Free Republic

On Fox Business’ Varney and Company today, Stuart Varney asked me about mortgage foreclosures. Are they ending? I said sure, “As long as The Fed doesn’t take away the punch bowl.” Will The Fed take away the punch bowl? Not likely. Sputh Korea just reduced their interest rate making it the 511th rate cut by a Central Bank since June 2007. That’s a whole lot of rate cuts! Sovereign rates are dropping towards the zero barrier. But the GDP growth rates in Europe are stagnant at best. At least China and Australia are experiencing above 3% real GDP growth. In...

<p>Washington (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stood by its extraordinary efforts to stimulate the economy. And it signaled that it could increase or decrease the pace of bond purchases depending on how the job market and inflation perform.</p>

During 2006, the slope of the US Treasury Curve (10 yr – 2 yr) slightly negative. Beginning in 2007, the curve began steepening, particularly in the latter half. The 10-2 curve kept steepening through 2008. Enter The Federal Reserve. Starting in September 2007 and through December 2008, The Fed reduced The Fed Funds Target Rate from 5.25% to 0.25% where it has remained. While The Fed has pinned The Fed Funds Target Rate at 0.25%, the 10-2 slope has continued to rise, partly due to the various quantitative easing programs starting in December 2008. Quantitative Easing 1 (QE1, December 2008...

The 16th Amendment gave the Federal Government the authority and power to tax every citizen. Here’s the wording of the Amendment: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” Please note that there is no provision in this amendment that Congress is given the right to unequally apply this power. In looking over all the Constitution’s amendments, I don’t see an unequal distribution of either a freedom or limitation. Equality under the law requires that as each of...

WASHINGTON -- The tax man is coming in 2013. And he's wearing surgical scrubs and has a stethoscope around his neck. Five new tax increases take effect Jan. 1 to help pay for the nation's health care overhaul. New provisions of the Affordable Care Act require affluent taxpayers to pay more for Medicare and, for the first time, have their investment income subject to Medicare taxes as well. Also, people who use flexible spending accounts for health care expenses will pay higher taxes. And taxpayers who spend a lot out of pocket on their health care will find it harder...

California´s largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, is seeking to raise rates an average of 18% for more than 630,000 individual policyholders, drawing scrutiny from regulators and the ire of consumers already struggling with soaring premiums. Some Anthem customers may see rates rise as much as 25% in February under the company´s proposal at a time when medical inflation is running at historic lows nationwide. The increases are among several others proposed by California insurers, including Aetna Inc. and Health Net Inc. California insurance regulators will take the next month to review whether these rate increases are warranted,

Pelosi: Tax rates must go up on richBy SEUNG MIN KIM | 11/18/12 10:30 AM EST **SNIP** “The president made it very clear in his campaign that there is not enough -- there are not enough resources,” Pelosi said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's “This Week. “Just to close loopholes is far too little money … If it's going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher income people have to pay their fair share.”

Democrats have been saying — or, in the case of Joe Biden, trying to say — that Mitt Romney plans to raise taxes on the middle class. This claim is flatly untrue. The word “lie” probably is thrown around too casually in our politics, but this qualifies. Romney has no such plan, has forsworn taking such a course of action, and has in fact proposed to cut tax rates for the middle class — and everybody else who pays the federal income tax — by reducing all brackets by 20 percent. Romney’s plan would be revenue-neutral, making up for forgone...

Most mainstream media outlets aide in the proliferation of myths about our tax system and our economy. Here are 5 myths about the US tax system that you probably thought were true. 1. Once A Millionaire, Always A Millionaire As you can see by the graph below, this shows how many consecutive years millionaires file their taxes as millionaires. Half of the people who become millionaires are only at that status for one year.​ 2. Tax Credits Only Help The Rich This graph shows the effective tax rates since 1980. As you can see, because of tax credits and deductions,...

A plunge in the price of natural gas has made it cheaper for utilities to produce electricity. But the savings aren't translating to lower rates for customers. Instead, U.S. electricity prices are going up. Electricity prices are forecast to rise slightly this summer. But any increase is noteworthy because natural gas, which is used to produce nearly a third of the country's power, is 43 percent cheaper than a year ago. A long-term downward trend in power prices could be starting to reverse, analysts say. "It's caused us to scratch our heads," says Tyler Hodge, an analyst at the Energy...

Senate Democrats balk at ending Bush-era tax rates for wealthyBy Alexander Bolton - 06/19/12 05:00 AM ET A growing number of Senate Democrats are signaling they are not prepared to raise taxes on anyone in the weak economy unless Congress approves a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. At least seven Democratic senators have declined to rule out supporting a temporary extension of the Bush-era income tax rates, breaking with party leaders who have called for letting the rates expire for people earning more than $1 million per year. That gives Senate Republicans a chance to push a temporary extension...

