Free Republic

Ford’s attempt to electrify its revenue through electric vehicle production has been a swing and a miss. In response to the decreasing market for EVs, Ford has begun cutting orders from its battery supplies, according to Bloomberg. Even though this changeup will be beneficial in the long run, Ford will not come out of its EV experiment unscathed. Sources told Bloomberg that Ford lost over $100,000 per EV in the first quarter of 2024, more than double its deficit from last year. The news comes as the EV market across the country has taken a hit in 2024. The Associated...

Inflation at the wholesale level rose much more than expected in April, the latest sign that price pressures within the economy remain elevated and difficult to tame. The Labor Department said Tuesday that its producer price index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level before it reaches consumers, rose 0.5% in April from the previous month. On an annual basis, prices remain up 2.2% — the highest level since April 2023. While the monthly gain is notably higher than the 0.2% increase forecast by LSEG economists, the headline figure is in line with expectations.

Struggling Red Lobster is abruptly closing at least 48 of its restaurants around the country, according to a leading restaurant liquidator. TAGeX Brands is conducting an online auction of Red Lobster restaurant inventory, including kitchen equipment, furniture, tables and chairs. The auction begins Monday and continues through Thursday, according to company founder Neal Sherman. Red Lobster locations in Buffalo, Orlando, Jacksonville and other cities were listed as “temporarily closed” on Red Lobster’s website, according to local news reports. Red Lobster did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. The company has around 650 locations. Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing...

President Joe Biden issued an order on Monday forcing a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining company to sell land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, citing national security concerns. The company, MineOne, acquired the real estate in June 2022, placing its operations within a mile of Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, a “strategic missile base and key element of America’s nuclear triad,” according to the White House. The company’s site contained “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities,” the presidential order said.

Timothy Bundren must have heard wrong. The sun wasn’t up yet. He was still groggy from starting his morning routine of walking through chicken barns. His phone rang and his contact with the global meat company headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, just two hours south of his farm, started telling him he would no longer be raising chickens. Bundren, 52, didn’t believe him at first. Just hours later, he was supposed to meet with the bank about another loan to buy the farm down the road. Bundren waited an hour and then called the man back. The news didn’t change, but...

“I had the hormonal urges,” said Prof Camille Parmesan, a leading climate scientist based in France. “Oh my gosh, it was very strong. But it was: ‘Do I really want to bring a child into this world that we’re creating?’ Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket. I’m 62 now and I’m actually really glad I did not have children.” Parmesan is not alone. An exclusive Guardian survey has found that almost a fifth of the female climate experts who responded have chosen to have no children, or fewer children,...

The economy is experiencing a golden moment thanks to exports and tourism after cleaning up its accounts. But the country has paid a price in migration of qualified workers and reduction of public services. Ten years after the departure of the “men in black” — the international managers of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank who cleaned up Portugal’s accounts with a machete, the country has emerged as the most diligent student in southern Europe. In 2023, for the first time, public debt fell below 100% of GDP (it stood at 98.7%) and there was a...

When are we going to run out of energy? You don’t hear that as much as you used to, since Those Who Know Best are working to plug up all our energy sources anyway. Most energy sources put out carbon dioxide, and that’s going to make all the plants grow and devour us all, or it will heat the planet up and make Minneapolis a desert — and we’ll all fry. Or something. But we don’t hear much any more about running out of energy. What do the experts say about it? “According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA)...

During an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen commented on President Joe Biden’s reported forthcoming announcement of increased tariffs on China by stating that the move is being made because President Joe Biden wants to protect “the stimulus that’s being provided through the Inflation Reduction Act” to support certain industries.

Word has been out about the Inland Empire region of California for a while now. The large, multi-county area east of Los Angeles and Orange County has seen a ton of new investment and overall growth in recent years, spurred on partly by coastal renters moving east to buy standalone homes in one of Southern California’s last “affordable” regions. Now, new population numbers released by the state further back up all that talk. Last week, the California Department of Finance released its annual report on population and housing estimates statewide, and the data shows that the Inland Empire is very...

This article is posted in its entirety after a podcast from Bloomburg discussed the unfair NYC property tax system.New York City’s notorious property tax system — which places a higher burden on rental properties and advantages affluent white areas at the expense of lower-income neighborhoods of color — appears headed for a major overhaul.The state’s highest court voted 4-3 on Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit by a coalition called Tax Equity Now New York that sought to have the convoluted system declared illegal.The Court of Appeals revived two claims from the suit, which had previously been dismissed by lower courts....

