Free Republic

Have you ever visited your favorite fast-food restaurant and, as you grab that sack of burgers or chicken, wondered how much money that restaurant makes? Well, restaurant trade magazines track those stats for the big fast-food chains. And the answers can be surprising. It turns out that only seven of the top 50 quick-serve brands in the country pull in more than $2 million per store. For perspective on that, for a full-service restaurant to be a profitable enterprise, it needs to pull in $1 million a year — that’s the rule of thumb I learned in my years as...

The parents of a woman killed during the Aurora movie theater shooting lost their bid Friday to hold ammunition sellers liable for the attack. Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, whose daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was one of 12 people killed in the July 2012 attack, had sued four online retailers that provided bullets, gun magazines and body armor alleged to have been used in the shooting. They accused the retailers of selling the items without concern about the mental fitness of the buyer or the items’ intended use. The retailers “established and operated businesses which attracted — and catered to — dangerous...

One Nevada senator wants to cut the state’s minimum wage by $2 an hour. Another wants to raise it by $8 an hour. Guess which senator is a Democrat and which is a Republican. That is an easy one. But this is tougher. Guess which party is also pushing to raise the state’s minimum wage by 75 cents. Nevada Republican Sen. Joe Hardy wants to scrap the state’s constitutional amendment that provides a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour with health insurance coverage — same amount as the federal minimum wage — and $8.25 an hour if the employer does...

Two days ago I ordered online a used copy of Milton & Rose Friedman's classic "Free to Choose," hoping a liberal loved one would be willing to read it. That doesn't look like it's going to happen, so now I'm tempted to send the book to Barney Frank—since it's apparent that, like many liberals, he doesn't understand the most basic notions of how free markets work. On Steve Kornacki's MSNBC show today, Frank described business creators as being "given privileges." Barney then added this mind-boggler: "there's only a limited amount of space, there's only a limited amount of businesses. Your...

John “Jack” Bogle is an icon in the investing industry. The founder of Vanguard and the “father” of index mutual fund investing has had a lot of good ideas over the years. Unfortunately, the ideas in his recent editorial in the Financial Times are not among those good ideas. According to Mr. Bogle, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are something that investors should “beware” of. As Bogle writes, “Mark me as a member of a small group of cohorts who are dubious about the utility of ETFs for long-term investors.” Bogle goes on to express some rather bad views about ETFs as...

WASHINGTON – Unless you consider words like “repugnant” and “dangerous” to somehow be complimentary, it’s obvious congressional Democrats are less than enamored with Republican plans for the federal budget.In the House on Wednesday, no Democrats voted for the bill and 17 Republicans crossed the aisle on the 228-199 vote. Usually it’s the fiscally conservative Dems who cross over to vote with the GOP.After a marathon session of amendments and a 3:30 a.m. vote, the Senate passed the budget 52-46, with Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) casting “no” votes (Cruz said it didn’t include “meaningful entitlement reform”)...

The whole point of the popular website Angie’s List is that it is supposed to provide ratings and reviews of contractors, mechanics, dentists and the like based purely on customer experience, referring to itself in the company membership agreement as a “passive conduit.” But according to one Philadelphia woman, Angie’s List is anything but.

“Angie’s List is open to all and discriminates against none,” Oesterle said, “and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents.”

David Dies fears that if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in eliminating the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, the for-profit schools it oversees will ramp up practices that could harm students. “If you basically throw the rule book out, I can guarantee you that they will take advantage of their ability to market and recruit as aggressively as possible,” said Dies, the board’s executive secretary. The proposal to eliminate the EAB is part of Walker’s proposed 2015-17 budget. Since its unveiling in February, Dies has been trying to persuade state lawmakers to reject the idea. Dies said his small agency is already...

