Free Republic

Pratt & Whitney officials said the company is cutting 400 positions company-wide, with about half of them coming from the Connecticut workforce. Officials at Pratt & Whitney said it was a tough decision to make, but was necessary to remain competitive. According to Pratt & Whitney officials, those affected will receive severance pay, outplacement help, continuation of group insurance and employee scholar program benefits and other services. The job cuts are effective immediately.

U2 frontman Bono proves that in the end, intelligence and common sense wins out. In a speech at Georgetown University’s Global Social Enterprise Event, Bono admitted that even he himself finds it hard to accept that he has become a rock star who preaches capitalism, according to The Inquisitr. “Wow; sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it,” he said.

William Ackman has resigned from J.C. Penney Co.'s board as part of a deal to resolve an unusually public battle between the activist investor and the struggling department store operator. J.C. Penney's rose in premarket trading Tuesday. The announcement follows statements Ackman made last week saying he'd lost confidence in Penney's board and that its Chairman Thomas Engibous should be replaced. Ackman and the retailer's board also were bickering over how quickly the company should replace CEO Mike Ullman. Ackman's investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, has a nearly 18 percent stake in Penney. Penney's board also made it clear...

Swiss investor and economic guru, Marc Faber, joins Rick from Hong Kong to discuss the “race to the bottom” that is the universal money printing by the world’s central banks and why he ultimately foresees the U.S. transitioning into a completely planned economy

The American Legislative Exchange Council released today a letter signed by nearly 300 state legislators from 39 states that expresses dismay over Senator Durbin’s letter inquiring into businesses and organizations’ participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council. The letter follows a statement released Friday by the American Legislative Exchange Council expressing concern over Senator Durbin’s inquiries. The letter, sent to all members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, can be accessed here.

The World Trade Organization reports that the growth rate of global trade fell sharply from over 5% in 2011 to around 2% in 2012. [snip]...the U.S.’ “Buy American” initiative on government procurement (folded into the Obama stimulus package in 2009) probably restrained trade flows in a near-negligible way. No doubt that’s true, since it’s confined to certain categories of construction procurement and has more than a few loopholes. But does this mean that Buy American, or Buy French, or Buy Japanese, or Buy Madagascar stipulations on procurement are harmless after all?[snip]... the Dean Baker analysis reduces “Buy American” to the...

This is the Weekly Investment & Finance Thread (August-2013 12-16 edition)----   Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news This is where you can exchange some investment opinions and advice  If you see another FR economic thread you like and want to link to it here, please do Post your favorite economic site links. Your favorite economic blogs and precious metals blogs and sitesPing list -- on or off let me know here or via freep-mail. If I missed you then Freep-mail me I might ping you to other interesting economic threads a few...

Some rules are needed to keep order in a society, promote fair dealing, safety, etc.  But, regulation isn't free.  The cost of compliance is added to everything that is grown, mined, manufactured, processed, sold, and consumed.  Cost of regulatory compliance is a real cost of operation for businesses that effects market competitiveness of goods and services and thus can stifle job creation as well as salaries and wages. Taxation is tangible.  State, local, and federal tax obligations are paid directly.  They show up on a P & L in a line item, or at the bottom of a receipt at...

The Russian Bear is stronger and more powerful than it has ever been before. Sadly, most Americans don't understand this. They still think of Russia as an "ex-superpower" that was rendered almost irrelevant when the Cold War ended. And yes, when the Cold War ended Russia was in rough shape. I got the chance to go over there in the early nineties, and at the time Russia was an economic disaster zone. Russian currency was so worthless that I joked that I could go exchange a 20 dollar bill and buy the Kremlin. But since that time Russia has roared...

How would America ever survive without the central planners in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve? What in the world would we do if there was no income tax and no IRS? Could the U.S. economy possibly keep from collapsing under such circumstances? The mainstream media would have us believe that unless we have someone "to pull the levers" our economy would descend into utter chaos, but the truth is that the best period of economic growth in U.S. history occurred during a time when there was no income tax and no Federal Reserve. Between the Civil War...

