Free Republic

This morning’s news that Hostess Brands, Inc. was shutting its doors after 82 years of operation (originally under the name International Bakeries Corporation) has elicited a lot of commentary from various sources. Culturally, I’m seeing a lot of people lament the fact that some of their favorite brands of snack food or bread — from Twinkies to Ho-Hos to Wonder Bread to Beefsteak Rye Bread — will no longer be available. Politically, there’s been a definite theme on the right blaming the Baker’s Union for the company’s collapse since they would not agree to a modification of their contract notwithstanding...

Last week [Nov. 2004], there were several comments in Carnival of the Capitalists that people would like to see more articles highlighting the benefits of capitalism.  This got me thinking about a conversation I had years ago at the beach: Hanging out at the beach one day with a distant family member, we got into a discussion about capitalism and socialism.  In particular, we were arguing about whether brute labor, as socialism teaches, is the source of all wealth (which, socialism further argues, is in turn stolen by the capitalist masters).  The young woman, as were most people her age,...

As last night's awful events have painfully proven, we're continuing to lose ground and our movement is being undermined, above all due to the treachery, blindness and incompetence of the GOP leadership to the forces gutting us from within. Our elites continue to betray the most basic conservative principles, and this is especially so for the snakes in the grass who've infiltrated our party as conservatives when they're anything but. Chief among these false conservatives are the neocons, who are big government liberals by any definition yet have gotten positions of power and policy decision-making that have continue to cause...

The Train Wreck of Progressive/Liberal/Leftist Class Envy It's time to once and for all debunk the progressive liberal destructive arguements about class envy and put them in their place and hold them accountable for the fallacies they foist on the public in a singular effort to divide this nation. It is creating a train wreck in America, and they know it, and are willfully making it happen. They do so soley to win elections and continue to promote and push their socialist/marxist agenda. Because that is exactly what it is. They try and indicate that the so-called "wealthy," do not...

America is all about private enterprise, and without leadership that believes in the primacy of the private sector, it can’t succeed. The U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday the U.S. economy grew only 1.5 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.0 percent the previous period. Consumer spending slowed under the weight of growing pessimism about the effectiveness of U.S. President Barack Obama's economic program and a growing sense that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won't unseat him. The president leads in polls in most swing states and the president has made clear his intention to double down on interventionist economic...

Did Mitt Romney and Bain Capital help office-supply retailer Staples create 88,000 jobs? 43,000? 252? Actually, Staples probably destroyed 100,000 jobs while creating millions of new ones. Since 1986, Staples has opened 2,000 stores, eliminating the jobs of distributors and brokers who charged nasty markups for paper and office supplies. But it enabled hundreds of thousands of small (and not so small) businesses to stock themselves cheaply and conveniently and expand their operations.

Leadership: On a day when unemployment topped 8% for the 41st month in a row, it's worth noting Vice President Joe Biden told Ohioans Tuesday that "so-called job creators" don't build the economy. It explains a lot. Campaigning in hotly contested Ohio, Biden told a National Education Association conference that big government spending strengthens the economy, not the private sector, the Washington Examiner reported. "We believe that the way to build this country is the way we always have, from the middle out .. .(to) invest in things that have always made our economy grow: innovation, research, development, infrastructure and...

In an official campaign kick-off speech, given earlier this month, Congressman Allen West covered a wide spectrum of issues educating his audience on where he stands on the issues that drive public conversation today. One topic that drew heavy applause was the idea of government bailouts.

Advocacy: If you want an insight into today's left, look at its multifront war against the American Legislative Exchange Council for committing the grave sin of pushing free-market bills in state legislatures. At a recent meeting in Washington, Aniello Alioto of ProgressNow Colorado summed up the left-wing's campaign against ALEC: "Never relent, never let up pressure, and always increase." According to the Washington Free Beacon, ProgressNow was one of several left-wing groups meeting at AFL-CIO headquarters earlier this month to plot their ongoing campaign against ALEC. Other groups included Common Cause and the Color of Change. So what's got the...

NEW DELHI: It could be a second innings for special economic zones (SEZs), especially those held up for years, with the commerce department proposing fresh tax concessions and a cut in the minimum area requirement to a quarter of the present specifications. The department has suggested that any zone that is not built around the identified 40, million-plus cities and state capitals would be eligible for duty benefits on capital investment for construction of hotels, hospitals, schools and colleges, residential and business complexes and training, leisure and entertainment facilities in what is billed as non-processing area (NPA) infrastructure. Sources said...

