Free Republic

“Congress Set to End Fiscal Impasse as Boehner Concedes“ Sigh. So what was the reaction in financial markets from the surrender by Mitch McConnell (RINO-KY) and John Boehner (RINO-OH)? Particularly after the “terrifying crisis” that Democrats, the media and Gall Street professionals were screaming about? First, the 10 year US Treasury yield fell 6 basis points in the afternoon. Hardly an earth shattering change from the alleged “brink of default.” ust10psurr Second, US Credit Default Swaps are at 40, almost the same as Australia and New Zealand. Which, as far as I know, have NOT been on the brink of...

Thousands of unaccompanied children travel across South or Latin America every year in hopes of entering the United States. These children, traveling without parents or guardian supervision, risk their lives for a chance at a better life in America. The Southwest Key Programs provides shelter for homeless immigrant children who have crossed the the U.S. border and are searching for either their families or a better life. USD student Denise Ambriz volunteered her time to work with the Southwest Key Programs to help the unaccompanied children currently living there. As part of her job she would talk with the children...

Despite no evidence in financial markets of a default, House Speaker John Boehner (RINO-OH) will bring the Senate clean Continuing Resolution (CR) to The House floor for a vote. The endless spending and debt growth in Washington DC will continue now that the Senate has turned over the power of pursestrings to The President (once House Republicans agree). Obamacare was already a tremendous transfer of power and control to the Executive Branch, and now capitulating to President Obama gives the Executive Branch overwhelming power and control. In order to honor our career politicians in Congress and the Administration, the Washington...

National Park Service director Jarvis said he discussed closing the open-air monuments and memorials with the White House, as well as the secretary of the Interior Department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DTZT8i5e2Rs

There is currently a letter floating around the internet from United States Department of Agriculture addressed to all (SNAP) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program state agency directors. The letter states in pretty plain terms the USDA is directing States to hold or delay transmission of State Electronic benefit transfer (EBT) until further notice.

It became prominent state news last week when a performance audit of state subsidy program showed overstated job creation. The state subsidy program reported to the Legislature that 75 percent of projected jobs came to be, but the Auditor General report says that, at most, only 19 percent of the original jobs projected came to fruition. The program is the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which is administered by the Michigan Strategic Fund. The fund oversees several programs that give grants and loans to certain businesses in Michigan, including high-profile failures like the battery-maker A123 Systems, and the biofuels company Mascoma...

Another morning, another gridlock. No deal from Obama and Congress with the default clock ticking. To paraphrase the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the (default) beef?“ Credit default swaps for the US? Up slightly this morning, but still the lowest in the Americas. sovcds101613 And the US CDS “smile” remains (inverse hump in the CDS curve). uscdscurve101613 Zero Hedge has the hysterical headline that “Repo Soars To 2013 Highs On Default Fears, Bifurcated Collateral Market.” True, but compared to 2008, it is a drop in the bucket. repost101613 And the US Treasury 10 is up slightly today, not the massive default...

About 80 fast food workers picketed restaurant chains earlier this month saying they wanted to double their pay going from minimum wage $7.40 an hour to $15 an hour. But business and economic experts say some of those workers would be out of a job if their demands were ever met. "If forced by government to increase wages to $15 per hour across the board, affected restaurants would almost certainly have to lay off employees and reduce overall hours to compensate for increased overhead," said Justin Winslow, vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Restaurant Association. Antony Davies, associate...

Republican strategist Karl Rove says the GOP should quit while it's not as far behind as it could be. Appearing Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record," Rove said Republicans fighting for concessions on Obamacare and entitlements are weakening their position the longer they hold out. "At some point you have to focus on, as Ronald Reagan said, getting as much of the pie as you possibly can get," Rove said. Republicans aren't even going to be able to get 80 percent of what they want now, he said, because they have been weakened over the last two months...

Britain has relaxed stringent rules for Chinese banks willing to set up in London. Beijing in turn opened up its markets to British-based investors, marking the latest move to establish the yuan as one of the world’s key currencies. “A great nation like China should have a global currency,” said UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, during his official five day visit to China. And the UK is gladly willing to contribute “through the international center of finance: London”. Under the agreed pilot program, China sanctioned London-based investors to buy up to 80 billion yuan ($13.1 billion) of stocks,...

