Free Republic

A New Bedford fishing company, one of the largest open-sea operations in the U.S., has abruptly closed its doors, claiming it can no longer operate profitably in the face of excessive fishery management regulation. The Northern Pelagic Group, which targets herring and mackerel, has shuttered its well-known plant on Fish Island, laid off all but one of its 120 employees and tied up its two boats, the Northern Explorer and the Dona Martita. "One of the boats is going back to the West Coast, and I don't know what's going to happen to the other one," said Eoin Rochford, NORPEL's...

A bank majority owned by the Libya Central Bank, was the direct recipient of US taxpayer largesse in the form of discount window borrowing. Bloomberg writes that Arab Banking Corp., a lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a branch in New York to borrow at least $5 billion from the U.S. Federal Reserve as credit markets seized up in 2008 and 2009. Indeed a quick word search through the compiled daily releases will confirm that the Fed dispersed funds to the Libya-owned venture on well over 30 occasions. And while we have querried in the past...

There is a word for this type of cozy arrangement where a business and government elite use their power for mutual benefit. It’s a very common political system that has been used many times in many countries under different names: national corporatism, mercantilism, crony capitalism, oligarchy or plutocracy, dirigisme, and fascism. It isn’t capitalism, the free market, or the libertarian vision set forth in our constitution and Bill of Rights.......... The reason that capitalism works is that it is a system that allows millions of people to act for their own financial benefit without a Gang of Four or a...

In a brief filed Monday in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Coakley says the fact that Romney and the Massachusetts Legislature imposed an individual mandate as part of their health care law suggests that Congress had a "rational basis" for imposing a similar mandate in its law. “Obamacare is bad law constitutionally, bad policy, and it is bad for America’s families,” Romney said.

A study of renewable energy in Scotland shows that for every job created in the alternative energy sector, almost four jobs are lost in the rest of the economy. We’ve seen this movie before. Not only has the sun set on the British Empire, but the promise of wind apparently is deserting it as well. A new study called “Worth The Candle?” by the consulting firm Verso Economics confirms the experience of Spain and other countries: The creation of “green” jobs destroys other jobs through the diversion of resources and the denial of abundant sources of fossil fuel energy. The...

Public school teachers are at the forefront of protests against state budget cuts and restrictions on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Ohio, and elsewhere. Teachers have a lot to lose. According to Department of Education statistics, in 2007-2008 (the latest year available), full-time public school teachers across the country made an average of $53,230 in "total school-year and summer earned income." That compares favorably to the $39,690 that private school teachers pulled down. And when it comes to retirement benefits, public school teachers do better than average too. According to EducationNext, government employer contribute the equivalent of 14.6...

In August 2002, Dade filed for bankruptcy. This was not an isolated case. * Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000. * Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000. * Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001. * Bain in 1997 invested $46 million...

At the Capitol on February 25, 2011, my husband and I confront protesters who are using the Veterans Memorial as a place to tape a lot of signs and pile up their stuff. They say that we are the first people to have a problem with it.

"Alleman said he was followed by a police officer when he left the gathering, attended mostly by members of the libertarian activist group, the Free State Project. Alleman said he supports the group's cause but is not a member......

After going down in a spiral of paranoid stupidity—called out for saving body scan images, ridiculed for patting down an almost-naked woman or nailed for harrassing a kid at airport security—the TSA has reached a new low. It's surreal. Here's what a traveler recorded on February 13, after his train trip to Savannah: The only bad thing on our trip was [the] TSA at the Savannah train station. There were about 14 agents pulling people inside the building and coralling everyone in a roped area after you got off the train. This made no sense! Poor family in front of...

"Sales of new single-family houses in January 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 284,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 12.6 percent (±11.2%) below the revised December rate of 325,000 and is 18.6 percent (±15.4%) below the January 2010 estimate of 349,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2011 was $230,600; the average sales price was $260,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 188,000. This represents a supply of...

Thomas J. Kinton Jr. will retire as the executive director of the Massachusetts Port Authority in June, Massport said today. The delayed departure will give the board time to find a successor and to allow Kinton to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused sick time. Kinton is 59. The Globe reported last year that Kinton earns a base salary of $295,000 a year. On retirement, Kinton said, he will receive about $450,000 in unused sick leave. He is grandfathered under an old Massport policy that allows employees to receive 100 percent of the cash value of their accumulated...

Official Congressional budget estimates understate the peril of rising debt, Fed chair Ben Bernanke told the Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today. Warning that our nation's fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don't confront them, they'll find themselves confronted by them.

May 2009. Back then there were 3,010 retirees earning $100,000 or more annually from CalSTRS. Earlier this month, the foundation obtained updated data from CalSTRS and the number has grown to 5,308 (5,309 if you count one woman earning $99,998.88). That’s a 76 percent increase. In less than two years. And that’s not all. The foundation, run by President Marcia Fritz, also requested a list of CalSTRS retirees earning $75,000 or more annually. Guess how many CalSTRS pensioners are earning between $75,000 and $99,999.99. 19,503. Combined you’re looking at 24,811 retired California teachers earning more than $75,000.

"Dozens of American cities throughout the industrial Great Lakes states and Midwest have lost half of their populations over the course of one generation -- places like Cleveland, Youngstown, Detroit, Warren, Buffalo and Flint. This is the first time that so many cities have lost half of their populations in such a short amount of time since the Plague struck Europe in 1348........."

Parking lot attendants may be low on the Massport totem poll, but they are among the top paid at the money-burning agency, with 16 garage jockeys taking home upwards of $90,000 last year, a Herald payroll analysis found. Seven overtime-guzzling “parking utility technicians” — all members of Teamsters Local 25 Parking — pocketed a whopping $100,000-plus in pay, records show.....

Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned. With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed. Mr King issued the warning in a speech in Newcastle upon Tyne after official figures showed that gross domestic product fell by 0.5 per cent during the final three months last year. The Government blamed the unexpected reduction — the first...

Iceland’s special prosecutor into the banking crisis has confirmed that raids have taken place today and that arrests have been made. The Central Bank of Iceland is among the institutions under investigation. Special Prosecutor, Olafur Thor Hauksson told Visir.is that house searches are taking place in at least three places today as part of investigations into the central bank, MP Bank and Straumur Bank......

A pet ferret chewed off seven of a Missouri infant's fingers, leaving the boy with two thumbs and a pinky. The ferret feasted on the sleeping 4-month-old's hands after it crawled onto his baby seat about 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, authorities said. The boy's father rushed into the living room when he heard the screams of his wife, who was sleeping near the baby. The dad grabbed the ferret and hurled it against a dishwasher, killing it instantly. The boy was treated at a local hospital and released four days later, cops said. "He's definitely going to have challenges,"...

WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts, under a deal finalized today with the federal government, is slated to receive upwards of $150 million in additional Medicaid funding that will help shore up hospitals that treat many of the state's low-income patients, including Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance. The funding comes on top of roughly $300 million that the federal government already agreed to pa.....