Free Republic

Foreign Exchange: Thailand's ham-fisted capital controls, announced Tuesday, sought to halt the baht's rise. But all that did was knock $23 billion in value from Thai stocks and rattle world markets. It's not the answer. What it actually shows is that the caretaker military regime, in power since its September coup, isn't quite up to the task of running Thailand's economic powerhouse. Thailand's markets, which have done well this year, don't need new controls. What they really need are the same thing Thailand's people need — more freedom, economic and political. Thailand's government Tuesday told foreign investors they would no...

BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added. The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

More Than 1 Million Families Will Get a Supplemental Payment of up to $330 per Child Through the Empire State Child Credit $2.6 Billion Delivered to New Yorkers in Supplemental Payments Since 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised a planned tax overhaul would increase inflows to the state budget, benefit low-income families and provide long-term stability for Russian corporation -snip- Now the government is looking to raise taxes for almost the first time since Putin took over in 2000 -snip- But with a war to fund, the Ministry of Finance (MinFin) intends to slowly move towards a more progressive system of taxes to boost revenues. At the same time Putin made expensive spending pledges to the population in March as part of the 12 National Projects that were launched in 2019 and need...

The Pentagon’s surprise decision to withdraw $2.5 billion in funding for Intel’s semiconductor manufacturing plans has created a significant shortfall in the company’s expected incentives under the CHIPS Act. Bloomberg reports that the semiconductor industry’s path to revitalization has hit a snag as the Pentagon abruptly scrapped its plan to contribute $2.5 billion toward Intel’s chip manufacturing grant under the CHIPS Act. This move has disrupted the distribution of funds from the legislation, leaving the Commerce Department scrambling to fill the substantial funding gap. According to people familiar with the matter, the Pentagon’s withdrawal occurred in the days leading up...

Introduction We are living in a time of grassroots demands to transform our built environment and our relationships with one another and the earth.2 To abolish prisons and police, rent, debt, borders, and billionaires.3 To decommodify housing and healthcare and to decolonize land.4 To exercise more collective ownership over our collectively generated wealth.5 Some of us are reimagining the state. Others are dreaming of moving beyond it.6 But these are more than dreams. These are demands for a democratic political economy. These demands increased in volume this year as the violence of policing continued, the fires burned in California and...

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York announced a substantial $46 million grant initiative aimed at supporting more than 1,400 households in achieving affordable homeownership. This financial aid will primarily assist low- and moderate-income families, facilitating essential home repairs, safety modifications, and replacing older manufactured homes. Additionally, the program includes providing down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Governor Hochul emphasized the importance of this investment in the face of rising housing costs, positioning it as a crucial step in New York’s battle against the housing crisis. This move aligns with the Governor’s ambitious $25 billion Housing Plan, which intends to create...

Joe Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as ‘Joe The Plumber’ passed away at the age of 49 from pancreatic cancer, a source confirmed to the Daily Caller. Wurzelbacher, who became well known during the 2008 presidential campaign after confronting former President Barack Obama about whether or not his tax plan would end up costing him more, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early 2023. Conservative radio host Derek Hunter shared the news of Wurzelbacher’s passing in a post on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. “Horrible news. My good friend Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, passed away this morning at the age of...

Denver City Council member Candi CdeBaca, who is running for re-election, says white owned businesses should be taxed extra and redistributed to black owned businesses.

A new Biden administration rule that is set to go into effect will force homeowners with good credit to pay more on their mortgages in order to subsidize loans to high-risk borrowers.According to a new, insane Biden Admin rule, people with good credit will be assessed higher mortgage rates to subsidize riskier loans to people with lower credit. Homeowners will now be punished for being responsible.Biden's attack on success in the name of "equity" continues.

A new proposal coming to the Washington Legislature for consideration next year aims to break the cycle of poverty that’s trapped families like Bereskin’s and lift future generations of low-income residents toward a path of financial independence. The Washington Future Fund would create a pool of money that every child born under the state’s Medicaid program, Apple Health, could access a portion of upon adulthood to use toward homeownership, education or pursuing a small business. The trusts are intended to even the financial playing field for lower-income residents by providing a chance to catch up to their wealthier peers. Beginning...

