Free Republic

The United States Constitution declares in Article I, Section 2 that "representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers." To accomplish this foundation for proportional government, Article 1 tasked federal authorities with "actual enumeration" within three years of the first meeting of Congress and then every ten years thereafter. The first Census was carried out in 1790 with Thomas Jefferson the nominal supervisor as Secretary of State. In fact, the first Census-takers were actually Federal Marshals deputized by each of the US Judicial Districts.That...

Update following my accident.

Despite his proclamation that he "saved the world from a Great Depression," the fact is that Obama will be the first President ever to not see a single year of 3% GDP growth - but only cynical fiction-peddlers would mention facts at a time like this. In yet more legacy-defending narrative, Obama told The NYTimes today that his biggest failure was being unable to sell his success in putting the American economy back on track to the American people (no matter the actual realities) careful to blame Republicans for slowing growth "by a percentage point or two." And then in...

U.S. economic growth braked sharply to its slowest pace in two years as consumer spending softened and a strong dollar continued to undercut exports, but a pick-up in activity is anticipated given a buoyant labor market. Gross domestic product increased at a 0.5 percent annual rate, the slowest since the first quarter of 2014, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its advance estimate, also as businesses doubled down on efforts to reduce unwanted merchandise clogging up warehouses. The economy was also blindsided by cheap oil, which has hurt the profits of oil field companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton, resulting...

The U.S. Marine Corps says it has recovered the remains of nine of the 12 Marines killed when two helicopters crashed during nighttime training off Hawaii. Remains of three Marines were not recovered, the Marine Corps said Thursday in a statement. Sgts. Dillon Semolina and Adam Schoeller and Cpl. Christopher Orlando are still missing. The Marines say they have completed recovery operations.

DENVER — When the aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corporation moved into the Colorado Technology Center about eight years ago, employees on their lunch break could stroll by the alpaca farm next door. Now the animals are gone, and the land is cleared and ready for the new development surging along the Denver-to-Boulder corridor. At campaign rallies throughout the South and Midwest, economic frustration and sluggish wage growth are dominant themes. States like Alaska and Oklahoma, faced with low oil prices, are grappling with bankruptcies and layoffs. And overall growth in the United States economy remains disappointing. But this thriving industrial...

How would you react to the following news stories? Former Shoppers Fined $5,000 for No Longer Frequenting Nearby Mall Residents of Anytown, USA were surprised to receive invoices in the mail from their local county government Friday. The county identified people who used to shop in the local mall but, due to reports of muggings, rapes, and vehicle theft at the mall, switched to shopping at other, safer malls, or just doing it online. The thousand dollar a year fine was based on the estimated amount of revenue the mall says it lost due to their departure. Professional economists, when...

During his State of the Union address, the President said that the United States has “the strongest, most durable economy in the world.” It was a clear shot across the bow at those who might not be feeling the love at the moment and critics who don’t see things through rose colored glasses. So how is the recovery going? The unemployment rate as defined by the Department of Labor is certainly back down to a manageable number, but that doesn’t really speak to the factors which affect people in their day to day lives.The Wall Street Journal took at...

The iconic department store announced plans on Wednesday to lay off about 4,350 employees across the country. ... All told, Macy's hopes to save about $400 million to help offset its "disappointing" 2015 results. ...

The president keeps congratulating himself on how the economy's doing, and Hillary Clinton just gave her former boss an 'A' for his handling of the nation's finances. Who said inflation was under control? The latest revised numbers for GDP growth through the third quarter of 2015 tell us that we are still stuck in a 2% growth rut and real middle class wages are still flat-lining. Meanwhile, another new report from Sentier Research based on Census data finds that median household income of $56,700 at the end of 2015 stood exactly where it was, adjusted for inflation, at the end...

After seven years of Obama, who raised taxes, almost doubled the national debt and created massive new government bureaucracies through the Affordable Care Act For the past few years, the Obama lovers in the media have been boasting about the supposedly great economy Americans are enjoying. According to this fictitious narrative, Obama’s strong leadership saved the economy and led to our “recovery,” but, in reality, we face today a RINO or “Recovery in Name Only” economy. The real economy was exposed in the September labor report. The country created only 142,000 new jobs, much less than expectations. This year, we...

