Free Republic

Governments take money from here and distributes it there. Michael Pettis discusses difference between China, the US, Japan and Europe in a series of Tweets.China's Aging DemographicsConsider the following series of Tweets by Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets.China had great demographics between the 1970s and until about a few years ago, when the working share of the population surged from the mid-50s (below the global average) to the low 70s (well above the global average).Now that the working share of the population is set to decline quite rapidly, mainly because of a surge in retirees, this should put upward...

If populists like John Edwards and Pat Buchanan gave a Tinker’s D—n about the poor working people in America, they would condemn our government’s student loan programs from on high. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has done his home state proud by ripping the lid off of the high-binders and grafters who pocket the taxpayer-funded swag, in manners aberrant to the current legal restrictions. What he doesn’t get after with any skill at all is fundamental dishonesty of government-subsidized overcharging. Financial aid officers at Columbia University colluded with corporations associated with the university to steal large sums of...