Free Republic

Donald Trump loves the idea of infrastructure. He brings it up all the time. He wants to make an infrastructure bill a priority in his first 100 days as president. And Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have said they’d love to work with him on this."We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals," Trump promised cheering supporters on election night. "We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it."The...

Pensions for having held elected office were never a part of the vision for America and President-elect Trump is emblematic of a return to the American citizen-servant Demonstrating a lack of understanding of America’s founding principles, a murder (that’s a bunch of cackling crows, for those who don’t know) of philosophizing academics are recommending that President-elect Donald Trump divest himself of his fortune before taking office. Only ignorance of this nation’s founding could prompt individuals, who call themselves ethics experts, to make such a call. Institutionalized politics has managed to destroy the original intent of anyone seeking to serve, and...

It’s a new term for the old leftist dream of redistribution over wealth creation. President Obama has finally stopped blaming George W. Bush for America’s current economic mess. Now it’s Ronald Reagan’s fault. Obama didn’t use those exact words or make that explicit claim in his Knox College speech last week, but that’s the gist of it. The Great Recession and its slow-growth, high-unemployment aftermath are really just the culmination of three decades of pro-market economic policies that favored the rich at the expense of the middle class. Here’s how Obama rewrites economic history: The shared national purpose of World...

I talk a lot about the global investment markets. I’m focused on making profits, and often I’m looking to make multiples, knowing full well that some opportunities won't work out. I’ll get timing wrong or I’ll miss something entirely and need to hedge, reposition, or exit entirely. That’s life. But I haven’t spent much time on stating the obvious (because I figured it’s obvious) so today's post is going to do just that. We are going to forget all about economics, financial markets, central banks, derivatives, GDP, and all that stuff, and we're going to go all the way back...

Kevin Kwan is a Singaporean novelist best known for his book “Crazy Rich Asians”, a fictional story inspired by his childhood growing up with the rich elite in Asia. Since its release in 2013, “Crazy Rich Asians” has become both a national and international best seller while being translated into 12 languages. Its success has spawned two sequels, “China Rich Girlfriend”, which was released in 2014, and “Rich People Problems”, which he’s currently working on. While Kwan doesn’t consider himself a crazy rich Asian, he did grow up in a privileged upbringing. His great grandfather was one of the founders...

Ignoring the Poor Is a Damnable Sin – A Homily for the 26th Sunday Msgr. Charles Pope • September 24, 2016 • The Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus by Hendrick ter BrugghenIn the Gospel for today about the rich man and Lazarus the Lord gives us some important teachings on judgment and Hell. We live in times in which many consider the teachings on Hell to be untenable. They struggle to understand how a God described as loving, merciful, and forgiving can assign certain souls to Hell forever. Despite the fact that the Doctrine of Hell is taught...

After more than a decade of stagnation and decline, average incomes rose significantly in 2014. Good news—in fact, terrific news—permeates the newest government report on the incomes Americans report on their federal tax returns. After more than a decade in the economic doldrums, with too few jobs and stagnant wages afflicting the vast majority of Americans, average incomes rose significantly in 2014, though the average income remains below the level in 2000. Investors did especially well. Overall, Americans reported significantly more income in 2014 than in 2012 and 2013, my analysis of a new Internal Revenue Service report shows. The...

Or anybody One of the favorite tactics of Democrats is to demand to be allowed to do something, and then, once they’ve done it and it didn’t work, pretend they never got to do it and insist the solution is to do the dumb thing they already did. Remember the conversation in 2008 between then-Sen. Barack Obama and Joe the Plumber? Joe tried to explain to Obama how his tax increases would negative affect a small business like his. Obama’s response was, “When you spread the wealth around, that’s good for everybody.”

You Can’t Take It with You, But You Can Send it on Ahead! Five Teachings on Wealth Msgr. Charles Pope • July 30, 2016 • The Gospel today is not merely a warning against greed; it is an instruction on income and wealth given by Jesus to help us root out greed. As the Gospel opens, the problem of greed is presented. Following that, a prescribed perspective on wealth is offered. Let’s take a look at both parts of this Gospel. I. The Problem that is Portrayed – The text begins, Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher,...

It says a lot about Donald Trump that his children are such delightful people, even though they were raised with the "disadvantage" of being very wealthy, Ben Carson said Thursday. "All of the Trump children are absolutely delightful people. And I think that speaks volumes about the man," he said, referring to the GOP nominee. "Anybody who can raise children, particularly in the environment they came up in, which I think is a disadvantaged environment. Because I know a lot of people who are very rich and their kids are so spoiled, and I think it's a disadvantage. I really...