<p>An abscess of anger seems to gnaw at Hillary Clinton, but the reasons for her resentments remain unclear. The world’s oldest party, which governed the nation during two world wars and is the primary architect of America’s regulatory and redistributive state, is eager to give her its presidential nomination, in recognition of . . . what?</p>

Full Committee Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Time: 10:00 AM Location: Dirksen 226 Presiding: Chairman Grassley Member Statements Senator Chuck Grassley R (IA) Adobe Acrobat Document Download Statement Senator Patrick Leahy D (VT) Adobe Acrobat Document Download Statement Witnesses Mr. Richard Trumka President AFL-CIO Washington , D.C. Adobe Acrobat DocumentTrumka Testimony Professor Ron Hira Associate Professor of Public Policy Howard University Washington , D.C. (SNIP)

The NBA and the Indiana Pacers released a joint statement on Saturday in regard to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was recently signed into law in Indiana. The official release:

Oregon Inlet is closed to vessels drawing more than 2 feet, essentially shutting down the charter fishing fleet with four days left in the bluefin tuna season and Easter week approaching. Petty Officer Kathryn Bruner with the Coast Guard in Wilmington said Saturday that the closing was prompted by the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey, which showed that search-and-rescue vessels can no longer get out of the inlet. Emergencies will be handled by helicopters out of the Coast Guard’s air station in Elizabeth City, she said. A buffer zone of 100 yards on either side of the Bonner...

The eurozone is "untenable" in its current form and cannot survive unless countries are prepared to cede sovereignty and become a "United States of Europe", the manager of the world's biggest bond fund has warned. The Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) said that while the bloc was likely to stay together in the medium term, with Greece remaining in the eurozone, the single currency could not survive if countries did not move closer together.

When "very serious people" (even if it is those who once ran now defunct Bear Steanrs) announce it, with a 6 year delay, they make the Financial Times. On the other hand, when Zero Hedge said precisely this 6 years ago, it was cast as a tin-foil clad group of conspriators who see the worst in every situation. What is "it"? This: The long-term consequences of global QE are likely to permanently impair living standards for generations to come while creating a false illusion of reviving prosperity.In this case, it was said this week by Guggenheim's Chairman of Investments and...

A former Google officer is the president’s chief technology adviser. Google employees contributed more to President Obama’s re-election than did employees of any other company except Microsoft. Google lobbyists met with Obama White House officials 230 times. By comparison, lobbyists from rival Comcast have been admitted to the inner sanctum a mere 20 or so times in the same period. Obama lieutenant David Plouffe boasts: “On Election Night [Schmidt] was in our boiler room in Chicago,” he told Bloomberg News, in a story that revealed that for the campaign Schmidt “helped recruit talent, choose technology and coach the campaign manager,...

After the Senate gave approval to its budget plan early Friday morning, Sens. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, got a version of their energy efficiency legislation passed by voice vote. The measure, passed when only Mr. Portman and Ms. Shaheen were on the floor, includes provisions exempting certain water heaters from pending Department of Energy regulations, and requires federal agencies to develop an implementation strategy for employing more energy-efficient technology, among other items. Mr. Portman said the bill has garnered widespread support and is part of an energy plan for the country “that can help...

In the days since audio was extracted from the black box recorder of crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 suggesting that copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately downed the plane, investigators and journalists have rushed to find an explanation for his actions. Initially, many hypothesized about the possibility of an extremist religious or ideological motive. In his apparently lacking significant religious or ideological commitments, Lubitz is speculated to have been mentally unstable. A concealed health issue has been offered as a clue. Thousands of words pile up in dozens of news sources to make up for Lubitz’s silence in the cockpit. The pounding...

(excerpt from)    Something weird is going on in the US economy, and it's not good...Despite experiencing a healthy pace of job growth, the US economy has largely disappointed economists' expectations by delivering a series of weaker-than-expected economic reports. The unexpected plunges in retail sales and durable goods orders stand out as they reflect weakness in both consumers and businesses. On Wednesday, Bloomberg LP Chief Economist Michael McDonough tweeted a chart of the unprecedented divergence between job growth and retail sales growth. This is concerning as personal consumption accounts for roughly 70% of US GDP. It's particularly concerning considering all...

An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurt their business, according to a classified document. The Trans-Pacific Partnership — a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s remaining economic agenda — would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and court rulings — federal, state or local — before tribunals organized under the World Bank...