Free Republic

Top microchip makers are postponing their expansion into the U.S. and setting up shop in Israel and Russia due to equity caveats that are required for them to receive grants from the U.S. government. The Biden administration promised earlier this year that they would be handing out $39 billion in grants to encourage semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. Shortly after the announcement however, Intel announced they would be holding off on their Columbus factory, while Samsung also delayed their facility in Texas. Despite the billions in subsidies, two experts believe the tech companies' decision to back out of building manufacturing...

WEIRTON, West Virginia -- Most people in this town will tell you they'd rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs. .. It isn't just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there's also the demise of the...

The numbers: Orders for durable or long-lasting goods sank 6.1% in January, but the decline was exaggerated by a brief lull in orders for Boeing passenger planes. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 5% decline. New orders fell by a mild 0.3% last month if planes and cars are stripped out. Orders minus transportation give a more accurate view of how well businesses are performing.

In an election year, candidates from both sides will generally declare that we need more domestic manufacturing, and they promise to make it happen. Different sides will propose different ways to accomplish it. Republicans will call for lower tax rates and lighter regulations; Democrats will call for open borders and higher punitive tariffs. Each side hates the other’s methods; nothing gets done. Does this really matter? There are economists, investment advisors, even politicians out there, who will say it doesn’t matter. They will say we need business, of course; but as long as there are transactions happening, that’s economic growth....

I’ve started to detect some chatter on the America First side of the house that reflects a blurring of meanings. Our military leadership has become woke and there needs to be change to eradicate this toxic cancer. However, we need the strongest military in the world to deter any overt or malign challenges to America. President Trump made that clear in his first term. Until recently, the American military was one of the highest regarded institutions in the country. What is becoming blurred is that because of a disease in our military, there is this impression that the military is...

President Ronald Reagan had been slowly chipping away at affirmative action since taking office in 1981, but it was six months into his second term that his administration saw its chance to deal it a decisive blow. Reagan and his Cabinet viewed his resounding electoral victory against Walter Mondale in 1984 as a mandate to end the Lyndon B. Johnson-era policy requiring all government contractors to take “affirmative action” to end discrimination at their firms. By the mid-’80s, that meant some of the country’s largest companies — such as General Motors, IBM and Merck — had implemented robust affirmative action...

TAIPEI, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan's export orders fell more than expected in their worst performance in six months in December, with the outlook for the island's high-tech products remaining poor due to growing doubts about global economic growth. Export orders last month slipped 16.0% from a year ago to $43.81 billion, the worst showing since July and well below the average analyst forecasts of a 0.25% decline predicted in a Reuters poll. Orders edged up 1.0% year-on-year in November. ... Weak demand for Taiwan's technology products amid global economic uncertainty has prompted the government to forecast that for 2023...

For venture capitalists and startup entrepreneurs, 2023 was a year dedicated to the destructive phase of Joseph Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in the second-largest bank failure in American history, 400,000 tech jobs were eliminated in what Wired dubbed “The Great Tech Layoffs,” and dozens of high-potential startups transformed from unicorns into “zombies.” Destruction is a necessary ingredient to creativity. Not all ideas are good, and not all firms can make it. Economic dynamism is predicated not just on the rapid generation and growth of winning startups, but also on the implosion of failed companies, which...

Is it crazy to notice our institutions are falling apart?I came across this thread recently about Boeing from financial analyst Porter Stansberry. Here’s what he had to say: A year ago @Porter_and_Co published a dire warning about a mega-cap American stock. This was the only mega-cap stock we told investors to avoid. And it is no ordinary business. It is America’s most strategically important company. We said it would soon collapse. Our January 27th 2023 headline? COMING SOON: THE BOEING COLLAPSE. How did we know? For the last 20 years, there hasn’t been a company in America that’s embraced more...

United States Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark made a veiled attack against former President Donald Trump’s economic nationalist agenda, declaring that tariffs and reshoring America’s manufacturing base threaten the global economy.During Clark’s annual speech to big business late last week, the Chamber executive said Americans must embrace globalization and free trade rather than seek to reshore American jobs that have been lost to China and other foreign countries over the last three decades.Alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China since 2001 has eliminated nearly four million American jobs. Almost three million of these lost jobs, or about 75 percent,...

