Free Republic

<p>Their financial situation is so grim that they may never get completely out of debt -- in their entire lives.</p> <p>That's the conclusion of a study from Ohio State University.</p> <p>The real culprit is credit card debt, which tends to stifle economic growth of younger Americans, primarily because they pay it off so slowly, the OSU study says. But millennials are paying off all their debts so slowly they may accumulate credit card debt well into their 70s and die still owing, researcher say.</p>

At first I thought the IRS scandal was leaked to distract from the Benghazi scandal. But that didn’t make sense because the IRS scandal is a more obvious abuse of power than the White House lying about the murder of four Americans in Libya. Before I had resolved which scandal was distracting from which, we found out the Department of Justice was spying on The Associated Press —not to protect national security, but to prevent the AP from scooping the White House. Then, this week, it broke that the Department of Justice was also spying on Fox News for reasons...

<p>The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the United States was getting carried away with a government austerity drive, offering some of the institution's bluntest criticism yet of Washington's rush to cut its budget deficit.</p> <p>Despite high unemployment, Washington is on track to slash its budget shortfall this year by the most in nearly a half century.</p>

For the first time since 2007 – before the recession – the US Treasury is planning to make a down payment on the federal debt. The budget deficit has been shrinking more than expected. Thanks to government spending cuts, and higher tax receipts The Treasury says it expects to pay off $35 billion of debt in the second quarter. That compares to an earlier forecast that it would have to borrow $103 billion. Usually this time of year is the best for government cash flow because annual tax returns flood into the Treasury in April. But the return to at...

As the cost of education continues to rise, people are questioning the value of a degree. And according to Penelope Trunk, the founder of Brazen Careerist, 85% of people today are wasting their money — and time — in college. “Colleges have been selling this idea that going to college will get you a job, but this isn't the case any more,” she says. And if getting a college degree no longer guarantees you a job offer, then you need to really pinpoint your reasons for going. In fact, unless you're really great at school or got accepted into a...

Many observers have pondered if the United States is following the same troubled path as Argentina. In the 1940s, Argentina’s Juan Domingo Perón used government agencies for political gain and created a popular form of fascism called Perónism. In the United States, the recent revelation of the Internal Revenue Service targeting political enemies is a bad omen. Are we on an Argentinean course? The road to decay in my native country, Argentina, began with the implementation of one of the most powerful collectivist doctrines of the 20th century: fascism. The Labour Charter of 1927 – promulgated by Italy’s Grand Council...

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that households continued to improve their finances during the first three months of 2013 (for the most part). Outstanding household debt declined approximately $110 billion from the previous quarter, due in large part to a reduction in housing-related debt and credit card balances. Meanwhile, delinquency rates for each form of household debt declined, with about 8.1% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency, compared with 8.6% the previous quarter. Here is the report: DistrictReport_Q12013 Mortgages, the largest component of household debt, fell in the first quarter of 2013. Mortgage balances shown...

With Congress increasingly unable to resolve budget disputes, federal programs on automatic pilot are consuming ever larger amounts of government resources. The trend helps older Americans, who receive the bulk of Social Security and Medicare benefits, at the expense of younger people. This generational shift draws modest public debate. But it alarms some policy advocates, who say the United States is reducing vital investments in the future. Because Democrats and Republicans can't reach a grand bargain on deficit spending — with mutually accepted spending cuts and revenue hikes — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid keep growing, largely untouched. Steady expansions...

Markets work. But sometimes they take time. That's the uncomfortable lesson that proprietors of America's colleges and universities are learning. For many years, market forces didn't seem to apply to them. There was a widespread societal consensus that a college education was a good economic investment. Politicians gave lip service to the idea that everyone should go to college. No one should be stopped by a lack of money. There was historic precedent. The G.I. Bill of Rights vastly expanded college populations and helped build prosperous post-World War II America. Putting even more through college would make us even more...

Paul Krugman has never been shy about proclaiming that he is right and everyone else is wrong — and not just wrong, but “knaves and fools.” Lately, however, one begins to worry that he might actually hurt himself, so vigorously has he been patting himself on the back for his opposition to “austerity” (defined as any cut in government spending, anytime, anywhere). On his latest victory lap, Krugman is celebrating two things. First, a group of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered a small error in a widely cited paper by Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff that showed...

