Free Republic

Now that the unemployment rate seems to be on a steady decline, Republicans have begun rummaging around for less flattering economic indicators they can use to attack President Obama's jobs record during this election year. To mark today's three-year anniversary of the stimulus, the uber-conservative Republican Study Committee blasted out a graph (above) mapping the decline of America's workforce participation rate, which measures the overall percentage of working-age adults who have a job or are searching for one.

The Obama administration has released an economic report that claims everything is coming up roses, and it is making the rounds of the MSM's news outlets. Truth is, when you look into the numbers, it's rather easy to come to the conclusion that the economic reports are as screwy as the administration's employment numbers. In order to convince Americans that his economic measures are working, Obama is claiming there has been an increase in retail sales from December to January by a seasonally adjusted .4%. The administration goes on to explain that while the economy is moving in a positive...

The most brilliant man in the universe said in 2008: "We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression..." "The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."Sure sounds like he meant "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."Now he says he had no idea how bad it was. "So, the die had been cast, but a lot of us didn't understand at that point how bad it was going to get. That increases the deficit because less tax revenues come in, and it means that more people are getting unemployment insurance, we're helping states more so they...

Obama says the economy is getting better. The MSM is telling us the economy is getting better: "The economy seems to be rumbling back to life" "Can we exhale, is this the comeback everyone's been waiting for" "What you're hearing is the sound of a comeback" "It is getting exciting, psychologically, that's gonna be important" "I think people forgot to know what it's like to feel good about the economy" So it's gotta be true right? While the media and the administration portray the most recent jobs number — 8.3% unemployment — as good economic news, more sober minds...

If you lack something and can, get it now. The Greek people have taken to the streets stating irrevocably that they don’t think they should be impoverished for a generation or more to make good on bad loans made by international bankers.... If the Greek deal falls through, or Greece defaults and walks away from the debt…..it burns $340 billion out of European bank equity. It also causes nerves to fray on the debts of Spain, Italy, Portugal, and even France…..all countries with far larger debts and therefore larger threats to the equity of the European banks...... Now....we find World...

The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation AMERICANS love to laugh at ridiculous regulations. A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there. The Federal Railroad Administration insists that all trains must be painted with an “F” at the front, so you can tell which end is which. Bureaucratic busybodies in Bethesda, Maryland, have shut down children’s lemonade stands because the enterprising young moppets did not have trading licences. The list goes hilariously on. But red tape in America is no laughing matter....

By: Larry Walker, Jr.Mr. Obama visited the padlock maker Master Lock in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday, but wasn't joined by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who greeted the president upon arrival, but canceled his escort duties. Hey, so he was already sick to his stomach, and hanging out with Obama would have surely made matters worse.During the event, after taking full credit for the whopping 100 jobs that Master Lock has brought back to Wisconsin from China, one of Obama’s many fabrications for the day, he added, “For the first time since 1990, American manufacturers are creating new jobs.”However, according...

Chris Duane and I sit down after an enormously successful roundtable with David Morgan to discuss the market for enlightened free thought. While things on many fronts appear to be getting worse, and freedom appears to be under every increasing attack, more and more people are coming to understand the failure of the current economic and political paradigm and are seeking answers. That's why Chris, Sean (SGTReport), BrotherJohnF and so many others are finding ever larger audiences for their ideas and answers. As Chris explains it, the BabyBoomers--of which yours truly is a member--are about to go down the economic...

In the end of January, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights, and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, said that the Commission proposed a new data protection regulation called “the right to be forgotten.” This rule, though sounding innocuous, is probably the “biggest threat to free speech on the Internet,” as law professor Jeffrey Rosen put it. The right to be forgotten requires social networks, such as Facebook and Google, to comply with the requests of their users and delete items that these individuals have published on the Internet. If the companies refuse the users’ requests, the EU could fine these companies...

California's tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation, is heavy. The Register reported that per-person state and local taxes, fees, licenses and "intergovernmental revenue" amount to $8,634, ranking California 13th-highest among the states. California businesses fare worse, the Tax Foundation said, ranking 48th in tax climate, based on corporate, income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. What's unsaid is the effect on individuals of extremely high corporate taxes. Companies not driven out of state or out of business are less likely to hire or expand, more likely to contract and struggle to provide for current employees...

