Free Republic

As we approach what is likely to be the most chaotic presidential election in U.S. history, trouble signs are starting to erupt for the U.S. economy. In fact, CNN is actually admitting that “the long-predicted storm clouds in the economy may actually be forming”. I can’t remember the last time that I saw a CNN article with a headline like that. But at this point, it is becoming extremely difficult for the mainstream media to avoid the truth. Inflation is getting worse at the same time that many key sectors of our economy are slowing down. If you thought that...

Disney Announced Hiring Freeze and Layoffs as Cost-Cutting Measure. Why?: Disney Resorts may be known as the “Happiest Place on Earth,” while Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is the “Most Magical Place On Earth.” However, the magic could soon disappear for workers while many others might not have much to be all that happy about as the Mouse House announced plans to institute a targeted hiring freeze, along with some job cuts.

It is becoming increasingly obvious something is amiss. One might be tempted to recall the words of a nineteenth-century revolutionary: “A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of Communism.” But the bloody history of the last century has demonstrated beyond question that Marx was no prophet. However, a specter is, indeed, haunting not just Europe but the entire world, and ground zero for this strange new spirit is the United States, a land where communism never gained a foothold. This rising spirit has no widely recognized name at present, but it has certain definitive characteristics that coalesce into a singular, grotesque...

To stimulate the economy, China’s regulators are forcing Chinese banks to meet high loan quotas. To hit the difficult-to-attain targets, ingenious bankers are lending and simultaneously allowing borrowers to deposit identical amounts with their institutions at identical interest rates. Companies no longer want money to launch new projects. Pessimism about the economy dominates thinking in Chinese boardrooms and throughout the rest of society. The big story is not that the Chinese economy is falling apart.

Here comes the X-59: Supersonic transport may hold a promise of super-fast travel, but it also promises to be extremely loud – and not just to those on the actual aircraft. That is why the Concorde, which was developed as part of an Anglo-French effort and while operated by British Airways and Air France, was typically only used for travel from Europe to North America. The American SST (supersonic transport) effort was grounded mainly due to noise and environmental concerns. Those concerns remain as multiple European nations and environmental groups seek to stop any comeback of supersonic commercial travel. Earlier...

Rolling out a new student loan forgiveness program surely was a better thing for President Joe Biden to be talking about than the anniversary of the Kabul airport bombing that same week, but it hasn’t gone as swimmingly as the White House might have hoped. One of former President Barack Obama’s top economists was scathing in his assessment of the plan, as Jason Furman blasted it as “reckless” and “[p]ouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning. Economists are still debating its inflationary impact a week later.

U.S. services industry activity nudged up in September, but growth is being restrained by a persistent shortage of inputs and the resulting high prices as the pandemic drags on. The Institute for Supply Management said on Tuesday its non-manufacturing activity index edged up to a reading of 61.9 last month from 61.7 in August. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the services sector, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index falling to 60. A resurgence in COVID-19 infections, driven by the Delta variant, has delayed an anticipated upswing...

resident Biden is not being swept along by the currents of history, he is turning every challenge he faces into crisis and disaster.The first seven months of Joe Biden’s presidency have been fraught with crises. First it was the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccine rollout. Then it was the border crisis. Then it was the economy. And now Afghanistan, where the Taliban are now reportedly hanging people by the neck from U.S.-supplied Blackhawk helicopters, and the U.S. withdrawal has left behind hundreds of Americans and perhaps thousands of Green Card holders in what now amounts to the largest hostage crisis...

Instead of calling this an infrastructure plan, the White House calls it “the American Jobs Plan.” This is ironic because the only reason why most unemployed people don’t have jobs today is the lockdowns enforced by mostly Democratic governors. End the lockdowns and there won’t be many unemployed people to take the jobs created by the Biden plan. That should be okay because most of the plan isn’t really necessary. The money for road and bridge repairs isn’t needed because the condition of America’s roads and road bridges has been improving each year without a congressional rescue plan. However, Biden’s...