WILMERDING, Pennsylvania — By July of this year, the last man on the job here at the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation will, in all likelihood, turn around as he reaches the threshold of the same front door hundreds of thousands of workers have passed through since the 1890s. For the last time, he will look out over the 300,000-square-foot plant that has provided this country with so much technology and innovation for nearly 140 years, and he will think about the men and women who went before, and then turn out the lights for the last time. This is...

Daniel Alman from Squirrel Hill@DanielAlmanPGH I support meritocracy because I want bridge engineers who are good at math, doctors who don't butcher their patients, and college presidents who don't commit plagiarism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_University_pedestrian_bridge_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Gay #ClaudineGay #Harvard #DEI #Woke

A network of NGOs funded by U.S. taxpayers, the United Nations, other nations’ governments, and corporations, are secretly facilitating the invasion of illegal aliens at the U.S. southern border, a report said. A group of NGOs are literally giving illegals ‘blueprints’ on how to reach and cross the U.S. southern border. Muckraker, a new website, obtained what it described as “mass migration blueprints” that were distributed by NGOs to illegals across South and Central America. The “blueprints” detail transportation routes and points to cross the border. “The collapse of the U.S. southern border is the result of a carefully planned...

OPINION The USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK which had the moral responsibility to rapidly phase out oil and gas production are responsible for planned expansion from new oil and gas fields for next decade and half. How can these countries advise India to cut on coal consumption? Our greenhouse gas emission is nearly 3 Giga tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. We are distant third behind the two top emitters China with 14 Giga tonnes and the US with 8 Giga tonnes Among the important outcomes, COP 28 text proposes to triple renewable energy capacity and double the global...

South Korea’s semiconductor industry is witnessing a robust resurgence, with significant surges in both production and shipments. As per the data from the national statistical office, chip production in November saw a 42% increase year-on-year, marking the most substantial rise since the early months of 2017. Additionally, semiconductor shipments experienced an unprecedented 80% increase, the most sizeable since late 2002. This growth trajectory indicates a revival of technological momentum that not only bodes well for South Korea’s economic prospects but also for the broader global technology sector.

The generative AI will change the way economy functions and businesses are run; it will be a game changer for in many verticals In a world driven by unprecedented technological advancements, there emerges a groundbreaking force that promises to reshape the very fabric of innovation: generative artificial intelligence. With its awe-inspiring ability to create, compose, and imagine, generative AI has surged to the forefront of scientific exploration, capturing the imaginations of researchers, entrepreneurs, and artists alike. From generating realistic images and synthesising music to aiding in drug discovery and revolutionising customer experiences, this cutting-edge technology possesses the potential to revolutionise...

HANOI (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday opened a visit to a Vietnam that wants to dramatically ramp up trade with the United States, a sign of how competition with China is reshaping relationships across Asia. The president has made it a point of pride that Vietnam is elevating the United States to the status of being a comprehensive strategic partner. Other countries that Vietnam has extended this designation to include China and Russia. Giving the U.S. the same status suggests that Vietnam wants to hedge its friendships as U.S. and European companies look for alternatives to Chinese factories....

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Industrial Revolution began in the UK.It was the mastery of energy–replacing muscle power with fossil fuels that fundamentally transformed everything. We still describe an engine’s output as “horsepower” for a reason: for most of human history the fastest anything could travel was the speed of a horse.Unless, of course, you were falling off a cliff. Then you could go faster, but the ride was short.The UK–which is still led by the Tories only because Labour is even worse–is looking to undo the Industrial Revolution. In a ridiculous bid to save Gaia...

Across the US, the legal weed industry is under pressure from a 'ganja glut' Prices have plunged even as dispensaries complain of high taxes and red tape Industry group warns pot business is 'on the verge of collapse' without reforms Across the US, the legalized marijuana industry is buckling under the strain of plunging prices, patchwork state regulation, and burdensome taxes, analysts and industry groups say. 'All of these issues are chipping away at the health of the industry to the point where I would describe the industry as in crisis in the United States,' Beau Whitney, senior economist for...

In the feverish haze of the hottest summer on record, construction workers in Texas found out they soon will no longer be guaranteed mandated water breaks. In Florida, undocumented workers are subject to new restrictions on the services they’re able to access — including healthcare. And political battles over immigration policy and border security make legislative compromises or reforms increasingly unlikely. The need to build is everywhere, but it’s becoming harder to find construction workers willing to do the jobs, and some states are making it even harder by cracking down on undocumented immigrants, a major source of construction labor....