New York Knick point guard Jeremy Lin is a one-man economic recovery that even Ben Bernanke couldn’t dream up in his Federal Reserve meetings. Lin-sanity has taken the country by storm and as a result created a spending frenzy that’s benefiting a broad range of companies, tax rolls and even the stock market. Lin’s salary this season is a modest (by NBA standards) $800,000, but by some calculations, he’s turned into the $170 million man. The most tangible impact has been on the market cap of Madison Square Garden (MSG), whose stock has jumped 7% to close Thursday at $31.87...

The Obama administration has released an economic report that claims everything is coming up roses, and it is making the rounds of the MSM's news outlets. Truth is, when you look into the numbers, it's rather easy to come to the conclusion that the economic reports are as screwy as the administration's employment numbers. In order to convince Americans that his economic measures are working, Obama is claiming there has been an increase in retail sales from December to January by a seasonally adjusted .4%. The administration goes on to explain that while the economy is moving in a positive...

For the 12th time, U.S. Rep. Don Young has gotten legislation passed out of the House of Representatives to authorize opening of a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to resource development. By a 237 to 187 vote, the House today sent H.R. 3408 to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future. Opening ANWR has only made it out of the Senate once, and was vetoed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. “This is a great piece of legislation for the American people,” said Young in a statement released by his office. “Tapping into ANWR’s enormous energy potential...

Sean founder of the SGTReport.com, one of the most popular freedom advocate sites on the internet joins us for a no holds barred interview. He believes freedom is hanging in the balance and that we may have crossed the Rubicon. Since starting his YouTube channel, he's gotten millions of views. He's struck a chord with people around the world who sense that something is very wrong and who are trying to understand the exact nature of the global financial challenges that lie ahead. Awareness is the first step towards addressing the underlying issues. Until some level of understanding is achieved,...

The market's up, Real GDP was up 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011 and unemployment is down to 8.3%, you should be happy as the economy seems to be finally getting out of its slump.  Instead, you, as they did in Star Wars, "have a bad feeling about this".  Well, there is good reason for this as the economy is nowhere near as good as the headline statistics are saying and some are showing that it's getting worse. The Bureau of Economic Analysis itself admitted that over 1.9% of the 2.8% growth we saw in the 4th quarter came...

There's been a running debate among economic commentators about whether we're in a genuine economic recovery (as opposed to another shallow, temporary reaction to the Fed's monetary "stimulus") and how strong the recovery is.Obviously, we are all ready for this goddamned recession to be over so that we can get on with the personal ambitions that have been interrupted for the past five years. And there is someone else who is hoping a recovery will help out his personal ambitions: President Obama hopes he will finally be able to run for re-election on the theme that "it's morning again...

After three years with unemployment topping 8 percent, the U.S. has seen the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression, the Congressional Budget Office noted in a report issued today. And, despite some recent good news on the economic front, the CBO is still predicting that unemployment will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The report also notes that, including those who haven't sought work in the past four weeks and those who are working part-time but seeking full-time employment, the unemployment rate would be 15 percent.

7 Significant Headwinds For The US Economy Comstock PartnersFebuary 17, 2012 At current levels the market is expecting a lot more than it’s going to get. Investors are breathing a sigh of relief that the U.S. did not fall into a recession following the 2011 mid-year slowdown and that the likelihood of an agreement between the EU and Greece will, at least, avert a Greek default on March 20th. While that is true as far as it goes, the U.S. economy is still highly fragile, and the EU agreement is the least bad among a choice of lousy options. Although...

The U.S. Mint is facing a problem -- especially during these penny-pinching times. It turns out it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth. And because of that, the Obama administration this week asked Congress for permission to change the mix of metal that goes to make pennies and nickels, an expensive recipe that has remained unchanged for more than 30 years. .... Just the administrative cost of minting 4.3 billion pennies costs almost a half-cent per coin by itself, leaving precious little room to make a penny for less than a cent, no matter...

America’s youth vote, which turned out in record numbers in 2008 and gave a historically high percentage of their support to President Obama, has soured on him because they are having a hard time finding work and, as a result, are putting off major decisions like getting married and starting a family Obama, who won 66 percent of the 24 million voters age 18-29 in 2008, has seen that support slashed. And in a new poll from Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit that seeks to engage younger voters, only 31 percent approve of Obama’s handling of youth unemployment, a number that...