It contended that such an increase in prices at the pump could lead the national average to rise to $2.65 to $2.75 per gallon—the highest prices seen since 2019 and the highest seasonal prices in more than five years. More than forty states are already seeing gas prices higher than last year, with half seeing double-digit increases. “The quicker the affected refineries are able to come back online, the better, and perhaps less painful for motorists than if they remain out of service for even longer,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a statement, adding...

Today’s everything bubble has been inflated by the extraordinarily low-interest rates produced by the massive amount of central bank money printing in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This raises the question as to what happens when the pleasant easy money music stops and interest rates start to rise. Past experience would suggest that when that happens, bubbles will start bursting and the emerging market economies will run into serious trouble as money is repatriated to the United States. A basic problem with the Biden $1.9 trillion budget stimulus package is that it risks creating precisely such a scenario of rising...

“Adequately responding to the pandemic involves not only controlling COVID-19 cases and deaths but also addressing indirect social and economic consequences,” Dr. Ellicott Matthay, a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Health and Community at UCSF, said in a statement. According to her team’s study that was published in the American Journal of Public Health, the data projected that the spring 2020 spike in unemployment in the United States would lead to 30,231 excess deaths among those aged twenty-five to sixty-four in the ensuing twelve months.

Mrs. Yellen’s last year as Federal Reserve Chair will long be remembered as one in which she kept interest rates too low and the Fed’s balance sheet too large for too long. She did so in an apparent attempt to curry favor with President Donald Trump in her unsuccessful bid to get a second term as Fed Chair. In the process, she contributed importantly to the creation of a global everything asset and credit market bubble. It was only once she left the Fed and was safely ensconced at the Brookings Institution that she warned of the risk to the...

Sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, cities across the United States went up in flames last year, beset with looters, agitators, and killers. As leaves, and ashes, fell softly last autumn, homicide rates began to soar nationwide as $1 billion-plus in claims registered on the insurance industry’s books, making these riots the most destructive in American history.

The war between hedge funds and retail investors over shares of GameStop has one logical conclusion, according to executives and traders of a major Wall Street firm. Shares of GameStop, the video game retailer, have climbed more than 900% since the start of the year after members of the Reddit community WallStreetBets banded together in an effort to push the stock higher. The campaign pushed a stock worth $19 at the start of the year to as high as $482.85 on Thursday. Gains by retail investors have come at the expense of sophisticated investors like Melvin Capital and Citron Research,...

The Biden regime is fully embracing a radical globalist plan that seeks to destroy capitalism and replace it with a socialist system. “The Great Reset” was unveiled at the World Economic Forum (WEC) in Davos, Switzerland last June, using the coronavirus pandemic and “global warming” as pretexts to impose on the world far-left social programs like government-provided basic income, the Green New Deal, universal healthcare, and of course, massive tax increases.

Something strange is going on in the markets and in economic policymaking circles. Despite the world having just suffered from its worst economic recession in the past ninety years, the overwhelming consensus view is that the U.S. will experience a strong economic recovery in the second half of this year and the economy will soon return back to normal. Such a strong recovery would be in marked contrast to that following the 2008-2009 Great Economic Recession, which was the slowest economic recovery on record and which was punctuated by a number of fits and starts. Those fits and starts included...

(Note: This makes no sense! Isn't the housing market already doing well? Why not help people who lost their jobs due to COVID lockdowns?) Anyone looking to buy a home today is likely frustrated by sky-high prices and slim pickings. But President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office Wednesday, will aim to ease those issues as he gears up to implement his plans for the housing market. From home financing to home construction, Biden’s plans are focused on affordability. Here are some policies he could push for: $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit Urging big banks to get back into FHA lending...

The economists found that this led to a 9% reduction in low-wage jobs. The pay increase it generated didn’t make up for the reduction in employment, and earnings fell for low-wage workers overall.

“In December, 15.8 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic–that is, they did not work at all or worked fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the pandemic. This measure is 1.0 million higher than in November.”