The Netherlands is seeking answers from Russia after a Dutch diplomat was beaten by unidentified assailants in his apartment in Moscow. The diplomat — identified by Russian media as Onno Elderenbosch, deputy chief of the Dutch embassy in Moscow — was returning home on Tuesday when he saw that the elevator in his building was out of order, Life News reported. After walking up to his fourth-floor apartment, he spotted two men dressed as electricians who were working on a fuse box. The men told him that the electricity seemed to be out in the whole building and said that...

Indian inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a seven-month high in September, adding to the case for a further increase in the benchmark interest rate. The wholesale-price index rose 6.46 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 6.1 percent advance in August, the Commerce Ministry said in New Delhi on Monday. The median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 6 percent climb. Gov. Raghuram Rajan, who took over at the Reserve Bank of India last month, raised the repurchase rate to 7.5 percent after vowing to tame inflation, which was almost 10 percent in September based...

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe Japan Tourism Agency is keen to fulfill its mission of making Japan a popular destination by using so-called big data, the collection of massive amounts of digital data. To help develop new tourism spots and routes, the agency plans to collect big data from travelers via the Global Positioning System and their mobile phones or other devices. A working group of experts, soon to be formed, is expected to establish a method by the end of March to analyze the data. The agency plans to collect big data—various information such as messages posted on social media sites—from...

DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA – From oil to nuclear power, via gas, coal and renewables, Asia’s economic growth is increasingly steering the path forward for the global energy industry. “It’s clear that Asia’s emerging economies have entered a historic phase of industrialization and urbanization,” Peter Voser, chief executive of energy giant Shell, said at the ongoing World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea. “The pace of change is almost inconceivable.” Shell estimates that energy demand across Asia will double over the next 50 years, with China and India the main growth drivers for at least the next two decades. “This is...

Typhoon Wipha brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area early Wednesday, shutting down large portions of the region’s transportation network. On Izu Oshima Island in the Pacific about 120 km south of Tokyo, at least 13 bodies were found and around 20 people were missing after several houses collapsed amid record rainfall of 122.5 mm per hour, according to local authorities and police. In Machida, Tokyo, a woman believed to be in her 40s died after being swept away by a swollen river, police said. Several bullet-train runs on the Tohoku, Yamagata, Joetsu, Nagano and Tokaido...

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae has hinted at the possibility of adapting a cold-war West Germany's policy by buying the freedom of political prisoners and abduction victims in North Korea. West Germany paid hard currency to East Germany to win the release of political prisoners there under a scheme known as "Freikauf." Ryoo told the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Tuesday previous administrations here "discussed a Freikauf policy of the kind implemented in pre-unification Germany, and we'll also review the possibility of introducing it." Ryoo was replying to Democratic Party lawmaker Shim Jae-kwon, who asked, "Do you have...

Speculation is mounting whether the government has agreed a deal with Washington to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense program in exchange for another delay in the handover of full control of South Korean troops. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin fanned speculation Monday by telling a National Assembly audit that the military is hoping to buy SM-3 interceptor missiles that could destroy North Korean ballistic missiles. The SM-3 missiles constitute the core of the U.S.-led missile defense shield. All the signs are that the government is growing less reluctant to join the missile defense program, which China is extremely wary...

China has seen a surge in the number of lawsuits against government agencies for their failure to disclose information, according to a report released Tuesday. Administrative cases about government information disclosure in Beijing increased to 551 in 2012 from 10 in 2008 when a regulation came into force, said the report, adding similar growth occurred in other Chinese cities. The report was carried out by the center for public participation studies at Peking University and was based on research in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province and Cangzhou in northern China's Hebei Province. The surge in the...

London mayor Boris Johnson rides the Beijing subway Line 1 on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. [Photo: CFP]

Despite the rise in China's consumer prices to a seven-month high in September, economists say inflation doesn't pose a risk for the world's second-largest economy. The CPI rose 3.1 percent in September, well above expectations for a 2.8 percent rise. The outlook for China's economy was called into question again this weekend after trade data showed exports unexpectedly contracted by 0.3 percent in September. Macro-economic data due out on October 18th, including third quarter GDP and industrial production, will provide further insights into the health of the economy.

The first subway running from Shanghai to Kunshan City, east China's Jiangsu province, started its trial operation this morning. The subway is actually an extension stage of Shanghai Metro Line 11, which combined 3 subway stations in Kunshan to the original metro line. After it begins operation, it will only take about 70 minutes to travel from Huaqiao Station in Kunshan to Xujiahui Station in downtown Shanghai, which only costs 7 yuan. The subway will make the journey between the cities easier for residents. It is known that transit cards in Shanghai can be used in the 3 stations in...