Today, President Obama released his budget for the 2013 Fiscal Year. The spending blueprint mirrors other plans he has put forward during his administration. It keeps spending at unprecedented levels, fails to address the looming entitlement crises and uses budget gimmickry to claim fake savings and unrealistic projections. The budget continues to call for spending at historic levels: the request sets spending for the fiscal year at $3.8 trillion and projects $47 trillion in spending over the next ten years Holds spending at 23 percent of the next ten years, two percent higher than its historical average Uses totally dishonest...

The economy will expand if you believe it is expanding, because you'll be "animal spirited" into buying a lot of stuff on credit that you can't afford. It all boils down to perception. That's the insight at the heart of the Grand Game of Perception Management. Economists speak of "animal spirits" that fuel expansion, but this is simply a term for perception management: When people perceive others reaping outsized gains in profits from taking risky bets and freely spending borrowed money, then they will feel an overpowering urge to follow the herd and leverage their capital (if any) and disposable...

A funny thing is happening on the way to the clean energy future–reality is setting in. There is ‘incontrovertible evidence’ about the economic growth and job creating effects of America’s unconventional oil and gas production boom – more than 600,000 jobs directly attributable to shale gas development. Even President Obama is praising the job creating benefits of ‘America’s resource boom’. America is getting its energy mojo back and that is good news but not the entire story. How Much Shale Gas is there in the United States? In July 2011 US EIA released a [Review of Emerging Resources: US Shale...

It's not just the economic numbers that are looking up for President Obama. A new New York Times/CBS News poll puts his approval rating at 50 percent, his highest mark since May 2010 (except for a brief bump after Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in May). That's a couple of points better than the RealClearPolitics average as displayed in the chart, but the uptrend is clear. Now, let’s assume the economy continues to grow—not gangbusters, but something along the lines predicted by economists in the recent Wall Street Journal survey. We’re talking slow-but-steady 2.5 percent GDP growth and a...

INITIAL CLAIMS PLUNGE AGAIN TO 348K, HOUSING STARTS SURGE Joe Weisenthal Febuary 16, 2012 Good news all around. First there was a big beat on initial claims. 348K is another new low for the cycle. That's well better than the 365K that was expected. Housing starts was also much nicer than expected, at 699K vs. 675K (annual rate). That's nicely higher than the previous month's upwardly revised 689K. In fact that number is interesting, because the initial reading for December was 657K, so that's a major upward revision. According to MarketWatch, this is the fewest initial claims since March 2008....

The Trashing Of The White Working Class February 15, 2012 By Russ Winter There is a revealing book by Charles Murray called Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010″ . This has a big focus on what nobody really wants to talk about, the white American working class. Santorum’s preaching about social values has merits but he panders and makes it mostly about black people or illegal immigrants. And so does Gingrich. Obama is an enabler. This is just one more elephant in the room that is being politically ignored: the ghettoization of the white working class. I am...

Presidential candidate NewtGingrich says even though rivals RickSantorum and Mitt Romney are currently leading the pack in the important primary state of Michigan — which is also Romney’s home state — the former House speaker has not given up on his chances. Gingrich, who has dumbfounded political pundits before with his repeated surges, also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Wednesday that he continues to confidently look to Super Tuesday. “I’ll be in Michigan campaigning next week — we have every reason to believe we’re going to be competing there effectively — and we’re going to have a number of...

In a pact early Thursday morning, congressional negotiators gave final approval to an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. A key roadblock was overcome when the lawmakers agreed to require new federal workers to contribute more to their pension plans, clearing the way around 12:30 a.m. for a majority of the House-Senate conference committee to begin signing the deal. The pension provision represented a concession to key Maryland Democrats who, even after prodding from President Obama, did not grant their support until current federal workers were shielded from the...

President Obama is touring a Master Lock factory in Milwaukee on Wednesday to urge manufacturers to return jobs to the United States-- part of a wider plan by his administration to increase the number of domestic manufacturing jobs. "Right now we have an excellent opportunity to bring manufacturing back-- but we have to seize it," Obama intends to say, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. small-business owners who aren't hiring -- 85% of those surveyed -- are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly half of small-business owners point to potential healthcare costs (48%) and government regulations (46%) as reasons. One in four are not hiring because they worry they may not be in business in 12 months. Companies typically hold back on hiring when the economy is weak and when their operating environment is not...

n an interview with Atlanta's local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV Preisdent Obama explains why he was unable to cut the deficit in half in his first term, a promise he made as a candidate. Obama was lobbed the question by a sympathetic reporter who said he is getting "pelted in the media" for making a campaign promise he did not keep.