Pelosi joins Democrats' push for Republicans to act on student loan ratesBy Mike Lillis - 04/21/12 11:11 AM ET The leading House Democrat on Saturday joined President Obama in calling on Republicans to extend low interest rates on student loans. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that allowing rates to jump, as they're scheduled to do this summer, would put college "further out of reach" for middle class families struggling in the still-limping economy. "[I]f Republicans don't act, interest rates are set to double this July, and more than seven million borrowers will find themselves paying more," Pelosi said Saturday...

We really don’t know what the optimum tax rate would be that maintains revenues at 18-20% of GDP while allowing for maximum GDP growth, but we do know that economic growth is good for everyone and as the economy grows, tax revenues grow automatically. Ideally, our leaders in Washington would try to figure out the optimum tax structure to generate revenues at 18-20% of GDP while stimulating economic growth. Once that level is determined, I believe they should set the rate and forget it. Unfortunately, tinkering with the tax code seems to be irresistible to almost all politicians. In addition,...

Schumer calls on Congress to address rising student loan rates by summerBy Ramsey Cox - 04/06/12 03:08 PM ET Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday announced his support for a bill to extend a reduced student loan rate for one year. In July, the interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford Loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent unless Congress acts. Schumer called on Congress to pass Sen. Jack Reed's (D-R.I.) bill, S. 2051, which is pending in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "Rising interest loan rates sound like nails on the chalkboard for New York’s...

While the first reaction is for gold to rally and the pundits to come screaming out of the weeds yelling it’s inflationary, the harsh reality of this statement is actually DEFLATIONARY and not INFLATIONARY. The assumption is that the Fed will keep money cheap and that will mean more inflation. However, this is actually an international demonstration of pure insanity – the attempt to keep applying the same methods and expecting a different result than what was achieved in the past or in Japan. Those prognosticating INFLATION will be left behind just watching as has been the case all along....

Hotel rates zoom for Democratic National ConventionBy Celeste Smith Posted: Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 Room rates are going up in a big way at some area hotels during the Democratic National Convention. The markups - quadruple or more in some cases - don't affect the convention's official attendees. DNC organizers already reserved rooms and locked in rates for 6,000-plus delegates, VIPs and others during the Sept. 3-6 convention. **SNIP** Among the most expensive spaces: Holiday Inn Express Suites East Matthews, charging $849.15 to $1,014 per night during the stretch of Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 and Aug. 24 to Aug....

In short, what the Congressional Budget Office presents as increased inequality from 2003 to 2007 was actually evidence that the top 1% of earners report more taxable income when tax rates are reduced on dividends, capital gains and businesses filing under the individual tax code. If Congress raises top individual tax rates much above the corporate rate, many billions in business income would rapidly vanish from the individual tax returns the CBO uses to measure the income of the top 1%. Small businesses and professionals would revert to reporting most income on corporate tax returns as they did in 1979.

Chicago Tribune is doubling and tripling weekday delivery rates for some readers when their subscriptions come up for renewal. The newspaper, a unit of Chicago-based Tribune Co., has sent some subscribers letters notifying them of the increases; others have simply seen a higher price show up on their credit card bills. The size of the rate jump depends on what a customer was paying previously. “I'm writing to let you know that while we worked hard to maintain pricing in this challenging economy and industry for the last couple years, your current pricing is about to expire,” one letter to...

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage this week fell below 4 percent for the first time ever, to 3.94 percent. For those who can qualify, it's an extraordinary opportunity to buy or refinance. And mortgage rates could fall even further now that the Federal Reserve plans to reshuffle its portfolio of securities to try and lower long-term rates. On Thursday, Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped from 4.01 percent last week, the previous low. The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan, a popular refinancing option, dipped to 3.26 percent, also a...

<p>WASHINGTON — Fixed mortgage rates have fallen to historic new lows for a fourth straight week and are likely to fall further.</p> <p>The average on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.01 percent this week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's the lowest rate since the mortgage buyer began keeping records in 1971. The last time long-term rates were lower was in 1951, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25.</p>

Less than 10 days after the Federal Reserve announced a reprise of the “Operation Twist“ strategy it first used half a century ago, mortgage rates are at all-time lows. Operation Twist is the Fed’s plan to squeeze the long end of the yield curve by buying long-term Treasurys instead of short-term ones — in other words, increasing demand and lowering the rates for long-term borrowing.

Average rates on fixed-rate mortgages hit record lows this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 4.01%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates. “Fixed mortgage rates fell to all-time record lows this week following the Federal Reserve’s announcement of its Maturity Extension Program and additional purchases of mortgage-backed securities,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac, in a statement.