(Reuters) - Relatives offered words of comfort to a teary-eyed woman paying her last respects as an undertaker slammed shut the door of the cremation chamber and flames engulfed the small coffin of a cherished family member. The hastily arranged prayers, cremation and scattering of ashes in Vietnam's capital was for Capi, a 13-year-old dog that died that day after a battle with diabetes. Capi's owner had called Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, a one-stop shop with services rivalling anything on offer to humans. "I'm so glad this place exists. Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with Capi's body," said...

OTTAWA — It wasn’t long ago that Indonesia was considered a major source of worry. The world’s most heavily populated Muslim country — now with more than 250 million residents — was hard-hit by the Asian economic crisis, which led to dictator Suharto’s 1998 resignation. Then in 2002, a devastating terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali left 202 dead, more than half of them vacationing westerners. Some speculated that the archipelago state, made up of an estimated 17,508 islands (roughly 6,000 are inhabited, though the population is located primarily on five main islands), would break apart, leading to...

Former Australian cattle station manager Michael Sheehy has some singular advice for the Indonesian government if it wants to achieve self-sufficiency in beef: Follow the model of the booming palm oil industry and put cattle raising in corporate hands. As with most of Indonesia's agriculture, the livestock industry is largely confined to low- technology operations - backyard feedlots that mean a higher cost of production and higher prices for consumers as a result. The Indonesian government has used tariffs and quotas to protect local farmers from international competition. This is a short-term measure which, judging by the current beef price...

Over the past 20 years the pace and scale of urbanization in Asia has been unprecedented,” says Jonathan D. Solomon, the curator of Practical Utopias: Global Urbanism in Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, an exhibition at AIA New York’s Center for Architecture. “Asia today is a vast experiment in what makes a city,” says Solomon, associate dean at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, who lived in Hong Kong for six years before recently returning to the U.S.

So I am thinking of simply leaving the job I work at now and heading to a Southern state, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Northern Florida, Tennessee, etc since I figure that, since I am one of those who does not have a reliable source of family aid of any kind, that this could be my only option. I am considering finding a church that has a sort of communal living situation, a farm, ranch, factory or other such source that could use additional workers and join one of them. I am thinking of it in light of a situation...

The federal government shutdown is here, and that means some places around town are offering freebies. Most of these deals are reserved for government workers only, but some are open to everyone. Furloughed workers receive 50% off weekday bookings to @GoApeUSA until 10/18 with Federal ID! Use code "FEDS50" to book at www.goape.com. by GoApeUSA 7:54 PM Reply Permalink ALL performances of Marry Me a Little FREE this weekend for govt employees with promo code GOVT at bpt.me (govt ID required) by cauldronevents 7:54 PM 2:40 PM TwitterOldDominionBrewhouse @OldDominionBrew Week 3 of the Government Shutdown! Happy Hour ALL DAY at...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani super model Fehmina Chaudhry, who recently came from Singapore, has been found dead in a ditch from Bara Kahu area Islamabad on Monday. The 27-year-old model and beauty queen went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said. ASP Yasir Afridi said the dead body of a woman has been identified as Fehmina Chaudhry, who was also a mother of two and was a successful model in Singapore with numerous awards on her credit. Fehmina, a Singapore-based model originally from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, was settled in Singapore and wanted to open a...

(Reuters) - The death toll from a strong earthquake in the central Philippines has risen to almost 100, officials said on Wednesday, and rescuers were digging through the rubble of a church and a hospital in search of more victims. At least 10 people were missing under the collapsed public hospital, church and a home in the town of Loon on Bohol island, 630 km (390 miles) south of Manila, which bore the brunt of the 7.2 quake on Tuesday. The quake caused landslides and widespread damage to infrastructure in Bohol and nearby Cebu, with close to three million people...

A presidential aide yesterday reiterated that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚�) and their surrounding waters are an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China and that territorial disputes should be solved peacefully. “Taiwan has been very clear: The Diaoyutais are an inherent part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of China,” Presidential Office Secretary-General Timothy Yang (楊進添) said at the opening of the Taiwan-US-Japan Trilateral Security Dialogue forum in Taipei. Taiwan has consistently stated that the Diaoyutais issue should be addressed based on the principles of “safeguarding sovereignty, shelving disputes, pursuing peace and reciprocity, and promoting joint...

