Free Republic

In 2020, countries across the world followed in the footsteps of China and locked down hard against Covid-19. Liberties were drastically curtailed. As was economic activity, forcing governments to borrow tens if not hundreds of billions of pounds each to keep businesses and furloughed workers afloat. In Europe, one notable exception to this was Sweden. The Swedish government, despite facing heavy criticism, decided against imposing tight restrictions on social activity. The evidence now overwhelmingly suggests that Sweden made the right choice. SNIP>>>> Although we could not explore every possible impact of the various lockdown measures, our conclusions were straightforward: countries...

[Arthur]Burns, former Fed Chair, was infamously literally assaulted, being shoved up against the wall, by Nixon because he was not sufficiently "nice" in his decision-making at the time. "Nice", of course, meant lower rates. What followed was the second and extremely destructive run of inflation that defined Carter's Presidential term after Ford lost to him and, I might add, which was not his fault. Such is the nature of all economies; they take time to process what happens at a policy level whether intentional or not, simply because producing things doesn't happen instantly and thus when you change something on...

Milton Friedman once observed, “If the government ran the Sahara, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” He was right. The government has run Social Security for more than 80 years, and now there is a shortage of security. At this point, the experts believe that someone who is 79 years old today is likely to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. The solution, according to the White House fact sheet on the 2024 Budget Proposal, is: do nothing, and the Republicans cheered. That leaves a rapidly growing problem to third parties.Social Security presents a...

The US Fiscal position is very bad and the US is beginning to look like a third world economy. And with Biden and Democrat AGs filing indictments against Biden primary Presidential oppoonent, that country is Venezeula! Like skyrocketing interest on the Federal debt to pay for green energy hustlers and the Ukraine war. The US Federal Deficit continues to grow as seen in the charts below. A $2.25 Trillion dollar run rate deficit is significantly worse than the $1.3 Trillion that was recorded in Fiscal 2022. This level of deficit is unprecedented in an economy with low unemployment and theoretically...

Several Republican representatives say they're unhappy with the debt ceiling deal after the White House and House Speaker reached a tentative agreement Saturday night. Kevin McCarthy said he'd spoken with President Joe Biden on the phone twice and struck a deal in principle after weeks of fraught negotiations. The deal means the US will avert a national debt default, which could trigger chaos on financial markets and send the dollar sinking – but the legislation still has to pass both the House and the Senate. Republican Congressmen Ralph Norman and Ken Buck both attacked the agreement. Norman, of South Carolina,...

The efforts of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to negotiate a compromise agreement to raise the government's debt limit was flatly rejected by President Biden. Presidential Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explained that "the President considers any attempt to restrict the amount he needs to spend an attack on our democracy. The American people voted for him to be president. This empowers him to determine what has to be done for the benefit of the country. It is Congress' job to pass the legislation necessary to fund the President's programs. Refusing to do what the President wants is treason." McCarthy called...

Just last month the NY Times published a story about the growing US debt. The story relied on what were, at the time, the most recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.America’s debt is now six times what it was at the start of the 21st century. It is the largest it has been, compared with the size of the U.S. economy, since World War II, and it’s projected to grow an average of about $1.3 trillion a year for the next decade.Today, the CBO put out a new estimate which is significantly worse. Now the US is projected to...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” host Neil Cavuto responded to President Joe Biden arguing earlier in the day that “bringing down the deficit is one way to ease inflationary pressures” by stating that this should probably be a reminder that the best way to handle inflation going forward “is to put down the spending shovel.”

The amount of money that investors are parking at a major central bank facility climbed to yet another all-time high as supply-demand imbalances continue to dog U.S. dollar funding markets. Eighty-one participants on Monday placed a total of $1.758 trillion at the Federal Reserve’s overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility, in which counterparties like money-market funds can place cash with the central bank. That surpassed the previous record volume of $1.705 trillion from Dec. 17, New York Fed data show. Demand for the so-called RRP has climbed further as principal and interest payments from government-sponsored enterprises has entered short-end funding markets....

Republicans have criticized Democrats for continuing to push their pandemic stimulus package while accepting little to no Republican input. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday out of 286 amendments proposed by Republicans for the $1.9 trillion spending package, only two were accepted. “Republicans offered 286 amendments to President Biden’s massive $1.9 TRILLION spending blowout. Democrats accepted 2 of them. So much for Biden’s calls for ‘unity,'” McCarthy said in a statement. On Feb. 19, Democrats unveiled the full text of a 591-page bill (pdf) titled the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.” House Republicans held a press conference...

