Free Republic

Once upon a time in America a presidential campaign was decided on the phrase “Rum, Romanism & Rebellion.” It was not exactly true, but it worked. Now, 125 years after that controversial campaign and election, the slogan shaping up for Democrats running against Donald Trump is another Triple R — “Russia, Race & Recession.” None of that is exactly true, either

Several offices within the Trump administration are studying a policy that would lower taxes for investments such as stocks and real estate, according to a senior administration official. The Treasury Department, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Council of Economic Advisers are studying the possibility of indexing capital gains to account for inflation, according to the senior official. The review includes a look at the distribution table for savings to investigate whether the reform would disproportionately benefit wealthy people who are able to invest more of their money.

Doug Ogden doesn’t know what to do. The 75-year-old retired law enforcement officer is disgusted by President Donald Trump. But he can’t imagine voting for a Democrat in 2020, either. A self-described independent in South Carolina, Ogden doesn’t recognize the modern-day Democratic Party. “The state of the Democratic Party is wild against wilder,” says Ogden, standing with his arms crossed at a recent town hall meeting for Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg. “It scares me.” At the core of Ogden’s concern is a broader question about the direction of the Democratic Party and its values in the age of Trump....

President Trump and other mercantilists are hoping that his tariffs will drive U.S companies out of China, perhaps even back to the United States. They can keep hoping. It’s not likely to happen. In a further escalation of his trade war, on August 23 Trump “ordered” U.S companies to leave China, or even return to the United States. This prompted a debate among legal scholars as to whether he even has the authority to do that. Regardless of whether he does or doesn’t, it is unlikely to have any impact. A proviso is called for here. Some U.S companies are...

Gov. Kay Ivey joined executives of DaikyoNishikawa US (DNUS) and local leaders at a groundbreaking event to officially launch construction on the auto supplier’s $110 million manufacturing plant in North Alabama. The DNUS facility, which will produce plastic automotive parts for the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing U.S.A. (MTMUS) assembly plant, will employ approximately 380 people at full production. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site on the MTMUS campus where construction crews are poised to begin work on DNUS’ first U.S. manufacturing plant. “I’m proud to welcome another great Japanese company, DaikyoNishikawa, to Sweet Home Alabama, and I know that...

President Trump deserves enormous credit for his exceptional commitment to free speech at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France. Foreign leaders, like our own illiberal, liberal activists, are chomping at the bit to introduce ever more online censorship. At the G7, European leaders introduced a measure that would have drafted tech companies into the role of government censors, forcing them to police online content and remove anything that bureaucrats deem to be insensitive. Emmanuel Macron struggled in vain to conceal his disappointment as he announced that the United States had refused to sign on to his pet G7 compact, which...

It will be a day at the beach for President Trump’s re-election campaign on Labor Day. The campaign is taking to the skies on Labor Day to fly banners over beach-goers to show its thanks for workers fueling the economy. “Labor Day is the perfect time to thank American workers for everything they do for our country,” said Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign communications director. “Under President Trump’s policies, the economy is strong and growing, and more Americans are working than ever before. The American economy is the envy of the world and our American workers are the best on the...

as someone who has spent years with the knife edge of the Chinese Communist Party bearing down on my throat for my human rights work, I know that the president is on to something. Tariffs and economic threats may be blunt tools, but they are the kind of aggressive tactics necessary to get the attention of the CCP regime, which respects only power and money. ... It’s about justice, and doing what’s right for ordinary Chinese and American people. Presidents before Trump naively believed that China would abide by international standards of behavior if it were granted access to institutions...

The largest solar panel production facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere is continuing to add staff at its $157 million factory in Dalton, Georgia, which began production six months ago. The Korean solar panel maker Hanwha Q CELLS is conducting a hiring fair Thursday in Dalton, Georgia, as it adds another 50 jobs at its 200,000-square-foot plant in the Carbondale Business Park in Dalton. The plant already employs 600 workers and is expects to reach full production — and to conduct a ceremonial ribbon cutting — in the next month. "Our first products shipped from the factory this...

As the world watches President Donald Trump wage a protracted trade war with China, many people are scratching their heads, wondering if he knows what he’s doing when it comes to my home country. Mr. Trump is regularly criticized for being unpredictable and erratic — praising Chinese President Xi Jinping one moment, then escalating the confrontation the next — for ignoring diplomatic conventions, and for upending a tense but supposedly workable economic relationship. But as someone who has spent years with the knife edge of the Chinese Communist Party bearing down on my throat for my human rights work, I...

