Free Republic

Expectations were great. When 2023 started, there was a general sense that the stock and bond markets had turned over a new leaf. A repeat of 2022 was out of the question. The primary assumption was that inflation would relent. After that, everything else would neatly fall in line. Specifically, interest rates would decline, and the next great stock market boom would bubble up just in time to bailout the meager retirement savings of aging baby boomers. That was the general outlook when 2023 commenced. But instead, the opposite is now happening. Inflation is persisting. Interest rates are rising. And...

A piece published in a major liberal publication funded by leftist billionaire George Soros is projecting global economic disaster. The Soros-funded Project Syndicate released a Dec. 2 column by New York University Professor Emeritus of Economics Nouriel Roubini headlined: “The Unavoidable Crash.” Roubini wrote that years of frivolous fiscal, monetary and credit policies compounded by major negative supply shocks have significantly damaged the world economy, including the U.S.: “Stagflationary pressures are now putting the squeeze on a massive mountain of public- and private-sector debt.” Roubini didn’t mince words. “The mother of all economic crises looms, and there will be little...

Small businesses are struggling to pay rent due to higher rent inflation and fewer customers. The struggles vary by type of business. ... Record Surge in Small Business Delinquencies Alignable reports Record Surge In Rent Delinquency: Up 7% In October, Totaling 37% For U.S. SMBs Due to ongoing economic challenges, small business owners' ability to pay their full rent on time in October took a major hit based on a new Alignable poll. In fact, the U.S. rent delinquency rate among small businesses jumped 7% in just one month, marking the largest, most rapid increase in 2022. In September, rent...

Making bank doesn’t mean you have loot saved in the bank. Roughly 45% of those making more than $100,000 say they live paycheck to paycheck; 47% of those making between $150,000 and $200,000-a-year; and 28% of those making over $200,000, a new report from PYMNTS.com found. What’s more, a 2022 survey from LendingClub revealed that 30% of those earning $250,000 or more live paycheck to paycheck. And that’s too bad, as many savings accounts are now paying more than they have in a decade — see the highest rates you may get on a savings account now here. “The combination...

The Federal Reserve’s fight to squash inflation will cause the US economy to start losing tens of thousands of jobs a month beginning early next year, Bank of America warns. Although the jobs market remained surprisingly strong in September, the Fed is working hard to change that by aggressively raising interest rates to ease demand for everything from cars and homes to appliances. The pace of job growth is expected to be roughly cut in half during the fourth quarter of this year, Bank of America told clients in a report Friday.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said the central bank is holding fast in its commitment to bring down inflation even if it means people losing their jobs. Speaking three weeks before the Fed is expected to approve its fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase, the central bank official told CNBC he hopes to minimize economic damage. "Ultimately, inflation is the most important thing to get under control. That's job-one," Evans said during a live "Squawk on the Street" interview. "Price stability sets the stage for stronger growth in the future." Markets will get a fresh look at...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation in the European countries using the euro currency has broken into double digits as prices for electricity and natural gas soar, signaling a looming winter recession for one of the globe’s major economies as higher prices undermine consumers’ spending power. Consumer prices in the 19-country eurozone rose a record 10% in September from a year earlier, up from an annual 9.1% in August, EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday. Only a year ago, inflation was as low as 3.4%. Price increases were beyond what market analysts had expected and are at their highest level since...

Fortune magazine ran one of the dumbest liberal takes on inflation yet. Its propaganda piece even puts fraudulent economists like Paul Krugman to shame. The liberal magazine had the audacity to publish a tone-deaf inflation story with the headline: “Why you should be happy about inflation and worried about something else, top economist Brad DeLong says.” The magazine pushed the insane propaganda of University of California, Berkeley Professor Brad DeLong who reportedly said that so-called “‘reopening inflation’” has “‘so far been a very good thing.’” The liberal rag continued: “DeLong argues that there is a major economic shift taking place...

The US economy is in the middle of an unusual “stagflation” period and lacks enough workers to meet spiking demand because of the Biden administration’s policies, FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith said. Smith delivered his grim view of the economy after stocks tanked on FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam’s warning of a looming “worldwide recession.” The FedEx chairman blamed government programs that poured money into an overheated economy for sapping demand from the labor market. “We’re sort of in a stagnation, stagflation period, because you have this tremendous demand, but we’re still one percentage point, in terms of lower labor...