American Action Network is pimping Marco Rubio and amnesty. They spent $300,000 television advertising campaign to “end de facto amnesty.” The ad will only run on Fox News. Of course, the amnesty bill supported by Rubio, McCain, Lindsey Graham and Democrat is de facto amnesty. Of course American Action Network doesn’t want you to believe that. They tout Marco Rubio in an ad called ‘disaster’ ad that’s been on (especially on Hannity) the last few days. Watch out for American Action Network. They may try and appear to be conservative, but they are nothing more than a progressive action group....

Tuesday, May 07, 2013 The Road to Nowhere Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The Heritage Institute report estimates that under amnesty the average legalized illegal household will take in $43,900 in benefits while paying a little over a third of that in taxes. Those numbers are grim from the standpoint of a tottering economy being asked to take on an even bigger pile of debt and they reveal an even grimmer view of the future. Set aside the political debates, the tensions over multiculturalism, entitlements and the great political divide, and those numbers reek of a...

The state would set up a "school climate center" and individual districts would face additional reporting, training and other requirements to reduce school bullying under a bill passed by the Minnesota House on Monday, May 6. The bill passed 72-57, with all the support from Democratic-Farmer-Laborers and all the opposition from Republicans. The companion bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate E-12 finance subcommittee Tuesday. Bill sponsor Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, said the measure would take Minnesota from having one of the weakest anti-bullying laws in the country to "instead being a leader in building safe and supportive school...

It was reported the other day on an inside page of the Pioneer Press, and without nearly enough fanfare, that more than six out of 10 women who give birth in their early 20s are unmarried. That is census data, from census demographers, from the very government that then becomes responsible for many, if not most, of those unmarried women and children. If that isn't an astonishing statistic, it should be. Why, to any logical person's way of thinking, it explains everything in terms of government at all levels bloating out of control. Supposing that even angels might fear to...

Even after a hard-fought deficit-cutting deal in 2011 and a tax-increase measure in January, Washington still has a considerable way to go to wrestle intractable budget deficits under control. The Congressional Budget Office estimates cumulative deficits of roughly $7 trillion over the coming decade and warns "such high and rising debt would have serious consequences," including higher interest costs for the government, reduced national savings and investment and a potential fiscal crisis. ——— The campaign promise: "I've put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan."—President Barack Obama, Oct. 3, 2012, presidential debate. ——— The prospects: Obama based the $4 trillion...

The Obama administration spent between $2.52 million and $2.77 million for hotel rooms and rental cars during the president's 2012 trip to Mexico for a G-20 summit, MailOnline has learned. Government travel documents available online show that the State Department contracted with a travel agency to spend between $1,889,383 and $2,078,327 on hotel rooms alone, for the President, the Secret Service, and the rest of the State Department and White House staff and VIPs. And rental cars for the trip cost between $630,760 and $693,836, according to a separate contract document. That paperwork disclosed that on previous visits to Mexico,...

Dear Carrie, I'm in my late-30s and trying to dig out from a mountain of debt (school loans, car loan, credit cards). What makes it so hard is that I have two young kids, and my money can only go so far. What should I pay off first? --A Reader  Dear Reader, For many young families, debt is a fact of life. But that doesn't mean it has to control your life. Of course, with young kids, you have a lot of essential financial obligations. And it's quite natural to also want to provide a few extras so the kids...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he shares colleagues’ concerns that the Affordable Care Act could become a “train wreck” if it’s not implemented properly. Reid warned that people will not be able to choose health insurance plans on government health exchanges if federal authorities lack the resources to set them up and educate the public.

Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum won a construction contract for California’s high-speed rail project, reports the California Political Review. Author Laer Pearce says Perini-Zachary-Parsons, a construction group partially owned by Blum’s investment firm, Blum Capital, and their investors, bagged the nearly billion dollar contract:

Televangelist Benny Hinn has asked supporters of his ministry for $2.5 million in donations, which he says an anonymous donor will match dollar by dollar to help him get out of debt. "God wants your ministry to be completely out of debt, and I want to plant an anointed seed that will help you take a giant step toward becoming totally debt-free!" says the anonymous man, whom Hinn calls a "long-time and beloved" friend. "God has laid it on my heart to plant a seed of $2.5 million into your ministry, but God only wants me to make this gift...