...and I'm not the only one that got it. I generally ignore these kinds of things from these kinds of people. But I thought this one would be fun for fellow freepers to pick apart. Its not violently communists or anti-capitalist. It's fairly mild compared to other things he sends. In fact, I suspect he doesn't even realize it is commie oriented. As usual though, he mixes environmentalism with communism in all his ideas and propaganda. I responded to him with a very short explanation that we can't live without a modern economy anymore since we don't have the naturally...

Obama Energy Tax Proposals The President’s FY 2013 budget contains billions in tax increase on energy production and consumption. These taxes will result in higher prices at the pump, increased utility bills, and fewer American jobs as companies flee the U.S. and companies cannot recover their investments. Below is a breakdown of energy taxes Obama put forth in his 2013-2022 budget: [HTML Chart was over 300 words so I could not carry it over.] ATR Recommendations Congress should reject these new tax increases and move to rapidly increase access to domestic energy resources in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, part...

The topic of BLS propaganda seasonal adjustments has been discussed extensively here especially in light of January's NFP beat. We'll leave it at that. However, we were rather surprised to note that the Census Bureau may have also ramped up its seasonal adjustment "fudge factoring" because when looking at the January headline retail sales data, which naturally was a smoothly continuous line on a Seasonally Adjusted basis, rising from $399.9 billion in December to $401.4 billion in January, something rather odd happened in the Unadjusted data set: the plunge from $459.8 billion in December to $361.4 billion in January, or...

Did you see President Obama's new 2013 budget? It's filled with $1.5 trillion in tax increases for the rich. It appears that the president and his leftist cabal believe we are all stupid. They believe if you tell enough lies, the lies become fact. They spend all day, every day, trying to convince Americans that taxes on the rich are too low.

Taxpayers are unlucky in love this Valentine’s Day. Of an identified $17 billion in Valentine’s Day related spending on candy, flowers, dinner, jewelry, greetings cards, clothing, and hotels, government composes 33.14 percent of those costs—approximately $5.6 billion in revenues. But how does government love thee? Let us tax the ways…. This year’s average Valentine’s Day spending is estimated to be $126.03 a person, an 8 percent increase in spending since last year. Valentine’s Day spending is subject to income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, and other taxes on business activity. Government then includes additional fees, excise taxes, and international...

JEFF SAUT: This Market Has Now Had Its Second 'Dog Barking In The Night' Joe Weisenthal Febuary 13, 2011 The latest from Jeff Saut, the bullish Raymond James analyst who has basically been a bull from the very beginning. The call for this week: There was another "dog barking in the night" (reference my Sherlock Holmes report of 1/30/12) when two perma bears recently turned bullish. The bears in question are David Rosenberg and Nouriel Roubini. When the ultimate "bears" finally capitulate, well you can draw your own conclusion. That said, it is normal for a market in an uptrend...

SocGen: QE3 Is Coming Soon, But First The S&P Is Going To Tank Joe WeisenthalFebuary 13, 2013 SocGen has put out a big special report titled: QE3 delayed, but still likely. Their high level overview of where things stand right now looks like this: * QE3 has been delayed by the recent bout of good news from the US economy: SG is now in line with the consensus, expecting the launch in Q2 (24-25 April FOMC meeting). * As the $400bn Operation Twist program is still boosting demand for long-dated US Treasuries, we believe the Fed will be concentrating its...

ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country. Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament. State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were ablaze. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos denounced the worst breakdown of order...

THREE MILLION PREPPERS IN AMERICA Are Getting Ready For The End of the World As We Know It Mac Slavo February 11th, 2012 In the autumn of 2008, as Presidential hopefuls sparred over whether we had entered a recession or not and well before the onset of the most serious global crisis since the 1930′s, trend forecaster Gerald Celente advised his Trends Journal subscribers to prepare for the worst and plan for the best. “It will be,” warned Celente, “like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.” The aware and prepared … those understanding just how out of control society...

Here's The Chart That Has Stock Market Bears Ripping Their Hair Out Sam Ro Febuary 12, 2012Stocks have had an incredible run so far since the beginning of the year. The S&P 500 is up a whopping 6.7% during the period, closing at 1342 on Friday. In December, we surveyed 16 of Wall street's top strategists who told us that the S&P 500 would close at just 1363 by the end of 2012. At the time, five of those strategists had targets below 1342. Why were they so conservative? Well, some of the key risks cited included deterioration in the...

