Free Republic

One of the key engines of the U.S. economy is starting to misfire and it’s happening in auto lending. Since the pandemic, car buyers have faced a costly mix: record sticker prices, shrinking dealer incentives, and higher borrowing costs. To make car ownership possible, more Americans, especially lower-income households, have turned to used vehicles and stretched loans out over longer terms. Now, the strain is showing. Delinquencies are rising, repossessions are climbing, and subprime borrowers are feeling the squeeze as wages stagnate and unemployment edges higher. On the surface, the economy still looks strong, but the auto market is one...

Wyoming and 10 other states’ claims that giant investment companies conspired to drive coal production down and drive prices up — increasing people’s energy costs — are at least plausible enough to keep a lawsuit alive, a judge has ruled. Wyoming filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas in late November against Blackrock Inc., State Street Corp. and Vanguard Group Inc. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led the litigation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia and Wyoming also signed the complaint. The states allege the three massive investment companies acquired substantial stockholdings in...

-snip- Short of bringing up politics, it seems there's no surer way to start a fight than to take a stance on real estate as an investment. There are diehard believers on either side of the argument. Many people fervently believe that real estate is not just a good investment, but the best investment an average person can make. Meanwhile, many others point out that real estate is an illiquid asset that typically requires taking on a massive debt load to acquire — and between inflation and housing markets that can boom or bust at any time, earning a return...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren says NO ONE is interested in making investments in the United States after President Trump's tariffs. Does she live under a rock? President Trump has already secured TRILLIONS in investments. 11:32 AM · Apr 9, 2025

Have you taken a look around today at what's going on? Things are going rather well, economically-speaking. Sure, the stock market didn't like the uncertainty of the impact of tariffs at all, tanking for the better part of a month. But if one just ganders at the economic development and investment committed to begin in the United States due to the threat of tariffs, it's staggering when you start looking at all the zeros after the crooked numbers. There are going to be trillions of dollars flowing into America...trillions that would have remained working against American workers and taxpayers had...

Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not only married to one of the best stock-pickers in the world — turns out she and husband Paul are super savvy real-estate investors as well. Though sometimes they need a soupçon of help. The Pelosis own part of the Auberge de Soleil, a tony hotel in California’s swanky Napa Valley, whose rooms command prices as high as $2,000 a night and attract an A-list crowd. For all the cachet such an investment might provide, it underperformed for years for the Frisco power couple (per Pelosi’s own disclosure filings). That must have been disappointing, as other...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to purge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly before being chosen as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary. Any changes he wants to make will come up against a pharmaceutical industry that pays much of the regulator's bills. Kennedy, an environmental activist who has helped sow doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, would have authority over the nation's agencies responsible for public health, government-funded health insurance plans for more than 140 million including the poor, those 65 and older, and the disabled, medical research and more if...

I was never informed of this till I received an email from my accountant. A new Federal filing requirement for all incorporated and limited liability companies must be filed on or before December 31, 2024. Called the Business Ownership Information (BOI) report with the U.S. Department of the Treasury Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Disregarded entities are also required to file. Penalties for failure to file are $591 per day! You can also face an additional $10,000 criminal penalty and up to two years in prison. Please see the attached pdf. The link below is the site to register. https://www.fincen.gov/boi-faqs

You read the Journal. You follow the stonks. And now you're wondering how you'll possibly manage to get through four years of a Kamala Harris administration without going bankrupt. Well, never fear, for the Bee is here. Forget whatever you read in The White Coat Investor and Millionaire Next Door — we've spent literal minutes of our time to thoroughly investigate the markets nowadays and here are our top picks. You're welcome. Meme futures: Don't let anyone know you heard this from us, but they're going to the moon. SKIBIDI TOILET BUY BUY BUY!!! Red hot pokers for your...

U.S. stock futures tumbled Monday as part of a global market sell-off centered around U.S. recession fears. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 12% in its worst day since the 1987 Black Monday crash for Wall Street. Here’s where U.S. stock market futures stand at the moment: * Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 633 points or 1.6% following a 611-point loss on Friday. * S&P 500 futures are down 2.6% after the benchmark lost 1.8% on Friday. * Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4% as big tech stocks got hit hard in early trading.

Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell 4% in the extended session Tuesday after the EV maker posted mixed quarterly results, reporting a wider-than-expected loss but revenue above Wall Street’s expectations. Rivian RIVN lost $1.45 billion, or $1.48 a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $1.35 billion, or $1.45 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

The proposal, released last month, notes that the administration wants to increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains dividends up to 44.6 percent, which would make the tax rate exceed 50 percent in states like California, New Jersey, New York and others. Two separate proposals would need to pass in the final 2025 budget for the 44.6 percent figure to come to fruition. 'Biden has proposed adding a second Death Tax (separate from and in addition to the existing Death Tax) by taking away stepped-up basis when parents die. This would result in a mandatory capital gains tax...

Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Common Stock is expected* to report earnings on 04/24/2024 after market close. The report will be for the fiscal Quarter ending Mar 2024. According to Zacks Investment Research, based on 14 analysts' forecasts, the consensus EPS forecast for the quarter is $4.32. The reported EPS for the same quarter last year was $2.64.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday turned its spotlight on the growing U.S. fiscal deficit, warning that it is now a risk to both the domestic economy and global economy. Loose U.S. fiscal policy could be a factor in making it “harder to achieve” the “last mile” of progress on bringing domestic inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target, the IMF said, in its latest report on global fiscal policy.

The numbers: The New York Fed’s Empire State business-conditions index, a gauge of manufacturing activity in the state, fell 18.5 points in March to negative 20.9, the regional bank said Friday. The drop was much larger than expected. Economists had expected a negative 6 reading, according to a survey by the Wall Street Journal. Any reading below zero indicates deteriorating conditions. This is the third straight reading negative reading for the Empire State index and the fifth in the past six months. Key details: The index for new orders fell 10.9 points to negative 17.2 in March. This is a...