Free Republic

Last month, during the thick of the holidays, I found myself in a rare though not totally unprecedented predicament: I wasn’t sure which way to bet on the stock market in the year ahead. In my December column, I told you there were three possible 2025 outcomes – all of them seemingly likely, and to a vexingly similar degree. I also told you that I’d come back to you when I could conclude which is, in fact, the most likely. Well, I’m back – and with an answer that has surprised me in more ways than one. Recall the three...

HOW TO RETRUN TO $2.00 A GALLON GAS You know what, I am sick of hearing all of the endless wrangling by the major news media and politicians (particularly of the liberal variety) regarding the price of gas. Yesterday I heard some so-called oil and gas expert on a talk show. He was a guest and clearly an Obama supporter. He launched into this protracted explanation of the price of gold, the value of the dollar, OPEC, the world market and China's purchasing, etc., etc. to explain why the price cannot come down and how anyone saying it can...

MOSCOW – Russia and China could take a step closer to forming a Eurasian military confederacy to rival NATO at a Moscow meeting of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Wednesday, experts say. The group, which started in 2001 with limited goals of promoting cooperation in former Soviet Central Asia, has evolved rapidly toward a regional security bloc and could soon induct new members such as India, Pakistan, and Iran. One initiative that core members Russia and China agree on, experts say, is to squeeze US influence - which peaked after 9/11 - out of the SCO's neighborhood. "Four years...