Free Republic

Inflation is like toothpaste – once you got it out, you can’t get it back in again.” Forget everything you think you know about inflation. It is not solely a consequence of “monetary phenomena”, but largely about the behaviour of crowds. That’s why it’s so dangerous to growth and markets. After a torrid week for markets as Big Tech got spanked, and bonds rallied on a risk-off move following the mixed employment data, there is a distinct feeling of uncertainty and more pain to come in the December markets. Bond yields falling as inflation fears multiply is a very mixed...

Government: The private economy might be moribund, but the regulatory economy is doing quite well, thank you very much. Could it be that the two are somehow related?

"John McCain can't see or won't acknowledge what's obvious to all of us here today -- that lobbyists aren't just part of the system in Washington, they're part of the problem."-- Then-Sen. Barack Obama campaigning in Montana, May 19, 2008.President Obama wants to place a new tax on your monthly cell phone bill to pay for his plan to put WiFi in more classrooms. And all he needs to do it is one more lobbyist in his administration. Getting American consumers to cough up the billions needed for Obama's "ConnectEd" initiative doesn't depend on Congress or anything so tedious as...

Energy: In yet another green folly, the lawless Environmental Protection Agency continues to fine gasoline producers for not using cellulosic biofuels in quantities that don't exist, making only more pain at the pump. Last month, a federal court dealt a serious blow to the Environmental Protection Agency's renewable fuels push by ruling that the agency exceeded its authority by mandating refiners use cellulosic biofuels, which aren't commercially available. The EPA's lawless response in a lawless administration was to raise its requirements. In 2005 and 2007, Congress twice amended the Clean Air Act to establish a renewable fuel standard (RFS) that...

Wash. Senate approves $100 fee for electric cars...The state Senate approved several bills Tuesday, including a measure to impose a $100 annual fee on electric cars to make up for lost gas tax revenue, and a bill that eases the transition to a new statewide high school math assessment. The Washington State Department of Transportation estimates that drivers with gasoline-powered vehicles pay about $200 a year in gas tax. The state gas tax is 37.5 cents per gallon. The bill now moves to the House for approval. The Senate also passed a bill that would ease the transition into new...

Under the new health care bill - did you know that all real estate transactions are now subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax? The bulk of these new taxes don’t kick in until 2013 (presumably after Obama’s re-election). You can thank Nancy, Harry and Barack and your local Democrat Congressman for this one. If you sell your $400,000 home, there will be a $15,200 tax. This bill is set to screw the retiring generation who often downsize their homes. Is this “Hope & Change” great or what? We can vote the bums out in November and demand that they eliminate...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is proposing the most radical overhaul of American health care policy in a decade and a half, says Michael Tanner, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. McCain would move us away from a system of employer-based health insurance. He plans to provide all Americans with a $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals and a $5,000 credit for families, regardless of how people obtain their insurance. Most notably, McCain would allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, a practice now prohibited, says Tanner. Health insurance is largely regulated at the state level, and the...

Back in the depression era, FDR claimed that he could get the nation's economy moving again if only he had extended powers over farming, business and industry, like his buddy Stalin had. To that end, the Roosevelt administration designed a complete regulatory bureaucracy, with each agency to be controlled by little politburos and the politburos, in turn, overseen by a dictator in the White House. The problem was, the whole scheme was totally and completely unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court told the administration exactly that. So, FDR attacked the U.S. Supreme Court, threatening court packing and other unheard of...

Excerpt: Most people know that a football field is 120 yards long (each end zone is ten yards) and 50 yards wide. When the coaches sit down to design various plays, they might have a running play designed to gain five yards or a passing play designed to go 15 yards downfield. The game gets started and not long into the first quarter the offensive teams find it much easier to make first downs. All of their plays seem to be going further than they are designed to go. The defense can’t stop the points from running up on the...

Back in the early 1970s, the hippie culture chanted "down with the establishment." Today, they are the adults -- teachers, reporters, lawyers, judges, legislators, and they make up the membership of dozens of foundations and non-government organizations -- affecting the establishment. And still, each group, in its own way, seems to be working to dismantle our American establishment. As far as the average American citizen is concerned, our judicial system has become lethargic, cumbersome and ineffective at protecting our rights. Often, the judicial system appears little more then the playground for corrupt lawyers and their partners, the judges. One case...