Free Republic

It might not reach the epic level of the 1975 “Thrilla in Manila” heavyweight boxing contest between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, but the rematch is now official: Joe Biden, the president, against former president Donald Trump in November. And with that, the stark contrast between two opposing economic philosophies: the government-as-agent approach of Biden that has prevailed for the past three years and the populist, laissez faire, deregulatory ethos that comprised the Trump economic agenda from 2017 until COVID-19 intervened. Biden’s successes and failures are well known by now: the strong performance of the labor market, the better-than-expected economic...

A BIG episode today on Common Sense! Stephen Moore, Author of Trumponomics, joins us to discuss the attack on our economy by an external force! Then, my former Chief of Staff during 9/11, Tony Carbonetti, joins us later in the show to discuss the similarities and differences.

It was a little report, one you might easily have missed, from the people at Fidelity Investments: The number of people with more than a million dollars in their 401(k) is soaring. Bad news for the economics of envy. Fidelity says that the number of people at the end of the second quarter with a million dollars or more in their Fidelity 401(k) surged by 50,000 to 168,000, a 42% gain. Fidelity has 16.1 million 401(k) accounts under management, with an average balance of $104,000, up 6.4% from a year ago. "Individuals are increasing their savings rates, they're taking advantage...

Our economy is strong, as nearly every new release of economic data indicates. Industrial production is up. The unemployment rate is as low as it has been in two decades. Employment rates are growing and the disability rolls are shrinking. Measures of business confidence are bullish. Stocks are up. The economy has been growing, hitting 3 percent in some quarters. Inflation, meanwhile, remains low.Usually such good economic news redounds to the benefit of the political party in power. This rule probably applies today. Even though President Trump and Republicans are less popular than politicians presiding over robust economic expansions usually...

You’ve likely heard the spin lines and talking points from Obama loyalists claiming Barack Obama’s presidency netted the longest period of job growth in the last xyz years or maybe even “ever.” It’s a shame that people view things through shaded glasses and bias. In the case of this so-called “continued job growth,” we need to examine the claims and determine what has actually “grown.” At this point, we have more federal workers than ever before. More than 1.4 million people collecting government salaries according to the congressional budget. That’s a 10 percent jump from the time Obama took office....