Start with people who have individual and small-group health insurance. These policies are most affected by ObamaCare's community-rating regulations, which require insurers to accept everyone but limit or ban them from varying premiums based on age or health. The law also mandates "essential" benefits that are far more generous than those currently offered. According to consultants from Oliver Wyman (who wrote on the issue in the January issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries), around six million of the 19 million people with individual health policies are going to have to pay more—and this even after...

look at this country's debt situation, especially relative to the United States, is truly amazing. This country is paying 21% of government revenue on interest payments to support a 236% debt-to-GDP ratio. With annual spending twice as high as its revenue, the government is running a deficit of $455 billion a year and adding to its $11.2 trillion debt. This is all before the monetary stimulus programs announced recently by its central bank. If you thought the United States government was a financial basket case, Japan is exponentially worse. A collapse in the yen and the stock market is all...

Dear Dave, I’ve been on medical leave from my job due to an injury. My doctor recently advised extending the leave another six months, but during this time I wouldn’t be paid. My husband makes $75,000 a year, and we owe $40,000 on our cars. This includes a $30,000 note on one of them. Should we take money out of our 401(k) to make it through the additional time off? Crystal Dear Crystal, Absolutely not! You guys have dug a hole for yourselves, and borrowing from one place to fix another will only make that hole deeper. In cases like...

America's student loan debt problem is nothing new: For years, the media has been offering up a flood of stories about people facing decades of debt repayment and crushing interest rates. But with tuitions still rising and employment options for college grads still stagnating, America's potential "student loan bubble" is making many experts increasingly jittery. President Obama's recent budget proposal includes a new plan to tackle the problem, but some critics worry that it could leave students in even worse shape. Pay As You Earn, President Obama's first stab at the student loan issue, came late last year. The...

Whoops.An apparent error in Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff’s influential study of government debt was the result of a simple mistake in Microsoft Excel that all spreadsheet jockeys fear. Here it is: The cells outlined in dark blue contain the data points that Reinhart and Rogoff used to reach their conclusion that countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 90% or higher see average growth of -0.1%. As you can see, they failed to include Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Austria, and Australia. Including those countries—and making a few other adjustments—makes the growth rate 2.2%, according to new research.The Excel mistake could have been avoided with a few simple tricks.As...

A record breaking stock market is distorting a frightening reality: The U.S. is being eaten alive by a horrific cancer that will ultimately destroy the economy and impoverish the vast majority of its citizens. That's according to Peter Schiff, the best-selling author and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, who delivered his harsh warning to investors in a recent interview on Fox Business. "I think we are heading for a worse economic crisis than we had in 2007," Schiff said. "You're going to have a collapse in the dollar...a huge spike in interest rates... and our whole economy, which is built...

According to the newly filed bill, immigrants who are allowed to enter the United States under a work visa, will be ‘granted’ a cellular phone. Move over “Obama phone,” we present the new ‘Hola, Como Estas?!’ MarcoPhone. Here is the actual mention of the free phones in the bill- SEC. 1107. ACCESS TO EMERGENCY PERSONNEL. (a) SOUTHWEST BORDER REGION EMERGENCY COM-MUNICATIONS GRANTS.— The Secretary, in consultation with the governors of the States in the Southwest Border region, shall establish a 2-year grant program, to be administered by the Secretary, to improve emergency communications in the Southwest ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS.—An individual...

According to a new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News, the latest budget proposal from Barack Obama has about as much support as his previous two proposals. Only 52% of Democrats approve of his budget, which turns out to be twice as many as do independents: President ObamaÂ’s courtship of Republicans hit a critical point last week when he unveiled a budget proposal pitched as an effort at compromise. But a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds AmericansÂ’ initial reactions to the framework tilting negative, with broad opposition from Republicans and little public support for a key idea...

The bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform is moving ahead with its plan to roll out an approximately 1,500-page bill this week despite the bombings that rocked the Boston marathon on Monday. The bill reportedly grants amnesty to the at least 11 million illegal immigrants in America. “Millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States could earn a chance at citizenship under a sweeping Senate proposal to be released Tuesday that would represent the most ambitious overhaul of the nation's immigration system in three decades,” the Washington Post wrote in a breaking news alert late Monday night.

“What’s the matter with Kansas?” syndrome of young people voting against their economic interests. Thus follows the constant courting of the hip and cool Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Lena Dunham, Occupy Wall Streeters, and others who blend pop culture, sex, youth, energy, and fad — almost anything to avoid the truth that today’s teenagers are starting out each owing a lifetime share of the national debt amounting to more than three-quarters of a million dollars. Those who ran up the debt enjoyed the borrowing, but won’t be around to pay back their proverbial fair share.

