Free Republic

The US government is on an unsustainable path. Deficits are soaring and the Obama administration is planning massive tax hikes. Moreover, businesses have little reason to hire already because of massive overcapacity. Add increasing health care costs to the list of reasons for businesses not to hire. Given that government spending crowds out private investment, these policies all but assures that unemployment is going to remain high for a long time as noted in Structurally High Unemployment For A Decade. Killing The Goose Last week in Thoughts on the Economy: Problems and Solutions I listed the problems and some of...

Zimbabwe muddle at offer to white farmers By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 11/02/2006) The fate of Zimbabwe's dispossessed white farmers was uncertain yesterday after the regime publicly contradicted private assurances that some landowners would be allowed back to their properties. Ministers close to President Robert Mugabe are considering a partial reversal of the land grab. Assurances have been given that some farmers will be allowed to lease back their holdings. After this was disclosed in The Daily Telegraph, Didymus Mutasa, the security minister also responsible for land reform, denied any U-turn. "We are not going to change our land...

As Americans pick a president, one key criterion is how the war on terror is going. Is President Bush correct in his positive view or Senator Kerry in his negative one?This same debate, interestingly, is also taking place within conservative circles, where analysts sharing the same basic outlook - that Americans are fighting for their very existence - come to dramatically different conclusions. Consider the contrasting views of two important voices on the right, Mark Helprin and Tod Lindberg.Mr. Helprin, author of such powerful novels as A Soldier of the Great War and Winter's Tale, writes a despairing analysis in...

<p>The report suggesting California's budget shortfall is significantly less than his $34.6 billion estimate sent Gov. Gray Davis scrambling Wednesday to salvage his credibility with lawmakers and his prospects for tax increases this year.</p> <p>Minutes after Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill announced her smaller $26.1 billion shortfall estimate, the Democratic governor's newly appointed finance director, Steve Peace, called a news conference defending the governor's estimate as a "legitimate accounting approach."</p>

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 05, 2003 19:25:38 ET XXXXX WHITE HOUSE ANGER AT BOOK BY BUSH 'AXIS OF EVIL' SPEECHWRITER; CONCERN MEDIA TOUR WILL MUDDLE MESSAGE; FRUM DESCRIBES PRESIDENT AS 'TART' **World Exclusive** Former Bush speechwriter David Frum -- credited with the phrase 'Axis of Evil' -- has infuriated top officials at the White House with his controversial new book, the first insider account of the W. Bush Administration, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Frum helped make international headlines when President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address linked international terrorists to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. But...