Free Republic

ANALYSIS Since President Trump took office, the economy is booming, according to such reliable sources as federal agencies, analysts and data from the private sector. That may not be good enough for the press, however. The news media is seeking to “rewrite history” to credit former President Barack Obama for this feat, says one major business publication. “The stronger the economy gets under Trump, the more desperate his critics are to hand credit over to Obama. Even if that entails changing the past,” says an Investor’s Business Daily editorial. “A recent New York Times story says it all: ‘An economic...

Chris Cuomo announced Monday night that CNN will not condemn but instead justify political violence against anyone it defines as "bigots" -- which, according to the network's editorial tone over the past two years, signals open season on all Trump supporters for violent activists like Antifa and the Black Bloc. To legitimize political violence, Cuomo said, "All punches are not equal morally... Drawing a moral equivalency between those espousing hate and those fighting it, because they both resort to violence emboldens hate, legitimized hateful belief and elevates what should be stamped out." This is a dramatic turning point for the...

STORY HIGHLIGHTS 47% of Democrats view capitalism positively, down from 56% in 2016 57% of Democrats now view socialism positively, little changed from 2010 Republicans very positive about capitalism; 16% positive on socialism

Olbermann doesn’t typically call baseball games on television, but he replaced Karl Ravech for Monday’s game – which was a makeup for a July 22 rainout between the New York City rivals. The game was not available on the Yankees and Mets local networks and aired exclusively on ESPN. It’s unclear if fans disapproved of Olbermann for his far-left political views or if they simply didn’t care for his broadcasting style, but his name quickly began trending and the results weren’t pretty. New York Daily News columnist Bob Raissman wrote, “ESPN finds a way to punish Mets/Yankees fans by putting...

Federal agencies, led by Labor and Health and Human Services, are cutting Obama-era regulations and saving money faster than demanded by President Trump, according to a new report. And as a result, the administration is expected to easily meet the president’s order to cut at least two old regulations for every new one issued and cut the costs of regulations. “With less than two months remaining in FY 2018, the Trump administration is well on its way to surpassing its regulatory budget goals,” said the new report from American Action Forum, which charts federal regulations. “Collectively, executive agencies subject to...

Russia has made 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of arable land available to foreign investors – and while that could be boon for Beijing as it struggles with limited supplies of soybeans in its trade war with the US, analysts are concerned about the quality of the plots available. Valery Dubrovskiy, director of investment for the Far East Investment and Export Agency, a non-profit organisation, said on Tuesday that several Chinese companies had already expressed an interest in the deal. With the China-US trade war showing no signs of abating, and after Beijing slapped 25 per cent tariffs on...

BEIJING — China’s leaders have sought to project confidence in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and trade threats, but as it becomes clear a protracted trade war with the United States may be unavoidable, there are growing signs of unease inside the Communist political establishment. In recent days, officials from the Commerce Ministry, the police and other agencies have summoned executives from exporters to ask about plans to lay off workers or shift supply chains to other countries. With stocks slumping into bear territory and the currency dropping 9 percent against the dollar since mid-April, censors have been deleting...

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone is vowing to boycott Samuel Adams beer for the rest of his life because company co-founder Jim Koch touted the Trump tax cuts during a meeting with the president last week. "I will never drink Sam Adam's beer again!" "We need to hold these complicit profiteers of Trump's white nationalist agenda accountable!"

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that Turkey would boycott electronic products from the United States. "We will boycott America's electronic products. If they have the iPhone, there is also Samsung on the other side. We also have our own Venus Vestel. We will adopt these measures," Hurriyet Daily News quoted Erdogan as saying. He added, "We can do two things; one in economy, the other in politics. We have taken measures that economy needs and we will keep doing it. "What is more important, I think, is keeping our political stance strong." The rift between the US...