Worries about the European debt markets pushed U.S. Treasury bond yields lower — and that helped drive interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages to record lows this week, according to a weekly survey of conforming loan rates released Thursday by Freddie Mac. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 4.09% in the week ending Thursday, down from 4.12% a week ago and 4.37% a year ago.

The Palestinian Authority is once again angry with Israel, only not for political reasons this time, but rather for economic ones. The PA’s electric company announced Tuesday that electricity rates would go up by 7%, following the 12% increase in electricity rates in Israel. The Chairman of the Palestine Electric Company, Omar Katana, placed the blame on Israel, from which the PA acquires 95% of the electricity in Judea and Samaria and 75% of the electricity in Gaza. “Israel’s increase in electricity prices is due to the cessation of the supply of gas from Egypt and its use of expensive...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix has provoked the ire of some of its 23 million subscribers by raising its prices by as much as 60 percent for those who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet.</p>

The intelligentsia of the Democratic Party is growing increasingly enthusiastic about raising the highest federal income tax rates to 70% or more. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich took the lead in February, proposing on his blog "a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the rich." After all, he noted, "between the late 1940s and 1980 America's highest marginal rate averaged above 70 percent. Under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Not until the 1980s did Ronald Reagan slash it to 28 percent."

Since Obama is starting up the "tax the rich" dogma again, I thought it was time to discuss exactly how much taxes the "rich" are paying. The Congressional Budget Office publishes a great deal of information about how the federal tax burden is distributed, and compiles all of it at the cited link. It provides data from 1979 to 2007, adjusted to 2007 dollars so that you can compare how it has changed, without worrying about inflation. However, I discovered that someone has taken all this information and created a series of graphs that make it much easier to understand:...

Abortions Up Slightly After Previous Lows, Abortion Drug Used More Washington, DC -- New figures from the Guttmacher Institute reveal the number of abortions in the United States and the abortion rate has risen slightly after its last report showed historic lows. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/11/abortions-up-slightly-after-previous-lows-abortion-drug-used-more/

Fiscal Policy: President Calvin Coolidge famously said that the chief business of the American people is business. Now it seems that the chief business of Congress is to make sure American businesses are taxed at a punitive rate. Earlier this week, Japan quietly announced it was cutting its corporate tax rate by 5 percentage points next year. That will leave the U.S., where the average combined federal and state corporate rate is 40%, with the highest rate in the developed world (see chart). A high corporate tax rate is a drag on an economy. It affects a country's competitiveness as...

Republicans poring over a 1,924-page spending bill proposed by Democrats to cover the rest of the fiscal year are threatening to ground the legislation to a halt, citing hidden earmarks and massive spending that would be enacted into law without a review process.

In the heated battle over extending the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, a single number has emerged from the crossfire: $250,000. It's the annual income that President Obama and others have repeatedly used to define what it means to be "rich" in America today. And even though a tentative deal has been reached on the cuts, $250,000 is etched in the minds of policymakers and pundits as the number that separates the middle class from the wealthy. By most measures, a $250,000 household income is substantial. It is six times the national average household income, and just 2.9 percent of couples...

Obama says vote on tax deal crucial, has potential to create 'millions of jobs' WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says a congressional vote on the tax-cut deal he negotiated with Republicans will determine whether the nation's economy "moves forward or backward." The president again pressed Congress to pass the agreement, saying it has the potential to create millions of jobs. He said if it fails, Americans would see smaller paychecks and it would result in fewer jobs.

(CNN) - Defying President Obama, House Democrats voted Thursday not to bring up the tax package that he negotiated with Republicans in its current form. "This message today is very simple: That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus. It's as simple as that," said Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen. "We will continue to try and work with the White House and our Republican colleagues to try and make sure we do something right for the economy and right for jobs, and a balanced package as we go forward," he said....

...We are told that the current debate is on whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts. From the very start, this argument is deceptive. A tax cut – the act of cutting – is a one-time thing. Once in place, it’s just another part of tax policy. The portions of our tax policy currently being debated have stood, unchanged, for five, seven, even nine years now. You simply can’t call these things “cuts” anymore. The choice before us, honestly described, is between leaving the status quo alone or implementing an enormous tax hike the very second that lighted...

The UK has the fifth highest cancer death rate for women among the 27 European Union countries but spending on health is lower in Britain than other leading economies. Only Poland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Hungary had worse records for deaths from cancer among women.[Snip] The ONS report said: “Breast cancer is the most common form of female cancer in England and Wales. It is also the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women, after lung cancer.” Death rates from breast cancer fell in the UK and the rest of Europe between 2000 and 2007.

Large employers in the Twin Cities are bracing for health care cost increases of nearly 9 percent next year, according to a new survey. And many employees soon will learn how much of that increase will come out of their pockets. The new survey from Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm based in suburban Chicago, finds that projected health cost increases next year in the Twin Cities will match the 8.8 percent rate of increase that's being forecast nationally. That's a departure from 2009 and 2010, when the rate of increase in the Twin Cities was below the national average, according...

