Free Republic

The big question here will be whether Kathleen Sebelius herself will travel to Connecticut to smite the insurers personally, or the state government that approved rate hikes of up to 20% to cover the new mandates in ObamaCare. These rate hike requests won’t be the last, either: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut requested a wide range of premium increases, which will take effect Oct. 1, to cover the costs of new benefits required by federal health reform. Higher prices mostly affect new members shopping for a health plan on the individual market rather than people who have...

Massachusetts' strug gle to make "universal health insurance" work continues to be an excellent peek at what the entire nation faces when ObamaCare kicks in -- and the picture remains ugly. Gov. Deval Patrick has just reached a truce with three of the four top insurers in the state, compromising on this year's rate hikes for the small-business and individual markets. Plus, the state last week passed a law allowing some small businesses to form cooperatives to bargain jointly for health plans. But the numbers still don't add up. When the Bay State passed its health-reform law in 2006, 9...

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada's economy created six times more jobs than forecast in June, a near-record gain that pressures the central bank to raise interest rates again this month even as cracks in the U.S. recovery threaten to cool the country's scorching growth. The staggering employment gain contradicts a recent string of weaker data, including another report on Friday showing housing starts fell in June. Statistics Canada said on Friday that employment surged by 93,200 in June, flying past market expectations for 15,000 jobs, led by hiring in the retail and wholesale trade sectors, while factories laid off workers. The...

The UC Board of Regents has decided to raise statewide fees some 32-percent, while ignoring their own fiscal waste, inner-circle intelligencia perks and favors, and continual funding of the egregious UC Labor Institute. Suffer the students, let them eat cake. College rates across the country are paying higher tuitions, as state budgets evaporate inside of a recession. But nowhere are the increases as dramatic as they are in California. Earlier this year the CSU System increased their fees by 32-precent as well. If you are a college student in California, there is nowhere to hide. In two steps over the...

In the fifth tightening of US monetary policy in as many meetings, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the Federal Funds Rate target 25 basis points to 2.25%, as expected. More...

In the fourth tightening of US monetary policy in as many meetings, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the Federal Funds Rate target 25 basis points to 2.00%, as expected. More...

In the second tightening of US monetary policy since May of 2000, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the Federal Funds Rate target 25 basis points to 1.50%, as expected. More...

In the first tightening of US monetary policy since May of 2000, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the Federal Funds Rate target, from its 46 year low, 25 basis points to 1.25%. More...