Free Republic

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...

RUSH: We're starting in Johnstown, Colorado. This is David, and thank you for waiting, sir. I appreciate it. CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It's an honor and a privilege to be on your program. RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. CALLER: I am responsible for three factories in China and have been for the last year and a half and so I've spent about two-thirds of my time in China, and what you see in China is a veneer of prosperity over really a mountain of poverty. RUSH: Prosperity over a mountain of poverty. CALLER: Because once you get outside of...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled with Lafarge North America Inc., a large construction materials supplier in the United States and Canada, as well as four of its U.S. subsidiaries, to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations. The settlement includes a fine and the creation, within the company, of the positions of environmental vice president and ...

When the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, they set up a society in which no one could own property and everyone shared equally, no matter how much work they did. The result was misery and hunger. But when the governor allowed each man to plant and raise crops for his own household, something amazing happened. William Bradford recorded the experiences of the Separatists who came to the New World on the Mayflower and later voyages some years after the events actually occurred. His memory was evidently aided by personal letters that had been retained as well as his own contemporary...

NewsHour anchor Jeffrey Brown explained that in the segment correspondent Paul Solman "gets a contrarian view, suggesting inequality in a free market system may not be as bad as advertised." The guest was New York University law school professor Richard Epstein.

If you enjoy a little Jack in your Coke, you may be paying more for it soon. The tax man and the "fair share" screamers have a new target: Jack Daniel’s and Lynchburg have been inseparable since a young man named Jack Daniel came there more than a century ago to learn the art of distilling corn mash into whiskey. He set up shop on the northeastern end of town and the company has never looked to go anywhere else. It produces 23 million gallons of amber gold – about a billion dollars worth, every year.

"I'm the only problem-solver in the group," Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told Mike Huckabee in an August Fox News appearance. Well, many candidates bill themselves as problem-solvers. In fact, if we asked any candidate running for any office in the entire country, practically every one would likely define him- or herself as able to solve problems. Yet we know that politicians, as a rule, create and worsen problems rather than fix them. .....Overconfidence turns the hopeful campaign pronouncements of otherwise successful people into dismal policy. In the end, Americans usually end up with more laws, less freedom, and no...

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan says he “loves” presidential candidate Herman Cain’s signature “9-9-9″ tax plan. Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan shows the GOP presidential campaign season has entered into a more advanced stage where ideas — not just personalities — have come to the forefront. “We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said. “I’m more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.” The budget chairman went on to say that ideas like Cain’s plan could help shape the debate over tax reform moving into...

Let's get real... America can't wait until 2012, you need a vacation now! With our 9-9-9 Vacation Plan, we have real solutions to reduce spending

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Total Bus Anarchy: It’s a Beautiful Thing Posted on September 26, 2011 by methylethyl A lot of expats complain about the buses in Lima. They drive too fast. They are dangerous. They seem to be totally unregulated. But I love them. This might warrant a word of explanation. I don’t love that the bus drivers seem reckless, that the bus I am riding could break down at any time, or that there are no emissions standards, so on any busy street I eventually find myself holding my breath through a cloud of black bus exhaust, from some huge retired Bluebird...