From Bloomberg: U.S. Census Bureau data out Wednesday underscore just how lousy the recovery has been if you aren’t rich. Looking at eight groups of household income selected by Census, only those whose incomes are already high to begin with have seen improvement since 2006, the last full year of expansion before the recession. Households at the 95th and 90th percentiles had larger earnings through 2014, the latest year for which data are available.

My 22-year-old son lives at home and still depends on his old man for spending money. My profoundest fear is that like Will Ferrell's character in "Wedding Crashers," he will never leave the nest. I'm not alone. There are some 20 million college grads living at home. A 2014 study reported by CNNMoney found that half of kids who are two years out of college rely on their parents to pay some or all of their bills. It's the new normal for 20-somethings. Gee, parents sure are getting a great financial return on the $150,000 they've shelled out for...

I'm asking Freepers to pray for my friend Bridget who had surgery a little more than a week ago to remove a cancerous tumor growing on her pancreas that was affecting that organ as well as her liver and gallbladder. Had it not been for the surgery, she was sure to die in months if not weeks.The surgery performed, known as The Whipple Procedure, is major surgery and has a high morbidity rate. Fortunately, it was performed by the best possible surgeon, Dr. John Chabot of Columbia-Presbyterian.Still, her recovery has been problematic. In addition to the pain, a few of...

Traditionally, when it comes to job numbers reported by the BLS's Establishment (the source of the monthly nonfarm payrolls change) and Household (the source of the monthly unemployment rate data) surveys, there is a substantial discrepancy. However, in May's far stronger than expected report, the two for the first time were almost identical: the Establishment Survey reported an increase of 280K jobs, while according to the Household survey 272K jobs were added. Impressive numbers in a month in which only 215K jobs were expected to be added. There were the usual kinks, of course. Two thirds of all jobs,...

Regrets, he’s had a few. But most of them have had to do with the rosy picture he painted of what the economy would look like following a swift infusion of “Obamanomics.” The president spent much of his time on the post-campaign campaign trail in 2009 promising that the unprecedented sum of money passed by Congress as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus) would have a speedy and positive effect on the economy. Roads, bridges, and “shovel-ready” jobs would quickly put Americans back to work. When that massive sum of borrowed money failed to have...

Mike Bird March 24, 2015Things are finally looking up again for Europe. The pace of the eurozone's sudden improvement across a bundle of economic indicators has shocked analysts since the turn of the year. But there has been a rapid turnaround from gloom to boom in just a few months. What's going on? As recently as Autumn, everyone thought Europe was bogged down in a protracted perma-recession, characterised by deflation, lack of GDP growth and continent-wide political paralysis. Here's what's going on, and why. (snip)

Hope flickered last year when the economy grew at more than a 4% clip in the second and third quarters. But then came last week’s news that fourth-quarter growth slowed to 2.2%, a gloomy revelation that the rebound was temporary. Economic growth for 2014 clocked in at about 2.3%—the same disappointing pace since the recession officially ended in 2009. What is the problem? For years I and many others have argued that a return to the principles of economic freedom would convert this not-so-great recovery into a great one. But Washington has not seriously considered pro-growth policy—no tax reform to...

Most US economic data missed expectations in February. And that investors are sending stocks to all-time highs is making Societe Generale's Albert Edwards crazy. In a note Thursday, Edwards wrote: "With equity markets galore hitting record highs clearly I must be missing something big! We are at that stage in the cycle where I begin to doubt my own sanity. I’ve been here before though and know full well how this story ends and it doesn’t involve me being detained in a mental health establishment (usually)." From Janet Yellen's testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this week, Edwards points out that...

Despite endless proclamations that the world has 'escaped' the financial crisis, the data (and actions) simply do not back that up. The constant propagandizing of either a) US is economically strong and will drive the world's growth engine (factually incorrect), or b) the rest of the world is about to revert to higher growth seems entirely anathema to the fact that in 2015, we have seen a wave of monetary easing - most recently today by Israel. That makes it20 central banks that have cut rates (or eased policy) in the last few weeks - covering over 50% of the...