Free Republic

“This is a GREAT four-month start to any year,” exclaimed CNBC’s Rick Santelli as brand new economic indicators show inflation is down, incomes are up, and the trade deficit is narrowing — shattering economists’ expectations once again.INFLATION IS DOWN: “Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows,” CNBC reports.INCOME IS UP: Personal income increased 0.8% in April — “almost TRIPLE the expectations.” “They’re powerful numbers — up 0.6% in January, up 0.7% in February, up 0.5% last month, up 0.8% this month. This is a GREAT four-month start to any year.” CNBC: “The income...

Today, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in consultation with the National Energy Dominance Council and relevant permitting agencies, issued a Permitting Technology Action Plan to modernize Federal environmental review and permitting processes for infrastructure projects involving roads, bridges, mines, factories, power plants and more.The Permitting Technology Action Plan provides a government-wide strategy to optimize technology to effectively and efficiently evaluate environmental permits, allowing for seamless information exchange between agencies, simplified interactions for applicants, and greater transparency and predictability on environmental review and permitting schedules for sponsors and stakeholders.The Permitting Technology Action Plan contains:Minimum functional requirements for environmental review and...

President Donald J. Trump heads to Pennsylvania today, where he’ll champion the partnership he brokered between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel — a $14 billion investment that will create at least 70,000 jobs and ensure steel is made in America for decades to come.AMERICAN JOBS, AMERICAN STEEL.The landmark agreement comes alongside a host of companies from across industries that are onshoring their production and investing in American manufacturing as President Trump relentlessly pursues his America First trade policies.Look no further than the automotive industry:Stellantis announced a $5 billion investment in its U.S. manufacturing network, including re-opening its Belvidere, Illinois, plant...

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved mNEXSPIKE® (mRNA-1283), a new vaccine against COVID-19, for use in all adults 65 and older, as well as individuals aged 12-64 years with at least one or more underlying risk factor as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"The FDA approval of our third product, mNEXSPIKE, adds an important new tool to help protect people at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. "COVID-19 remains a serious public health threat, with more than 47,000...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on Friday she agrees with President Donald Trump’s call to eliminate the debt limit, urging bipartisan action to scrap it permanently. In a post on X, Warren wrote: “@realDonaldTrump and I agree: the debt limit should be scrapped to prevent an economic catastrophe.” “Let’s pass a bipartisan bill and get rid of it forever,” she added. The senator also said “jacking up the debt limit by $4 trillion to fund more tax breaks for billionaires is an outrage,” in an attack on a GOP-backed tax bill to enact Trump’s priorities. Warren’s post cited comments Trump...

Self-interested Wall Street analysts and leftist economic ‘experts’ once again proven wrong. It is almost impossible to find any financial data review written objectively by media. Everything is skewed with a negative tone, yet the data clearly shows -just like 2017- President Trump’s MAGAnomic policy benefits are starting to surface. News pundits said President Trump’s tariff policies would skyrocket prices. In reality the yearly inflation rate [BLS data] has dropped to 2.1%, the lowest in four years. Core prices (removing food and energy) rose 2.5% from a year earlier, below the March figure of 2.7%, and the lowest in more...

Facing higher healthcare costs, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing adding an “asset test” for applicants for Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services. The test would mean Californians would not be eligible if their assets total more than $2,000.Millions of Californians who rely on Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services could lose eligibility under a proposal requiring recipients to prove their assets total less than $2,000.Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent revised budget proposal highlighted a stark $37.6 billion increase in funding costs associated with Medi-Cal between the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year, compared to $17.1 billion in the 2014 through 2015 fiscal year.The dollar...

In light of the new wave of liberal lawfare being waged against President Trump’s tariffs, it’s worth considering: do the liberals have a point? Rand Paul certainly thought so—recall that a few weeks ago he brought the Senate to a tiebreaking vote to halt the tariffs. This is because Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” and to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations”. Strictly speaking, Congress has these powers—not the Executive. However, Congress also has the authority to delegate powers to the Executive for...

Some of the biggest U.S. airlines are quietly charging solo travelers more than passengers who book as a pair.. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have added new fare rules that in some cases require passengers to book at least two tickets to access the cheapest fares. That means solo travelers could end up paying as much as 70 percent more for the same flight. ... On a short United hop from Chicago O'Hare to Peoria, Illinois, a single ticket cost $269. But the same ticket dropped to $181 per person when booking two travelers. In some cases,...