As women's participation in shooting sports has increased, so have sales at gun shops leading up to February 14. It's a given that restaurants, flower shops and candy stores will be hot spots as Valentine's Day approaches. But another industry sees a somewhat surprising boom in sales before the romantic holiday: gun shops. With women's participation in gun sports on the rise and manufacturers responding with feminine firearms that are even pink and red, many are buying a new gun as a gift for their Valentine. A few years ago, Mike Blackwell, owner of Big Boy's Guns and Ammo in...

Three West Virginia coal plants just announced they will close this year. Metro News reported: Ohio based FirstEnergy Corporation announces it will close three coal fired power plants in West Virginia by this fall. The closings come directly from the impact of new federal EPA regulations. The plants to close are Albright Power Station, Willow Island Power Station, and the Rivesville Power Station. The company says 105 employees will be directly impacted. The three plants produce 660 megawatts and about 3-percent of FirstEnergy’s total generation. In recent years, the plants served as “peaking facilities” and generated power during times of...

The United States has long been seen as a nation in its twilight as an oil producer, facing a relentless decline that began when President Richard Nixon was in the White House. He and every president since pledged to halt the U.S. slide into greater dependence on foreign oil, but the trend seemed irreversible—until now. Forty-one years later, U.S. oil production is on the rise. U.S. oil fields yielded an estimated 5.68 million barrels per day in 2011—their highest output since 2003, thanks largely to a surge of new production from shale oil that lies beneath the Great Plains. The...

When Barack Obama entered office in January, 2009, the labor force participation rate was 65.7%, meaning nearly two-thirds of working age Americans were working or looking for work. When the recession supposedly officially ended in June, 2009, the labor force participation rate was still 65.7%. In the latest, much celebrated, unemployment report, the labor force participation rate had plummeted to 63.7%, the most rapid decline in U.S. history. That means that under President Obama nearly 5 million Americans have fled the workforce in hopeless despair. The trick is that when those 5 million are not counted as in the work...

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, in her State of the State Address, outlined a bold plan for tax reform focused on reducing rates and consolidating Oklahoma’s seven tax brackets. The plan would end Oklahoma’s complicated seven bracket income tax structure that begins taxing on the first penny any Oklahoman earns, instead replacing the structure with three brackets – Oklahoman’s making below $15,000 a year would pay a 0-percent rate, those making under $35,000 would pay a 2.25-percent rate, and those making $35,000 and above would pay a 3.5-percent rate. The Tax Foundation ranks Oklahoma as 38th in the nation in terms...

The House yesterday passed a new "reform" measure aimed at curtailing the practice of trading on securities with inside information amongst members of Congress and their staff. Suprise! Some members of Congress were arriving in Congress and becoming rich on the experience. Ever wonder how people go to Congress and become millionaires? The publication last year of a new academic report cleared up for us at least one way the millionaires' club known as Congress benefits.A report from four scholars, Alan J Ziobrowski; James W Boyd, Ping Cheng; and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski, titled Abnormal Returns From the Common Stock Investments...

"If the economy is getting better, then why are there 6 million less jobs in America today than there were before the recession started?" a blogger recently asked.Because two years ago, there were 9 million fewer jobs than before the recession started. By no means is the economy recovered, but it is recovering.Plenty of readers took issue with my claim that last week's jobs report confirms that things are moving in the right direction. Some said the numbers were flawed. Others said I wasn't looking at the right numbers. Others were miffed at the idea of recovery because their...

...Romney’s embrace of insuring the minimum wage increases, currently at $7.25, was surprising for a candidate who insists he is a reliable conservative. It was major mistake on his part for three reasons. First, from an ideological standpoint, what was he thinking? Has he missed the decades long discussion among conservatives about the disastrous impact of the minimum wage? It has eliminated jobs – hundreds of thousands of them – for young persons on the low rungs of employment. The ill effects have been felt especially by African American youth. Not only that, but the minimum wage represents a government...

Fresh from his triple win in Republican presidential contests on Tuesday, and following his Iowa victory last month, this is Santorum's opportunity to lay out his message to thousands of conservative attendees. Presidential candidates don't need dozens of different economic policies that Congress is unlikely to adopt. Voters don't read their white papers. They mostly want to hear, in general terms, what candidates will do to fix the economy, alleviate the debt burden on future generations, and put old-age entitlement programs back on a sustainable trajectory. One of the most carefully crafted proposals for entitlement reform is by House Budget...