Free Republic

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes” is a quote attributed to Mark Twain. In the political and economic world, this maxim is proving true, as we are witnessing today. The misery index is one such bit of history, dating back not that far, to the Jimmy Carter presidency of the late 1970s. Calculated by adding the unemployment and inflation rates together, the misery index “measures the degree of economic distress felt by everyday people.” It is currently just over 12 percent, and that’s being generous given how the government calculates inflation. More on that later. The misery index...

With Joe Biden in the White House, the People's Republic of China ("America's #1 Adversary") is on a winning streak. America's cold war with the PRC is a 12-round fight still in the early rounds. But the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping are certainly emboldened by resident Biden's self-inflicted foreign policy disasters. The Afghanistan debacle proved Biden to be a weak and undependable ally. This perception has, in turn, opened the door to PRC aggression. The PRC won the first round of the cold-war fight in 1972 when it made a secret deal with Pakistan to help them...

"The worst president since Jimmy Carter." You see a lot of that sort of thing if you regularly read conservative commentary, as I do. But as a conservative writer, I think it's unfair to the 39th president. I think it's time to say some good words for Carter. And if some of his accomplishments provide stark contrasts with his only-18-years-younger successor President Joe Biden, well, draw your own conclusions. I start off by noting that Carter came to the presidency with almost no relevant experience. For the voters of the mid-1970s, that was a feature, not a bug. Two of...

Remember long gas lines under President Jimmy Carter? Gas is now over $3 per gallon. This is higher than it was under the Carter administration, $2.40, when accounting for inflation. Under Trump, it dropped under $2. We’re about to see deja vu of the Carter years with inflation, as Biden creates a legacy of attacking poor and low-income Americans right after entering office. He’s fostering this by handing out massive amounts of paper money in stimulus funds to special interest groups, and the pet pork is about to continue in his massive $2 trillion infrastructure plan, which is really a...

If there’s one guarantee in this life, aside from death and taxes, it’s that history really does have a fondness for repeating itself. Empires rise and fall, leaders come and go, and every now and then a president wins election only to find himself in over his head with the burden of the Oval Office. It’s happened twice now in my lifetime, first with Jimmy Carter and now with Joseph R. Biden. There has been a lot of discussion recently comparing the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter with the failing presidency of Joe Biden, but I will clue you in...

Stagflation, which reigned during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, occurs during an unusual confluence of events: high inflation, low economic growth and high unemployment. Normally, high inflation happens during periods of rapid economic expansion and low unemployment. On the opposite side, low economic growth and high unemployment normally occur during periods of low inflation. Stagflation, which combines the worst of everything, is particularly hard on the middle and lower classes, whose members face both high unemployment and rapidly rising prices for goods and services. In addition, the lack of jobs often leads to despondency among those unable to find work....

America has been blessed with some of the most dynamic and impressive leaders in world history: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, to name a few. But none of them were perfect people. Criticism of many of our past leaders has increased dramatically over the last few years, particularly our Founding Fathers, and the driving force behind that criticism is the positions they held on slavery. While most of today’s militant left has diverted their attention from tearing down statues of historic leaders to burning down courthouses and churches, they will surely be coming back for more. We must...

“Joe has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America’s greatness. We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people. He understands that honesty and dignity are essential traits that determine not only our vision but our actions. More than ever, that’s what we need," said Jimmy Carter endorsing Joe Biden at the DNC. And speaking of Jimmy Carter’s interpretation of “character, decency, integrity, honesty” and people whose hearts and minds are focused on “what’s best for America”:"Fidel Castro first and...

Do you remember how Democrats were openly scheming to help nominate Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primary? Paul Krugman wrote a Labor Day column back in 2015 defending Trump from Jeb Bush and praising his economic platform. Jimmy Carter told the British Parliament the following February that he preferred a President Trump to a President Cruz because Trump would be a pragmatic and non-ideological leader. A Democratic National Committee email released by WikiLeaks later that year revealed that the Clinton campaign and the DNC were colluding to ensure that Trump won the nomination. An attached memorandum outlined how important...