Free Republic

Xi Jinping, likely to be China's next president, visits President Obama in the White House this week. This visit ensures that the ongoing currency war between the United States and China will be on the list of things that Obama and Xi discuss along with the looming war with Iran, the North Korean succession, and other geopolitical issues. Currency wars arise when a country steals growth from trading partners by cheapening its currency to promote exports. The new currency war began in 2010 when President Obama declared in his State of the Union address that it was the policy of...

Trade Secrets Act keeps pepper spray ingredients "secret"Story Created: Feb 06, 2012 at 6:28 PM FORT MYERS, Fla. - Law enforcement officers rave about pepper spray as a way to get compliance without drawing their guns. In recent weeks we've seen it gain scrutiny as law enforcement uses it as a way to control crowds at occupy events. But if you think it's natural and made of peppers, you're only about two-percent right. In fact, some ingredients in pepper spray are a highly guarded trade secret. **SNIP** Mesloh says no one regulates this industry to keep it from happening, not...

“I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products,” President Obama said last week in his State of the Union address. He also indicated that he’s willing to risk a trade war with China, possibly leading to a swift closure of new markets for U.S. goods and services - the exact opposite of his stated goal. Mr. Obama entered the White House three years ago as a protectionist candidate who spoke of withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Once in office, he felt the burden of responsible governance and reversed course, promising to...

Is World Trade Falling Like A Lead Balloon Minus Terminal Velocity? Alarming Collapse of Baltic Dry Index Economics / Recession 2012 Jan 30, 2012 - 03:32 AM By: BATR Significance of BDI Is the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) one of the most significant leading economic indicators to follow when the media is telling us the global economy is looking great one week and then predicting a double dip recession the next? We are increasingly concerned about the substantial decline in global shipping’s Baltic Dry Index. Is this a significant canary in the mine shaft in regard to what lies ahead...

Traveled by Native Americans, presidents, generals, gypsies and families seeking a new life in the west, “The Great Road,” known today as Frederick Road or Route 355, provided a path for both the adventurer and the entrepreneur. As the main route northwest from Georgetown, the last port on the Potomac River, it was heavily traveled from the mid 18th century until it was replaced by Interstate 270 in the 1960s. It began as an Indian trail leading from the Piscataway settlement at the mouth of Rock Creek to the great “Conestoga,” a trail that included footpaths and waterways (what we...

Crammed into tiny cages, unable to stand and deprived of food and water, these dogs endured terrible suffering on a truck bound for a chain of restaurants. The harrowing pictures show the cruel conditions in which 1,500 of the animals were found when the truck was stopped at a toll gate by highway police and animal rescue volunteers in Chongqing, south-west China. ... The animals were moved to a nearby farm by volunteers from the Chongqing Animal Protection Association who gave them food, water and emergency treatment. ...

Cities hire Chinese instead of American workers for building projects.

We love our iPhones and iPads. We love the prices of our iPhones and iPads. We love the super-high profit margins of Apple, Inc., the maker of our iPhones and iPads. And that's why it's disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads--and the super-high profit margins of Apple--are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States. And it's also disconcerting to realize that the folks who make our iPhones and iPads not only don't have iPhones and iPads (because they can't afford them),...

Following his recent wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, it isn't a stretch to say that Mitt Romney is being widely hailed as the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency. While almost every GOP presidential candidate has experienced at least a temporary surge in the polls, Romney, who has been endorsed by high-profile members of the Republican establishment, has bounced back every time, putting down firestorms by Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. As the primary race shifts to South Carolina, Romney continues to lead the pack. Although both Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul experienced significant surges following...

The number two diplomat in the U.S. State Department met Wednesday with leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the highest-level contact between Washington and the once-banned group poised to dominate the country's first parliament chosen after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with the head of the Brotherhood's political party, which has won more than 40 percent of the seats in elections that ended Wednesday. The parliament is scheduled to convene on Jan. 23. Its main task is to appoint a 100-member panel to write a new constitution. With its election victory, the Islamist...

SEATTLE, Wash.– Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would throw themselves from their Wuhan, China, plant if demands for lost wages were not met. China Jasmine Revolution, an activist revolutionary organization with a name borrowed from the Tunisian revolt that set off the Middle East unrest, reported that employees made their demands for a wage increase for 100 employees on Jan. 2. Management at Foxconn — the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and a crucial link in the supply chains of Apple, Dell, Nintendo and Song — responded with an ultimatum.