The 2008 income tax data are now in, so we can assess the fulfillment of the Republican promise that tax cuts would produce widespread prosperity by looking at all the years of the George W. Bush presidency. Just as they did in 2000, the Republicans are running this year on an economic platform of tax cuts, especially making the tax cuts permanent for the richest among us. So how did the tax cuts work out? My analysis of the new data, with all figures in 2008 dollars: Total income was $2.74 trillion less during the eight Bush years than if...

Have you seen your health insurance rates rise lately? Or did your company just cut benefits? Brace yourself for your “October Surprise”. We heard hundreds of times from Dear Leader how we must have his Government run health system and how it will keep premium rates under control and punish those “wascally insuwance compwanies”. Well friends, it’s time to pull your head out of the ether and begin to live with the government plan that you didn’t want in the first place. Whether it be costs, quality of care, waiting lines, services availability, privacy issues or just the bureaucratic nightmare,...

Even before there was an Obama administration, there was the hue and cry for the government to "do something" to stimulate the economy reeling from the Chris Dodd Bear Market and Recession. But there also were voices warning that stimulating the economy the way Barack Obama and congressional Democrats intended — massive government borrowing to fund massive spending on government employees and infrastructure; government interference in commerce; microscopic interest rates — was failure waiting to happen. Those voices recalled how Japan stimulated its economy 10 times after the credit bubble burst in 1990. Each time, Japan ramped up government spending...

Title only. No links from USA allowed. Link posted in thread below.

Alarming New Report: Pre-Recession Unemployment Rates May Not be Reached for a DecadeMon Jul 19, 3:40 pm ET WASHINGTON, July 19 **SNIP** Why: As recent calls for additional stimulus and the extension of unemployment benefits meet with stiff opposition, Congress appears to have underestimated the profound effect of the current recession on the labor market. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), being released by the Jobs for America Now coalition, shows that with a job growth path comparable to the last recovery, the economy will not recover all of the jobs lost in the...

TUESDAY, June 29 (HealthDay News) -- Americans are continuing to get fat, with obesity rates nudging upwards in 28 states over the past year, a new report shows. "More than two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent," Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, said during a Tuesday news conference. "Back in 1991, not that long ago, not a single state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. There's been a dramatic change in a relatively short period." "Obesity is one of the biggest public health crises in the country," Levi added. "Rising...

Some interesting bond downgrades in the last 24 hours… BP from AA to BBB (Fitch) Illinois from A+ to A (Fitch) Greece from A3 to Ba1 (Junk) (Moody’s) And usually the rating agencies are WELL behind the power curve. All is well.

The government and the Federal Reserve are winding down massive stimulus programs as the economy recovers. But can they both exit at the same time without sending the economy back into recession? The Fed has ended most of its emergency lending programs but likely will reiterate Wednesday that it plans to leave interest rates near 0% for "an extended period" to support the budding recovery. Policymakers also will likely take no action on the Fed's

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A moderate U.S. economic recovery is likely to warrant very low interest rates for a long time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified on Wednesday. Refusing to rule out the risk of a "double-dip" recession, Bernanke told lawmakers inflation is not an immediate concern, giving the Fed room to maintain its highly stimulative policies. "The Federal Open Market Committee has stated clearly that they currently anticipate that very low, extremely low rates will be needed for an extended period," Bernanke said in response to questions from lawmakers of the Joint Economic Committee. However, he stressed that this...

This map is not up to date but gives a pretty good 9or bad) picture of the state of the United States and the current recession and unemployment. Click Source URL and CLICK the map to play and to view the rates along the right side of your computer screen. http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

A sudden drop-off in investor demand for U.S. Treasury notes is raising questions about whether interest rates will finally begin a march higher—a climb that would jack up the government's borrowing costs and spell trouble for the fragile housing market. For months, investors have focused their attention on the debt crisis in Europe, but there are signs the spotlight is turning to the ability of the U.S. to finance its own budget deficit. This week, some investors turned up their noses at three big U.S. Treasury offerings. Demand was weak for a $44 billion 2-year note auction on Tuesday, a...

The hike would pay for more aggressive conservation programs and a solar plan designed to create 16,000 jobs as well as cover the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas. Households that get their power from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power could see their electric bills go up between 8.8% and 28.4%, depending on where they live and how much energy they use, under a plan unveiled Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured investors Wednesday that the central bank won’t raise ultra-low interest rates any time soon. Policymakers last week hiked their largely symbolic discount rate, but stressed that did not signal a change in policy. Bernanke said he expects the nascent recovery to remain modest, keeping unemployment high. Others worry the expansion already is faltering. New-home sales plunged 11.2% to a record low in January,