A tactical map of Taiwan shown in a China Central Television (CCTV) report on an ongoing People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military drill has raised concerns on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, a local news report said. Unidentified Chinese sources were quoted by the Chinese-language United Daily News as saying that CCTV military news reports tend to be carefully selected and should be taken seriously. CCTV reported over the weekend that the PLA started a large-scale exercise codenamed “Mission Action 2013B” at 7:30pm on Friday. More than 20,000 soldiers from the Chinese army, navy and air force took part in...

TOKYO - A senior Chinese government official has secretly visited Japan for talks with Japanese officials aimed at improving bilateral relations damaged by an ongoing territorial row, reports said Tuesday. The talks involving a high-ranking official from the Chinese foreign ministry's Asian division were thought to have been held in early October, Japanese news agency Jiji Press reported from Beijing quoting Chinese government sources. A high-ranking official from the Japanese foreign ministry attended the meeting, the report said. A Japanese foreign ministry official declined comment on the content of the report, saying: "Japan and China have been making various exchanges...

(Reuters) - Japan plans to start up 14 new gas and coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014, allowing a switch away from pricey oil, as Tokyo struggles with a shutdown of nuclear reactors and energy imports drive a record trade deficit. Regional power monopolies will construct 12 gas-fired units next year, while two new coal power plants will be completed by December 2013, according to a Reuters survey of utilities. The new power plants will buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal to scale back on the use of expensive crude and fuel oil plants. They will also...

AFP - South Korea's unemployment rate fell in September to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent, led by new jobs in service industries, state data showed Wednesday. The latest jobless rate compared with 3.0 percent reported in August and 2.9 percent in September of last year, Statistics Korea said. The health and social welfare service sector added 172,000 jobs, up 12 percent from a year earlier, while the restaurant industry employed an extra 83,000 people, up 4.3 percent, over the same period. The total number of employed people also rose by 463,000 to reach 25.46 million in September -- the biggest...

DAEGU, South Korea — Asia’s large-scale gas importers, long saddled with premium prices, say a cheaper alternative lies several thousand feet below North American soil, where companies are unlocking enormous gas reserves from shale rock. The shale boom has already revolutionized the gas market in the United States and Canada, giving both countries not only a reliable domestic supply but also the ability to sell overseas. Asian utility and gas company executives, speaking this week at a global energy forum here, have said that North America’s gas wealth could prove nearly as transformative across the world, leading to the first...

A Panamanian-registered cargo ship carrying 19 people sank in South Korea's southeast Pohang harbor amid a storm at around 21:30 local time on Tuesday, leaving 10 people dead and one missing, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Busan. An official from the Chinese Consulate General confirmed that among 19 people aboard the ship, 18 were Chinese citizens and the remaining one was Vietnamese. Eight people have been rescued and 10 bodies recovered by far, while one person is still missing, according to the South Korea's coast guard who conducts the rescue operation. They said the ship CHENGLU15 set off...

The 2013 edition of the Forbes China Rich List published today identifies a record 168 billionaires from the country, surpassing the previous high of 146 in 2011 and last year’s total of 113. The increase adds to China’s standing as a country with one of the world’s fastest-growing number of billionaires in the past decade. Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, ascends to the No. 1 spot from No. 3 with a fortune worth $14.1 billion, an increase from $8 billion year, amid a recovery in the country’s real estate market. Underscoring his wish to make...

Only two and a half hours away from the business hub of Shanghai is an outlet from the urban pressure. Naked Stables Private Reserve is set in a valley in the rolling Moganshan (“Mount Mogan”) area of Zhejiang Province that was a getaway for expats before China’s Communist revolution. Today the region illustrates how well-off Chinese themselves enjoy the good life. A quirky blend of kid- and eco-friendliness and Chinese-African themes yields a boutique resort that doesn’t need an internationally known brand name such as Aman or Banyan Tree. “There is a shift in toward lifestyle spending in China, but...

First, some background: I've spent almost a decade in the healthcare insurance industry now, after departing my last job. I've •investigated fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare claims , personally having revoked some $113 milion worth, and disenrolled over 25,000 fraudlent Medicaid subscribers •Investigated fraud / waste / abuse trends in hospital and small clinic claims •Investigated and testified about waste and abuse in most electronic medical billing and diagnosis code platforms, as well as willful 'bundling' of unrelated and fraudlent charges by hospitals and clinics•Researched electronic eligibility and risk pool demographics and statistics in studying insurance rate increases and stabilizations •Worked...