The United States should stockpile guns, ammunition and drones instead of bitcoin, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Friday at the inaugural Reagan National Economic Forum in California. "We shouldn't be stockpiling bitcoins," Dimon said when asked about how industrial policy is entwined with national security policies during a panel. "We should stockpiling guns, bullets, tanks, planes, drones, you know, rare earths. We know we need to do it. It's not a mystery."

With the Trump administration back in the White House, America has an opportunity to restore commonsense energy and manufacturing policies after years of radical environmental overreach. One of the most glaring examples of this overreach is the electric vehicle (EV) push -- a movement championed by progressive elites that, under the guise of sustainability, threatens to undermine national security, weaken domestic industry, and entangle our economy further with the Chinese Communist Party.The EV revolution is not a grassroots innovation born out of market demand. It is a politically engineered shift, heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars and driven by mandates from...

Zuckerberg, Musk, Trump… Truss? Cockburn was surprised to hear from across the Pond that Liz Truss – who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom for just 49 days – had plans to set up a social media site. “What I am doing is establishing a new free speech network, which will be uncensored and uncancellable, to actually talk about the issues people don’t want to talk about,” the former PM said at a conference in England last month.The move would see Truss compete with X, Parler, Gettr, Gab and, yes, Truth Social, Trump’s social media app. How will...

Say, weren't we supposed to fall into the Tariff Apocalypse this month? See runaway inflation? According to the Chicken Littles, the consumers were poised to flee the consumer-driven economy as a trade war ravaged Middle America. Looks like consumers missed the memo on the Tariff Apocalypse. After a hiccup on Liberation Day, the economic indicators all trend in the right direction this month. For example, the runaway inflation not only failed to show, inflation has actually gone down the last three months, including Liberation Month. Today's PCE Index report shows the best month for consumers on prices in months. At...

Retailers have been plagued by cyber-attacks.The news just arrived this week that the website of Adidas had been hacked. Consumer information may have been stolen from the sportswear giant.Their website carries this announcement:adidas recently became aware that an unauthorized external party obtained certain consumer data through a third-party customer service provider. We immediately took steps to contain the incident and launched a comprehensive investigation, collaborating with leading information security experts.Many of us have received emails from retailers or other businesses containing statements like this. We are told there has been a “breach”; in extreme cases, they offer to provide identity...

The bilateral deal appears to be on thin ice.President Donald Trump accused China twice on Friday of breaching the countries’ trade agreement, in a sign that negotiations to de-escalate a trade embargo are going poorly.Trump said in an afternoon news conference that China had “violated a big part of the agreement we made,” echoing comments made earlier in the day on his social media site.“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday morning.China and the United...

Americans’ personal income in the first four months of 2025 is “almost triple the expectations,” making for a “great” start of the year, CNBC’s Rick Santelli exclaimed on the air, urging viewers to “give credit” to the Trump administration. The longtime CNBC editor revealed the “powerful” numbers on Friday morning, sharing that personal income increased 0.8 percent in April. “This is a great four-month start to any year,” he said. “When you look at income, for the first four months of the year, they’re powerful numbers — up 0.6 in January, up 0.7 in February, up 0.5 last month, up...

"I can take a breath today." "It's like early Christmas around here." "I was crying. I'm not ashamed to admit it."

New York lawmakers are racing to expand rent stabilization across upstate towns before the legislative session ends, according to Spectrum News. The proposed REST Act would let municipalities bypass expensive vacancy studies and use public data to declare a housing emergency. The bill’s sponsors, including Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha and Senator Brian Kavanagh, argue current laws are outdated and ill-suited for smaller communities. Only Kingston has successfully opted into rent stabilization since 2019, but it’s now embroiled in legal challenges. Landlords strongly oppose the plan, warning it could worsen housing quality and discourage investment. As rent prices and homelessness rise, both...

Attorney General Ken Paxton has successfully stopped an enforcement guidance issued under former President Joe Biden that sought to redefine the definition of “discrimination” to include self-professed “gender identity.” This unlawful rewrite of federal law would have opened private and state employers to lawsuits if they did not adopt sweeping “transgender” inclusive policies. “The Biden Administration unlawfully tried to twist federal law into a tool for advancing radical gender ideology by attempting to force employers to adopt ‘transgender’ policies or risk being sued,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The federal government has no right to force Texans to play along with...