Free Republic

There is little question now that our sitting regime is overextending itself in extraordinary and combative ways that flow from its own deepening weakness and its perception of itself as growing weaker. Obvious examples abound concerning the aftermath of January 6th 2021, especially in the monomania with which the ruling class and its media assets labors to portray America as in the grips of an “insurrectionist” crisis that can only be faced down by institutionalizing a new automated surveillance regime targeting citizens frankly discussing political questions online in a manner fundamental to our elementary rights under our constitutional form of...

Colorado plan to set up the world’s first financial system for marijuana survived less than 24 hours before state lawmakers changed course Thursday night and shelved the idea. The proposal would have allowed state-licensed marijuana businesses to create a financial co-op, sort of an uninsured credit union. The measure was introduced late Wednesday and cleared a House committee on Thursday. But a few hours later, another House committee gutted the plan by amending the bill to say that Colorado will continue studying the problem of marijuana businesses having a hard time accessing banking services. …

Lyin' Ryan Is At It Again (Budget) By Karl Denninger (03/20/2012) These guys never quit. Ryan's "budget proposal" is out once again, just like last year. And just like last year he's lying again. Let's count the lies: Repeals President’s health care law; Advances bipartisan solutions that take power away from government bureaucrats and put patients in control; No disruption for those in or near retirement; Ensures a strengthened Medicare program for future generations, with less support given to the wealthy and more assistance for the poor and the sick Then Medicare still goes bankrupt. The fact of the matter...

With growing fears about the stability of the financial system, today King World News interviewed legendary Jim Sinclair. When asked about the ongoing crisis, Sinclair stated, “Well, the story this morning is we have it but we’re not going to spend it. We are not going to buy our own bonds, we’re not going to cap the rates, but we have it and we might use it. It’s like that every day. Those guys can’t get their story together for more than fifteen minutes. The ECB has the availability of funds for some activities in the euro bond market. They...

In the last week I've read at least four syndicated columns which contained the following argument: were the Congress to resist raising the debt "ceiling," the full faith and credit of the United States Government would be endangered. The financial system would inevitably crash; investors would send their capital to other safer, more stable havens; depression would follow. Since I am an inveterate skeptic, I feel we must investigate this calamitous premise a bit before accepting the conclusion that the debt "ceiling" must be raised. To predict the outcome of not raising the debt "ceiling," let's model the nation's current...

RUSH: BusinessInsider.com: "Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan To Destroy JP Morgan, Crash The Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth In America -- A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, has a secret plan to 'destabilize' the country. The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government. The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend." A website, "The Blaze procured what appears...

ABC News has learned that Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died. On Friday, Holbrooke was rushed to the hospital with a torn aorta. He went through more than 20 hours of surgery. Earlier this evening, speaking at the US State Department, President Obama sang Holbrooke's praises and called him "a tough son of a gun." Holbrooke, 69, was a former ambassador to the United Nations and served as chief negotiator at the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. The New Yorker's George Packer wrote a nice story about Holbrooke last year,...

As the U.S. fi nancial crisis unfolded in the fall of 2008, policymakers rushed to provide emergency support to the fi nancial system, whose provisioning of credit is the lifeblood of any economy. In the months and years to come, the revival of the fi nancial system will be critical to the magnitude of the economic recovery, and therefore infl uential to the performance of various asset classes. Rapid turnaround as conditions improve There is no question that the fi nancial system is in dramatically better shape than one year ago, with credit markets coming off life support and demonstrating...

Two American economists, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, who study the way decisions are made outside the markets on which many other economists focus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics Monday. The judges cited "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons," the way in which natural resources are managed as shared resources. It is an area of research that she said was relevant to questions surrounding global warming, and suggests that decisions by individuals can help solve the problem even as governments work to reach an international agreement. Ms. Ostrom "challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is...

Governments' contingent liabilities Fiscal iceberg Sep 24th 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition Guarantees offered during the crisis pose lasting risks to America THE visible costs of the financial crisis are well known: bank recapitalisations, stimulus spending and shrunken tax revenues. Another set of liabilities—the guarantees thrown up around financial systems a year ago to quell panic and keep credit flowing—has received far less attention. Guarantees are popular because they entail no immediate cost. But they leave the sovereign balance-sheet exposed to lurches in the financial system’s fortunes. In July the International Monetary Fund estimated that the...

It's 'extremely unlikely' that taxpayers will see a full return on their investment, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, tells the Senate Banking Committee. Reporting from Washington - The Treasury is unlikely to get back the full amount of money lent under the Troubled Asset Relief Program despite a recent spate of repayments from large banks, warned the program's watchdog. The program "played a significant role" in rescuing the financial system from a meltdown, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. But it was "extremely unlikely that...

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) — A summit of the Non-Aligned Movement opened at this Egyptian Red Sea resort town Wednesday with a call from Cuban President Raul Castro for a new international financial system to shield developing nations from the global recession. Castro was addressing the opening session of the movement's two-day summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, the 15th such gathering since the group was founded in the 1950s. "We demand the establishment of a new international financial and economic structure that relies on the participation of all countries," Castro said. "There must be a new framework that doesn't depend solely...

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is seeing "tentative signs" of economic improvement, which makes it time for the central bank to begin talking about its exit strategy. In a talk at Morehouse College, Bernanke summarized much of his own recent commentary and insisted that he remains optimistic despite the Fed's March downward revision of GDP forecasts and expectation that unemployment will rise into 2010. "Recently we have seen some signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing," Bernanke said. Bernanke's speech comes on the front-end of a week filled with speeches from various Federal Reserve presidents, as...

<p>The U.S. government rescued giant insurer American International Group in part because its collapse would dramatically hurt European banks, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.</p> <p>The U.S. government has bailed out AIG three times since Sept. 16 and committed about $180 billion to keep the insurer alive and doing business.</p>

Investors had any number of reasons to be in a grumpy mood on Tuesday. Add this one: The Washington Post has published an article looking at the origins of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's financial rescue plan, unveiled to hoots and hollers – and selling – last week. (Hat tip: Infectious Greed). According to the article, Mr. Geithner and his team had been working on a different plan for weeks, but shredded it just days before his speech because he thought it was, in the Post's words, “too expensive, too complex and too risky for taxpayers.” The Post continues: “They needed...

<p>Concern is growing over the present instability of financial markets among senior officials at the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve.</p> <p>The Bank of England’s Governor meanwhile sounded a warning last night that markets and the global economy may be set for a period of greater turbulence triggered by rising interest rates around the world.</p>

Financial system must tap the taxpayer By Krishna Guha Published: March 14 2008 19:00 | Last updated: March 14 2008 19:00 The notion that the US could suffer the kind of deep and protracted recession that plagued Japan in the 1990s no longer looks as far-fetched as it did a month or two ago. House prices are in free-fall, spreading losses through the universe of mortgage-backed securities and making it very difficult for financial markets to stabilise. The labour market is cracking, with three consecutive months of job losses in the private sector. Consumer sentiment has soured and spending is...

The financial turmoil is like an elephant in a dark room By Martin WolfPublished: January 22 2008 20:02 | Last updated: January 22 2008 20:02 “I was gradually coming to believe that the US economy’s greatest strength was its resiliency – its ability to absorb disruptions and recover, often in ways and at a pace you’d never be able to predict, much less dictate.” Alan Greenspan, ‘The Age of Turbulence’. EDITOR’S CHOICE Economists’ forum - Nov-16 Every week, 50 of the world’s most influential economists discuss Martin Wolf’s articles on FT.com  We all hope that Mr Greenspan proves right...