Free Republic

The Federal Reserve's year-long effort to fight inflation through aggressive rate hikes appears to be near its end, and that sets up a new landscape for investors, according to DataTrek Research. "Markets expect the Fed to cut rates later this year, and even the [Federal Open Market Committee] believes we are near the end of the current rate cycle," DataTrek's co-founder Nicholas Colas wrote in a note Friday. "We are entering a 'Post-Fed' world, where monetary policy decisions will be less important to market psychology." DataTrek noted that as the Fed slowed its hiking pace late last year and early...

Why are we even talking about schism? Who began this extraordinary conversation, and whose interests are served by it? Ross Douthat of the New York Times admits that he used the term "schism" long ago, as a theoretical possibility — which he now (rightly) regards as remote. But now Pope Francis speaks calmly about the prospect of schism, and even says that it does not frighten him — which, as I've pointed out, is frightening in itself. How did we come so far, so fast? How did we reach a point at which the nation's most prestigious secular newspaper raises...

Ross Douthat has written perhaps the most important Catholic book in the era of Pope Francis, which began in 2013. To Change the Church is thoughtful, penetrating, and graced with an ironic touch and gentle humor. It is also terribly difficult for a faithful Catholic to review, as it is acutely critical of the pope. A disclaimer, then: Pope Francis is a holy man, for Catholics his teaching authority is infallible, and nothing contained here should be taken for filial impiety or disloyalty. Yet as Douthat notes, the principal duty of a Catholic isn’t to the pope but “to the...

Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example and creating a new paradigm for ex-presidents. They're ba-aack. Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, America's political odd couple, are teaming up for another big roadshow, this time to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Last week, they stood shoulder to shoulder with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, the 59-year-old Clinton now completely gray and looking a bit fragile, and the 81-year-old Bush looking stooped and a bit weary. Later the pair appeared together in Houston, chatting with evacuees at the Astrodome and the Reliant Center Arena....