Longer than the Eiffel Tower, wide as a football pitch and with the capacity for more than 11,000 trucks, the first of a record-breaking fleet of giant ships has completed its maiden voyage to China. Onboard the Berge Everest was around 350,000 tonnes of iron ore, according to industry sources, enough to make the steel for more than three Golden Gate bridges. After unloading its cargo at the port of Dalian, the vessel has started its journey home to Brazil, it emerged last week. The ship's arrival was momentous, because of both its scale and the scale of the gamble...

In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. While Great Britain's maritime power and its far-flung empire had propelled it to a dominant position among the world's industrialized nations, only the United States challenged Argentina for the position of the world's second-most powerful economy. It was blessed with abundant agriculture, vast swaths of rich farmland laced with navigable rivers and an accessible port system. Its level of industrialization was higher than many European countries: railroads, automobiles and telephones were commonplace. In 1916, a new president was elected. Hipólito Irigoyen had formed a party...

Poisoned cat-meat stew is suspected to have been used to kill a billionaire in southern China. Police have detained a local official in Guangdong province in connection with the sudden death of Long Liyuan on 23 December. The official, Huang Guang, is suspected of adding a toxic plant to the stew at a restaurant where they were eating. A police statement said the two were involved in a dispute after Mr Huang allegedly embezzled money from Mr Long. Mr Huang, an agriculture official in Bajia, took Mr Long, who ran a forestry company, to visit a piece of woodland on...

Republicans and Democrats, liberals as well as conservatives, have bought into anti-Chinese trade demagoguery. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that tariffs against China are a "key part of our 'Make It in America' agenda." During his 2010 campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called his Tea Party-backed Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, "a foreign worker's best friend." In a recent news conference, President Obama gave his support to the anti-China campaign, declaring that China "has been very aggressive in gaming the trading system to its advantage," adding that "we can and should take action against countries that are keeping...

Protesting villagers in southern China said they will march on government offices this week unless the body of a local leader is released and four villagers in police custody are freed. The 13,000 residents of Wukan, in the wealthy province of Guangdong, are in open revolt against officialdom and have driven out local Communist Party leaders who they say have been stealing their land for years. Many local businesses have been closed for the past week while schools have been shuttered as riot police blockade the village, which has for months been the scene of occasionally violent protests over land...

The Rolls-Royce has always had a history of elegance and class - until now. That prestigious reputation has been smashed by the world's most vulgar makeover of the company's iconic Ghost model. An Italian fashion design house has created a gold-covered monstrosity costing more than £1 million The Fenice Milano 'Diva' has been spray painted in 24-carat gold and the company is so proud of it they have described the model as a 'true.masterpiece.' It is fitted with the same 6-litre twin-turbocharged engine of the Ghost, giving the saloon more than 560bhp and a top speed of 155mph. Fenice Milano...

Trade finance is drying up amid the financial crisis, threatening jobs and economic growth, trade sources warned Saturday. Banks like Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas -- two of the 25 financial institutions most active in such financing -- have recently reduced their trade financing business, said a trade source on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization ministerial conference. ... More than 90 percent of commercial transactions in the world require such credit, but the current crisis is forcing banks to hold on to capital and liquidity, leading to the lending market drying up and making credit more expensive.

CLEVELAND, Ohio--The giant presses that once stamped out hoods and door panels at Chrysler's Twinsburg plant are finding new homes -- and one of them is China. The Gisele Scan, a 469-foot cargo ship docked at the Port of Cleveland, is taking on massive press sections and parts-filled containers for delivery to the Port of Xingang. It's been slow going because of the weather and the need to carefully position the bulk cargo on board for a safe voyage, said David Gutheil, vice president for maritime and logistics at the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. The ship will sail eastward, Gutheil...

Beijing city authorities on Friday issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet. The city government now requires users of weibos -- the Chinese version of Twitter -- to give their real names to website administrators, its official news portal said. The new rules will apply to weibo operators based in Beijing, which include Sina -- owner of China's most popular microblogging service which has more than 200 million users. "Websites with weibo operations must establish and improve a system of content censorship," according to...

Vietnam says an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed 156 people, mostly children, and sickened more than 96,000 through late November. ... The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel alert Monday urging people visiting Vietnam to protect themselves from the disease by practicing "healthy personal hygiene."

