Free Republic

Sometimes, government programs, subsidies and entitlements need no embellishment. In 2008, TracFone Wireless of Miami began distributing free cell phones to people who get food stamps, welfare or other government assistance. Recipients of the free cell phones are allowed to earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or no more than $33,075 a year for a family of four. The phones provide 68 free minutes a month and, in the words of The Philadelphia Inquirer, "they're paid for, in part, by charges on phone bills that the federal government allows carriers to levy." The free cells are...

He includes 25 Orange County companies – including Kyjen Company (Huntington Beach to Centennial, Colo.) and MotorVac Technologies (Santa Ana to Ontario, Canada) – that have expanded outside California or moved completely. But he excludes companies like Irvine Scientific of Santa Ana, which is building a production facility in Japan, because it’s tied to a global expansion strategy, not California’s business environment. Here are the Orange County companies on Vranich’s list: * Bazz Houston Co., Garden Grove, moving jobs to Tijuana * CB Richard Ellis, Newport Beach, moved IT jobs to Texas * Ditech, Costa Mesa, moved most work and...

WASHINGTON – Big companies are building up cash and are expected to report strong earnings starting this week. Not so for small businesses that can't get loans — or hire freely until they do. The gap helps explain why the economic rebound isn't stronger and could even stall. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stepped up pressure Monday on banks to break the logjam and lend more to smaller firms, which employ at least half of American workers. Small business owners are relying on personal credit cards or raiding retirement accounts to stay afloat, the Fed chairman said. Bernanke and other...

In a recent interview, Steve Wynn, the successful American casino resort and real-estate developer, made some shocking observations about the unstable and aggressively anti-business atmosphere in America perpetuated by our own government. In his interview with CNBC, Steve expressed the nightmarish situation that US companies face due to the arbitrary, punitive, and misguided manner in which legislators in Washington, DC continue to endlessly tax and regulate businesses in America, while our economy continues to suffer and deteriorate. In a criticism clearly directed at President Obama and the Democrats, Mr. Wynn focused on the key reason why America is now less...

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

Since California has decided to declare a full-blown economic war on Arizona for daring to expect immigrants to follow rules, the rest of us who support the rule of law are left with no choice but to come to Arizona's defense.

I just finished reading a 144-page document from the Committee of European on ways to prevent market abuse. The paper discusses myriad ways regulators can browbeat listed companies into following disclosure rules. Basically, it's 144 pages on how to force people to tell the truth. Here's the ultimate truth on market regulation. It can't be done. We have insider-trading rules that require company officials to report their personal buying of stock in the companies they own and run. We want to know if the CEO is driving the stock up, or blowing out his holdings ahead of bad news. This...

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation's top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses. Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances -- a move one committee Republicans describes as "an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats' flawed health care reform legislation." On Thursday and Friday, the companies -- so far, they include AT&T,...

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to tell public companies to warn investors about the possible impact of future climate change on their business. As Megan McArdle pointed out, this is “deeply silly.” Companies already have to make disclosures about possible environmental impacts. But ordering them to speculate on how possible far-off environmental shifts might change their future bottom line is way, way outside of their expertise and of no use to investors.

Americans are generous people, and they prove it every time a disaster strikes like last week's earthquake in Haiti. They have donated more than $275 million to relief efforts in the Caribbean nation in the week since the quake. Nearly one-third of that money came from U.S. companies, a point rarely mentioned on the broadcast news. According to the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC), 203 companies donated a total of $83 million to Haitian relief so far. Such positive actions should warrant media coverage, but the networks are inclined to practically ignore corporate charity in favor of attacking the current...

Energy companies that have fought climate legislation in Congress are also facing threats in the states, where governors and legislatures are acting on their own to curb carbon dioxide emissions. The latest example is a move by 11 governors from the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic region to adopt a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) to reduce greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, and possibly home heating systems that use oil products.

NO SPACE FOR COMPLETE EXPLANATION, CAN ONLY POST EXCERPTS. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING ABOVE LINK : Potentially fatal flaws come in many forms. But three crop up the most when you talk to experts: excessive debt, superior competitors and the inability to keep up with technological change. 1. Palm With the Treo, Palm (PALM, news, msgs) was an early pioneer of the move to smart phones. So it doesn't seem right that stronger competitors such as Apple (AAPL, news, msgs) and Research In Motion (RIMM, news, msgs) are now going to crush it. But that seems to be Palm's...

Boycott List Shows Companies Backing Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Planned Parenthood watchdog has released an updated list of the corporations and companies that provide direct funding for the abortion business. Life Decisions International identifies corporations that are boycott targets due to their support for the biggest abortion company in the world. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5618.html

A quarrel between the U.S. government and swine flu vaccine makers reached the highest level on Friday, with President Barack Obama expressing frustration at the slow pace of production.

MILLBURN, N.J. (TheStreet) -- Every October for the past three years, I have presented my list of the worst-run companies in the U.S. It is time to unveil 2009's list of ignominious public corporations, but first, let's turn back the clock and see how past honorees have fared:

Hi Everyone. I'm looking for your help. I'm trying to compile a list of the world's largest news and information companies. (Things like AP, Reuters, CNN, Breitbart, Fox News, Sky News, etc.) Also, if you have any information for which one is the largest (maybe a top 10 list for info.) And I don't mean large as in how much money... I mean large as in their tentacles spread far and wide and they have reporters in every nook and cranny. All I ask is that you be honest, give me your best research (or guess) as well as any...

The B-word is in the headlines like never before. There were 7,843 commercial bankruptcy filings in March, according to AACER, a bankruptcy data management company. That's up 23% from the previous month and a staggering 65% from a year earlier. And the number of filings is accelerating. "Bankruptcy typically has a lag behind what is going on in the marketplace," says Mike Bickford, the president of AACER, or Automated Access to Court Electronic Records. "So I think you are going to see increases in bankruptcy. . . at least over the next 12 to 18 months." One potential victim: Blockbuster...

Now that we are in the middle of a real estate disaster there is a great hue and cry for regulatory reform. We were here before in the early 1990's. The answer on that occasion was real estate appraisal licensing. Now the thrust is on Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's). Licensing did and does have some potential to address the proper evaluation of collateral for loan purposes. In the intervening years, however, it was subject to what is known in political science as "regulatory capture*". The emphasis in the New York State Attorney General Andres M. Cuomo proposal on Home Valuation...

The provisions of SOX has changed the behavior of senior corporate executives and accounting professional in the way business is practiced by publicly traded and financed companies. Some companies comply while others try to find ways around it much like politicians try to avoid following legislation they help to create. For some people it gives them a calmer state of mind because they think this legislation will stop some behavior from occurring. Politicians did something to appease the public who may not understand accounting principles and un-savvy investors.

Who's next? With consumers shutting their wallets and corporate revenues plunging, the business landscape may start to resemble a graveyard in 2009. Household names like Circuit City and Linens 'n Things have already perished. And chances are, those bankruptcies were just an early warning sign of a much broader epidemic. Moody's Investors Service, for instance, predicts that the default rate on corporate bonds - which foretells bankruptcies - will be three times higher in 2009 than in 2008, and 15 times higher than in 2007. That could equate to 25 significant bankruptcies per month.