"We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike." Honore de Balzac wrote. "We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are."How true, and how relevant to today's hyper-sensational media. Here are three economic stories I find overblown.Overblown story No. 1: Student loans now exceed credit card loansNearly every article on student loans these days carries the same statistic: Student debt now exceeds credit card debt.Is this supposed to be shocking? Am I supposed to be upset that more people are financing bachelor's degrees at 4% interest than plastic garden gnomes at 25% interest?Student debt has put...

The primary myth being perpetuated by the Central Banks of the world is the belief that loose monetary policy and money printing will lead to economic growth. This is the reason why Central banks have cut interest rates more than 511 times since June 2007. It’s also why they’ve expanded their balance sheets by over $10 trillion (this doesn’t count unofficial lending windows and off balance sheet programs). It’s a strange idea, especially when you consider that there is literally no evidence that printing money creates jobs. Look at Japan, they have and continue to maintain QE efforts equal to...

Things are not good in America, but there have been worse days, and we need only be Americans to turn this whole thing around! We have to quickly review the now, to talk about tomorrow... Today December 7th, 1941 was worse. The American Civil War was worse. The Depression was worse. So when you look at the dismal condition of America today you have to realize we have been here before. For many of us today, America is close to non-existence. President Obama has stated from the beginning his beliefs which are contrary to the America I love. He has...

Once again, Barak Obama stood before the American people and said…nothing. Well, not exactly “nothing”, he spoke for over an hour but after its conclusion one had to ask, “What was THAT all about?” This speech was touted as one that would announce a great economic plan and lay out details for getting the economy booming again. Instead, it was more of a campaign, political speech with nothing but attacks against his opponents and downright anger over what he calls “phony distractions”. Instead of identifying and providing solutions for the problems facing this nation, he once again blamed the “rich”...

According to Nick Colas, the chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, recent graduates under 25 years-old are in a particularly bad spot right now. "It's usually college grads that do well," Colas says in the attached video."They get the first time jobs, they're pretty cheap to employ, and generally have pretty high job satisfaction." But, he says since the recession new government data shows that this unlucky group stands out in three key ways like never before. Overqualified: 52% of recent grads are in jobs where a college degree is not required. Colas calls this the "most startling" new problem,...

Have you seen the latest economic indicators? I mean the ones not manipulated by the Obama administration or the mainstream media. Wall Street may be flying high, but on Main Street it looks more like Detroit every day. If you think Obama has solutions to turn it around, I've got a bridge to sell you...in Detroit. The biggest city to ever go bankrupt, Detroit, has been run by Democrats since 1962. That's over half a century of 100% Democrat rule, using the exact same policies as Obama. The city is now in ruins. Detroit leads the nation in illiteracy, welfare,...

Americans are keeping their cars and trucks longer than ever, and even with new car sales increasing, the average age will continue to rise, an industry research firm says. The average age of the 247 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads hit a record of 11.4 years in January, the latest figures available from state registration data gathered by the Polk research firm. That's up from 11.2 years in 2012, and nearly two full years older than in 2007, before the start of the Great Recession, Polk said Tuesday....

I don’t mean to say, “I told you so.” But I told you so. In my latest book, “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon” I listed hundreds of statistics proving that the U.S. economy was headed for total collapse. But that was all written months ago. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. The results are in. The picture is grim. Here are some frightening economic numbers to think about the next time the lying, manipulating, mainstream media tells you that we are in “recovery.” First, almost 50% of Americans have less than...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—"Be careful what you wish for," goes the old saying. After all, you might just get it. Apparently, this choice advice was was forgotten by some major labor union leaders. These union bosses campaigned vigorously for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be passed by Congress into law. They did so despite warnings from those opposed to the ACA – commonly referred to as Obamacare - that the plan would be problematic. Nonetheless the chiefs of the ...

Employer retiree health care coverage, which has been deteriorating for years amid high health care costs and waning employer interest, is headed for bigger changes thanks to the Affordable Care Act, a new study shows. More than 40 percent of employers have eliminated their traditional group health coverage for retirees over the age of 65 in favor of giving these former employees a defined amount of money for them to buy their coverage on the individual Medicare plan market, according to a new survey of more than 540 companies by employee benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt (AON). For most of...

