Free Republic

Sam Bankman-Fried: I don’t know where $10 billion went. The Pentagon: We don’t know where $2.2 trillion went. The IRS: You just sent $601.37 don’t forget to report it.” The Biden administration is recruiting 87,000 IRS agents, allegedly to keep an eye on billionaires. .. aiming at the little fish of the gig economy instead. Taking payments for a side hustle via PayPal or Venmo? Not only is the IRS reminding you those payments are taxable income, it’s deputizing those payment companies to snitch on you. ... But wait — it gets worse. People get payments through these companies for...

Things have gotten so bad in New York City that drug dealers are brazenly selling what appears to be cocaine — sometimes neatly assembled on sidewalk tables — on Broadway in trendy NoMad and farther north in Times Square. Some of the drug-slingers openly solicit, saying, “Weed, coke. Weed, coke” as pedestrians walk by, a disgusted local restaurateur said. The Post observed two different buyers approach dealers on the corner of West 27th Street and Broadway earlier this month and hand over cash in exchange for plastic baggies containing a mysterious white substance.

It’s one of the richest, fattiest fruits and treated as a delicacy across Southeast Asia. It’s also known for its pungent reputation, which once led to the evacuation of an Australian university campus. It’s even banned from being carried on subways, aboard airplanes and in certain hotels overseas. Durian, with its bright yellow meaty interior, is a fruit you either love or hate — and it’s coming to a Bay Area Costco near you in pint-sized ice cream form this October, dreamed up by the two sisters behind San Jose-based Mavens Creamery. “Some things just can’t be explained,” said Christine...

Patriots...I humbly submit a 67-page Small Business Shopping Guide. Jennifer Allwood is a faith-based womens' business mentor. The women-owned businesses in this guide are members of her paid mentoring group. Please buy from small businesses. The last 18 months have been brutal for them. (47% of America is employed by a small business!!!) When you buy online: 🎁Remember slow shipping times are not their fault. 🎁Neither is the product and material shortage. When you visit their store or restaurant in person: 🎄Remember that food and product shortages are not their fault. 🎄And labor shortages are not their fault either. Please...

An entrepreneurial teen with a soft spot for maple syrup is inspiring others by running a thriving company at the age of 16. High school junior Will Wanish started out tapping maple trees in his own backyard in Colfax, Wisconsin. In 2019, he used money earned working at a neighbor’s dairy farm to build his first steel sugar shed. Securing a microloan from a regional business fund, he furnished the shed with $30,000 worth of specialized equipment, allowing him to collect sap from around 3,000 taps on 1,000 trees on land owned by his grandparents and neighbors. This is how...

A female independent contractor and a female small business owner criticized congressional Democrats for supporting a radical labor reform they said would harm female business owners across the nation. The pair ripped into the PRO Act, a massive labor overhaul that congressional Democrats are planning to vote on this week. The bill, based on California's AB5 law, would restructure U.S. labor regulations to significantly weaken right-to-work laws passed by more than half of the states in the country, and would also limit the ability of individuals to work as independent contractors. Jennifer O'Connell, a freelance writer and yoga instructor, said...

Why is Communism relevant today? Ignorance! Just ask around. You may be shocked to find that nearly no one under twenty-five has ever heard of Stalin, whose genocide exceeded Hitler's by a factor of five. Communism is being repackaged in this atmosphere of ignorance. Films like “Motorcycle Diaries” and “Young Marx” portray Che and Marx as wise, prophetic figures fighting for mankind's betterment. Idealistic youth is responding enthusiastically in their need for heroes. If you travel abroad, say to India or South America, you can see full-scale marches complete with red banners and portraits of Stalin. How do you get...

As U.S.-China friction escalates, the rhetoric in Washington has grown increasingly ugly and hostile. The Trump administration, concerned about intellectual property theft and other questionable behavior on the part of Beijing, has embarked on a program of targeting students and professionals of Chinese descent. Not only are these actions antithetical to America’s immigrant roots, they are damaging to U.S. interests and competitiveness. Stoking racial divides is exactly the wrong way to fight the problem. The U.S. has long had policy differences with the People’s Republic of China, but the current White House and the national security community have ratcheted up...

As we slouch toward another election season, capitalism once again finds itself under attack. Democratic presidential candidates are caught between an unspeakable truth — that capitalism is the greatest poverty-eradicating invention in the history of man — and an electorate veering sharply toward socialism. Er, I mean democratic socialism. Over the next eighteen months, we'll be treated to numerous critiques of our capitalistic economy — for example, that it's "imperfect, unjust, and racist," according to Beto O'Rourke. Most Dems have yet to go this far. In an MSNBC interview, John Hickenlooper merely balked at three separate opportunities to confirm he...

