Free Republic

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- If a "community grid" is chosen to replace Interstate 81 in downtown Syracuse, what will happen to the land that's now under the aging viaduct's shadow? Whether it will be turned into green space or developed commercially is still an open question, according to city and state officials. A group of local architects is hoping to force the issue. The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects estimated in a recent paper that 18.6 acres of land will be made available if the 1.4-mile elevated highway is taken down. Taking the viaduct down and beefing up...

By Bruce DePuyt — When Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) announced a major plan to widen three Maryland roadways last year, even transportation insiders were caught off-guard. “I was surprised by it, but I rejoiced at it,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs. “As much as people are loath to admit it, the congestion in Maryland has limited economic development in the state. And [it has] impacted the quality of life because of the amount of hours — more than 80 hours a year [on average] — we spend being stuck in...

If Elon Musk’s Boring Company succeeds, the fantasy of slipping into a pod and being whisked from Washington, D.C. to New York City in less than 30 minutes may become a reality. As startling as that might be, such transformational projects are nothing new. Think of how Americans of a half-century ago felt once the national interstate highway system was complete and a cross-country road trip shortened from two weeks to five days. Infrastructure improvements in the U.S. – such as the interstate system, built in the 1950s and 1960s, the first transcontinental railway in the 1860s, and the Erie...

Trump wins election and the economy starts clawing itself out of the liberal grave it was forced into. Trump rolls back EPA rules and the economy stands up and starts walking. Trump gets tax reform and the economy starts galloping like a thoroughbred. Trump starts slapping our trade partners with tariffs and instead of economic calamity, the jobs you can't bring back, start returning on their own and the economy is now soaring.... What next.... Where are the finial restrains, real or imagined, that Trump can remove.

The price of a can of Coca-Cola? Likely going up. A package of Pampers? That too. Plane tickets? They also may be more expensive. These items and more may cost more in the coming months as people start feeling the effects of higher fuel prices and raw-material costs as well as a range of tariffs. Janette Hendricks said she has noticed higher prices on “just about everything” in the past three months or so. That’s put a little pressure on the recently retired nurse in Washington. So she goes shopping less often, “makes things stretch,” and she always shops for...

Mike Gallagher, managing director at financial consultancy Continuum Economics, played down stellar predictions of growth by Donald Trump, adding that recent polices implemented by the U.S. president would only provide short-term benefits for the economy. Trump told talk show host Sean Hannity on Friday that the U.S. could reach historic growth rates if the trade deficit is cut in half. His remarks followed a data release showing that the U.S. grew at 4.1 percent in the second quarter of the year. He claimed that the country could reach GDP growth of 8 or 9 percent, which is far higher than...

RUSH: Trump promised it. His economic advisers assured us that it would happen. The Drive-By Media said it was impossible to happen; it couldn’t happen. Trump was deranged to predict that it would happen. Trump was unreasonable. Trump was giving the American people false hope! Hillary Clinton said that this was dangerous; Trump is proving his incompetence by suggesting that we could grow the economy at an annual rate of 4%. We’re gonna go back in time here and find various bits of evidence of all these so-called experts claiming it’s impossible, couldn’t be done, how it was misleading. It...

President Donald Trump hailed a new economic report showing the U.S. economy grew at a clip of 4.1 per cent in the second quarter, hitting a high pace not reached since 2014. 'It is indeed a big one,' Trump said. Trump said he was 'honored' by the growth figure and called it a 'great day.' The president made an unscheduled appearance on the South Lawn of the White House, flanked by his economic advisors, to tout the news. He promised the high growth rate was not a 'one-time' thing. 'As the trade deals come in one by one we're going...

President Trump floated the possibility Thursday that the economy grew at its fastest rate in 15 years in the second quarter of 2018. Trump said he heard an analyst predict 5.3 percent gross domestic product growth ahead of a Friday morning report from the Commerce Department. Trump said he personally doubts that growth was so high, but that he believes the figure will be large nonetheless. "You'll have very big numbers announced tomorrow. I don't know what the they are. A lot of big predictions," Trump told a crowd in Granite City, Ill. "Whatever those numbers are, watch for them....

•Texas claims the top spot in CNBC's 2018 America’s Top States for Business rankings. •The energy sector is helping to turbocharge the $1.6 trillion Texas economy. •Texas has added more than 350,000 jobs in the past year. •Texas is home to some of America's most important public and private companies, including giants like AT&T, ExxonMobil and Dell. Riding the rising tide of energy prices—and the job growth that goes with it—Texas claims the top spot in CNBC’s 2018 America’s Top States for Business rankings. This is familiar territory for the Lone Star State, which becomes the first four-time winner in...