<p>Support for the president rebounded in the past year, with 67% of farmers saying they’d back him for reelection in 2020, according to a survey of 1,150 growers carried out by Farm Futures between July 21 and Aug. 3. That’s up from last year, when backing fell to just under 60% following the introduction of Chinese retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans...</p>

No question about it—Bernie Sanders was born a Jew. So what? .... To a serious, practicing Jew, the fact that Bernie Sanders makes use of his Jewish birthright, is somewhat disturbing. Senator Sanders has done almost nothing Jewish throughout his entire life. His disdain for Israel, his recent support for Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, his hatred of Prime Minister Netanyahu, makes him much more of a “Sonay Yisrael—an Israel hater,” than a supporter of the Jewish state. So why is it that a Jew, who has dropped virtually everything Jewish from his life, from keeping Kosher to...

“We are talking to China, the meetings in September, that hasn’t changed,” Trump told reporters Sunday on the White House South Lawn after returning from Camp David. Tariffs went into effect early Sunday on $112 billion of Chinese imports. The 15% tariffs cover a wide range of consumer goods, including everything from certain types of clothing and shoes to some consumer electronics like cameras and desktop computers.

Last week, my brother-in-law stopped by here in Southern Maryland for an overnight visit with my nephew. They were driving from New Hampshire to South Carolina, where my nephew attends college. Prior to the visit, I thought I’d get a new tablecloth and placemats to show off my cooking and decor abilities. I thought I’d get a new lightbulb to replace one from a set of multiples in the bathroom vanities. Maybe a new soap holder. Maybe a new computer desk lamp. Little things to make the house look nice. Stuff that I’d buy at the spur-of-the-moment from my local...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the United States should “bow down before the Iranian people” in a speech this week. Rouhani also indicated that he would not meet with President Donald Trump unless there was “repentance” on the part of the United States. “Those who have imposed sanctions on our people, and have carried out economic terrorism—any change in our conduct toward them must start with their repentance,” Rouhani said on Aug. 27, according to a translation from Arabic from the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The United State has imposed sanctions on a leading Chinese state-owned company for importing Iranian oil. The sanctions placed by the U.S. State Department bar Zhuhai Zhenrong Corporation, one of China’s largest state-run oil companies, from “engaging in foreign exchange, banking or property transactions under US jurisdiction,” London-based Financial Times reported. “As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li,” Secretary of State Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday. While the U.S. sanctions have deterred almost all foreign buyers in Europe...

It sounded like a historical moment was in the offing. For the first time, Europe’s finance ministers were seriously planning on publicly denouncing tax havens by presenting a black list of countries that lure companies through tax-saving schemes. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the countries on the list were “not doing enough to fight tax evasion.” Fellow Frenchman Pierre Moscovici, the European Union’s commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, called for vigorous sanctions. […] That was one and a half years ago, and that momentum has largely disappeared. This is partly because the black list had several fundamental...

Actor and producer Isaiah Washington, who famously joined the anti-Democratic Party #WalkAway movement earlier this year, said Monday that closeted conservatives in Hollywood are “cowards” for not voicing their beliefs out of fear of being blacklisted. “I have a message for the Hollywood Actors DM’ing me and revealing that you’re Conservatives,” wrote Mr. Washington, best known for his roles in the CW’s “The 100” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” “Don’t DM me again, because you all are lame and I don’t respond well to hypocrites or cowards,” he wrote. “You’re no different than the bystander that is waiting on the blood...

My pastor recently told me that 25 years ago, the first person that people would contact when they faced a marriage crisis was their pastor. Ten years ago, he continued, it was their counselor or psychiatrist. Today, it’s their lawyers. A recent study conducted by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago concurs. “Doctors, teachers, members of the military,” and scientists are, according to the survey, esteemed “more positively than clergy.” Among infrequent churchgoers, clergy are viewed as negatively as lawyers. (For the record, that last line came from a member of our editorial team who’s been admitted to...

The correct answer in economics begins with "It depends ..." Do U.S. consumers pay tariffs on products imported into the United States? Free traders repeat that a tariff is a tax and that consumers always pay it. Your child or grandchild will fail his Economics 101 mid-term without an understanding of the elasticity of demand and the elasticity of supply. The demand curve for a particular product can be elastic or inelastic. That is, demand can be sensitive to price or insensitive to price. You have heard of the supply and demand curves. But those curves are different for different...