The St. Louis Fed has published two maps showing state averages for overall amount of student debt and delinquency rates on repaying it. A high delinquency rate is bad news because it makes it harder for the student to get credit in the future, which leads to a higher likelihood of the student defaulting on other kinds of debt. Here's the map for highest average student debt.

Even as the mandated sequester bites into U.S. federal spending -- and newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry boasts that he is cutting his budget by 6 percent -- the State Department is planning to boost spending on the United Nations in 2014 by more than 4 percent to at least $3.6 billion

It's a rough job market for anyone looking for work as we continue to just barely break stagnation levels in the Slowest Recovery Ever, but the picture is particularly bleak for the fresh-faced youths looking start careers. According to a new economic report, the situation is going to be “extremely difficult� for the crop of 2013 college graduates: Unemployment remains high for young college grads. For those who will find jobs, many will probably have to settle for low-level positions, the Economic Policy Institute said Wednesday.The unemployment rate for recent college grads between the ages of 21 to 24 has...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bankrupt San Bernardino will resume paying into the state pension fund on July 1, but the California city will continue to renege on other debts including payments to bondholders, according to a new budget released late Thursday. Nearly a year after it halted contributions to America's biggest pension fund, San Bernardino will resume payments to Calpers at the start of the new fiscal year - but continue to not pay other creditors, according to the budget. San Bernardino will not make interest and principal payments on $50 million in pension bonds issued in 2005, according to...

The Obama administration has taken great pains to cultivate the impression in the media that the president’s 2014 budget plan is a genuine effort at compromise. According to the president’s team, if the GOP were to reject this offer, it would be a sure sign that Republicans were not interested in budget-cutting, or entitlement reform, or preventing a debt crisis — because that’s what the president’s 2014 budget would supposedly deliver. The budget’s numbers betray a far different reality. Consistent with Obama’s prior budget submissions, this one embodies the president’s statist governing philosophy and his indifference to the urgent need...

Setting up insurance exchanges — the centerpiece of President Obama's healthcare reform law — is costing the Health and Human Services Department a whole lot more than it originally expected. According to budget documents released Wednesday, the department expects to spend $4.4 billion on exchange grants to the states by the end of this year — double its estimates a year ago. The HHS is also asking Congress for another $1.5 billion to set up a federal exchange in 26 states. The department has cobbled together money from other programs to get started, but officials said they need another $800...

The president has released his budget, with the usual threats to refuse to negotiate with Republicans in the co-equal branch of government called Congress. The proposal is monumental, with total spending in the budget totaling $3.778 trillion. Or, as the average accountant would write it: $3,778,000,000,000 !!! Looking at it another way, we currently have a national debt in the $16-trillion range. This sum has been accumulating since George Washington was first sworn in as president and on through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, the...

After a federal judge ruled last week that the city of Stockton can reduce its debt through bankruptcy, observers began to frame the battle as one of municipal bondholders against public employees. But it's hard to shed tears for either of them. During the boom years, Stockton promised its future public-sector retirees free lifetime medical coverage. It also adopted rules allowing workers to spike their pensions by letting them include overtime and other payments from their final work year to calculate retirement pay. Stockton also issued far too many bonds. From 2003 to 2009, on an annual budget of just...

Obama’s budget proposal is dead on arrival from want of realistic solutions. The budget serves as a pie-in-the-sky fiscal trainwreck that reaffirms conservatives’ perception of the president as a tax-and-spender whose understanding of the realities of our nation’s dire fiscal situation takes a distant backseat to his radical push for punishing the wealthy and continuing big government spending...

General Electric Co. GE +0.35%plans to cut 950 jobs at its unionized locomotive plant in Pennsylvania and shift one-sixth of the employment to a newer facility in Texas, citing weaker North American locomotive demand due to falling coal prices. The job cuts will begin in October pending a 60-day period of talks with union leaders. GE met with representatives from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union Tuesday. The company plans to add 160 jobs in Texas. GE's factory in Fort Worth, Texas—which isn't unionized and began locomotive production in January—is 20% more productive per employee than the more-than-100-year-old...

The Fed’s continuing QE policy has helped push mortgage rates to near all-time lows. Yet it is not helping US households obtain a purchase mortgage. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released their weekly mortgage application indices and it revealed that purchase applications decline 1.27% from the previous week. Mortgage purchases applications remain in the Zona de Muerte (red box). The 30 year fixed-rate mortgage was 10.20 on March 30, 1990. It has fallen to 3.57% by Monday, April 9th. But the bloom is off the monetary rose. On the other hand, mortgage refinancing applications grew 6.32% from the previous...