Is it Hillary Clinton? Bernie Sanders? Democrats in general? Or is it the supply side policies of the GOP? Economists have been studying economic wellbeing and its determinants since the days of Adam Smith and we know quite a lot about it. So let’s jump to the bottom line. Aside from the rule of law and free markets, the most important determinant of the average wage is economic growth. And the most important ingredient in economic growth is capital accumulation. More capital, more growth. If you place the origin of modern human beings at about 100,000 years ago, for almost...

Last year she was on top of the world, but now Elizabeth Holmes has a net worth of zero. Holmes, who is the founder of blood-testing company Theranos, was at the top of Forbes' list of the richest self-made women in America with a net worth of $4.5billion last year. However, Forbes has lowered their estimate of her net worth to nothing, amid allegations that the blood-testing company she founded in 2003 has inaccurate tests and is being investigated by federal agencies. Theranos Inc was sued on Thursday, accused of endangering customer health through 'massive failures' that misrepresented the accuracy...

As you read this opinion piece on your computer, ask yourself if you could have done so twenty years ago. Possibly, but access would have been very slow thanks to dial-up internet. Going back to the 1970s, airfare was very expensive thanks to airline routes being planned Soviet Union style by the Civil Aeronautics Board. The top tax rate back then was 70 percent... ...calls on those phones were prohibitively expensive, and ownership of a $3,995 mobile phone... ...Yuval Levin argues that it’s silly to pine for the past, yet in making this essential point he promotes another economic myth...

...With important exceptions, such as antibiotics, commercial air travel, air conditioning, and the Internet, most of the goods and services that define our modern prosperity are akin to Pool Noodles. Each one, individually, adds only a minuscule amount of well-being—or what economists call "utility"—to our total human experience. Each is akin to a drop of water in a large swimming pool: add a single drop of water to a swimming pool and, the laws of physics inform us, the water level of that pool will be higher than it would be without that drop of water. But good luck trying...

The middle class may be the foundation upon which the United States was built, but a number of recent studies suggest the working class is being left in the dust. A study from the Pew Research Center in December showed that middle-class Americans are no longer in the majority. Whereas in 1971 middle class Americans totaled 80 million, and lower- and upper-income classes combined equated to 51.6 million, the 2015 data looks far different. As of last year, 120.8 million adults were in the middle class ßß but this figure now takes a back seat to the 121.3 million combined...

The GOP frontrunner appears to have mixed up income and revenue. On two occasions, this writer has spent weeks striving to demystify the Vatican’s finances. Now I’m attempting to solve the riddle of Donald Trump’s income and net worth. Pope Francis, who recently exchanged barbs with Trump over immigration, has bravely promised to open the Vatican’s books. Trump sounds less righteous in claiming that he won’t publicly release his tax returns while he’s being audited by the IRS, but does pledge to eventually make the highly anticipated filings public. Until then, voters can glean a great deal of information from...

<p>Silicon Valley may have plenty of millionaires, but the road to U.S. billionairedom is increasingly paved through finance.</p> <p>Nearly 27% of all U.S. billionaires in 2014 worked in finance (read: hedge-fund managers and a few others), according to a study by Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Sarah Oliver, a research analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank.</p>

Consider the plight of Shari Redstone, the daughter of the billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone. Much of her family's fortune is tied to the ailing 92-year-old Mr. Redstone. He owns 80 percent and she owns 20 percent of National Amusements, the private business that controls two giant media companies -- Viacom and CBS. Upon Mr. Redstone's death, his interest passes to a trust with his grandchildren as beneficiaries. But Mr. Redstone hardly set the stage for an orderly transition. He stubbornly held on so long as executive chairman of both CBS and Viacom that shareholders began to question his ability...

There is a short answer to the question: a lot richer than he admits. And the longer answer is even more interesting.  Writing at Doug Ross’s Director Blue, Cliff Kincaid explains: [former publisher of Campaigns & Elections Magazine James] O’Brien has analyzed the financial status of Sanders and his wife, including their financial disclosure report, and has concluded they have a net worth in the range of $1.2 to $1.5 million, not the $700,000 or less that is usually reported by the media. (snip) …his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, left her position as president of Burlington College under controversial circumstances and...

However wealthy Liu's parents may or may not be, it is clear that this is a boy who is no stranger to attention. He is known as a child star who acts and sings. More than 20,000 people follow his Weibo page. He's famous for appearing on a local Shenzhen-based show called "Family Show". Some admirers have condoned Liu Bo's choice of suit and complimented him on his appearance. "Please make this Armani wearing youth's clothing be the whole countries' primary and secondary school uniform" said one Weibo post which received more than 10,000 likes. During the years of the...