The environmental agenda has been infected by extremism—it's become an economic suicide pact. And we're here to challenge it. On Earth Day, visit www.freemarketamerica.org. Video presentation: If I Wanted America To Fail A very powerful and effective message.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 By AppleInsider Staff Published: 10:05 AM EST (07:05 AM PST) An antitrust suit accusing Apple and a number of book publishers of price fixing and collusion was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday. The complaint was filed in a New York district court against Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin, according to Bloomberg. Indications first surfaced on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was readying an antitrust suit. The justice department is expected to settle with "several publishers" this week, as Reuters reported earlier that Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins...

BEIJING — Order was being restored Wednesday after thousands of people clashed with police in a district of Chongqing that is struggling economically, a local official said. One witness from Wansheng, Liu Wei, said businesses and schools were closed Wednesday in the area. Liu said Wansheng residents were unhappy because some benefits, such as pensions and some teacher salaries, were reduced after the merger. On Wednesday, the Chongqing government posted a statement on its website saying the city would safeguard pensions and medical benefits for Wansheng residents. It also said Wansheng would enjoy the same favorable policies as it did...

The city of Los Angeles is determined to put 50-60 employers straight out of business for the greater good. And it just so happens the greater good benefits labor unions most of all. For three years now, the L.A. government, with heavy backing from labor unions, has been working on a proposal to carve the city into 11 franchise zones. Once it does this, it'll assign a monopoly to one waste-hauling company for all the businesses in each zone. There are 50-60 waste haulers who regularly pick trash up at businesses in the city. The franchise zone proposal will put...

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently had an interesting exchange with a mother about the high cost of medicines. As reported by Ed Silverman on February 3rd on his Pharmalot blog, Santorum defended the right of biopharmaceutical companies to make a profit in order to fund R&D and to discover more innovative medications: “There are many people sick today who, 10 years from now, are going to be alive because of some drug invented in the next 10 years. If we say: ‘You drug companies are greedy and bad, you can’t make a return on your money,’ then we freeze innovation.”...

Western governments have compounded the economic crisis by rejecting the one force that can end it.In the years leading up to 2007, the rules necessary to govern a flourishing market economy broke down, producing a financial and economic crisis. Rather than responding to the crisis by fixing those rules, the West aggressively repudiated market economics, and the repudiation continues to this day. Through their actions, which have lately involved everything from European debt to the American financial system to house prices in Britain, government officials around the world have revealed a disturbing assumption: that they can decide how to allocate...

The news that Eastman Kodak is preparing to file for bankruptcy, after being the leading photographic company in the world for more than a hundred years, truly marks the end of an era. The skills required to use the cameras and chemicals required by the photography of the mid-19th century were far beyond those of most people — until a man named George Eastman created a company called Kodak, which made cameras that ordinary people could use. It was Kodak's humble and affordable box Brownie that put photography on the map for millions of people, who just wanted to...

In this age of mainstream news reporters ignorant of economics, the media rarely trumpets the power and truth of free markets and the laws of Supply and Demand, very real forces in our daily lives that confound, embarrass and reject socialist politics. The free market communicates important information. This is why socialist and left-leaning politicians, who hate free markets, operate in economic illiteracy. The free market places no real importance on government contrived social measures that lack real-world value. When the free market speaks, socialist economic theories tremble. An example of the free market correcting economic nonsense is the “socially...

Erik Prince built and developed Blackwater Worldwide into a major private military company, starting with an idea to improve national security in the United States, his education from Hillsdale College and training as a SEAL. Blackwater Worldwide was renamed Xe Services, which he sold in 2010 to USTC Holdings. He is planning on starting a private equity firm to deliver necessary commodities to countries in need. Erik Prince built and developed Blackwater Worldwide into a major private military company, starting with an idea to improve national security in the United States, his education from Hillsdale College and training as a...

(CNSNews.com) - In a speech delivered at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets "speaks to our rugged individualism" as Americans, such a system "doesn't work" and "has never worked" and that Americans must look to a more activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more if they want to preserve the middle class. "'[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. 'The market will take...