(Reuters) - Chinese authorities in the northern city of Tianjin have punished 13 medical workers for taking bribes from Danone S.A. to recommend the French food maker's infant formula, the local government said on Monday. The move comes after the official China Central Television (CCTV) reported in September that Danone bribed doctors and nurses to recommend its Dumex milk powder brand at one Tianjin hospital. The CCTV report led to Tianjin's government and police launching an investigation into the bribery charges. Danone also said it had launched an investigation. The "serious violators" received penalties ranging from cancellation of medical licenses...

China has sealed a deal with the U.K. allowing investors around the world to trade directly in Chinese shares and bonds through London's banks and financial institutions. The agreement is the first of its kind in the western world and will allow as much as 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) to be invested in Chinese securities via approved London institutions. Previously, foreigners could only make these kinds of investments through Hong Kong, where a similar arrangement allows investors to buy up to 270 billion yuan ($44 billion) in securities in mainland China. The agreement should shore up London's dominant role...

The Chinese sure are doing a lot of worrying these days about the stalemate in Washington. Li Keqiang, China’s Premier, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he was watching the tussle over raising the government’s debt ceiling with “great attention” in a meeting last week. He has good reason to be concerned. With a stash of nearly $1.3 trillion in Treasury securities, China is the world’s largest foreign owner of U.S. government debt. If the U.S. Congress fails to lift the ceiling to allow the government to borrow more by Thursday, Washington may not have enough money to...

Ever since China emerged as the world’s rising economic power, Western governments have been wrestling with how to approach the last major state on earth still ruled by a Communist party. George Osborne and Boris Johnson, visiting the People’s Republic this week, have demonstrated their answer: forget about political issues, let alone human rights, and go for the money. By all means, is their clear message, increase your already extensive investments in our country. It is an approach that Beijing is very much in favour of, and the Osborne-Johnson trip has been crammed with smiling photo opportunities and expressions of...

How do you settle a rather sizeable bill for your milk delivery? If you are a cash-strapped superpower the answer is, apparently, to offer up a pair of fighter jets and a nuclear submarine as payment. The extraordinary offer was made by Russia to New Zealand in 1993, a new book reveals. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was struggling to pay the $100m it owed New Zealand for a range of imported dairy products. In a meeting with Russian officials to thrash out payment terms, Jim Bolger, then New Zealand prime minister, was "absolutely stunned" to be...

The Washington Monument syndrome is describe the tendency of government agencies in the United States to cut the most visible or appreciated services provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. And protect massive waste (since no one would miss the massive waste if it was cut). Such as closing National Parks and Monuments. What are government agencies hiding? The fact that agencies have large concentrations of non-essential personnel. Even Time.com recognizes that most of Federal government in non-essential. The interest payments on Federal debt is a small percentage of Federal current expenditures (11.5% at the end of Q2)....

While the media and Democrats scream about the Titanic sinking of government default, there is scant evidence in financial markets of it. Here are two curves as of 1pm EST, the US Treasury yield curve and the US credit default swaps curve. The Treasury curve is upward sloping while the CDS curve is downward sloping. Actually, the CDS curve has an inverted hump. ustcdes1015E It does look like a bomb crater rather than a typical CDS curve. If we look at 1 month ago, we see an upward sloping CDS curve. 1moyccds And if we compare the current curves compared...

"It seems that President Obama's paid political operatives are out in force today. And you know why? Because the men and women in this room scare the living daylights out of them," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after interruptions from activists calling for family unity through immigration reform. Jacqueline Garcia’s grandfather was the sole breadwinner for the family of four. Her parents were not in the picture. But her younger brother, her disabled grandmother, and Jackie were a tight-knit family and all depended on the grandfather. At 16, Jackie, a U.S. citizen, is an honor student in her Phoenix high...

Class: Because of George Mason University’s screwy scheduling (no class today because Monday’s classes are now Tuesday classes because of Columbus Day), we can’t have our discussion of the impending US default. Here are two curves as of 1pm EST, the US Treasury yield curve and the US credit default swaps curve. The Treasury curve is upward sloping while the CDS curve is downward sloping. ustcdes1015E If we look at 1 month ago, we see an upward sloping CDS curve. 1moyccds And if we compare the current curves compared to President Obama’s inauguration date, we see an upward sloping CDS...

Mark Levin's Plan is excellent but how long do we have? Secession, civil war? Only OBAMA wants that to happen.