A majority of voters (51 percent) believe their financial position is worse off under President Joe Biden’s economic policies, a Financial Times/Michigan Ross poll recently found. Biden’s poor economy for Main Street is the number one issue facing voters in the 2024 election. The average Wisconsin family lost $21,981 because of the increased cost of living under Biden, the Republican National Committee estimated in May. In Biden’s America, a McDonald’s Big Mac burger, a medium beverage, and a medium fry meal costs $18 in some locations, up $10 from 2018 when former President Donald Trump was in office.

In today’s edition of Getting What You Vote For, the dummies in California are about to get hit with a 50 cent per gallon gas tax. Remember, California voters have handed the Democrat party full power over the former Golden State. Democrats run everything from the governorship on down. Democrats not only hold majorities in the state legislature, they hold veto-proof majorities. In other words… Republicans are powerless in California. And so… According to Triple-A, the average cost of a gallon of gas in California today is $5.29. That’s nearly $1.70 more than the national average. In some parts of...

We all know what tiny homes are, but have you ever heard of a skinny home? What originally began as plans to construct a single-family residence in Washington, DC, suddenly shrank when the city unexpectedly changed its zoning laws. “The developer bought the property, thinking it could be a four-story home that was 15 feet wide; but the city changed the zoning laws, so he had to build this skinny home in its place,” says listing agent Jennifer Young, of Keller Williams Chantilly Ventures. “It had to be scaled down to almost half the width. This home is now just...

States like California, New York, and Massachusetts have passed climate policies specifically intended to jump-start this battery industry. But this year, for the first time ever, the fastest-growing energy storage market appears to be Texas, a free-market-affirming red state that officially cares little about solving climate change. Nonetheless, the state’s low-regulation, business-friendly landscape has created ideal conditions to build batteries quickly and at scale, just like it previously incubated thriving wind and solar markets.

UNC-Chapel Hill's Board of Trustees on Monday approved the transfer of $2.3 million in diversity and inclusion spending to public safety priorities in the 2024-25 budget. The trustees held a special meeting Monday morning. The board is scheduled to hold its regular meeting Wednesday and Thursday. The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to vote next week to eliminate diversity goals and jobs at member institutions, including UNC-Chapel Hill. A Board of Governors committee last month approved a complete rewrite of the system's existing diversity, equity and inclusion policy. The move is likely to create job losses at the...

U.S. News and World Report compiled a rankings list of the best states to live in, 2024. The magazine also compiled a list of the best cities to live in 2023-2024. There are some interesting incongruities between the two. Below I highlight apparent discrepancies between three of the top ten states, and the main cities therein.For example, U.S. News ranks Washington State as the 8th best state to live in. However, in a separate ranking of best places, they rank greater Seattle a very lowly 81st best place to live.That is curious because the timeframes are the same and their...

Defiant Columbia University graduates wore zip-tie handcuffs, brandished pro-Palestinian signs and even went as far as tearing up a diploma on stage during the Ivy League’s first commencement ceremonies last week. The protesting students were caught on camera storming across the platform on Friday to accept their degrees during ceremonies that were significantly pared after weeks of violent anti-Israel demonstrations on campus. In one of the most belligerent displays, Tarsis Salome, a Columbia social work graduate, charged forward with her zip-tied hands above her head as those in the audience cheered her on.

New Yorkers are fortifying their homes with panic rooms and bullet-proof doors like never before over fears about crime, migrants and national turmoil — and it’s not just the city’s elite partaking in the trend. “Not every [customer] is an ultra-rich stockbroker — a lot of them are just people, middle-class kind of people,” said Steve Humble, founder of the home-defense contractor Creative Home Engineering. “I’d say the pandemic really kicked off an uptick. Business was really good throughout the pandemic time, and it really hasn’t slowed down,” said Humble, who specializes in top-of-the-line secret doors disguised as bookshelves, fireplaces,...

President Joe Biden’s policy of mass migration is forcing up housing inflation, so pushing up interest rates and mortgage rates, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Housing prices should have dropped amid the recent supply of new apartments and homes, but have “not behaved the way we thought it would,” said Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.. “I still think it will, but if it doesn’t, we’re going to have a hard time” bringing inflation back down to the target of 2 percent, Goolsbee told the Journal for a May 11 article.