Free Republic

Many Americans do not plan to enjoy a summer vacation in President Joe Biden’s America, a Fox News poll found in May, underscoring the economy as the number one 2024 issue for voters. The Fox News poll found: Of the 55 percent who are not taking a summer vacation, 73 percent do not have enough money to do so. Seventy-two percent said higher prices impact their summer plans. Fifteen percent do not have time and must remain focused on the daily grind. The last time a pollster asked Americans this question, in 2010, of those who were not going on...

Last week, I talked about the best places to keep your short-term cash, including Treasurys and certain certificates of deposit (CDs).Perhaps Warren Buffett is a Wealthy Retirement reader, because his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, is holding more cash in Treasurys than ever before: $189 billion. (As they used to say in the old New York state lottery commercial, “That’s a lot of bread!”)Interestingly, the only time Berkshire’s cash stash has declined since 2016 was in 2022, when the market had an awful year and dropped by more than 19%. That tells us that as the market was falling, Buffett was putting...

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo scored another win in his efforts to unravel the state’s new ethics commission, as part of an ongoing spat over his pandemic-era book deal. A mid-level appellate court upheld a lower court judge’s decision to scrap the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, COELIG, which had ordered the ex-gov to fork over proceeds from his pandemic era memoir. “The Legislature, though well-intentioned in its actions, violated the bedrock principles of separation of powers,” the five-judge panel wrote in its unanimous ruling. The former Governor, who stepped down in 2021 amid a wave of sexual harassment...

Alejandro Fonseca stood in line for several hours outside a bank in Havana hoping to withdraw Cuban pesos from an ATM... HAVANA -- Alejandro Fonseca stood in line for several hours outside a bank in Havana hoping to withdraw Cuban pesos from an ATM, but when it was almost his turn, the cash ran out. He angrily hopped on his electric tricycle and traveled several kilometers to another branch where he finally managed to withdraw some money after wasting the entire morning. “It shouldn’t be so difficult to get the money you earn by working,”... Fonseca is one of an...

President Biden’s re-election campaign brought in more than $90 million in March, outpacing Donald Trump’s haul for the month by $25 million and bringing the Democrat’s total cash on hand to a historic $192 million. Both campaigns are turning up their efforts to bring in funding as the 2024 race barrels towards a rematch, with last month marking the largest haul for each candidate this cycle. Biden, 81, participated in a ritzy Radio City Music Hall gala March 28 alongside former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that brought in more than $25 million — and his re-election team claimed...

Australians made $746 million in digital payments in 2018—that number soared to $93 billion in 2022.. A new all-in-one mobile app will offer what its developers claim is Australia’s first end-to-end digital banking platform for the country’s 2.4 million businesses with fewer than 10 employees. The announcement comes a day after Bankwest announced that it is closing 45 of its branches and transitioning the remaining 15 to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branches, going digital-only by October 2024. Bankwest is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank, which trades on the Australian Stock Exchange. ... The new app, called Business+, was...

Three people sued the National Park Service earlier this month for its policy not to accept cash payments at a growing number of locations.Esther van der Werf of Ojai, California, Toby Stover of High Falls, New York, and Elizabeth Dasburg of Darien, Georgia, filed their lawsuit on March 6 after being prevented from paying in cash at various national parks, monuments and historic sites around the country. Citing a U.S. code that states U.S. currency is legal tender for all public charges, the lawsuit alleges that the park service’s cashless policy is in violation of federal law.The park service instituted...

President Joe Biden’s campaign has amassed $155 million in cash on hand for the 2024 election, far exceeding the in-hand total for his Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The president raised $53 million alone last month, which was the strongest grassroots fundraising month since the campaign launched, according to campaign officials. Among those efforts was a contest for supporters to attend a fundraiser on March 28 in New York with Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that raised $4 million last month. “The enthusiasm we’re picking up as we go around the country is real,” Biden said in a radio interview...

Not even clear that reams of Jan. 6 bank customer information was useful to Treasury and FBI, hearing witnesses say. Jordan Peterson warns China model is coming. Congressional Democrats are so concerned about losing statutory workarounds for the Fourth Amendment that they appear willing to tolerate red states using financial transactions to track women who have abortions, a major concern after the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights. That's the impression from hearing Thursday of the House Judiciary Committee's Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee on alleged collusion between the federal government and banks for politically motivated surveillance in...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents along with Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian National Police (CNP) officers seized approximately $11.2 million Wednesday at the port of Buenaventura, Colombia. The seizure was the result of a joint investigation conducted by the CNP and ICE Attaché Bogota. The U.S. currency was hidden in two shipping containers, each containing 20 big bags filled with ammonium sulfate. Sixteen of the 40 bags contained $700,000 in $20 dollar bill denominations. The containers departed from the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, destined to the west coast port of Buenaventura, Colombia. According to...

