Free Republic

Mayor Eric Adams warned that the cost of the ongoing migrant crisis will hurt low-income New Yorkers as he’s forced to dip into the city coffers and address the disaster without more federal or state help. Adams made the dire warning during an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton about a week after he said all NYC agencies may have to slash up to 15% from their budgets by springtime to cover the expenses tied to the crisis. The Democrat said the city has already spent $2 billion and is projected to spend $5 billion to care for and house asylum...

The glories of Bidenomics is on fully display. Despite what Lyin’ Biden says, Bidenomics is only working for the elites (top 1%). How Soviet/CCP command economy of him! Here is an ugly chart showing Bidenomics in action! We all know that Covid unleashed a torrent of Fed monetary stimulus AND Federal spending on Covid relief and green energy subsidies (most to large Democrats donors). BUT we now have experienced 3 consectutive quarters of negative gross domestic income (GDI) growth. And nominal GDI growth is falling with falling M2 Money growth. And today’s jobs report for August showed that only 187k...

In the modern rental market, some apartments and other types of homes for rent have requirements from their owners dictating the level of a tenant's income. Typically, these require tenants to make three times their monthly rent in income to qualify, with some requiring up to four times the rent to ensure tenants will pay each month. Over the past few years, rental rates have increased dramatically across the U.S., with a 16% increase observed nationally from 2021 to 2022, according to NerdWallet. While that growth has reportedly slowed, rents remain higher than they have historically. A TikToker questioned the...

BLS charts show interesting trends in real (inflation-adjusted) weekly earnings. Men are getting clobbered relative to women, but everyone is losing lately...Median real earnings from the BLS, inflation adjusted to the 1982-1984 CPI Index, chart by Mish.Median Weekly Real EarningsIn the first quarter of 1979 men were making $408 weekly. Today, men are making $391.In the first quarter of 1979 women were making $250 weekly. Today women are making $330 weekly.Collectively, people were making $335 then and now they are making $365.Men are getting clobbered, down 4.2 percent, while median women’s earnings have risen 32 percent. These numbers may look...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The California Department of Housing and Community Development released new income limits this month, and they increased in most counties. These limits are calculated annually based on federal guidelines and are used to determine eligibility for things like affordable housing programs. In Orange County, one-person households making less than $80,000 a year are considered low-income, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. That's up from just under $76,000 last year, and puts Orange County as the most expensive of the Southern California counties. In Ventura County, it's a little over $74,000 and in...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Mayor Malik Evans announced the launch of Rochester’s Guaranteed Basic Income program Thursday — a pilot program that would give $500 a month to around 350 families. The program will launch on Thursday, June 22 at 10 a.m. with an application form, and will be available for one week. To qualify, Mayor Evans says applicants must: Be 18 years of age or older Live in a qualified census track in the City of Rochester Have lived in the City for at least one year before applying Have a household income of at or below 185% of...

CHICAGO (CBS) –Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Friday in favor of a basic income guarantee program at a conference held in Chicago. "We are ushering in a more dynamic, prosperous economy by giving people a guarantee that their lives have meaning," Johnson said. About 3,200 families are receiving direct payments in the first-ever Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income pilot program for low-earning households.

California will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians. Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income. The new income-based electricity bills could hit residents’...

AU.S. family of four needs to earn a minimum of $85,000 a year on average to "get by," which is nearly three times the federal poverty line and $27,000 more than the estimated needed annual average 10 years ago, according to a new poll When asked, "What is the smallest amount of money a family of four needs to make each year to get by in your community?", the average answer respondents gave was $85,000, according to a Gallup Poll released Friday. In 2013, the average answer was $58,000 annually. The poll also found that 30% of respondents said a...

A new poll out from Richard Baris shows that Trump is undoubtedly in the lead in the 2024 presidential race in the Rust Belt states. Trump leads the GOP primary field with 67.5 percent, and DeSantis comes in a distant second at 17.1 percent. Trump also leads President Biden in the poll, showing that likely voters prefer Trump to Biden 46.9 to 38.1 percent. Among those likely voters who were polled, 7.5 percent say they would opt for a third party candidate, and 7.4 percent are not yet decided. If DeSantis were to be the nominee, according to likely voters,...

