Free Republic

Rubio’s Coastal Grill, a beloved restaurant chain known for its fish tacos, is indeed closing 48 locations in California due to the “rising cost of doing business.” These closures represent about a third of the Rubio’s locations in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Here are the key points: Reason for Closures: The decision to close these locations was influenced by the increasing costs associated with operating in California. Minimum wage hikes, such as the recent increase from $16 to $20 per hour, have put additional pressure on businesses like Rubio’s. The rising costs, combined with other financial challenges, led to the...

It is one thing to command that a nation or the world should shift to electric vehicles. A recent study from the University of Michigan found that to produce enough copper to electrify the global vehicle fleet, six new large copper mines would have to be dug each year for the next several decades. Professor Adam Simon, one of the authors of the study suggested that "building more hybrids is a better idea. They're less polluting and less costly than EVs." In an interview with host Margaret Brenna on CBS's Face the Nation, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg asserted that...

Leftist outlets like The Atlantic seem to have a bad habit of yanking the most insane political ideas out of the ether to make them sound less nutty than they are. Its recent treatment of “degrowth communism” to fight climate change is no exception. “Is America Ready for ‘Degrowth Communism,’” read the magazine’s head-turning May 28 article. The author, Atlantic writing fellow Christopher Beam, tried to soften the expected blowback from such an off-the-wall idea being popularized by leftist Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito. Saito “knows he sounds like a madman,” Beam wrote. “That’s kind of the point,” he continued. “The...

Boom boom! ATL Fed Nowcast plunges to 1.8% as their consumer spending estimate collapses – less than 3 weeks ago, they were forecasting 4.2% growth for Q2; a recession likely began in April. The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2024 is 1.8 percent on June 3, down from 2.7 percent on May 31. After recent releases from the US Census Bureau and the Institute for Supply Management, the nowcasts for annualized second-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and real private fixed investment growth declined from 2.6 percent and 3.1...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an unannounced raid on the Atlanta headquarters of Cortland Management on Wednesday, May 22. This action marks a significant escalation in a criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into allegations of a nationwide conspiracy to artificially inflate apartment rents.

Call it Washington DC soullessness. Back in 2023, Socialist Paul Krugman declared that “the war on inflation is over!!! “We” won, at very little cost.” I love when elitists claim “We won!” since clearly 99% of Americans lost since food, housing and car prices up are double digits under Biden. The problem is that food, energy, shelter, and used cars/trucks are a huge part of Americans consumption basket. Under Biden, food CPI id up 23%. Home prices are up 34% and used cars/truck prices are up 17.7%. A note to Paul Krugman, YOU may have won, but the rest of...

You can get a really good idea how the U.S. economy is doing by watching restaurants in your area. When the economy is booming, restaurant parking lots are full and chains are feverishly establishing new locations. But when the economy is struggling, restaurants get a lot less traffic and poor performing locations get shut down. Sadly, in 2024 it appears that a “restaurant apocalypse” has started to sweep across America. Most people have very little discretionary income to spend as a result of our cost of living crisis, and that is particularly true for our young adults. Americans under the...

First Lady Jill Biden went on ABC's The View to urge voters "to choose good over evil when you cast your ballots. On the one hand we have Republicans backing the evil forces of the marketplace as the best model for growth and prosperity. Take the issue of inflation. It's been my observation that all the prices put on goods and services are placed there by human beings. If we want lower prices we must get these human beings to put lower-price tags on the merchandise. Joe is doing that. He told the CEOs of Walmart and Target that if...

The government of President Emmanuel Macron jolted by a downgrading of France's credit by a major ratings agency. Just nine days before the June 9th European Parliament elections... In the National Assembly Tuesday debate about French recognition of a Palestinian state. The "Centrist" supporters of President Emmanuel Macron and those... Also on Tuesday ten thousand protesting in Paris against Israeli military operations in southern Gaza... From Paris on Saturday afternoon a live video feed... The protest we see is clearly Pro-Palestinian the latest manifestation of such protest. The Macron government banning protests earlier this year now allowing them. One wonders...

A federal appeals court upholding a federal district judge ordering release of criminal defendants in Oregon... The credit rating of France lowered tonight... The US Central Command tallying military actions in and around Yemen... The former Vice Chief of Naval Operations arrested accused of bribery and related charges... Air raid warnings across most of Ukraine late tonight... Dozens of explosions over the southwestern Russian city of Belgorod tonight... Election results in South Africa... Joe Biden calling for an Israel-Hamas deal to end the conflict... Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos says China is making "assertive moves"... The Netherlands announcing that a Dutch...