A cash-strapped Colorado city signaled it would not support any more migrants shipped to the Denver suburb from around the country — with one official stressing, “We just don’t have the money.” The Aurora City Council approved a resolution 7-3 that made clear the city of close to 400,000 people would not provide housing or other resources to migrants, as well as homeless people, who are bused to the district, the Denver Post reported. The action came the same week that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott boasted about sending about 16,500 migrants from the Lone Star State to Denver, which is...

The Biden campaign raised $42 million in January and began February with $130 million in cash on hand, the campaign announced Tuesday. The $130 million in cash on hand reportedly represents a “record-setting total” for a Democrat presidential candidate at this time during an election cycle. January was the best grassroots fundraising since April, as 97 percent of donations were under $200, the campaign said. The campaign received contributions from 1.1 million donors in total. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has not released its January fundraising totals. In January, it had $33 million cash on hand. “While Team Biden-Harris continues to...

With stiff, cold fingers, Sambeittou Sambeittou removed the neatly folded piece of cardboard he carries in his pocket like a wallet and treats like a precious jewel. “I’m looking for carpenter jobs” is written in marker along with a phone number. The 45-year-old huddled with other migrants from Africa at the entrance of a Lowe’s in Brooklyn, hoping for a few dollars in tips from customers loading drywall, lumber and insulation into their vehicles. Sambeittou never learned to read and write in Mauritania, the West African country he left three months ago on a journey that took him through Senegal,...

The city of Austin, Texas, helped provide a guaranteed income of $1,000 a month to 135 households for a one-year period. According to a new report prepared by the Urban Institute, most of the money went toward housing. According to the report, nearly 60% of the money used in the UpTogether program was spent on housing, while 20% went to basic needs, 10% went to other bills, and the remainder was put into investments or given to help others.

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.”- Hunter S. ThompsonAccording to the FBI, you may be an anti-government extremist if you’ve:a) purchased a Bible or other religious materials,b) used terms like “MAGA” and “Trump,”c) shopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s, or Bass Pro Shops,d) purchased tickets to travel by bus, cars, or plane,e) all of the above.In fact, if you selected any of those options in recent years, you’re probably already on a government watchlist.That’s how broadly the government’s net is being cast in its pursuit of domestic extremists.We’re all fair game now, easy...

Let's be honest: While I intend to buy a house next year, and have just met my savings goal to make it happen, I'm not capable of paying cash for the entire purchase. Instead, I'll be shopping around with the best mortgage lenders and financing my home purchase (except for my down payment). But in some alternate universe where I have more money to throw at a home purchase, I still wouldn't buy a house outright in cash. Here's why -- as well as you might want to think twice, too. 1. A home is not a liquid asset While...

Barbra Streisand’s film production company reportedly took $200,000 in small business COVID relief loans and used the cash to pay a gardener working at Streisand’s $20 million Malibu mansion. According to records reviewed by the New York Post, Streisand’s Barwood Films Ltd. received the COVID relief loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in 2020 and 2021. These loans were later excused by the federal government and Streisand did not have to pay them back. However, instead of the funds going to support the film company’s staff, some of the cash went to pay for the Funny Girl star’s personal...

A pair of crafty burglars forced their way into a Queens home and made off with $174,000 in cash, jewelry and handbags, police said. The brazen daytime break-in took place earlier this month, but the NYPD on Thursday released an image from surveillance video showing the bandits’ suspected getaway driver. The two unidentified crooks used “unknown tools” to damage the locked front door of an apartment near 136th Street and Booth Memorial Avenue in the Queensboro Hill at around 10:15 am on Dec. 4, according to the police. The duo then proceeded to ransack the residence, swiping about $130,000 in...

President Zelensky dispatched his chief of staff to Washington this week to beg for continued military aid, warning that if the United States Congress does not approve President Biden’s request for tens of billions more in taxpayer money, Ukraine is at “big risk” of losing the war. There is growing panic in Kyiv about the future of the war against Russia as continued funding from both the United States and the European Union is increasingly in doubt as war fatigue sets in as Moscow’s invasion nears its second anniversary. In a full court press, President Zelensky sent his chief of...

The husband of far-left "Squad" Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri was pressed late last week on the streets of Washington, D.C., over the thousands of dollars in cash he has received from his wife's campaign. Fox News Digital confronted Cortney Merritts, who appeared to backtrack about his role on the campaign after initially telling the videographer he doesn't have a role in the campaign. Merritts has pocketed $102,500 in payments since Bush added him to her campaign's payroll in January 2022 for what they marked as "security" payments before switching their description to "wage expenses" in April, Fox News Digital...