The U.S. Treasury Department has revised its estimates of the foreign ownership through the end of Fiscal Year 2012, which means that we can now finalize our picture of just who the major holders of the 16.027 trillion dollars of the outstanding U.S. government debt issued through 30 September 2012 are: Overall, U.S. entities own 66% of all debt issued by the U.S. federal government. Ranking the major U.S. entities from high to low, we find that: U.S. individuals and institutions, which includes regular Americans, banks, insurance companies and other government entities, own 30.5% of the nation's debt. The...

On Thursday Night Bill Whittle will be addressing our tea party group about the national debt. We have been inviting students from the nearby high schools to attend this event. Prior to Mr. Whittle's speech, we will be giving a 15 minute speech on George Washington's Farewell Address. The event will be held at 7 pm at Rush Park in Rossmoor, just a few blocks north of the 405/605 interchange. This is open to the public. Please turn out to show your support of a group that is focused on educating the public about our Constitutional heritage. See the...

President Obama’s budget will be released tomorrow and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is visiting Europe to preview President Obama’s budget: increase in debt of $7.3 trillion and removal of spending controls. Lew is advising Europe to borrow and spend more. Washington Post’s Zach Goldfarb reports Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, “quickly embracing his role as the leading US diplomat on the economy, pushed his counterparts in Europe on Monday to do more to drive economic growth and enact stronger and more unified defenses against financial panics.” In Brussels on Monday morning, Lew met with “a series of officials that included European...

The Obama Administration has posted their last budget offer to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). The Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have a different take on the President’s budget: Obama’s budget turns off the sequester, adds stimulus extension, $50 billion in transportation spending and universal pre-K (better known as government baby sitting centers). And by getting rid of the sequester ($1 trillion), they propose cuts in discretionary spending of $100 billion only. In addition, Obama’s budget plan, to be unveiled April 10th (the same day that North Korea is threatening to nuke us), would prohibit taxpayers from accumulating more...

Thousands of Americans are sent to jail not for committing a crime, but because they can't afford to pay for traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees. If that sounds like a debtors' prison, a legal relic which was abolished in this country in the 1830s, that's because it is. And courts and judges in states across the land are violating the Constitution by incarcerating people for being unable to pay such debts. Ask Jack Dawley, 55, an unemployed man in Ohio who between 2007 and 2012 spent a total of 16 days in jail in a Huron County lock-up...

This week, while economists should have been closely considering the implications of the actual bankruptcy of Stockton, California, they instead heaped scorn on the perceived ideological bankruptcy of David Stockman. In other words, Stockman trumped Stockton. Ronald Reagan's former Budget Director contributed "Sundown in America" a multi-page opinion piece to the Sunday New York Times which loudly and eloquently described the illusions of our current economic system. While I don't agree with everything Stockman believes, I think he is showing great wisdom and courage in making dire predictions and calling for extreme changes in our policy and politics. What was...

The stock market has hit record highs, causing surprise among many people. My friend Arthur noted two reasons why he could hardly believe the stock market is up. Here are comparisons between now and when the stock market was at its previous peak in October 2007: * the federal deficit is over one trillion dollars, six times higher than in 2007 * federal debt is twice as high How, he asked, can the stock market be reaching new highs in this environment? Begin, I told him, with a simple model in which future cash flows are discounted to a present...

Readers of the Daily Telegraph were right all along. Quantitative easing will never be reversed. It is not liquidity management as claimed so vehemently at the outset. It really is the same as printing money. Columbia Professor Michael Woodford, the world's most closely followed monetary theorist, says it is time to come clean and state openly that bond purchases are forever, and the sooner people understand this the better. "All this talk of exit strategies is deeply negative," he told a London Business School seminar on the merits of Helicopter money, or "overt monetary financing". He said the Bank of...

Growing wealth inequality means that the wealthy have nowhere to hide and that events like those in Cyprus will happen in more countries around the world, including developed nations, said Marc Faber, the contrarian investor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report. "It will happen everywhere in the world, in Western democracies," Faber said "Squawk on the Street" on Tuesday. "You have more people that vote for a living than work for a living. I think you have to be prepared to lose 20 to 30 percent. I think you're lucky if you don't lose your life." "If...