The main-stream media were shocked today when U.S. job growth continued at a very strong pace in November, despite the October government shutdown that ended on October 17th. Employers added 203,000 jobs and the reported unemployment rate fell from 7.3%
China’s Ministry of Defense on November 30th began enforcing an expanded Air Defense Identification Zone, which now covers a huge off-shore expanse that includes the disputed oil rich Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Forced to rely on the Middle East
China has announced that after 34 years of restricting population growth through its one-child policy, the nation will now allow families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. The policy “initially produced a population
With the U.S. stock market flat from 2000 to 2007, emerging-markets were all the rage for investors, led by the China stock exchange’s 330% rise. But when the Great Recession hit, U.S. stocks fell 50% versus the highly speculative emerging-markets
The Manhattan Institute just published an analysis of the Obamacare individual policy insurance rates which demonstrates that the average cost will rise by 41% next year. The results are very similar to the 2009 PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis that predicted insurance rates would rise by 47%.
French riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at 30,000 truckers, farmers, fishermen, and food industry workers waving banners of “Right to Work” and hurling rocks and iron bars at police to protest a new “ecotax” on commercial trucking
In an October 30 Congressional hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised a “tech surge” will rescue Obamacare’s HealthCare.gov software by the end of November. But a review of campaign and fundraising activities by a key executive associated with the
With Congressional budget talks heating up, the left wing of the Democrat Party is already bellowing for more government economic stimulus. This demand comes despite last year’s $970 billion of deficit spending and a 27% increase in Fed money-printing, producing
Senator Rand Paul woke up the Washington political scene on October 25th by leaking that he intends to place a “Senatorial hold” on the upcoming Presidential nomination of Janet Yellen to be the next Chairperson of the U.S. Federal Reserve, unless
Confirming the thesis expressed in American Thinker on October 21st regarding the growing uncompetitiveness of Chinese manufacturing, “Why China Wants to Dump the Dollar“, two days later Bloomberg.com reported “China’s biggest banks tripled the amount of bad loans written off
Political writers are usually confused on economic issues, but Washington DC political writers just seem to parrot the Obama Administration’s talking points. A typical example is Pete Schroeder’s and Vicki Needham’s article for The Hill Blog: “Shutdown Could Keep Fed
An eyewitness noted when thirteen railroad tanker cars carrying propane and crude oil across Alberta, Canada exploded after derailing early on October 20, “the fireball was so big, it shot across both lanes of the Yellowhead (Highway)… there’s fire on both
China’s Dagong credit rating agency on October 17th downgraded its United States sovereign credit rating to A- and maintained its negative outlook on America’s solvency. Dagong warned that despite Washington’s last-minute resolution of the debt ceiling deadlock, “The fundamental situation that the
It is fitting that Labor Day is a federal holiday, given that under a supposed wage freeze from 2010 to 2012 the average base salary for federal workers increased by 10% to $78,467. Over the same period, private sector workers’
As President Barack Obama has outwardly attempted to curtail Americans’ Constitutional Second Amendment right to bear arms, his Administration has approved huge increases in defense spending and export sales. The Administration is now seeking to eliminate stringent State Department controls
According to the Field Poll of voters, Californians uniquely remain highly supportive by a 53% to 38% margin of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Nationwide polling indicates that by a large margin, Americans strongly oppose Obamacare by 54%
The media have claimed that conservatives must become more moderate or face permanent irrelevancy after the supposedly solid liberal Millennial generation of 18-29 year olds overwhelmingly supported reelection of Barack Obama. These dire warnings reminded me of the media
Middle Eastern and North African refugees are streaming into European Union countries fleeing widespread unrest, and many may soon try to come to America. When the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1951,
Mexico, which in 1938 was the first country in the world to nationalize its oil and gas sector, formally began the process to amend its constitution on August 12th to end the state-owned-monopoly for energy exploration, development, and distribution known
On the evening of July 21, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM) attacked the infamous Baghdad Abu Ghraib’s prison with car bombs, mortars and heavy weapons. Guards inside the prison walls were armed only with pepper spray and clubs. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence,
Unburdened by the Constitutional requirement to obtain a search warrant, those nice people at the National Security Agency (NSA) have teamed with Apple, Google and Microsoft to take time out of their busy day to capture all your party pictures from
The Canadian Royal Mounties believe that the mile-long runaway oil train that killed 20 people and left 30 missing in a small Quebec town may have been an act of criminal negligence for failing to set the brakes properly. But
Once seen as a popular uprising of the Syrian people, foreign jihadists now dominate rebel forces battling the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Foreign warriors associated with al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and Lebanon assassinated Kamal Hamami, also known as Abu
When the James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, was asked under oath at a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting in March of this year: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?, he
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal heated up Wednesday when Greg Roseman, Washington D.C. Metro Area Contracting Officer and Deputy Director of the IRS, invoked his constitutional Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions in front of the