Voices calling for amnesty do not really understand economics or free enterprise. They offer garbled misconceptions -- with graphs. But they would be kicked out of the economics courses I took in business school. The pro-amnesty camp argues from "voodoo economics." Amnesty will grow the economy, they argue. Well, if there are more people, technically the economy will be bigger. But each person may be poorer. A growing economy is only 'better' if the economy grows faster than the population increases. Otherwise, each individual is worse off among a larger crowd. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures total activity -- not...

Early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea what riches would be found alongside in the piles of dirt and rocks. There's a new rush in the United States to find key components of cell phones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars and old mine tailings. These byproducts could very well contain minerals the periodic table calls rare earth elements. "Uncle Sam could be sitting on a gold mine," Larry Meinert, director of the mineral resource program for the U.S. Geological Survey says. Both the USGS and Department of...

How much is the economy improving?

House Republicans have crunched the numbers and say that since President Obama took office, the economy has added seven times more part-time jobs than it has created full-time jobs. Since January 2009 the country has added a net total of 270,000 full-time jobs, but it has added 1.9 million part-time jobs, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

This later program is referred to as quantitative easing, or QE, by the public and as large-scale asset purchases, or LSAPs, internally at the Fed. The result is that our balance sheet has ballooned to more than $3.5 trillion. That’s $3.5 trillion, or $11,300 for every man, woman and child residing in the United States. Horseshift! We needn’t be condemned to the glue factory. As I said, American companies publicly held and private—large, medium and small—have taken advantage of the cheap and abundant money made available by the Fed’s hyper-accommodative monetary policy to create lean and muscular balance sheets. In...

The New York Times Company may be facing some serious scrutiny over its planned sale of the Boston Globe to Boston Red Sox owner John Henry for a mere $70 million, after having paid $1.1 billion in 1993. The owner of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Douglas Manchester, is alleging that his higher bid was rejected by the company. John Lynch of the Boston Herald writes: A losing Boston Globe contender is claiming his San Diego media company outbid Red Sox owner John Henry - and would have gone even higher - a bombshell allegation that he says could delay the...

Detroit, you're not alone. Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with fear. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar financial hole. A CNBC.com analysis of more than 120 of the nation's largest state and local pension plans finds they face a wide range of financial burdens as aging work forces near retirement. Thanks to a patchwork of accounting practices and rosy investment assumptions, it's not even clear just how big a financial hole many states and cities have dug for...

Washington state legislator Rep. Matt Shea (R) says preparation is crucial to get ready for what he calls "the inevitable collapse" of the US economy. The Self-Reliance Rally event at an Idaho State Park had several speakers encouraging attendees to prepare by gathering arms and ammunition and considering forming militias. "When it happens, we need to look at this as a opportunity, not a crisis," Shea said. "Who's job is liberty? That's our job." Shea told the crowd to stock up on ammunition, stay in shape, practice shooting, learn self defense and special tactics. He related a story from when...

The U.S. Census finds that the number of people in poverty in Austin's suburbs more than doubled in the last decade -- up a whopping 142 percent. Meanwhile, Williamson County started off with 11,735 people living in poverty in 2000 and ended up with 34,069 by 2010. That figure includes a lot of working poor. People who perhaps accepted a limited time offer of a job and a place to live. And others lost their job altogether in the economic downturn of 2008.

Obamacare has "perverse incentives" that allow employers to cut their employees' work hours, says Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has introduced a bill to change the healthcare law's definition of full time work from 30 hours a week to 40. Collins, in Saturday's GOP address, noted that under Obamacare, anyone working an average of 30 hours a week is considered full-time, meaning many employers may cut their hours so they won't have to provide them with insurance. A 40-hour work week is full-time, we all know that," said Collins. She noted in her address that her family founded a...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told a gathering of Democrats, “The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it.” Ellison was discussing his ‘Inclusive Prosperity Act’ measure at the July 25th Progressive Democrats of America roundtable in Washington. “People like, George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sax, Dean Baker, Robert Poland, Larry Summers have said they all support a transaction tax,” Ellison said. “The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it,” Ellison continued, “The government...

