crisis regulations discouraged banks from serving riskier borrowers. That growth — from $3.4 trillion in 2025 to an estimated $4.9 trillion by 2029 — and the September bankruptcies of auto-industry firms Tricolor and First Brands have emboldened some prominent Wall...

"If that would happen, there would be a big retaliation on our part, and we have all the cards," the US leader statedNEW YORK, January 22. /TASS/. Serious tit-for-tat measures can be taken if European countries start selling US bonds, President Donald Trump told Fox Business television in an interview. "If they do, they do. But you know, if that would happen, there would be a big retaliation on our part, and we have all the cards," Trump said. Danish pension fund AkademikerPension made the decision earlier to sell US Treasury Bonds amid the conflict around Greenland. The fund plans...

President Trump’s power over the Federal Reserve will be front and center at the Supreme Court next week. The justices on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether Trump can fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over accusations of mortgage fraud. Looming over it all is the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the Fed’s chair, which came into public view last weekend.

For a year, Wall Street’s dominant theme has been the so-called K-shaped economy, in which the well-to-do have powered financial activity despite lower earners’ struggles. This week, the nation’s largest banks reported a broadly disappointing set of quarterly earnings, the first stumble after a yearlong spree of rising markets and softening regulations paid off handsomely for the finance set. Results at Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all fell short of expectations, and their shares fell. Troubles ranged from delayed merger deals (JPMorgan) to stubborn expenses (Citi) to questions about the efficacy of artificial intelligence tools (Bank...

4.5 minute video...Susan Kokinda explains how the British Financial system, along with Canada's, is impacted by Trump's actions in Venezuela. Very interesting...

In 2026, debt is no longer just a personal finance issue—it’s a defining force shaping household stability, career choices, and even mental health. After years of economic uncertainty, fluctuating interest rates, and the normalization of “buy now, pay later,” many people have grown accustomed to carrying debt as a permanent feature of life. You can even finance Taco Bell. But that acceptance comes at a cost. Paying off debt in 2026 isn’t about perfection or deprivation; it’s about reclaiming freedom in a world that increasingly profits from keeping people financially stretched. Debt comes in all shapes and sizes. Medical debt,...

The gold price is racing from one all-time high to the next. That’s good news for friends of the precious metal and bad news for anyone still hoping for a stabilization of global debt dynamics. Assuming the markets close out the year without major volatility, gold holders can look forward to an approximate 70 percent increase in value within a single year. This is remarkable -- not least because 2024 already ended with a 26 percent gain for the otherwise conservative asset class of precious metals. That amounts to a doubling of value in just two years -- a surge...

U.S. prosecutors charged top executives of bankrupt subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings with what they described as a years-long, “systematic fraud” scheme that sent shockwaves through the banking sector earlier this year. In an indictment unsealed in Manhattan, prosecutors allege that from at least 2018 through September 2025, founder and CEO Daniel Chu and chief operating officer David Goodgame orchestrated a series of fraudulent schemes that let Tricolor obtain billions of dollars from lenders and investors by misrepresenting the value of its loan collateral. Tricolor sold used cars to customers with limited or poor credit in the south and southwest,...

The Trump administration is working toward cutting illegal migrants off from federal tax benefits and money transfer services, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday. “At [President Trump’s] direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote on X. As part of the effort, the Treasury Department will propose new regulations “clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the...

Chat, how cooked are we? October's Interest payment on US debt was a record $104.4 billion.This is how empires fall. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/vOhQYdFDJC— Jesse Cohen (@JesseCohenInv) November 26, 2025That's $104.4 BILLION for a single month. My Q4 tax payment fighting financial apocalypse: In the very near and immediate future, our interest payments (that's the key word here) will be so large that they will even eclipse all military spending. The only item we'll be spending more on is Social Security, which only makes things even worse! At this pace FY26 interest payments alone will top $1 trillion — more than the...

Governments assume they can print as much currency as they like and it will be accepted by force. However, the history of fiat currencies is always the same: first governments exceed their credit limits, then ignore all the warning signs and finally see the currency collapse. Today, we are living the decline of developed economies’ fiat currencies in real time. The global reserve system is slowly but decisively diversifying away from a pure fiat currency anchor towards a mixed regime where gold plays the dominant role, not fiat currencies. IMF COFER data show that, while the US dollar still dominates,...

Opponents of a pair of radical California “green” mandates were handed a mixed bag in court last week as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused implementation of one state law but allowed another to remain in place for now. The brewing court battle could have serious implications for businesses nationwide – and the entire U.S. economy. The first law in question, SB 261, titled “the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act,” requires companies operating in California with more than $500 million in annual revenue to publish a report outlining their “climate-related financial risks.” Critics argue that SB 261 effectively compels...

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss concerns over an AI bubble, the history of economic bubbles, what investors can do in response to bubble fears, state of private credit market, problems around debt, his thoughts on bitcoin, and more. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio: We are definitely in a bubble, but that doesn't mean you should sell | 9:10 CNBC Television | 3.29M subscribers | 88,329 views | November 20, 2025 on CNBC Television website

China’s CIPS payment system now operates in 185 countries, enabling yuan-based trade outside the dollar. 52 trillion yuan in transactions were settled through CIPS in 2023, covering 58% of China’s cross-border flows. BRICS launched a yuan-pegged stablecoin and plans rupee bonds to expand use of local currencies. The BRICS-linked Cross-Border Interbank Payments System (CIPS) has expanded across 185 countries, allowing international payments in Chinese yuan without using the U.S. dollar, according to data from the New Development Bank (NDB). CIPS was launched by China and managed by its central bank as “a real alternative for global trade settlements.” At the...

Ashley Sharp reports.

President Trump proposed 50-year mortgages to improve housing affordability by lowering monthly payments. While longer terms reduce payments, they also slow equity buildup and are currently not allowed under the Dodd-Frank Act.

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—What is the Fed not telling us? The numbers clearly indicate that big trouble is brewing in the banking system. I wish that I could specifically tell you which banks are in the most trouble, but at this stage we simply aren’t being told anything. They probably figure that the best approach is to try to keep everyone as calm as possible. But they won’t be able to keep a lid on what is going on indefinitely, and when word finally gets out people could start to panic. In recent weeks, bank reserves have fallen to alarmingly...