New York City council is considering a plan to impose fines for parking and other violations that are adjusted based on the income of the offender. Depending on one's point of view, it's either a step toward more proportionate justice or a deeper embrace of Marxism. The proposal for a pilot program to test the concept comes from South Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, whose colorful background includes being a hardcore punk guitarist for the bands Indecision and Most Precious Blood, and working in alternative-energy venture capital at Bear Stearns. New York City Councilman Justin Brannan (Matt Miller via New York...

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden made a combined income of $579,514 last year and Vice President Harris and her husband made $456,918, according to documents published by the White House on Tuesday based on the couples’ 2022 tax returns. The president and his wife paid an effective federal income tax rate of 23.8 percent, the documents showed. Those figures are lower compared to 2021, when the Bidens earned $610,702 with an effective federal income tax rate of 24.6 percent before taking office.

Buying a home is a huge financial undertaking. And it's important to err on the side of being conservative when taking on a mortgage loan. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to make sure your total predictable monthly housing costs don't exceed 30% of your take-home pay. But recent data from Today's Homeowner reveals that many homeowners aren't sticking to that guidance at all. Some homeowners are in over their heads On a national level, U.S. homeowners spend an average of 28.4% of their pre-tax income on mortgage payments. And homeowners in 21 states and Washington, D.C. spend...

(WJW) — Some Social Security recipients can expect a second payment before the end of the week. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients have received two benefit disbursements so far this month: the first SSI disbursement on March 1 and the regular Social Security payment on the second, third or fourth Wednesday, depending on their birth date. There’s typically only one SSI payment each month, paid out on the first of the month. But if that day falls on a weekend or holiday, it arrives on the last business day before the end of the month. This year, April 1 is...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that taking more than half of someone’s income through taxes is “absolutely” fair for some earners. Host Bill Maher asked, “I hear you all the time say, the rich don’t pay their fair share. Now, maybe that’s true of those three guys you mentioned [Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos], they are pretty rich. But, I guess I’m not very rich, but I pay more than half. California is 13.3% and the federal is 37% for people who make over 250k…and then there [are] the state and...

President Biden touts his economic plan as being a great success. But the data says otherwise. Real Disposable Personal Income, for examplge, was down -6.4% year-over-year (YoY) in 2022. That is the WORST reading since The Great Depression. So much for “Middle Class Joe” and The Forgotten Man. Biden hasn’t forgotten, he just doesn’t care.

Renters living in the New York metro area have the highest rent-to-income ratio in the country at nearly 69 percent, according to a new report from Moody’s Analytics. Figures show that for the first time in over 20 years, the entire United States is rent-burdened, as the average American rent-to-income ratio reached 30 percent. The ratio reflects what percentage of a household’s income is spent on rent. That total is up 1.5 percent from last year’s estimation. New York was followed by Miami, Fla.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Los Angeles, Calif.; and Palm Beach, Fla., respectively. Northern New Jersey; Boston, Mass.;...

Charles Calomiris has a splendid WSJ review of a great book, "The Myth of American Inequality" by by Phil Gramm, Robert Ekelund and John Early. It is a "'a truth universally acknowledged,' according to the Economist magazine in 2020" that little progress has been made in raising average American living standards since the 1960s; that poverty has not been substantially reduced over the period; that the median household’s standard of living has not increased in recent years and inequality is currently high and rising Most of all the last one. All of this is false. Most of all the last...

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday said that it is delaying by one year a new tax reporting requirement targeting Americans who made more than $600 online through third-party payment apps like Venmo or PayPal. "The IRS and Treasury heard a number of concerns regarding the timeline of implementation of these changes under the American Rescue Plan," said Doug O'Donnell, the acting IRS commissioner. "To help smooth the transition and ensure clarity for taxpayers, tax professionals and industry, the IRS will delay implementation of the 1099-K changes." This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Left to right (bottom scale) represents number of taxable transactions between individuals in the 22% tax bracket.