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde has warned the Great Depression of the 1930s may repeat itself unless the EU pulls together and gets foreign help. Fresh unemployment statistics added to the gloom by highlighting the social cost of austerity. “If the international community does not work together, the risk from an economic point of view is that of retraction, rising protectionism, isolation. This is exactly the description of what happened in the Thirties and what followed is not something we are looking forward to," Lagarde said in a speech delivered to the US State Department on Thursday (15...

EU countries have raised a red flag over Israel's treatment of its Arab minority in a complaint that touches the heart of its identity as a "Jewish state." The deputy heads of EU embassies in Tel Aviv put forward their concerns in a 27-page-long internal report sent to the European Exernal Action Service (EEAS) earlier this month. The contents were first revealed by Israeli daily Haaretz on Friday (16 December) morning. EUobserver has also seen the "Conclusions" and the "Recommendations" parts of the paper. The Conclusions were endorsed by all 27 member states. The Recommendations were cut from the final...

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -– Even at first glance, the design renderings for the soon-to-be-built pair of apartment towers here pack a wallop: They evoke New York’s World Trade Center towers in mid-explosion in the terrifying moments after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But wait. The Dutch designers say the images have nothing to do with debris flying off two towers that have just been rammed by a pair of commercial airliners. It’s more like a dreamy cloud formation inspired by a gaze up at the sky. Netizens aren’t buying the explanation. In recent days, an international frenzy of criticism...

How do you decide whether you are wealthy or not? Do you determine that by how much money you spend at the stores? Of course not. You can tell if you are wealthy or not by comparing your assets (the money in your bank account, equity in your home, etc.) to your liabilities (your mortgage, credit card debt, student loan debt, etc.). Well, a lot of Americans seem to believe that just because a lot of money is circulating in our economy that it must mean that we are a wealthy nation. But that is simply not true. To...

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A woman in the border city of Laredo, Texas who was angry because she had been denied food stamps killed herself and shot and critically wounded her two children late on Monday, authorities said on Tuesday.

Argentina has launched a naval campaign to isolate the Falkland Islands that has seen it detain Spanish fishing vessels on suspicion of breaking the country’s “blockade” of the seas around the British territories. Argentine patrol vessels have boarded 12 Spanish boats, operating under fishing licences issued by the Falkland Islands, for operating “illegally” in disputed waters in recent weeks. Argentine patrol commanders carrying out interceptions near the South American coast told Spanish captains they were in violation of Argentina’s “legal” blockade of sea channels to the Falklands. The warning has been backed up in a letter to Aetinape, the Spanish...

Major news networks have all rejected two animated television spots developed by Phoenix-based Swiss America Trading Corp. depicting Ben Bernanke and President Obama printing money with abandon, and promoting ownership of gold and silver as protection against this policy. The ads have been rejected by Fox, Fox Business, CNBC, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, & the Discovery Channel.

AMSTERDAM, December 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Dutch euthanasia advocacy group, “The Right To Die� (NVVE), is proposing a plan where “mobile teams of doctors and nurses … can help people to die in their own homes,� according to DutchNews.nl. On November 30 health minister Edith Schippers told MPs that the proposal earlier this month by NVVE spokeswoman Walburg de Jong to create the mobile units “for patients who meet the criteria for euthanasia but whose doctors are unwilling to carry it out,� is worthy of consideration. “If the patients thinks it desirable, the doctor can refer him or her...

Imagine what would happen if America barged its way into a developing country, buttered up its homicidal dictator and agreed a back-of-the-envelope deal in which he signed over his nation’s mineral wealth in return for roads, railways and sports stadiums. Everyone would benefit, no? No. The problem is that the infrastructure turns out to be worth a hell of a lot less than the minerals. Fortunately, Washington has had the foresight to top up the dictator’s Swiss bank account. Problem solved! As for the mining operation, the Americans really don’t want to be bothered by minimum wages or trade unions....

NEW DELHI-India could decide this week to throw open its supermarket sector to foreign firms such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, clearing one of the most hotly anticipated economic reforms of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure. Policymakers have for years talked about opening multi-brand retail sector to foreign direct investors, a policy aimed at attracting foreign capital, unclogging supply bottlenecks and helping tackle stubbornly high inflation. But the move has snagged on protests by opposition parties and many domestic retailers, who say an influx of foreign players will drive down prices and cause huge job losses. Some voices within the ruling...

