Free Republic

Americans are right to be feeling so down about the economy, according to Art Laffer. The former economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan said Saturday that he can understand why people's views on the jobs market, inflation, and growth remain negative, despite a strong 2023 where price pressures cooled and the US managed to dodge a long-expected recession. "Let me just give you where the huge disconnect comes here," he told Fox Business. "People care about jobs, not unemployment rates, and so when you look at total jobs, it's way down."

Dear Abby: I’m a liberal Democrat and my entire political party is full of insufferable nags. What do I do?! That was the entire point of New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg’s article this week wherein she fretted that normal Americans are perhaps drifting to the political right because the left has become so indefensibly annoying. “For those who get most of their politics online, this can be what the left looks like — a humorless person shaking her head at others’ insensitivity,” she wrote. “As a result, an alliance with the country’s most repressive forces can appear, to some,...

The dreaded midlife crisis may come about because it coincides with life’s peak time for misery, a study released this week says, according to a report.That peak time would be around age 47, Dartmouth College professor and former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower claims in a study, after examining trends in 132 countries to compare the relationship between well-being and age.  A typical individual’s well-being reaches its minimum point – on both sides of the Atlantic and for both males and females – in midlife, Blanchflower wrote in his report for the National Bureau of Economic Research.In order to better understand age’s relationship...

Over the past six years, Lane Fury has collected more than $185,000 in family money. Eventually, Fury stands to inherit roughly $6 million, but the 27-year-old doesn’t see this good fortune as a positive thing. “I don’t actually want it,” says Fury. “There is this sense of shame or embarrassment, like maybe some of the problems in the world are my fault, so I shouldn’t really be open about [my wealth].” While many people struggle to pay the bills and make ends meet, those lucky enough to have family money say they have problems of their own. Fury says having...

(snip)“A Wrinkle in Time” hit US theaters on March 9 after heavy marketing promotion by Disney and abundant media appearances by cast members like Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, and director Ava DuVernay. The movie bombed. It made $33 million in its opening weekend, compared to $202 million by “Black Panther” and $258 million for “Avengers: Infinity War.” It has grossed just $126.8 million globally to date, according to Box Office Mojo and confirmed by Disney.

Liberal celebrities Jane Fonda and Ellen DeGeneres on Tuesday strove to offer the most fawning Hillary Clinton praise. Is she “amazing,” “exciting,” or “smart?” All of these things. Appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Fonda cheered, “It's so exciting that she may very well be our president.”

RUSH: There wouldn't be social issues if there weren't angst and misery and unhappiness. And make no mistake: That's what's driving all this, folks. You may think this is all political, but it's angst and misery. It's unhappiness. It's people seeking a mysterious... You can read it in Kennedy Supreme Court ruling. You know that Supreme Court decision that Kennedy wrote is basically all about self-esteem and dignity. That's why Scalia openly wrote, he would be embarrassed to sign his name to a majority opinion such as that written by Anthony Kennedy on the gay marriage business. Esteem and dignity...

Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice and often described as “The Godfather of Hipsterdom,” kicked a hornets nest this week by suggesting that modern feminism has been detrimental to women. “We’ve trivialized childbirth and being domestic so much that women are forced to pretend to be men. They’re feigning this toughness. They’re miserable,” McInnes said in part during a contentious and expletive-laced exchange on a HuffPost Live panel on Monday. McInnes received forceful push back from the panel, media and social media for his comments. The founder of Street Carnage, however, explained in an interview with The Daily Caller that he...

I always enjoy reading Forbes’ list of best and worst, particularly when it comes to cities. For 2013, Forbes ranks Detroit and Flint as the most miserable cities in the US. Most of the cities on Forbes top 20 list are in the northeast US and in the Inland Empire of California. Here is a chart comparing Detroit, Chicago and, for comparison sake, Washington DC in terms of house prices. Since 2000, Detroit is actually worse off, Chicago is just above 2000 levels and Washington DC remains elevated. So, Detroit is indeed miserable in terms of housing. If we compare...

Leadership: If the president meant to calm the markets on Monday, he failed utterly — and no wonder. All he did was make it clear he's completely out of ideas on how to get the economy moving again. After his televised remarks, the Dow industrial average continued to fall, finishing 5.5% lower. The Nasdaq plummeted 6.9%. Why should it have been any different? In his brief statement, the only thing President Obama demonstrated was a cluelessness about the country's current mess — of which the debt downgrade is just the latest example — and an even weaker grasp on how...

VANCOUVER (AFP) – The Winter Olympics suffered a miserable start on Saturday when the men's skiing downhill was postponed and protests turned violent in Vancouver, but the luge went ahead despite the death of a Georgian slider. A day after a dazzling ceremony opened the Games, the first gold medal was claimed by Switzerland's Simon Ammann, who won the normal hill ski jump ahead of Poland's Adam Malysz and Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer. Ammann wants Miami ice ... and more girls Dutchman Sven Kramer took out the 5,000 metre men's speedskating gold, finally capturing a title that had eluded him four...

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Citing harsh weather, high sales taxes, and public corruption, Forbes Magazine named Chicago the third most miserable city in the country in its 2009 survey. Forbes list ranked Chicago more miserable than Buffalo, Detroit, and even Flint, Mich., the former auto manufacturing town whose gloom was immortalized in Michael Moore's "Roger and Me." The city boasts being the hometown of President Barack Obama, a leading contender for the 2016 Summer Olympics and an impressive record for the Cubs last year, Forbes points out.

America's Most Miserable Cities Kurt Badenhausen, 02.06.09, 10:00 AM EST Lousy weather, long commutes, rising unemployment and high sales tax. Welcome home. Chicago would seem to be on quite a roll these days. The city is a leading contender to host the Summer Olympics in 2016. The hometown Cubs had the most wins of any team in the National League last year,,,, (More at link,,,)

President Barack Obama called for swift action to create jobs and restore the vitality of the U.S. economy during his inaugural address, but investors are having a hard time looking past the ongoing financial quagmire, and Wall Street paid the price on Tuesday. Stocks ran red across New York's exchanges, with declines outnumbering gains by nearly 5-to-1. The steepest declines came out of the financial sector, after Royal Bank of Scotland (nyse: RBS - news - people ) warned it could book a $41.3 billion loss and the British government stepped in with a second rescue plan for the nation's...

We looked at only the 150 largest metropolitan areas, which meant a minimum population of 371,000. We ranked the cities on the six criteria above and added their ranks together to establish what we call the Misery Measure. The data used in the rankings came from Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling, who last year published the second edition of Cities Ranked & Rated along with Peter Sander. Economic research firm Economy.com, which is owned by Moody's, also supplied some data. Detroit in the top spot, with its sister city Flint ranked third, is probably not a great shock. "If Detroit...

Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro. Unfortunately, this nightmare is a reality for the residents of Detroit. The Motor City grabs the top spot on Forbes' inaugural list of America's Most Miserable Cities.

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...