Free Republic

The Democrats’ push to hike the national minimum wage is merely the crown jewel in the so-called “fair shot” agenda that they hope will erase ObamaCare from voters’ minds by the time they hit the ballot box this November; the next action item on their intellectually (not to mention fiscally) bankrupt list is a similarly redistributive and equally lame pander to the young people who have lately been electorally shuffling away from them. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, it’s your cue: Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is poised to introduce a bill which, in part, would allow people holding student loans financed at...

California faces $340 billion in debts, or more than $8,500 for each of its 38 million residents, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said Wednesday in recommending that the state set priorities for paying down its key long-term liabilities. The state should first address the $73.7 billion shortfall in the teachers' retirement system, a debt that could cost the state, teachers and school districts a combined $5 billion a year to resolve over 30 years. Without changes, the system serving 868,000 members is projected to run out of money by 2046.

Another month, another confirmation that when it comes to the US consumer, it is all about student debt (and to a lesser extent, car loans). Moments ago the Fed reported that consumer credit number for March: at $17.5 billion, it not only blew out the expectation of a $15.5 billion increase (although when one adds last month's $3.5 billion downward revision to $13.0 billion the two month total actually missed), but was the highest monthly increase since February 2013. That's the good news.  The bad news was once again in the composition: of this $17.5 billion $16.4 billion was...

We recently learned that China is poised to replace the United States as the No. 1 economic power in the world sometime later this year. Our anemic quarterly growth rate of 0.1 percent certainly lends credence to this speculation. We must seriously question those who say our nation is not in decline. They are adopting the ostrich strategy and sticking their heads in the sand. There is no question that America is the pinnacle nation of the world and is likely to remain in that position for several years, given our military strength and the depth and stability of our...

Some time ago there was an article that compared our debt to the total assets of the rich. It wrote that if everything of the rich were seized by the Feds and the war debt was zero, the Democrats would still have us in the hole. After thirty minutes of surfing, I hope a FRiend has the information at the ready. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Americans are relying less on their credit cards now, and more consumers are able to pay their balance in full each month, according to a recent Gallup poll. The poll found that in 2014 48% of Americans always pay the balance of their credit card each month compared to 42% who paid them in full in 2006 and only 43% in 2008 during the Great Recession. Now only 33% of credit card owners say they leave a balance each month, which is a record low since Gallup began measuring these habits in 2001.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted unanimously to reduce its bond-buying stimulus program for the fourth straight meeting, to $45 billion a month from $55 billion. The central bank now thinks the economy is strong enough to do without the stimulus and the Fed aims to end the bond-buying program by late 2014, barring any sudden deterioration in growth.

Why is the Pentagon to destroy ammunition for our men and women in uniform while the Department of Homeland Security is buying up millions of rounds of ammunition? As we asked last week, why are we decimating our military while many government agencies are arming up? You really have to wonder why, according to USA Today, “The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, according to the Pentagon and congressional sources. It’s impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction...

BEAVER, Pa. – A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled. The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti's request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania. "I paid everything, and didn't know about the $6.30," Battisti said. "For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy."

What happens when you mix something good with something bad? To be more specific, what happens when you have a big success story, like the spending cap in Switzerland that has dramatically slowed the growth of government, and then expect intelligent and coherent coverage by a government-run media outfit that presumably wants a bigger public sector? Well, the answer is that you get a very muddled story. Here’s some of what Swiss Info, which is part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, wrote about that nation’s “debt brake.” The mind-boggling…debt racked up by governments…has turned some heads towards Switzerland’s successful track...

Ukraine’s growing gas debt may lead to the failure of the country’s transit obligations and the reduction of gas supplies to south-eastern Europe, said the Russian Energy Ministry. Officials from Russia, including Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, and officials from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Moldova held talks in Moscow on Saturday. The meeting, also attended by officials from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Finance Ministry, was held in the form of consultations on the security of gas transit through Ukraine. All sides expressed deep concern about Ukraine’s growing debt, Novak told journalists. “Currently Ukraine’s...

CODE RED: Central Banks Will Frantically Pound The Panic Button And Eventually Become Executioners To The World's Currencies John Mauldin, Thoughts From The FrontlineApr. 27, 2014, 9:21 AM (It is especially important to read the opening quotes this week. They set up the theme in the proper context.) “There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” –...

It is now five years since the crash of 2008. Today's media and much of our academic crowd, of course, believe that the crisis has been handled, and that we can settle back to "business as usual." But such pundits are viewing only the trees, not the forest. They see correct Federal Reserve policy and legitimate fiscal policy on the part of the Federal Government. But this view comes from a false concept of economics and from a major failing of humans – their use of "euphemism" to flee from reality. For example, almost all of today's scholars and pundits...

The Great American Giveaway Politics / US Debt Apr 25, 2014 - 04:15 AM GMTBy: Andy Sutton What do the national debt and a designer Hepatitis C drug have in common? This question actually spans two areas near and dear to my heart: economics and medicine. What I’m going to be covering this week is something that I feel is going to be part of a growing trend in America over the coming decades. You see, too many – myself included for quite a while – were asking the wrong questions. Many still are. We shouldn’t be asking what we...

The federal student loan program is becoming so costly to taxpayers that even President Obama is pretending to fix it. Readers will recall Mr. Obama as the man who has spent much of his Presidency expanding this program, creating new ways for borrowers to avoid repayment, and then campaigning about these dubious achievements on campuses nationwide. Now Team Obama is acknowledging that his policies are turning out to be more expensive than he claimed. Participation in federal debt-forgiveness programs is surging. In a mere six months the number of borrowers who've signed up for such plans has increased to more...

American education is in trouble—that much seems to be a given. Our public schools and colleges are getting poor results, our young people are drowning in debt, new graduates can't find jobs, and our overall rankings in the world are pretty dismal. We are greatly in need of a transformation, but we need to think big, because the problem is huge. In 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development tested 15-year-olds in 64 countries in math, science, and reading. Out of 64 countries, the U.S. Scored 23rd in science, 20th in reading, and 29th in math. Not only is...

Presented with no snark or ironic comment whatsoever...

Remember President Obama's vow that, if re-elected, he'd pursue "balanced" deficit reduction? Either he forgot, or he hopes voters have, because a new report shows his latest budget is entirely unbalanced. When Obama released his budget this March, he said it included "smart spending cuts" and closed "tax loopholes" that benefit only "the wealthiest Americans." Obama added that his budget would put "our debt on a downward path as a share of our total economy, which independent experts have set as a critical target for fiscal responsibility." As with just about everything Obama says, none of these claims turns out...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A report released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says President Barack Obama's budget request would mean significantly larger budget deficits than the White House claims. CBO says the budget plan proposed last month by Obama would produce deficits of $6.6 trillion over the next 10 years — $1.6 trillion more than the White House estimates. The main reason is that the White House has a rosier estimate of the economy's performance over the decade than CBO. That means the administration predicts higher tax revenues. The president's budget is just a proposal; it has gained little...

The rich are not the problem, the greedy are not the problem, the crooked are not the problem - the problem is the system that brings them about. If the system is ours, the system means by the people, of the people, for the people, then now it is time to take it back. Now it is time to demand that it would be changed.