Free Republic

Back in late January the Atlanta Fed was calling for a 5.4 percent GDP gain, but on Wednesday it said growth likely will be just 1.9 percent.

President Donald Trump will name Larry Kudlow, the conservative media analyst who served as his informal economic adviser during the 2016 campaign, as the next head of the White House National Economic Council, two sources familiar with the decision tell CNN. Trump offered Kudlow the job Tuesday night over the phone and he accepted, the source said. The move makes Kudlow Trump's second top economic adviser after Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who worked for Trump for over a year, announced his resignation earlier this month over internal disagreements around the President's decision to impose tariffs on steel...

February job gains came in at a whopping 313,000 new jobs, so much that NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt acknowledged it “blows away economists’ expectations.” The Wall Street Journal said expectations were at only 205,000. Unemployment also remained at the 17-year-low of 4.1 percent. But only one network gave the good news any serious attention. February job gains came in at a whopping 313,000 new jobs, so much that NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt acknowledged it “blows away economists’ expectations.” The Wall Street Journal said expectations were at only 205,000. Unemployment also remained at the 17-year-low of 4.1...

I’m the guy who predicted a Trump victory against all odds in the 2016 election. I also predicted a “Trump Miracle” for the economy. Here’s my new prediction: President Trump guaranteed his re-election last week. Liberals must be sick to their stomachs. No matter what they do or say, no matter how hard they try to distract us from the booming economy, the “Trump Miracle” shines through. I was going to write about the Trump administration’s war with California, illegal immigration and liberal politicians serving as “lookouts” for illegal felons. This move is cheered by middle-class Americans sick of being...

Nancy Pelosi Backtracks on ‘Crumbs’ Tax Reform Comment: ‘We Are Thankful Whenever Workers Get Bonuses’ House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) backtracked on her “crumbs” comment about tax reform, admitting that “we are thankful whenever workers get bonuses.” Pelosi admitted in a tweet on Thursday, “Certainly we are thankful whenever workers get bonuses. But it is incredibly telling that companies by-and-large chose to give out one-time bonuses, and not long-term raises.” Pelosi’s backtrack is a stark contrast to comments she made in February where she called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “unpatriotic” at a town hall in Arizona.

Embedded deep beneath the country's mountainous zones are some 200 varieties of minerals, including gold, iron, copper, zinc, magnesite, limestone, tungsten, and graphite, Quartz reports. Some of these stockpiles are among the largest in the world, and North Korea, a tiny and cash-strapped nation, frequently uses them to bring in additional revenue — no matter the laws against doing so. The total value of these minerals lies somewhere between $6 trillion and $10 trillion. But the country is too poor to create the infrastructure needed to export the minerals — at least in large enough quantities to make a dent...

RUSH: Let’s start with some economic news, ladies and gentlemen: “U.S. Employers Added 313,000 Jobs in February.” The expectations were 200,000. That’s the number the so-called experts were forecasting. This blows past that. “Construction, manufacturing, business services drove the gains.” Construction (we’re building new stuff), manufacturing. Jobs Obama said would not be coming back, jobs Obama… During the campaign when Trump was talking about reviving the manufacturing sector, Obama’s out there making fun of it and mocking it by saying (impression), “What’s he gonna do, wave a magic wand? “Those jobs are gone! Theeeey’re not coming back,” and here they...

Last week, President Trump's announced sweeping tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States: 25 percent on American buyers of imported steel-mill products and 10 percent on American buyers of imported aluminum-mill products. Trump has favored strong tariffs for years, and some of his most prominent economic advisors are supplying him with arguments in service of his policy. Those arguments are all wrong. Here are the facts about some of the favorite arguments made by protectionists. For the sake of simplification, I will mostly focus on the steel tariffs. Argument 1: Trump's tariffs are necessary because our...

Former CIA chief John Brennan made a rare appearance on Twitter Wednesday to lash out at President Donald Trump over “ignorance” that threatens U.S. prosperity. The commander in chief’s recent talk of possible steel and aluminum tariffs prompted a social-media jab by Mr. Brennan this week. The post — 1 of 18 total tweets, with the vast majority related to Mr. Trump or the U.S. Russia probe — questioned the president’s economic acumen. “You show an amazing albeit unsurprising ignorance of how technology, automation, and the attendant evolution of economics and societies have transformed the world,” Mr. Brennan, who served...