A (New) Lost Generation: As the media focus on a slight drop in unemployment, an ugly trend gets ignored: the declining participation of young Americans in the job market. We'll pay for this for decades to come. We keep hearing the job market is "improving" or even "solid," with 162,000 new positions created in July and unemployment falling to 7.4%, the lowest since 2008. But one group is sitting it out. And it's the one that most enthusiastically embraced Barack Obama in both of his presidential elections: America's young. Their unemployment rate is a shocking 16.1%. Increasingly, those ages 18...

One of the most common words attached to technology these days is "disruption." The very term conjures up something uncomfortable, but while technology unquestionably impacts and disrupts established methods of doing things, it also delivers enormous value to our lives. The global research firm McKinsey has spents years quantifying this value in concrete dollar terms. They've released a new, wide-ranging report that identifies 12 potentially game-changing technological developments that will deliver significant economic impacts to the global economy by 2025. To make the cut, the technology had to have a broad scope with the potential for massive economic impact. What's...

In 2012, 36% of the nation’s young adults ages 18 to 31—the so-called Millennial generation—were living in their parents’ home, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. This is the highest share in at least four decades and represents a slow but steady increase over the 32% of their same-aged counterparts who were living at home prior to the Great Recession in 2007 and the 34% doing so when it officially ended in 2009. A record total of 21.6 million Millennials lived in their parents’ home in 2012, up from 18.5 million of their...

The U.S. economy added just 162,000 jobs in July, well below expectations and not nearly enough to alter the Federal Reserve’s plan to maintain its easy money policies for the foreseeable future. The headline unemployment rate fell slightly to 7.4%, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department, down from 7.6% in June. Economist had predicted an increase of 180,000 jobs and a 7.5% unemployment rate.

Andrew Cuomo has finally noticed no one, including him, has paid any real attention to the needs of upstate New York, but his actions and lack of actions tells us nothing has really changed. Governor Cuomo declares he is finally going to focus on improving the upstate economy, saying, “There has been no upstate focus…downstate dominates the legislature, because that’s where the people are.” We know, Governor; we’re the wan tail attached to that Great Dane, New York City. Whenever they twitch, we are wagged.

Initial jobless claims were released this morning (326k) and beat expectations of (345k). It was the best beat in initial claims in 3 months and the lowest absolute level since January 2008. ijc080113 In fact, initial jobless claims are back to Reagan Recovery levels of March 1984 (although it took a lot longer to get there). When I compare initial jobless claims with homeownership rates, you can see a disturbing trend. Jobless claims are positively correlated with homeownership rates (both have been falling). ijchomeown Continuing jobless claims fell to 2,951K that also beat expectations of 3,000k. This level is still...

Copper is such a hot commodity that thieves are going after the metal anywhere they can find it: an electrical power station in Wichita, Kan., or half a dozen middle-class homes in Morris Township, N.J. Even on a Utah highway construction site, crooks managed to abscond with six miles of copper wire. Those are just a handful of recent targets across the U.S. in the $1 billion business of copper theft. SNIP The five leading states for the thefts are Ohio, Texas, Georgia, California and Illinois, the NICB said. SNIP Copper wire was stolen from a substation of Kansas-based Westar...

Drew Johnson, the editorial page editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was fired after 14 months on the job for publishing an editorial with a headline that read: "Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President." The editorial ran Tuesday, the same day Obama visited Chattanooga. The powers-that-be posted a notice Thursday explaining the firing: The headline was inappropriate for this newspaper. It was not the original headline approved for publication, and Johnson violated the normal editing process when he changed the headline. The newspaper’s decision to terminate Johnson had nothing to do with the content of the...

Obamanomics: The president has been decrying the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. to help sell his retread tax-and-spend proposals. But those policies have already produced record levels of income inequality. In his speech in Illinois last week, and at events since, Obama described income inequality in the starkest terms. "This growing inequality is morally wrong," he said, and "undermines the very essence of America." To be sure, income inequality is a standard trope for liberals, who always use it to advocate more wealth redistribution. And Obama's latest focus neatly coincides with his plans to push for...

