Free Republic

During a recent inspection tour of villages in the region of Ningxia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasized his goal for China to become “a moderately prosperous society.” This catchphrase was coined soon after he took power in 2012, and is his flagship economic policy.Xi also penned a May 31 article in Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s official magazine, that China is advancing toward achieving that goal, with “400 million people in the middle class.”His standard for middle class was: an annual household income of 100,000 to 500,000 yuan ($14,160-$70,810). But in China, multi-generational households living under one roof are...

After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials. The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was...

Some people are born wealthy enough to take the massive risk which funding a new business entails. Others get seed money from brilliant pitches, luck or connections. And then, there's the rest of us. Funding a business, or more precisely, risking losing money when starting a business, is the single largest obstacle for most entrepreneurs. Even good ideas can take time to fine-tune or pan out. That's why I have the most respect for the 'street-stall entrepreneur' one finds in developing countries. This is the individual who starts out with absolutely nothing, and shamelessly sells any product they can from...

Rome The Latin expression caveat emptor - buyers beware - has taken on a whole new meaning in Italy, where authorities are cracking down on counterfeiting by imposing fines on the customers who buy from street sellers. The hundreds of thousands of tourists in the country have not been told about a law that went into effect in May, which makes them liable to pay a fine of euro 3333 ($5397.57) with no appeal for buying counterfeit goods. Unless paid within two months, the fine rises to euro 10,000 ($16194.33). The first foreigner to fall afoul of the law was...