Free Republic

... The cause for this optimism has been that the government policy response this time around has been much more aggressive. Most major countries have cut rates and ramped up spending to unprecedented levels, which some economists believe will stop the pain. Of course, other economists disagree. In fact, we're actually all now participating in a sort of lab experiment that will prove or disprove one of the major economic conclusions of the past 70 years: That the original Great Depression was not an inevitable outgrowth of the wild speculation of the 1920s but was caused by "policy errors"...

JPMorgan Chase and others are shoring up balance sheets by reducing or eliminating these financial lifelines to entrepreneurs For small business owners, a line of credit can be a lifesaver, giving them a buffer against cash-flow problems and enabling them to handle regular expenses such as payroll. But beginning in March, according to documents obtained by BusinessWeek, JPMorgan Chase suspended credit lines for a large number of business owners. According to someone familiar with the matter, the move affected thousands of businesses. They had been clients of Washington Mutual before Chase bought the ailing bank in September 2008. The documents...

Changes in Windows to Meet Changes in Threat Landscape Customers have heard us say over the years that the threat environment is an ever-evolving one. That means that one of our jobs in working to keep customers safe is to continually monitor the threat environment and make changes to adapt to it. Today, we're announcing modifications in Windows that adapts to recent changes in the threat environment. Specifically, wee announcing changes to the behavior in AutoPlay so that it will no longer enable an AutoRun task for devices that are not removable optical media (CD/DVD.). However, the AutoRun task will...

According to the below email, sent only hours ago by Cisco Systems to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Cisco is against the "Buy America" provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program....

Money Narcosisby Richard K. Brawn, CCGA, MPA | April 7, 2009 On April 1, 2009, Richard W. Fisher, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas was interviewed on CNBC. After a pregnant pause to reflect on a question, he stated that he was sure that not only was the extent of current situation not foreseen by the US Federal Reserve central bankers, but that none of the central bankers he knows foresaw the current financial crisis. This means not a single member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors or any of the staffs of any of...

The Group of 20 wealthy and developing nations agreed Thursday not to pursue competitive currency devaluations, a vow that analysts said could make it more difficult for individual countries to weaken their currencies to support their economies. ... A weaker currency helps exporters by making their goods more attractively priced in overseas markets and boosting the value of their repatriated profits. It also makes imported goods more expensive, giving domestic manufacturers an edge in their own markets. ... For years, Chinese officials shrugged off calls from the G7 -- as well as from U.S. officials and the International Monetary Fund...

WASHINGTON - Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks... Asked whether the strategy was a mistake, given the subsequent declines in stocks and real estate, Millard [Bush appointee] said, "Ask me in 20 years. The question is whether policymakers will have the fortitude to stick with it.".... The agency refused to say how much of the new investment strategy has been implemented or how the...

President Barack Obama today named Boston physician David Blumenthal as the national coordinator for health information technology in the Health and Human Services Department (HHS). He will direct the department's efforts to spend $19.5 billion in economic stimulus funds for health IT to advance implementation of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

Just say no to the stimulus money. We don't want to mortgage our children and grandchildren's financial future. Send it back. I had been part of an agency that received stimulus money years ago, it is such a temporary fix--whose purpose seems to be only votes. No long term benefits. We Virginians can and must do for ourselves and not take the bait of federal dependencies.

President Barack Obama has officially named former Washington, D.C. tech chief Vivek Kundra as the federal governments CIO. Kundra, who previously served as the CTO for D.C.'s city government, has received a good deal of acclaim for his work in making that government act more transparently and economically. Among other things, Kundra has slashed the city's IT costs by shifting government e-mail and work applications over to Google Apps and has pushed for more transparency by posting lists on the Web of jobs that government contractors have been hired to perform. As the federal governments CIO, Kundra will oversee a...

[lots of cruft redacted]Risks to Unique and Threatened Systems. There is new and stronger evidence since the TAR of observed impacts of climate change on unique and threatened systems (such as polar and high mountain communities and ecosystems), with increasing levels of adverse impacts as temperatures increase further..... Corals are vulnerable to thermal stress and may have limited adaptive capacity. Increases in sea surface temperature of ~1 °C to 3 °C are projected to result in more frequent coral bleaching events and widespread mortality unless there is substantial thermal adaptation or acclimatization by corals (10, 11). Increasing vulnerability of Arctic...

...The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013, up from an earlier estimate of $40 billion. The bank failures, 14 already this year following 25 last year, reflect the ravages of rising unemployment and falling home prices that have sent loan defaults soaring. ... The emergency premium, to be levied on the roughly 8,500 federally insured institutions on June 30, will be 20 cents for every $100 of their insured deposits. That compares with an average premium of 6.3 cents paid by banks and thrifts last year.

... To expand broadband service to rural and underserved areas, ARRA also charges Commerce with providing support, training and equipment to schools, libraries, medical and health care providers, colleges, and other community organizations. It also stresses support for job-creating facilities and public safety agencies. FCCs National Telecommunications and Information Administration will dole out $84 million in grants by October and $756 million in fiscal 2010. The lions share of the grant money about $2.5 billion will be spent in 2012 and 2013, with remaining funds to be dispensed by the end of fiscal 2015. ...

... In Poland, as an example, 60% of mortgages are in Swiss francs. When times are good and currencies are stable, it is nice to have a low-interest Swiss mortgage. And as a requirement for joining the euro currency union, Poland has been required to keep its currency stable against the euro. This gave borrowers comfort that they could borrow at low interest in francs or euros, rather than at much higher local rates. But in an echo of teaser-rate subprimes here in the US, there is a problem. Along came the synchronized global recession and large Polish current-account trade...

A month into the new year, and the American economy is reeling from the ongoing banking crisis, battered retirement accounts, and mounting unemployment. Who are the folks who might make things better, or even worse? Who are the people who will move markets this year, up or down? To help you keep track of these "market movers," U.S. News & World Report compiled a list of key CEOs, politicos, and even media stars to watch in 2009. So if things do improve, you'll know whom to credit. And if they don't, you'll know whom to blame.

... The IRS data below include all of the 135.7 million tax returns filed in 2006 that had a positive AGI, not just the returns from people who earned enough to owe taxes. From other IRS data, we can see that in 2006, 92.7 million of the tax returns came from people who paid taxes into the Treasury. That leaves 43 million tax returns filed by people with positive AGI who used exemptions, deductions and tax credits to completely wipe out their federal income tax liability. Not only did they get back every dollar that the federal government withheld from...

Based on statements he made during the presidential campaign,... His plans include making the research and development tax credit permanent; reforming immigration rules to let U.S. companies hire and retain workers more easily; increasing broadband access to individuals and to schools, libraries and hospitals...

It's apparent that a combination of fervent believers and a small number of psychopaths and/or infiltrators have dominated the birth certificate discussion. The early evidence was in their favor and everyone should have been skeptical of the low res images on Kos, smears and politifact. The new evidence is not and is not being addressed objectively. The Certificate There are photos at FactCheck like the one linked above ( http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/birth_certificate_5.jpg) To the credit of the believers there are a variety of photos at Factcheck that don't all look like the same artifact. Also we know that Factcheck is not an...

Upping the Stimulus Dosage by Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital | October 27, 2008 Insanity is often defined as repeating the same action while expecting a different result. Recent Congressional activity to push through this year’s second economic “stimulus” package certainly indicates that many of our political leaders may have special needs. Responding to the $150 billion stimulus that was passed at the beginning of the year, I made the following observation in my February 15th commentary Upping the Inflation Dosage : “The failure of the stimulus plan to cure the economy will cause the Government, and the Wall Street...