A Florida couple was arrested last week after they were caught allegedly selling drugs out of a drive-thru window they constructed out of the side of their mobile home. William Parrish Jr. and McKenzee Dobbs of Ocala, Florida, were arrested on Aug. 23 after investigators raided their mobile home following reports of four drug overdoses in the area, WFTV reported. Ocala Police said the couple had turned a kitchen window into a drive-thru so customers would not have to constantly enter and exit their home, potentially drawing unwanted attention, WFTV reported. The house had signs directing people where to drive...

Starting a business entails understanding and dealing with many issues—legal, financing, sales and marketing, intellectual property protection, liability protection, human resources, and more. But interest in entrepreneurship is at an all-time high. And there have been spectacular success stories of early stage startups growing to be multi-billion-dollar companies, such as Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and many others. In this article, I give an overview of 35 key steps for entrepreneurs who are starting a business, with links to additional articles addressing some of the topics in more depth. 1. Understand the Commitment and Challenges Involved in Starting a Business Starting...

The United States is now the second most competitive economy in the world, climbing to an eight-year high in global rankings, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the World Economic Forum. The latest edition of the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual ranking of 137 countries based on data from international financial institutions, moved the U.S. up from the number three position to second place, just behind Switzerland. Singapore, the Netherlands and Germany rounded out the top five spots. “The strength of the United States comes from its performance in efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors,” wrote economists Klaus...

I recently had the opportunity to read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin, a prodigious tome dealing with the circumstances surrounding the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. I was taken aback by some of its provocative assertions. America joined World War I largely to help a few bankers profit off the war (despite a long-standing Monroe doctrine that prohibited our involvement in European affairs) The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was supported by international financial interests in order to destabilize Russia and steal the wealth of the Russian people; and So-called "foreign aid" is merely a...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WEAR) — A free program is helping veterans create their own jobs. This week the University of West Florida (UWF) is hosting their Veteran Entrepreneurship Program. The UWF Military and Veterans Resource Center is one of six networking partners around the state similar to this one. Veterans interested in starting their own business can get help from the university through workshops and even online classes. Next spring the Military and Veterans Resource Center will be having intensive classes at UWF to teach those interested in having a good business concept and more. If you're worried that you don't...

Semyon Dukach is a serial entrepreneur. In 1997, he started Fast Engines, a company that produced performance enhancing software for online apps. He sold it for $35 million in 2000 — when he owned a nearly 50 percent stake in the company, according to Forbes. Then, he became a prominent angel investor and went on to lead TechStars Boston, the most prestigious startup accelerator in town. Now, he’s working on a new project, One Way Ventures — a venture capital fund specifically for immigrant founders. BostonomiX caught up with Dukach to talk about One Way, the challenges facing immigrant entrepreneurs...

The Department of Homeland Security has delayed the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule. The official notice of the delay will be published in the federal register on Tuesday, according to the Federal Register website. The Trump administration also signaled its intent to ultimately eliminate the rule. The rule, put into place in the waning days of the Obama administration, would have allowed foreign entrepreneurs to come to the U.S. to start companies. Read more about it here and here. The July 17 effective date has been postponed until March 14, 2018. National Venture Capital Association Bobby Franklin said...

Executive leadership coach Lolly Daskal has worked with hundreds of millionaires and billionaires. The secret to their success doesn't boil down to one specific habit, routine or personality trait, she tells CNBC: "The secret of the true billionaire is what's going on on the inside." "There's so much literature out there about how to succeed," she continues. "Most of the books talk about 'how': Do this and you will be that. But it doesn't work that way. We have it backwards. What we really need to do is to figure out who we are on the inside. We need to...

For the first 17 years, RBK Health Care Marketing in Milwaukee grew at a respectable pace, reaching more than $3 million a year in revenue in 2016. This year, founder Carl Brown says the firm will grow by 50 percent to 60 percent and hit $4 million to $5 million in revenue. He expects to add two more employees, giving the firm a total of about 18. One of the factors behind its growth spurt: Brown participated in a six-month program called Scale Up Milwaukee, part of a larger movement to encourage established entrepreneurs in second-tier cities — and it's...

One of the mistakes the Black “conscious community” keeps making is promoting the concept that we all need to be entrepreneurs and that Black people shouldn’t be relying on government jobs and weekly paychecks. We are advised by these well-meaning people that we all should be starting businesses instead. While this is a noble aspiration, it is only partly true. Black people are too far behind in the global economic game — and that is precisely what it is, a ruthless game — to simply have each Black person start a business and have that individualistic act alone solve our...

Ivanka Trump has been involved in discussions with the World Bank about establishing a funding operation that would support female entrepreneurs, bank and administration officials said Wednesday. The officials stressed that nothing has been set up yet and that talks are ongoing about how this would be set up. They said it could be structured as a World Bank-run "facility," which accepts contributions from governments and private donors and then provides funding and support to women in developing countries. According to a senior administration official, Trump recently pitched the idea to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, who then...