Here are my thoughts on what a young man can do to build up his life when he exits school. It does not matter if the school is college, High School, or elementary school. There comes a point in time when you need to make the transition from a student to a worker. Everyone has their thoughts on this. Here are mine. What Can we do? If you are a millennial, and you do want to work and provide a living, but cannot then you need to seek out help and advice. Do not try to do it on your...

Surging consumer spending is driving GDP well above prior estimates, and it is now tracking near 4 percent for the second quarter. That's almost double the pace of the first quarter. Economists say the consumer is seeing the impact of the tax cuts and is spending, as a result of more disposable income Armed with new-found proceeds from the tax bill, American consumers went shopping in May, driving retail sales — and economic growth — sharply higher. The economy in the second quarter is tracking close to 4 percent growth — a level President Donald Trump raved about last December,...

The US economy could grow at or above President Trump’s goal of 3% this year. And White House economists predict it’ll be that way indefinitely. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers sees it differently. “Yes, we are growing at a reasonably rapid rate, but it’s taking unsustainable fiscal deficits to drive us to that point,” Summers told Yahoo Finance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. “It’s taking unsustainable increases in credit to drive us to that point. It’s taking unsustainable increases in asset prices. You can always generate a sugar high. The real problem for us is not...

The political tide has turned against toll roads in Texas, imperiling a Tomball interchange project and hamstringing frustrated local officials, while setting an ominous tone for projects to come. For years, state officials relied on tolls to tackle some of TexasÂ’ biggest traffic messes as a way to build without adding taxes. Since 2016, however, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have taken hard-line stances against the mixing of Texas Department of Transportation money and toll revenues. Most Popular More men accuse former Texas judge, Baptist leader of sexual misconduct Breaking down 2018 Texas A&M football: Quarterback With...

As an innovator and early adopter of freeways, California became the symbolic capital of car culture. But the ease of movement conferred by the massive postwar freeway building boom was short-lived, turning the dream of car travel into a nightmare of congestion and long commutes. The story of how Californians went from getting around to getting stuck behind the wheel is deeply entwined with the history of the urban freeway, an enterprise that advanced earlier and on a larger scale here than anywhere else in the country. Half a century ago, there was reason for optimism about cars. Los Angeles...

The new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump have generated intense controversy. With the debate ongoing, it might be useful to examine how other countries have dealt with similar policy debates in the past. New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and is one of the champions of economic freedom around the world. But it wasn’t always so. In the mid-1980s, New Zealand was facing an economic crisis, with its domestic market and international trade both heavily regulated. Unemployment had reached 11 percent, and inflation was a sky-high 15 percent. In response, the government...

“MASON CITY: To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new.” — Robert Penn Warren, “All the King’s Men” (1946) WASHINGTON — Appropriately, Warren began the best book about American populism, his novel based on Huey Long’s Louisiana career, with a rolling sentence about a road. Time was, infrastructure — roads, especially — was a preoccupation of populists, who were mostly rural and needed roads to get products to market, and for travel to neighbors and towns, which assuaged loneliness. Today, there is no comparably sympathetic constituency clamoring...

J.P. Morgan slashed expectations for U.S. economic growth in the first quarter thanks to Wednesday's "hotter than Hades" inflation reading and "ugly" retail sales numbers. The bank's chief U.S. economist explained that the Labor Department's "scorching" core consumer price index measure likely means an emboldened Federal Reserve. "While it is still early going, we are taking down our outlook for first-quarter gross domestic product from 3.0 percent to 2.5 percent," wrote economist Michael Feroli. "Today's inflation reading should probably cement in place the Fed's intent to hike rates at the March FOMC meeting." The economist added that core CPI posted...

“Gross domestic product,” popularly known as GDP, measures spending on finished goods and services. GDP grew 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 and is expected to grow far more in the first quarter of this year. But is GDP the best measure of economic activity?

It's a common question asked by church leaders and laity: "Is American Christianity waning as our nation becomes more secular"? The statistics seem to support a "yes" answer to this question. I've been collecting data on this issue for over ten years. The surveys (more than 50 I've chronicled so far) reveal a disturbing, albeit unified, trend: Fewer people claim a Christian affiliation than ever before, and those who claim no religious affiliation are the fastest growing group in America.Despite these statistics, a recent article argues that religion "continues to enjoy 'persistent and exceptional intensity' in America." Glenn Stanton, writing...