Here are three misconceptions that need to be put to rest. Misconception: Most of what Americans spend their money on is made in China. Fact: Just 2.7% of personal consumption expenditures go to Chinese-made goods and services. 88.5% of U.S. consumer spending is on American-made goods and services. I used that statistic in an article last week, and the response from readers was overwhelming: Hogwash. People just didn't believe it. (edit) Misconception: We owe most of our debt to China. Fact: China owns 7.8% of U.S. government debt outstanding. As of August, China owned $1.14 trillion of Treasuries. Government debt...

How many ways are there to say you’re back? In 2010, Hillary Clinton grabbed Beijing’s lapels when she declared the South China Sea, claimed in its entirety by China, was also a vital American interest. A few weeks ago, the secretary of state published a lengthy piece in Foreign Policy magazine in which she laid out the terms of what she called America’s Pacific Century. And this week, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Honolulu, Barack Obama talked about hardly anything else. “The US is a Pacific power and we’re here to stay,” he said. The message is clear....

The following is an excerpt from “Bowing to Beijing” (Regnery Publishing, Nov. 14, 2011): Mutual dependency can guarantee a certain amount of pragmatic behavior by both sides, but there should be no romantic illusions about how the Chinese communists feel about America. “We hate you guys,” China Banking Regulatory Commission Director General Luo Ping fumed about the PRC being forced into buying U.S. Treasuries to protect Beijing’s massive U.S. debt holdings. “Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion … we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys, but there is nothing much we can do.”...

In this interview Rickards discusses his extraordinary new book Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis. He also lets King World News listeners know what to expect regarding gold manipulation, the ongoing currency wars and much more. The KWN audio interview with Jim Rickards is available now...

It's already there. European as well as Far East Asian companies are already by now pretty tired of Somalian pirates etc. interferring with our business operations. In the coming of time, Asia and Europe will make so much business the World can't believe it. Let's build highways and railroads. Try and stop us.. The well-off people down in India and China are screaming for European luxury goods - and if Africa never wishes to grow up, that's not Volvo's, Audi's and BMW's problem. Africa too could start expanding its economy. Some Russians really are clever. Link below to a clip...

U.S. seeking to boost its clout in Asia through trade Politics Nov. 07, 2011 - 06:20PM JST ( 11 ) U.S. seeking to boost its clout in Asia through trade Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is under pressure to bring Japan into talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. AFP WASHINGTON — The United States will try to prove its mettle as an Asian power as it welcomes Pacific leaders this week to Hawaii, hoping a sweeping trade pact will bind together the fast-growing region. President Barack Obama will show his native state to leaders of 20 other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic...

The heads of China's largest Internet and technology firms have vowed to stop the "spread of harmful information" on the web after attending a three-day government workshop, state media said Sunday. Nearly 40 companies, including e-commerce giant Alibaba, online portal Sina and search engine Baidu attended the seminar hosted by the State Internet Information Office, an online watchdog, the official Xinhua news agency said. During the discussion, which ended Saturday, the bosses reached a "common agreement" to "safeguard" the spreading of positive information online and "strengthen self-management and self-discipline", the report said. They also agreed to "resolutely curb Internet rumours,...

The Latin American giant's GDP for 2011 is expected to hit $2.44 trillion (£1.51 trillion) compared with $2.43 trillion for the UK, the latest monthly forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) show. This will see Brazil, which last year overtook Italy to become the world's seventh biggest economy, move up one more place to sixth with the UK falling to seventh. Robert Wood, the EIU's chief economist on Brazil, said the country's surge up the table owed much to a growing consumer class and a booming trade relationship with China, based on the Asian giant's need for commodities such...

In 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated Alfred Landon by an electoral vote of 523 to 8. This was the only contested election in which the major losing candidate received fewer than 10 votes (1788, 1792 and 1820 were uncontested). The landslide came on the heels of what appeared to be an economic recovery. Unemployment fell, productivity rose; people believed the New Deal really worked and they rewarded FDR accordingly. Shortly into the second term did the ugly truth reveal itself. The so-called recovery had been built entirely on government spending. Massive borrowing and government make-work projects put money in enough...