Not so Sweet Home Chicago! After unexpectedly slumping last month to 37.9, the Chicago PMI index cratered even more unexpectedly in May, when it defied hopes of a rebound to 41.5, and instead tumbled even more, sliding to a cycle low of 35.4 which was not only below the lowest estimate, but was staggeringly low. To get a sense of just how low, the last two times it printed here was during the peak of the covid and global financial crises… … which seems to suggest that at least according to Chicago-based purchasing managers, the economy is in a depression....

Cable news network NewsNation and social media giant X have secured an agreement “in principle” of former President Donald Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to participate in live town halls, according to Axios, which cited sources it did not name. “The Biden campaign has not agreed to take part,” Axios said in an article published on Thursday. The Trump-Kennedy project is not a debate, but separate live interviews in what is being billed as “The People’s Town Hall.” Dates and locations have not been determined, but the concept is that users can submit questions to moderators...

I recall reading a few days ago, that regardless of the verdict the "President" would make a WH address to the nation that night. I looked at the WH "briefing room" page and the last public remarks from Biden were from early on the 29th. Not one mention, press statement, etc to do with Trmup today. Did they call a lid before the verdict? Did they all of a sudden decide to cancel the speech? Trump announced a 11AM speech tomorrow. I highly doubt we will see Biden before that, if at all.

A massive fire broke out at Farina Farms Inc. in Marion County, Illinois, on Wednesday night, resulting in the deaths of millions of chickens. The farm is one of the largest free-range egg facilities in the country. The fire, which began around 6:30 p.m. along Highway 37, quickly escalated into a 5-alarm fire, requiring the intervention of at least 20 different fire departments from surrounding areas, according to WAND TV. Described as “humongous” by Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps, the fire engulfed multiple buildings spanning 200-300 yards in length.

While the government and media react with outrage to a drunken chant of ‘Foreigners out – Germany for the Germans,’ by trying to destroy the young people’s lives, they remain conspicuously silent on the rising tide of deadly and sexual migrant-related crimes and violence. Germany is in a state of hysteria over a group of intoxicated young people who were recorded chanting “Foreigners out – Germany for the Germans” to a pop song on the island of Sylt. The reaction from the open borders federal government and the media has been outrageous, with top officials like Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz...

With the terrible mortgage applications index from Wednedsay, we are seeing US pending home sales crashiing. As Joe Biden handles the economy his way. After an unexpected jump in March, pending home sales were expected to drop 1.0% MoM in April as mortgage rates pushed back above 7.00% and stayed there. Well, the analysts had the direction right but magnitude was way off as pending home sales plunged 7.7% MoM – the biggest drop since Feb 2021 (and below the lowest estimate), leaving sales down 0.7% YoY… Source: Bloomberg This is the 29th straight month of YoY declines for non-seasonally-adjusted...

What I like about Biden’s economy … nothing. Most of Biden’s economic growth came from Trump’s spending and Fed monetary policy from the Covid shutdown of 2020. What was until recently a “red-hot” economy, with the US reportedly growing at an annual rate of 4.9% in Q3 and 3.4% in Q4 2024, has suddenly and dramatically downshifted, and according to the latest GDP data released from Biden’s BEA, Q1 GDP was revised downward from 1.6% to just 1.3% (1.250% to be specific), which was the lowest GDP since the mini-recession of Q2 when GDP declined for 2 quarters in a...

For the better part of two decades, a small group of us fiscally prudent types have been relegated to the wilderness for having the temerity to sound the alarm. Our warnings were bordering on heresy to many on Wall Street and in DC. But lately, more and more voices are joining the chorus that we are heading headlong toward a fiscal and monetary cliff. When the day of reckoning arrives, most people will be unprepared. That is a fact that has been proven throughout history. Just as fortune favours the prepared, financial ruin will befall the unprepared. Before you roll...

California now leads the nation in imposing dumb wage laws. The state just raised the hourly minimum wage for fast food workers to $20. Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “We saw the inequities … we had a responsibility to do more.” Unions pushed for the higher minimum, and in Democrat-run states, unions usually get what they want. CNN announced, “Half a million California fast food workers will now earn $20 per hour!” Gullible leftists at the Center for American Progress claim, “A higher minimum wage would boost millions of families out of poverty and further stimulate the economy.” Yippee! It’s a...