Oil prices slumped Monday, falling by more than 3% on fears that slowing global economic growth will weigh on crude demand ahead of likely new large interest rate hikes by a number of central banks, including the Federal Reserve. By 08:35 ET (12:35 GMT), U.S. crude futures traded 3.4% lower at $81.88 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 3% to $88.59. U.S. Gasoline RBOB Futures were down 2.8% at $2.3474 a gallon. Both benchmarks suffered their third consecutive negative week last week, and this selling has continued Monday as traders fretted that aggressive monetary tightening by a number of...

"Experts" tell him this will reduce inflation costs. I would hope so, given the stupid name.

NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street slid into the finish line of a dismal month and quarter on Thursday as a continued sell-off put a grim punctuation mark at the close of the S&P 500's worst first-half in more than half a century. All three major U.S. stock indexes were down but off session lows on the last day of the month and the second quarter, putting S&P 500 has set a course for its steepest first-half percentage drop since at least 1970. The Nasdaq was on its way to its worst-ever first-half performance, while the Dow appeared...

In a Senate Banking Committee hearing this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified that "Putin's invasion of Ukraine was not a significant factor in the inflation we're now experiencing. Inflation rose from 1.4% in January 2021 to 7% by December of 2021. The invasion of Ukraine didn't start until February 24, 2022. So, it is clear that the biggest source of our current woes has been the excessive government spending unleashed by President Biden and Congress." Powell also warned of a "probable recession and stagflation." Stagflation is a phenomenon that features simultaneous high prices and economic recession. The last...

If there’s a topic uppermost on most people’s minds today, it is certainly the surge in inflation over the past year. Soaring prices have affected virtually every person in the country. And Americans say they know who’s responsible: President Biden. Surprisingly, that includes more than half of all Democrats, too. May’s 8.6% annualized inflation rate, the highest in 40 years, shocked financial markets and alarmed consumers and workers alike. As we’ve been reminded over the years, inflation acts as a tax on everyone, lowering standards of living, raising costs across the board, and eroding the very foundations of a productive...

In my 16 years as an alternative economist and political writer I have spent around half that time warning that the ultimate outcome of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus model would be a stagflationary collapse. Not a deflationary collapse, or an inflationary collapse, but a stagflationary collapse. The reasons for this were very specific – Mass debt creation was being countered with MORE debt creation while many central banks have been simultaneously devaluing their currencies through QE measures. On top of that, the US is in the unique position of relying on the world reserve status of the dollar and that...

Fear of inflation continues to weigh on the markets. In an ideal world, inflation protection can do two things: 1) preserve wealth and 2) enhance wealth.In the middle of the 1970s, during the worst bouts of inflation, many investors had no choice but to pay a high premium for inflation protection or wealth preservation, with no expectation of wealth enhancement.You don’t have to settle for that dreary trade-off. Below, I’ll steer you towards a method of inflation protection that also conveys growth. In the meantime, the U.S. equities markets finished last week in the red, with the S&P 500 down...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will seek to reassure the American people that tackling the worst inflation the nation has seen in decades remains his “top priority” when he addresses the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia, a White House official tells CNN. The speech comes a day before the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as much as three-quarters of a percentage point as it attempts to get inflation under control. The issue has been bedeviling Biden and his White House for months after they downplayed inflation concerns last year. But without many options to fight price hikes, the President is...

THE TELL The shocks aren’t over. Get ready. That’s the timely Friday advice of Bank of America, delivered hours before worse-than-expected U.S. inflation data knocked the wind out of Wall Street and left investors bracing for more aggressive central-bank action. Data showed the cost of living surged 1% in May amid higher rents and gas and food prices, keeping the rate of U.S. inflation at a 40-year high. Annual inflation now sits at 8.6%, up from 8.3% and a new cycle high, the most rapid increase since 1981. The S&P 500 index tumbled 2% early Friday. Taking a fresh look...

Geraldo Rivera joins the Brian Kilmeade Show to discuss Thursday night's January 6th hearings, what it means for the mid-terms and Donald Trump possibly running again in 2024. ...

Remember when The New York Times attempted to spin the 1970s stagflation crisis in order to protect former President Jimmy Carter’s political image before the 1980 elections? MRC Business does. The newspaper published a 1979 propaganda piece erroneously headlined, “The 70's: America Learns To Expect a Little Less,” The piece tried to paint lipstick on the pig of an economic disaster that Carter oversaw. Carter’s policies resulted in stagnant growth and a ridiculous annual inflation rate of 11.3 percent in 1979. “[D]espite the prospects of a recession next year, the economic reality is perhaps better than the psychology. Inflation in...