It had been an article of faith since the 1990s when the idea of “climate reparations” was first proposed that the United States would never participate in such an extortion scheme. Then Joe Biden got elected. At the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, wealthy nations agreed for the first time to a framework that would pay poorer countries for “damages” that are caused by climate change. Droughts, storms, heat waves, excessive cold — all can now be itemized as part of the cost poor countries pay because rich countries are responsible for the changing climate. Of course, storms and droughts...

With poll results showing widespread disapproval of his economic policies, President Biden went on the campaign trail to urge voters to "not lose faith in the decision you made to elect me in 2020. The enemies of our democracy are trying to use current inflation, fuel shortages, and recession to persuade you to jump ship. I assure you, the pain is only temporary. The transformation we are wreaking on our economy will totally change the way we live." "The key flaw in the Republicans' arguments against Democrat policies is that they are wed to old ways of thinking," the President...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a letter to finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s 20 leading economies Thursday urging they change course and steer a global economic recovery that includes developing countries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of the war in Ukraine and escalating climate emergencies. The U.N. chief said in the letter ahead of the Group of 20 summit in the Indonesian resort of Bali next month that these world events along with the rising cost of living, tightening financial conditions, and unsustainable debt burdens “are wreaking havoc on economies across...

DADU, Pakistan (AP) — Every part of Rajul Noor’s life has been wrecked by this summer’s massive monsoon-driven floods. The 12-year-old girl’s family home is destroyed, as is the school that she loved. The friends she used to walk to school and play with are scattered, finding refuge elsewhere. The destruction has intensified the debate over a question of climate justice: Whether rich countries whose emissions have been the main driver of climate change owe compensation for the damage that change is inflicting on poor countries like Pakistan. It’s an idea that developed nations have repeatedly rejected, but Pakistan and...

Individuals who are eligible to apply include residents of Evanston who are 18-24 years old, over 62 years old, or an "undocumented community member." In order to qualify, applicants must also live in a household that makes below or at 250% of the poverty line. For a one-person household, 250% of the poverty line is $33,975, and for a two-person household, 250% of the poverty line is $45,775, according to city officials.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized President Biden’s decision to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually, calling it a “wildly unfair redistribution” of wealth in favor of higher-earning Americans. McConnell said in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday that the move is a “slap in the face” to those in the workforce who made sacrifices to pay off their debt, as well as those who made different career choices to avoid student debt.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is overseeing a relief effort for some 60,000 families in the state hit hardest by rising inflation with a one-time payment of $450 per child. “These letters are real,” DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said in a tweet with a copy of the documents families will receive. Pushaw also pushed back against claims that these payments are hypocritical because of criticism by conservatives that Biden’s excessive federal spending is the cause for inflation.

Max Lawson's demands are clear. As Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, the US and the UK — otherwise known as the Group of Seven — gather with EU representatives for their annual meeting this year at the luxurious Schloss Elmau high in the Bavarian Alps, the head of the inequality policy program at Oxfam is calling on the leaders of these wealthy countries to cancel the debt crippling the globe's poorest nations. "It's really dramatic," Stormy-Annika Mildner, executive director of the Aspen Institute Germany, a think tank, told DW. "They're paying almost more on servicing their debt than they're getting...

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board estimates that just 3% of Washington’s cannabis shops are majority Black owned, while Seattle doesn’t have any that fit that description. While former Sonics star Shawn Kemp is the namesake of a recently-opened shop in Seattle, he only owns a 5% stake in the business. Mosqueda further pointed out that communities of color were disproportionately targeted for marijuana-related arrests prior to legalization, despite roughly equal levels of use among all racial demographics. After marijuana was legalized, “Black people were largely left out of ownership opportunities,” she noted. In San Francisco, newly-registered cannabis firms...