Former Fed vice chair Kohn specifically mentioned by presidentWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama suggested he has more than just two candidates under consideration to replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, lawmakers said Wednesday after meeting with the president. The conventional wisdom had been that the race for the job had narrowed down to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen. Obama went up to Capitol Hill for closed-door meetings with Senate and House Democrats to discuss his new push to spur Congress to act on measures to boost the economy. But lawmakers wanted to talk about...

Health reform is now causing job turmoil across the country in three key groups that the White House has depended on for support—local government, school workers and unions. School districts in states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Utah, Nebraska, and Indiana are dropping to part-time status school workers such as teacher aides, administrators, secretaries, bus drivers, gym teachers, coaches and cafeteria workers. Cities or counties in states like California, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Michigan and Iowa are dropping to part-time status government workers such as librarians, secretaries, administrators, parks and recreation officials and public works officials. This growing trend comes as three...

Is the paper gold scam about to be brutally crushed by a crippling shortage of physical gold? If so, what will that do to global financial markets? According to the Reserve Bank of India, “the traded amount of ‘paper linked to gold’ exceeds by far the actual supply of physical gold: the volume on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) OTC market and the major Futures and Options Exchanges was OVER 92 TIMES that of the underlying Physical Market.� In other words, there is a massive amount of paper out there, but very little actual physical gold to back it...

The Federal Reserve will lose control of interest rates as the "great rotation" out of bonds into equities takes off in full force, according to one market watcher, who sees U.S. 10-year Treasury yields hitting 5-6 percent in the next 18-24 months. "It is our opinion that interest rates have begun their assent, that the Fed will eventually lose control of interest rates. The yield curve will first steepen and then will shift, moving rates significantly higher," said Mike Crofton, President and CEO, Philadelphia Trust Company told CNBC on Wednesday. "If the great rotation that everybody talks about out of...

President Obama sought Wednesday to reassure Democrats nervous about the impact of his health care law and the prospects for immigration legislation, telling them "You're on the right side of history." In the first of two closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill, Obama focused on financial gains as the economy emerges from the worst downturn since the Depression. He was warned about nominating former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as chairman of the Federal Reserve and faced questions about his health care law. Some lawmakers complained that three years after its passage, the law still baffles many Americans. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo.,...

In a blog post published this morning, the White House explains why historic economic data has been updated. "The comprehensive revision to the national accounts, which is the first since July 2009, includes additional source data received by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, as well as methodological changes designed to better reflect the evolving nature of the U.S. economy," writes Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. "This morning the Bureau of Economic Analysis released a comprehensive revision to the National Income and Product Accounts, covering the full history of data since 1929. The revision showed that...

In a surprising acknowledgement of the truth, the Associated Press has reported, “Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.” The damning report based on what the AP calls exclusive survey data continues with, “…the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.” Given Barack Obama’s latest “pivot” toward the problems of unemployed Americans – which by some accounts was his 19th announced such “pivot”- the...

Most astute observers and analysts understand that the world is on the brink of a widespread economic collapse. Our debt, the expansion of the U.S. police state, the militarization of governments, and geo-political posturing are all pointing to an end to life as we have come to know it in the modern world. We know it’s coming. The question is when? What signs should we be looking for? What will be the catalyst? The following micro documentary from Storm Clouds Gathering examines the complexity of the variables involved, the intentions of those making the decisions, and the various possibilities –...

(CNSNews.com) – “Promised Land,” the anti-fracking film written and produced by Hollywood stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, was made in part by a production company owned by the government of Arab oil emirate Abu Dhabi – a state in direct competition with American oil and gas producers. The film is financed in part by Image Nation Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, one of 13 Arab emirates that makes up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and serves as that country’s capitol. Abu Dhabi media was created by the...

President Obama has been rolling up his sleeves campaigning across the country delivering a surreal stump speech message supposedly aimed at the middle class: big government works, Obamacare is manna from heaven, the wave of recent scandals are “phony” figments of the imagination, and all economic problems are the fault of the Republicans. Conveniently, he leaves out the bankruptcy of Detroit, a city run by his own party for more than half a century. His message is so stale and unconvincing, that even The New York Times and Washington Post have noticed. Both papers, usually loyal to Obama, remarked that...