Free Republic

Rising prices are no surprise to anyone who has been following the actions of Ben Bernanke’s Fed. Two rounds of “quantitative easing” injected more than $2.3 trillion into bank reserves, and thus to some extent into the economy. The more money chasing products and services, the more those products and services cost.Bernanke’s thinking was that by pumping trillions into the financial system, he could spur lending, investing, and spending via lower interest rates, and thus goose the economy. But the strategy not only hasn’t improved the economy, it has also had two major bad side-effects. Increased inflation is one side-effect,...

Actually, that was the position of New York Times columnist Gail Collins in November 2008 concerning President George W. Bush. The economic situation was so bad, she wanted Bush to resign and step aside so that the economic problems could be fixed. But take her article, switch a few words, and her analysis is even more applicable today. Here you go:

Equities markets fell precipitously in New York as data highlights continued weakness across the board, from labor markets to manufacturing. Europe, falling off a cliff as authorities try to limit contagion, while Berlusconi tells investors Italy’s markets are sound, haven’t helped either. All three U.S. equity indices were trading deep in the red, having approached losses of 3%.

WASHINGTON—Ushering in the largest decrease in auto fuel consumption since the 1970s, President Barack Obama and automobile manufacturers Friday announced a deal that will save drivers money at the pump and dramatically cut heat-trapping gases coming from tailpipes. The agreement pledges to double overall fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, bringing major under-the-hood changes for the nation's automobiles starting in model year 2017. Cars and trucks on the road today average 27 miles per gallon. "This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we have taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on...

The horrors heaped upon a faltering Free World by the American president have reached danger zone zenith. The two-and-a-half-year Internet warning is no longer “Look what Obama is doing” but “See what Obama has done.” Surviving in an economy where jobs are disappearing daily keep many from feeling the brush of the net of the Obama regime, but it is already there. In the Information Overload that is part of our daily lives it is difficult to feel it, but the net encompasses each and every average citizen.

As we count down the 2nd year of Dumb0's recession and the ongoing debt crises, it’s appropriate to thank the President himself. I was actually kicked off FReeRepublic in January '08 for suggesting that I would prefer a Barack Obama over a John McCain because while McCain would lead us sleepily down the greasy slope toward Euro-Socialism, Obama would push us down in a head-long rush which might awaken independents from their ideological slumber. I was right. Herewith, then, three reasons to be thankful for the President this weekHis Laziness Dumb0 combines laziness with intellectual narcissism. By all accounts from...

The nation's largest education union has endorsed President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. Members of the National Education Association voted to support Obama on Monday at their annual convention in Chicago. In a statement, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel says Obama and the union share a vision and members wanted early and strong support to help his election.

Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was focused on presidential politics, the House passed an amendment forcing government contractors to use labor unions on federal construction projects. Oh, and like most bad legislation, this amendment passed by one vote, with the help of 27 Republicans. In 2009, Obama used his signature power grab tool; an Executive Order, forcing all private companies to sign a project labor agreement...

Have you had a lot of fun watching the price of gasoline shoot out of sight this year at the pump? That will be just the appetizer. Thanks to new regulations from the Obama administration, power companies will shut down a significant number of coal-fired plants by 2014, and without any other reliable sources of mass-produced electricity, consumers will see their bills go up as much as 60% (via Instapundit and Newsalert): Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.The reason: Pending environmental regulations will make coal-fired generating plants, which...

"I just want you to know that we are working on it," Barack Obama reportedly told Sarah Brady regarding gun control. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar." This interesting bit of news was reported in an April 11 Washington Post Lifestyle section story about Obama's gun-control and regulatory policy wonk Steve Croley. Toward the end of the article the writer, Jason Horowitz, mentions a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during which the President "dropped in." Horowitz quotes Sarah Brady relating how President Obama gave...

High gas prices and continued anxiety about the economy have taken their toll on President Obama's approval ratings, which have dropped consistently since the president announced he is running for a second term. Since Obama announced on April 4 with a low-key email and video address to supporters, the president's numbers have gone down in every poll conducted during that period. Pollsters attribute the president's dropping poll numbers to the rise of gasoline prices, which historically have taken a toll on the popularity of the White House. Last Friday, a Gallup survey showed the president's numbers at 41 percent, a...

Everybody has heard the national Emergency Alert System (EAS). Those familiar "duck calls" that reassure listeners "THIS is a test...this is ONLY a test..." The FCC is planning an upgrade to the tests by including presidential announcements in the system. Lisa Fowlkes, deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC, explained to the Federal Drive the Presidential Alert isn't new.

So that lavish state dinner President Obama hosted for Chinese President Hu Jintao last week? Turns out it was an even worse decision than previously thought. Not only did Obama honor a regime of human-rights abusers, but it turns out they weren’t even appreciative. According to the Epoch Times, a pianist at the event played a well-known Chinese propaganda song that’s about defeating the U.S. in a war. And it sounds like the Chinese government may have known the song would be played beforehand: "Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as...

Dear Abby, My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit-card bills and at the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let the kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest. Also he has been so arrogant and abusive toward our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch, to whom he has been giving a lot...

Americans may have fallen out of love with Barack Obama, but the president of the United States is still an object of affection for the Chinese, who have remodelled him as a blow-up sex doll.

Brazile is a former Gore campaign manager and Democrat pundit. She also served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Human Rights: Flexing economic and military muscle, China is asserting an intimidating presence. But a bespectacled literary critic now languishing in a squalid prison has shamed the Middle Kingdom. Thanks to the Nobel Committee in Oslo, which on Friday awarded him its annual Peace Prize, the world takes note of Liu Xiaobo, 54, and his insistent demand for freedom. He wins his prize while still imprisoned in China, a nation which through the global economic crisis has been trumpeting a toxic model of authoritarian capitalism. That dubious model now stands exposed. Within hours of the announcement, China's Foreign Ministry branded...

I thought this would be worth discussing. An American couple discover the sandbags in their door which was made in China are made up of a cut up American flag. This shows how China wants to cut up America's economy by refusing to devalue their yuan.

Alleged Christian Barack Hussein Obama has taken it upon himself to delete the reference to God the Father from the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence. In a speech Friday evening to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Obama took it upon himself to delete the word "Creator" at the 22:30 mark. What the Founding Fathers signed actually stated, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."

A State Council think-tank in China has warned Washington that the US will come off worst in a trade war if it imposes sanctions against Beijing over the two nations' currency spat. Ding Yifan, a policy guru at the Development Research Centre, said China could respond by selling holdings of US debt, estimated at over $1.5 trillion (£963bn). This would trigger a rise in US interest rates. His comments at a forum in Beijing follow a string of remarks by Chinese officials questioning US credit-worthiness and the reliability of the dollar. China's authorities seem split over how to respond to...