With all the focus on Russian hacking, Russian ambition, and Russian threats to U.S. national economic security, another Red Threat continues seemingly unabated: China’s ongoing effort to compete as a global economic power equal to, if not exceeding, the United States. China has the population and the economic ability to compete, and has made its ambitions crystal clear with its Made in China 2025 plans. (please see link, for full article)

Netflix's CFO David Wells will step down. Wells will stay on the job until he finds a successor, the company says. Wells has been CFO since 2010. Netflix CFO David Wells to step down Netflix CFO David Wells to step down 5 Hours Ago | 02:07 Netflix Chief Financial Officer David Wells is stepping down. Wells, who has been CFO since 2010, will stay on the job until he can help choose a successor, the company announced Monday. Netflix's stock was down slightly in early trading. Wells said he intends to focus on philanthropy. Here's the full announcement from Netflix:

The Army has formally terminated its effort to develop a 25 mm airburst weapon, the largest of nearly three dozen ways a Pentagon watchdog has said the military could save $2.3 billion in defense spending. The ill-fated weapon, known as the XM25 and nicknamed "The Punisher," was once hailed as a game-changer for ground troops who would be able to use it to target enemies hiding behind cover. But it came under closer scrutiny several years ago after schedule slippage, cost overruns and aborted operational testing in Afghanistan. In 2016, the Pentagon inspector general recommended that the Army consider ending...

The creeping exclusion of the right from online platforms like Twitter and Facebook is well-known, drawing the attention of Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and the RNC. But a greater challenge is on the horizon: the exclusion of the right from financial services.Conservatives have long been the target of shadowbans, biased algorithms, and account bans on social media. Not content with silencing their voices online, the left now wants to stop the right from using the web to fundraise. Thanks to the increasing willingness of online fundraising platforms and payment processors to ban clients for political reasons, they are getting...

President Trump's trade war with China is a multi-pronged thing, given how closely the east Asian states of the Pacific Rim are being affected. Those states are all U.S. allies, and the reason we project so much naval power in the Pacific. While we are seeing a lot of doom and gloom talk in the endless 'analyses' you always see in Pacific Rim affairs on the economic side of things, including China itself declaring there will be 'no winners' (typical for the nation that is facing disaster itself), along with some stories of Pacific Rim states getting ready to profit from...

On a White House conference call with Iran experts last week, a senior administration official said the Trump administration will reimpose sanctions on financial messaging services later this year. That might sound boring. But the administration official was referring to what could soon become another major fight between the Trump administration and Europe. Why this matters In the context of Iran sanctions, "financial messaging services" refers to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) — a linchpin of the global financial system that facilitates payments across borders and connects more than 11,000 banks around the world. SWIFT cut off Iran...

bortion has been an important economic stimulus ever since it was legalized by the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, Chelsea Clinton claimed at a "Rise Up for Roe" event on Saturday. At the event promoting opposition to President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the former First Daughter of President Bill Clinton credited legalized abortion for helping add trillions of dollars to the U.S economy because women who had abortions were more inclined to enter the labor force: "Whether you fundamentally care about reproductive rights and access right, because these are not the same thing, if you...

When there is war, conflict, or instability, vulnerable human beings flee, seeking refuge in safer countries. Everyone is familiar with the plight of refugees, and the challenges refugees create for surrounding nations. People need and deserve support, and it requires resources to meet this need. When there is war, conflict, or instability, vulnerable capital and wealth also flee. The "problem" of fleeing capital is different, however. Because capital and wealth are not as encumbered and physically restricted as are human beings, especially in the modern electronic age, capital moves far from the source of instability. Capital flight makes support of...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to. An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so. Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

When Chicago issued half a billion dollars in new bonds late last year, some investors balked, though the offering was designed to protect them by guaranteeing that they would be paid with tax revenues that Illinois sends to its biggest city. “It’s an untested model,” the research head at Gurtin, a municipal bond firm, said of the offering—Chicago’s first under a new state law. Ominously, he worried that if Chicago defaults, it was unclear how much protection holders of the new debt would really get. Even as Chicago grapples with nightmarish violent crime, the city faces imposing fiscal challenges. The...

[SNIP] Let’s compare the jobs numbers for Trump’s first 19 months in office with those of Obama’s last 19 months in the White House: * Employment Ratio: +0.73 percentage points, more than twice Obama’s +0.35 * Labor Force Participation: +0.22 percentage point vs. Obama’s -0.16 * FTE jobs: +4.1 million vs. +3.3 million under Obama * Average weekly wages: +$40.55 vs. +$31.21 under Obama The reason that the labor market is finally tightening is that Trump’s tax and regulatory policies are bringing real GDP (RGDP) growth back to levels that are historically normal for the U.S. Despite the Great Depression,...