Coronavirus is both a public health problem and an economic problem, and the two work against each other. The measures we must take to save lives necessarily mean shutting down large parts of our consumer-driven economy. People are losing jobs and businesses are losing revenue. Does that mean we simply ignore the virus and let people get sick and sometimes die? No, that won’t work, either. Our healthcare system can’t handle what would happen. It would collapse and be unable to help anyone with anything. We need to sustain the economy for however long it takes to beat down the...

The economic indicators all show the economy is booming. Unemployment is at record lows. The stock market is seeing record highs. Wages are up, and taxes are down. Stifling regulations are being lifted. Everything seems to be working just fine. There is much truth in this perception of a boom. Part of this can be attributed to less government interference and taxation. Unnecessary government regulation and spending always hurt the economy. When markets are freer, profits tend to come galloping back. And much has galloped back. However, beneath the surface, major problems threaten the boom. These problems have long plagued...

A booming economy should help people make good financial decisions since more money can be directed to other needs. That is why savings rates normally go up as the economy improves. People naturally tend to take advantage of better days especially after bad or slow times. This is not happening now. Many Americans are spending more on consumer goods, but they are not saving their money or accumulating wealth. No Emergency Funds Nearly a quarter of households, for example, do not have any available emergency funds according to a survey conducted by the SSRS research firm. Another third do not...

Germany's biggest lender is rapidly slashing jobs, it's losing a ton of money and the stock is trading near all-time lows. Many of Deutsche Bank's problems are self-inflicted. It's been badly mismanaged. Deutsche Bank (DB) never fully cleaned up its crisis-era balance sheet. Restructuring efforts fell short. And its countless legal black eyes haven't helped matters. But Deutsche Bank's struggles have also been amplified by something the 149-year-old lender never imagined, mostly because it had never happened before in modern history: negative interest rates. In 2014, the European Central Bank wanted to boost the sluggish economy but interest rates were...

With the next round of Democratic presidential candidate debates upon us, we will surely hear more about government activism to fix racial inequalities. Inequality is real and needs attention. According to the Urban Institute, average white household wealth in 2016 was $171,000 compared with average black household wealth of $17,409. Sen. Cory Booker wants government to make deposits into savings accounts for low-income children to the tune of up to $50,000 each. Sen. Kamala Harris proposes $100 billion in government subsidies for black homeownership. These kinds of proposals may win some black votes, but should they? Will they really make...

The massive spending deal, negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and agreed to by the president, looks poised to kill off the Budget Control Act of 2011—the law that was meant to restrain federal spending. With that law on the way out, the question arises: Where can fiscal conservatives turn to exert real and lasting fiscal discipline? Thankfully, two members of Congress have introduced a bill to do just that. The Maximizing America’s Prosperity Act—or MAP Act—is a bill proposed by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., that would limit federal spending...

In late April, President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders finally found something they agreed on: infrastructure. Outside the White House after a meeting with the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, issued the pronouncement, “Big and bold.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democrat from New York, echoed the takeaway: “We agreed on a number, which was very, very good, $2 trillion.” Trump himself has been publicly quiet but didn’t dispute that he told the Democrats he “like[s] the number.” By May, this renewed spirit of cooperation had fallen apart, at least temporarily, with a second meeting collapsing...

A new government report has given us a glimpse into our nation’s fiscal future, and the outlook is grim. Absent major reforms, America’s debt will only continue to balloon. The Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget report on Tuesday, which projects the nation’s fiscal situation for the next 30 years. Despite the strong economy, the nation remains in a precarious and unsustainable budget position, just as it was last year. Debt held by the public is set to rise to nearly one and a half times the size of the economy in the coming decades. The report also...

President Trump indicated Wednesday the U.S. government would start paying down the $21.6 trillion in debt it's accrued over the last 80 years. "We're going to start paying down debt, we have a lot of debt," Trump said during a Wednesday discussion at the White House on the economy. "We're going to start paying down debt." Trump didn't elaborate, but he made the comment in the context of a discussion about how to improve some of the trade and economic agreements the U.S. has reached over the years. Trump said those past agreements have only helped to let U.S. wealth...

Chicago Officials Looking at Universal Basic Income Program Cole Lauterbach - Watchdog.org 3 minutes BY: August 11, 2018 4:58 am Officials in Chicago want to test the waters of offering a universal basic income. A majority of city council members are telling Mayor Rahm Emanuel to form a task force to look into Universal Basic Income programs, which is essentially a periodic check from the government with no strings attached. The City Council wants to explore a program that would send at least $500 a month to 1,000 Chicago families. The same families also would get Earned Income Tax Credit...