The company plans to call back about 500 employees United States Steel Corp. X +4.25% said it would restart a blast furnace in Illinois to handle the higher demand it expects from President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on foreign steel. The steelmaker said it also plans to call 500 employees back to work at the Granite City mill. U.S. Steel idled its blast furnaces there two years ago as a flood of cheap imports pushed down domestic steel prices. Steel producers have been hurt in recent years by increasing competition from foreign competitors, particularly China, that have ramped up production...

U.S. News & World report ranked the best states in the US for quality of life. Quality of life includes the quality of the natural environment, like water and air quality, and the quality of the social environment, like community engagement and voter participation. Of every state in the US, North Dakota residents have the highest quality of life.

U.S. economic growth slowed slightly more than initially thought in the fourth quarter as the strongest pace of consumer spending in three years drew in imports and depleted inventories. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the final three months of 2017, instead of the previously reported 2.6 percent pace, the Commerce Department said in its second GDP estimate on Wednesday. That was a deceleration from the third quarter's brisk 3.2 percent pace. The downward revision to the fourth-quarter GDP growth estimate largely reflected a smaller inventory build than previously reported. It was in line with...

The role of economic growth in advanced democracies is not mainly the accumulation of more material goods. By any historical norm, even today's poor are staggeringly wealthy.XEconomic growth plays a more subtle role. It gives people a sense that they are getting ahead and are in control of their lives. It serves as the social glue that holds us together and counteracts -- to some extent -- the influences of race, class, religion, ethnicity and geography, which drive us apart.But what if economic growth can no longer perform this vital function? What if the economy has entered a prolonged...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell heads to Capitol Hill this week for his first public appearance since being sworn in as the central bank’s new leader earlier this month. He starts Tuesday with the release of his prepared testimony at 8:30 a.m., EST followed by his appearance before the House Financial Services Committee starting at 10 a.m.

The first year of the Trump administration saw remarkable accomplishments on both tax and regulatory relief, with fundamental tax reform for the first time in decades and the massive regulatory onslaught of the Obama years stopped and reversed. With wages rising and the economy strengthening, the most important priority for Congress in 2018 should be to lock in these historic accomplishments. As it stands now, nearly all of the tax relief for individuals is scheduled to expire in 2025, due to Senate rules that imposed a procedural constraint on the process to avoid a Democratic filibuster. The hope and expectation...

The LNG carrier Oak Spirit transits the Expanded Panama Canal with a cargo LNG loaded from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal. Photo Credit: Teekay Executives from U.S. LNG exporter Cheniere Energy met with representatives from the Panama Canal this week in Panama to discuss the waterway’s growing LNG vessel segment. (Underlines mine.) Since the opening of the Expanded Panama Canal in 2016, LNG has emerged as the fastest-growing segment for the waterway in part due to the United States emergence as a gas supplier to Asia and other global markets. To date, the Canal’s Neopanamax locks have transited more than 280...

He's giving a briefing to the PRESS and taking questions about the economic policies of President Trump. This guy just is rocking it out. Answering stupid questions with impeccable logic and knowledge.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped 7,000 to 222,000 in the second full week of February, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, the second-lowest mark of the recovery and a good sign for the economy. Forecasters had expected new jobless claims to remain steady at an ultra-low 230,000. Lower claims are good news because they mean fewer people are getting laid off. Thursday's mark is the lowest since the early 1970s, setting aside the week of January 13, when claims touched as low as 216,000. The report should raise expectations for a very strong jobs report for the month of...

Starting in late 2017, Boeing executives discussed plans to conceal employee bonuses or cancel them altogether in order to keep President Trump from getting credit, following the passage of the Republican tax-reform bill. On a series of conference calls led by Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Communications Phil Musser, Musser proposed and lobbied for canceling bonuses out of fear that the company may contribute to President Trump’s rising approval rating. Before Musser worked as a high level Boeing’s communications staffer in Washington, his employment history included public and media relations work for Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Campaign and The Freedom...

J.P. Morgan slashed expectations for U.S. economic growth in the first quarter thanks to Wednesday's "hotter than Hades" inflation reading and "ugly" retail sales numbers. The bank's chief U.S. economist explained that the Labor Department's "scorching" core consumer price index measure likely means an emboldened Federal Reserve. "While it is still early going, we are taking down our outlook for first-quarter gross domestic product from 3.0 percent to 2.5 percent," wrote economist Michael Feroli. "Today's inflation reading should probably cement in place the Fed's intent to hike rates at the March FOMC meeting." The economist added that core CPI posted...