On a balmy autumn afternoon, a stroll along lower Manhattan to Liberty Plaza, or another American city or even in squares and plazas around the world, is likely to take you to an encampment of mostly-young, mostly cheerful, determined citizens who've come together for the long haul to challenge and oppose a list of anti-social deeds, from government support of venal businessmen to excessive CO2 emissions. Under the banner of "Occupy Wall Street," a local-turned-global protest movement strives to bring your attention to injustice. The panoply of complaints, seen by some observers as a childish litany, is cited by others...

- China on Friday issued a harsh rebuke of an anti-dumping complaint filed by U.S. solar firms, warning the United States not to take protectionist measures that could harm the global economy. Seven U.S. solar manufacturers on Wednesday asked the Obama administration to impose duties of more than 100 percent on China solar imports, which they said were unfairly undercutting U.S. prices and destroying American jobs. The controversy comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-China trade relations, which are plagued by U.S. concerns over market access in China, Beijing's treatment of intellectual property rights, and raging debate over the value...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed off Friday on the first three — and possibly last — free trade agreements of his administration, deals with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama that could be worth billions to American exporters and create tens of thousands of jobs. The three deals were years in the making, and the difficulty of bringing them to fruition make it unlikely there will be another bilateral trade agreement during Obama's current term. Obama signed them with none of the ceremonial fanfare that normally accompanies such triumphs. Republicans, while supportive of the deals, continue to find fault...

ALBERT EDWARDS: The Coming China Crash Will Separate The Sheep From The Goats Joe Weisenthal Oct. 20, 2011, 11:05 AM Socgen Ultra-bear Albert Edwards turns his attention to China, where he warns of rampant inflation and little hope of a soft landing. He starts off, though, with a bit of philosophy. The coming downturn will surely separate the investment sheep from the goats. For we have learnt little from the investment disaster of the last decade. There is one thing that has become apparent to me in my 25 years of challenging even the most persuasive investment stories. That is,...

Seven American makers of solar panels filed a broad trade case in Washington against the Chinese solar industry on Wednesday, accusing it of using billions of dollars in government subsidies to help gain sales in the American market. The companies also accused China of dumping solar panels in the United States for less than it costs to manufacture and ship them. The trade case, filed at the Commerce Department, seeks tariffs of more than 100 percent of the wholesale price of solar panels from China, which shipped $1.6 billion of the panels to the United States in the first eight...

Horrific footage captured on CCTV in Foshan, Guangdong province Thursday afternoon and now making the rounds on the Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo, shows a two-year-old toddler being run over by a van as she walks across the street. In the minutes that follow, dozens of passersby walk around the bleeding girl, not stopping to look at or help her. A cyclist takes a wide berth around the body to avoid the body. One woman, holding her daughter’s hand, looks at the toddler and walks past as quickly as she can. And a second truck, apparently not realizing there is...

<p>Another hot, dry summer has devastated this year’s peanut crop, sending prices for the legume skyrocketing and forcing peanut-butter brands including J.M. Smucker Co.’s Jif, Unilever NV’s Skippy and ConAgra Foods Inc.’s Peter Pan into startling price increases.</p> <p>Wholesale prices for big-selling Jif are going up 30% starting in November, while Peter Pan will raise prices as much as 24% in a couple weeks. Unilever wouldn’t comment on its pricing plans, but a spokesman for Wegmans Food Markets, the closely held supermarket chain in the Northeast U.S., said wholesale prices for all brands it carries, including Skippy, are 30% to 35% higher than a year ago.</p>

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but...

A mere moment or two after the Obama administration announced it had discovered and thwarted a plot by Iran to murder Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States by bombing a Washington restaurant, the doubters started to air their doubts. Columnists and experts, even some columnists who were not experts, said the Iranians would never be so sloppy as to commit a virtual act of war by setting off a bomb in the nation's capital. The plot was crazy, they said. I agree. But so is Iran. It's not as if the Iranian intelligence services, particularly the Quds Force of...

Clinton: U.S. must demand fairness from China World Oct. 15, 2011 - 07:00AM JST ( 4 ) NEW YORK — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday it’s time for the United States to stand up to China as the U.S. puts the economy at the center of its foreign policy. She told business leaders at the Economic Club of New York that the U.S. shouldn’t continue to allow itself to be taken advantage of by China, which long has been accused by the West of undervaluing its currency to boost exports around the globe. “They continue to...